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Skin Memory
2020 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist in Poetry
Finalist in Poetry for the National Indie Excellence Awards A stark, visceral collection of free verse and prose poetry, Skin Memory scours a wild landscape haunted by personal tragedy and the cruel consequences of human acts in search of tenderness and regeneration. In this book of daring and introspection, John Sibley Williams considers the capriciousness of youth, the terrifying loss of cultural identity and self-identity, and what it means to live in an imperfect world. He reveals each body as made up of all bodies, histories, and shared dreams of the future. In these poems absence can be held, the body's dust is just dust, and though childhood is but a poorly edited memory and even our well-intentioned gestures tend toward ruin, Williams nonetheless says, "I'm pretty sure, everything within us says something beautiful."
Finalist in Poetry for the National Indie Excellence Awards A stark, visceral collection of free verse and prose poetry, Skin Memory scours a wild landscape haunted by personal tragedy and the cruel consequences of human acts in search of tenderness and regeneration. In this book of daring and introspection, John Sibley Williams considers the capriciousness of youth, the terrifying loss of cultural identity and self-identity, and what it means to live in an imperfect world. He reveals each body as made up of all bodies, histories, and shared dreams of the future. In these poems absence can be held, the body's dust is just dust, and though childhood is but a poorly edited memory and even our well-intentioned gestures tend toward ruin, Williams nonetheless says, "I'm pretty sure, everything within us says something beautiful."
Book Details
- Publisher: Backwaters Press
- Publish Date: Nov 1st, 2019
- Pages: 96
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 9.25in - 6.00in - 0.02in - 0.33lb
- EAN: 9781935218500
- Categories: • American - General
About the Author
John Sibley Williams serves as editor of the Inflectionist Review and works as a literary agent. He is the author of four poetry collections, including As One Fire Consumes Another, which won the Orison Poetry Prize; Disinheritance; and Controlled Hallucinations. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
Praise for this book
"As I read and reread Skin Memory, the more riches it revealed to me. With its haunting and multi-layered imagery, it provides a profound and lingering experience."--Linda Lown-Klein, Adriot Journal-- (4/3/2020 12:00:00 AM)
"Skin Memory by John Sibley Williams is about the impressions and imprints we leave on the world. Both physically and psychologically, Williams recognizes the haunting interconnectedness of all things, the ever-evolving nature of the world and the scars we trade with it. While dissecting humanity's cruelty toward nature and itself, he yet invokes a tenderness, a final hope that maybe we can still bend our swords into plowshares."--Michael Prihoda, After the Pause-- (8/15/2019 12:00:00 AM)
"This collection is one that seeps far beneath your skin and memory--and stays there."--Noreen Ocampo, Counter Clock-- (10/21/2019 12:00:00 AM)
"Throughout the pages of this mesmerizing book John allows us time to ponder about the concepts he places into poems--grief, loss, death and dying, identity, tragedy, awakening to some greater aura of being. The poems are grounded in reality, all the more available to enter our philosophy into the stages John creates. . . . There is no doubt that John Sibley Williams is a major voice in poetry today."--San Francisco Review of Books-- (11/2/2019 12:00:00 AM)
"John Sibley Williams, with his new collection, winner of The Backwaters Prize in Poetry, plunges readers into the heart of a seething memory-scape where everything feels fraught and perilous, but darkly gorgeous, too."--Danielle Vermette, Oregonian-- (11/9/2019 12:00:00 AM)
"Skin Memory by John Sibley Williams is an amazing collection that tackles large themes while grounding each moment in real life. A harrowing collection that strives for peace and hope, a journey into the self and outside of it. We have a memory, and there's a memory of life that surrounds us. When the skin of us is gone, where do those memories go, how do they live on? They live on in the words we share, the stories we tell, and the moments we cherish with others. Connection is the greatest gift of all."--savvyverseandwit.com-- (12/10/2019 12:00:00 AM)
"This is a collection that you will want to read again. One that sticks with you."--Jarad Johnson, Sacred Chickens -- (1/14/2020 12:00:00 AM)
"In Skin Memory, Williams gives us plenty of opportunity to slow down and meet poems face-to-face. Plenty of opportunity to engage in deep conversation, to develop deep listening, to examine quick assumptions, and to see things anew. Plenty of opportunity to feel. Plenty of opportunity to resonate. Plenty of opportunity to connect."--Jo Freehand, River Heron Review-- (2/16/2020 12:00:00 AM)
"Skin Memory certainly presents John Sibley Williams as a type of poetic tour de force with his lyrical dexterity. The collection is strong, playful, and curated with continuity. These poems are to be discussed, cherished, protected, read aloud and performed, but most of all, to be enjoyed."--Liam Anthony, Independent Book Review-- (2/25/2020 12:00:00 AM)
"Williams's newest collection is rain-soaked in past emotional and rural landscapes where nature runs riot, even in winter."--Stephen Scott Whitaker, Broadkill Review-- (2/23/2020 12:00:00 AM)