{"product_id":"scrape-the-velvet-from-your-antlers-poems-9781680033328","title":"Scrape the Velvet from Your Antlers: Poems","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe TRP Southern Poetry Breakthrough Series: West Virginia\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In questioning the boundaries between the world and oneself, \u003ci\u003eScrape the Velvet from Your Antlers\u003c\/i\u003e unflinchingly explores the dark eddies of coming of age and coming out. Kelly McQuain's poems are far roaming in setting and far ranging in style, depicting the richness of a rural West Virginia upbringing as well as contemporary adulthood in the big city and abroad. Glints of humor and glimpses of pathos abound in the imaginative leaps these poems take as they tackle such subjects as LGBTQ sexuality, homophobia, domestic abuse, and racism. Unafraid to push the limits of contemporary sonics, McQuain's work is rich in music and varied in form, with new riffs on the sonnet, the villanelle, and the persona poem. Accessible and lyrical, this debut collection deftly explores the homes we come from and the homes we create--all the while shining with wonder and resolve. Several of the poems won contests including the Bloom chapbook prize, the Glitter Bomb Award, \u003ci\u003eBest New Poets 2000\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e ... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrom \"No Trespassing\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIt's me who worries about her mini-strokes \u003cbr\u003e and falls, the knot on her head from where she \u003cbr\u003e stumbled picking blackberries on the bank. \u003cbr\u003e She watches the bees come, stippling themselves \u003cbr\u003e with pollen, flowers bending in the breeze. \u003cbr\u003e This world is hers, for now--all she covets. \u003cbr\u003e Tonight it is a black bear and three cubs up against \u003cbr\u003e her window, spilling seeds from a bird feeder \u003cbr\u003e hung against the house. My mother stands \u003cbr\u003e in the dark by that window, her thin hand, \u003cbr\u003e the chill of ghostly glass.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKELLY MCQUAIN grew up in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia and is the author of two previous chapbooks, \u003ci\u003eVelvet Rodeo\u003c\/i\u003e (winner of the Bloom Award) and \u003ci\u003eAntlers\u003c\/i\u003e. His poetry has appeared in \u003ci\u003eBest New Poets\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAmerican Poetry Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Pinch\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eKestrel\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAppalachian Review\u003c\/i\u003e, and in numerous anthologies. Also an artist, McQuain's paintings have appeared in books, journals, magazines and galleries. He currently works as a professor of English in Philadelphia.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Texas Review Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50497994326290,"sku":"9781680033328","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_d7e03128-14c7-427c-aedc-78eaa3ab99c9.jpg?v=1730725060","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/scrape-the-velvet-from-your-antlers-poems-9781680033328","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}