{"product_id":"splay-anthem-9780811216524","title":"Splay Anthem","description":"Part antiphonal rant, part rhythmic whisper, Nathaniel Mackey's new collection of poems, \u003cem\u003eSplay Anthem\u003c\/em\u003e, takes the reader to uncharted poetic spaces. Divided into three sections--\"Braid,\" \"Fray,\" and \"Nub\" (one referent Mackey notes in his stellar Introduction: \"the imperial, flailing republic of Nub the United States has become, the shrunken place the earth has become, planet Nub\")--\u003cem\u003eSplay Anthem\u003c\/em\u003e weaves together two ongoing serial poems Mackey has been writing for over twenty years, \"Song of the Andoumboulou\" and \"Mu\" (though \"Mu no more itself \/ than Andoumboulou\").\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the cosmology of the Dogon of West Africa, the Andoumboulou are progenitor spirits, and the song of the Andoumboulou is a song addressed to the spirits, a funeral song, a song of rebirth. \u003cem\u003e\"\u003c\/em\u003eMu\u003cem\u003e,\"\u003c\/em\u003e too, splays with meaning: \u003cem\u003emuni\u003c\/em\u003e bird, Greek \u003cem\u003emuthos\u003c\/em\u003e, a Sun Ra tune, a continent once thought to have existed in the Pacific. With the vibrancy of a Mira painting, Mackey's poems trace the lost tribe of \"we\" through waking and dreamtime, through a multitude of geographies, cultures, histories, and musical traditions, as poetry here serves as the intersection of everything, myth's music, spirit lift.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMackey, Nathaniel:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eNathaniel Mackey\u003c\/strong\u003e was born in Miami, Florida in 1947. He is the author of several books of poetry, fiction, and criticism, and has received many awards for his work, including the National Book Award in poetry for \u003cem\u003eSplay Anthem\u003c\/em\u003e, the Stephen Henderson Award from the African American Literature and Culture Society, and the Bollingen Prize from the Beinecke Library at Yale University. Mackey is the Reynolds Price Professor of English at Duke University, and edits the literary journal \u003cem\u003eHambone\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50413228359954,"sku":"9780811216524","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_1bee41ce-57a8-47dc-8cc6-7bf7073654d9.jpg?v=1729349985","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/splay-anthem-9780811216524","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}