Saturday, October 15, 2011

#27 Grunt of the Minotaur by Robin Richardson

Fall 2011
 
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Toronto’s Robin Richardson is a poet and illustrator who is pursuing an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. Her work has appeared in many Canadian and American journals including CV2, Dandelion, The Berkeley Poetry Review and The Westchester Review.

Praise for Grunt of the Minotaur:

“Robin Richardson’s intense, quietly unsettling fables of the everyday are pitched in a jagged language uncannily tuned to the never-quite-sweet music of human history. These fresh, fire-bright poems are barbed blooms petaled with wise cautions and unexpected joy.”
—Kevin Connolly, author of Drift and Revolver

“A canvas explains nothing, only folds and musters light,” reflects Robin Richardson, poet of rare sharpness, for whom every page is a canvas rich in mystery. Flaunting a painterly attention to the seductive textures of menace—“pike smiling from a skillet,” “an arm offered up in buttermilk,” “crystal cups now dust which cuts the palms”—here are portraits, still lifes, fables and allegorical tableaux that enrapture the ear with the textures of language itself. Taxidermy, trussed birds, daguerrotypes, a crow-foot tub. This book makes ecstasy of ekphrasis, “each separate occasion rising for distinction in the lamp.”
—Suzanne Buffam, author of Past Imperfect and The Irrationalist

"The speakers in Grunt of the Minotaur are concerned with classification and cures. Instructions for “paying visits of condolence” include the wonderfully bodily “coo, pretend to give / a kiss when sniffing the seasoned marrow.” Richardson writes for the ear, eye and mouth—you’ll want to read these lush poems out loud."
—Matthea Harvey, author of Sad Little Breathing Machine and Modern Life


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