{"product_id":"almanac-9780691159195","title":"Almanac","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe \"memorable\" (Stephanie Burt, \u003ci\u003eYale Review\u003c\/i\u003e) and \"impressive\" (\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e) debut from a remarkable new voice in poetry\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eAlmanac\u003c\/i\u003e is a collection of lyrical and narrative poems that celebrate, and mourn the passing of, the world of the small family farm. But while the poems are all involved in some way with the rural Midwest, particularly with the people and land of the northwestern Illinois dairy farm where Austin Smith was born and raised, they are anything but merely regional. As the poems reflect on farm life, they open out to speak about childhood and death, the loss of tradition, the destruction of the natural world, and the severing of connections between people and the land. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis collection also reflects on a long poetic apprenticeship. Smith's father is a poet himself, and \u003ci\u003eAlmanac\u003c\/i\u003e is in part a meditation about the responsibility of the poet, especially the young poet, when it falls to him to speak for what is vanishing. To quote another Illinois poet, Thomas James, Smith has attempted in this book to write poems \"clear as the glass of wine \/ on [his] father's table every Christmas Eve.\" By turns exhilarating and disquieting, this is a remarkable debut from a distinctive new voice in American poetry. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom \u003ci\u003eAlmanac\u003c\/i\u003e: \u003cbr\u003eTHE MUMMY IN THE FREEPORT ART MUSEUM\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAustin Smith\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAmongst the masterpieces of the small-town\u003cbr\u003ePicassos and Van Goghs and photographs\u003cbr\u003eof the rural poor and busts of dead Greeks\u003cbr\u003eor the molds of busts donated by the Art\u003cbr\u003eInstitute of Chicago to this dying\u003cbr\u003etown's little museum, there was a mummy, \u003cbr\u003ea real mummy, laid out in a dim-lit\u003cbr\u003eroom by himself. I used to go\u003cbr\u003eto the museum just to visit him, a pharaoh\u003cbr\u003ewho, expecting an afterlife\u003cbr\u003eof beautiful virgins and infinite food\u003cbr\u003eand all the riches and jewels\u003cbr\u003ehe'd enjoyed in earthly life, \u003cbr\u003emust have wondered how the hell\u003cbr\u003ehe'd ended up in Freeport, Illinois.\u003cbr\u003eAnd I used to go alone into that room\u003cbr\u003eand stand beside his sarcophagus and say, \u003cbr\u003e\"My friend, I've asked myself the same thing.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAustin Smith\u003c\/b\u003e was born in the rural Midwest. Most recently, he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in fiction at Stanford University.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50460727968018,"sku":"9780691159195","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_b0374e62-ae47-4818-baa7-0b56881a7cf8.jpg?v=1730046531","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/almanac-9780691159195","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}