Dearest Creature

A surreal new collection from an acclaimed poet

Hallucinogenic plants chant in chorus. A thoughtful dog grants an interview. A caterpillar offers life advice. Amy Gerstler's newest collection of poetry, Dearest Creature, marries fact and fiction in a menagerie of dramatic monologues, twisted love poems, and epistolary pleadings. Drawing on sources as disparate as Lewis Carroll and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, as well as abnormal psychology, etiquette, and archaeology texts, these darkly imaginative poems probe what it means to be a sentient, temporary, flesh-and-blood beast, to be hopelessly, vividly creaturely.

Author: Amy Gerstler
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 09/01/2009
Pages: 96
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.32lbs
Size: 9.10h x 5.76w x 0.31d
ISBN: 9780143116356
Award: L.A. Times Book Prize - Finalist

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 10/01/2009 pg. 80
New York Times Book Review 11/08/2009 pg. 6
New York Times Book Review 11/15/2009 pg. 26
NY Times Notable Bks of Year 12/06/2009 pg. 20

About the Author
Amy Gerstler is a writer of fiction, poetry, and journalism whose work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including the Paris Review and Best American Poetry. Her 1990 book Bitter Angel won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Previous titles from Penguin are Crown of Weeds, 1997, and Nerve Storm, 1993.