THE BOOK: Think Tank.
PUBLISHED IN: 2015.
THE AUTHOR: Julie Carr.
THE PUBLISHER: Solid Objects.
SUMMARY: Think Tank is a love poem with no object. It was written in conversation with Cesar Vallejo’s great modernist poem Trilce (1923). The poems were generated with sound as their fundamental language, rather than story or image, though there are fragments of stories throughout.
THE BACK STORY: I had recently written a book called 100 Notes on Violence that deals directly with intimate violence in the West (I live in Colorado). That book was hard to write and left me weary and sad. It was spring, and the plum tree was beginning to bloom. I had been reading Vallejo’s joyous, passionate, and wild Trilce, and decided I needed to shift my mind and heart by writing something that celebrated pleasure and love. I didn’t want to write a traditional love poem, so I wrote this, trying to “tank” my reasoning brain and let language be the guide.
WHY THIS TITLE?: I was thinking of the problem of thought – how our minds take us to dark places, places that we sometimes don’t want to go. I wanted to “tank” thought, to draw myself more towards the body and pleasure. Obviously I was also punning off of Washington think tanks- the places where supposed rational thought happens. This book was an opportunity for a different kind of thinking.
WHY WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO READ IT? Anyone who likes poetry might like it, especially people who ejnjoy poems that play and are curious about language itself!
REVIEW COMMENTS:
“This is a volume of extraordinary discipline, cerebral yet appealing, loose and playful… Some poetry books are meant to be read slowly and a second time; this is one of them.” — Johnny Payne for Cleaver Magazine.
“Carr employs parataxis, not ellipsis. But this trepidation is also a form of perfection. It is the perfection of breathless elision.” – John Trefry for Entropy
“Think Tank is real-to-reel-and-back-again writing, an actual reverie, a thing of thought and song.” – Graham Foust.
AUTHOR PROFILE: I live in Denver where, with my husband Tim Roberts, I help to run Counterpath (www.counterpathpress.org), a community art space, performance space, free library, food bank, and community garden. I teach at the University of Colorado, Boulder. I’m the author of nine other books of poetry and prose. We have three kids and a dog.
SAMPLE CHAPTER: http://www.juliecarrpoet.com/think-tank;
WHERE TO BUY IT: https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9780984414291/think-tank.aspx
PRICE: $16
CONTACT THE AUTHOR: Twitter: @Carrcarrjuli
Julie.Carr@colorado.edu
Snowflakes in a Blizzard 