{"product_id":"veer-9781949944785","title":"Veer","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIn \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eVeer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e, award-winning poet Cole Swensen examines the everyday world through a lens that shifts perception, offering surprising, sometimes zany perspectives on things we often take for granted. These poems challenge the presumption that \"nature\" is an \"other,\" suggesting instead that we all--animal, plant, mineral--are seamlessly fused in the joint project of living.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eA few years ago, Swensen returned to her native California and found herself in a much closer relationship with trees, wind, and crows. Their insistent presence drew her into a new kind of active attention--thinking \u003cem\u003einto\u003c\/em\u003e things rather than \u003cem\u003eabout\u003c\/em\u003e them and looking \u003cem\u003ewith\u003c\/em\u003e things rather than \u003cem\u003eat\u003c\/em\u003e them. That shift in perspective underlies the difference between traditional nature poetry and contemporary eco-poetics, reshaping Swensen's work into a practice of collaboration and participation. \u003cem\u003eVeer \u003c\/em\u003eis a defiantly optimistic book, committed to the astonishing beauty and intensity of the world, despite the contemporary political and industrial forces determined to dismantle it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eVeer\u003c\/em\u003e is to be the first collection published under Alice James Books' newly established Jean Valentine Series, which honors the work of mid-career women poets who are reshaping the landscape of contemporary poetry. Known for her cool, omniscient voice and formally innovative work, Swensen brings to \u003cem\u003eVeer\u003c\/em\u003e the clarity and precision of a poet at the height of her craft. Organized in three parts, Tic, Tac, and Tao, these poems often twist logic and toy with the absurd in an attempt to engage the things of the surrounding world without appropriating them--allowing each their place at the table, as it were, when humans are making decisions that will greatly affect them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Cole Swensen\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Alice James Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/12\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 100\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.45lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.90h x 5.90w x 0.40d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781949944785\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/01\/2026 pg. 74\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCole Swensen\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of 20 books of poetry, most recently \u003ci\u003eAnd And And\u003c\/i\u003e (Shearsman Books, 2023), long-listed for the Griffin Prize, and \u003ci\u003eArt in Time \u003c\/i\u003e(Nightboat Books, 2021) and a volume of critical essays, \u003ci\u003eNoise that Stays Noise\u003c\/i\u003e (U. of Michigan Press, 2011). A former Guggenheim Fellow, she co-edited the Norton anthology \u003ci\u003eAmerican Hybrid\u003c\/i\u003e. Her work has won the Iowa Poetry Prize, the SF State Poetry Center Book Award, and the National Poetry Series and has been a finalist for the National Book Award and twice for the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Award. She taught for ten years on the permanent faculty of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and twelve years in the Literary Arts Department at Brown University. Also a translator of poetry and art criticism from French, she has won the PEN USA Award in Literary Translation, the 2024 National Translation Award from the American Literary Translators Association, and the 2025 Stephen Mitchell Translation Prize. She divides her time between France and the US.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Cole Swensen \/ Paperback \/ English","offer_id":48311315202205,"sku":"9781949944785","price":26.34,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/files\/img_4c3dd606-009c-4641-b435-45bf88584062.jpg?v=1779261754","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/veer-9781949944785","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}