{"product_id":"cruel-futures-city-lights-spotlight-no-17-9780872867581","title":"Cruel Futures: City Lights Spotlight No. 17","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCruel Futures\u003c\/em\u003e is a witchy confessional and wildly imagistic volume that examines subjects as divergent as Alzheimers, Medusa, mumblecore, and mental illness in sharp-witted, taut poems dense with song. Chronicling life on an endangered planet, in a country on the precipice of profound change compelled by a media machine that produces our realities, the book is a high-energy analysis of popular culture, as well as an exploration of the many social roles that women occupy as mother, daughter, lover, and the resulting struggle to maintain personhood--all in a late capitalist America.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eCruel Futures\u003c\/em\u003e: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Giménez Smith seeks release from the pressures of societal expectations in this collection of brief yet powerful poems. ... Giménez Smith's crisp lyrics and imagery highlight ever-present threats to female personhood and autonomy.\"--\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eCruel Futures\u003c\/em\u003e is one of those rare books, rare pieces of art, that manages to be extremely intimate, vulnerable and close while also doing a kind of searing cultural critique. The poems can be tender or ironic, and sometimes a blending of the two, which is not easy.\"--\u003cstrong\u003eRoss Gay\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"In the body, through the lyric, and twitching with every sense of the word 'nerve, ' this book sings a mongrel nation into and across its cruel futures. Like Neruda in his \u003cem\u003ePlenos Poderes\/Full Powers\u003c\/em\u003e, Giménez Smith has all the mastery she needs to cast a cold eye on her positioning, and ours. In this way \u003cem\u003eCruel Futures\u003c\/em\u003e is an autobiography that won't stay in its genre or premise, caring less to author a self than to follow turns of magic in words that might soothe our 'collisions with the living.'\"--\u003cstrong\u003eFarid Matuk\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Declamatory anthems to no nation, these songs stride as they deal and wheel with skin and kin: history, catastrophe, the body, love. 'Upturned and defiant, all types of shade, no outskirt, \/ vital like a saint, ' the poems in \u003cem\u003eCruel Futures\u003c\/em\u003e shimmer with Giménez Smith's lyric attention: full of grit, sharp and knowing.\"--\u003cstrong\u003eHoa Nguyen\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eCarmen Giménez Smith received a BA in English at San Jose State University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She is the author of four poetry collections, including \u003cem\u003eMilk and Filth\u003c\/em\u003e, a finalist for the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry. She was awarded an American Book Award for her memoir \u003cem\u003eBring Down the Little Birds\u003c\/em\u003e (2010) and the Juniper Prize for Poetry for \u003cem\u003eGoodbye, Flicker\u003c\/em\u003e (2012). She also co-edited \u003cem\u003eAngels of the Americlypse: New Latin@ Writing\u003c\/em\u003e (2014), an anthology of contemporary Latinx writing. \u003cem\u003eBe Recorder\u003c\/em\u003e will be published by Graywolf Press in 2019. She now serves on the planning committee for CantoMundo and on the board of RASA, which sponsors the Thinking Its Presence conference on race and art. She serves as the publisher of Noemi Press. She is a professor of creative writing at Virginia Tech and the poetry editor for \u003cem\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"City Lights Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50725350310162,"sku":"9780872867581","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_742ef0af-8e09-4a36-9b80-838542c862d0.jpg?v=1734827150","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/cruel-futures-city-lights-spotlight-no-17-9780872867581","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}