Why They Grow Wings

by Nin Andrews

Poetry. Winner of the 1999 Gerald Cable Book Award. "What sensual enchantments and imaginative adventures await the reader of Nin Andrews' latest volume. Her poems are witty, vivacious, surprising. Houdini will show up and paraphrase Heraclitus. Or the sign at the Pasta Palace ('Cook Needed') will turn into an erotic daydream ('Cock Needed') with the logic of an entry in a book of lies. Andrews liberates debased forms (the chain letter, the earnest Yuletide family report) and assimilates unusual influences (Borges, Henri Michaux) in her highly distinctive prose poems. She has an energining reading her makes you want to write. I'm crazy about this poet"—David Lehman.

Genres: Poetry

74 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2001

Reviews

[Siel Ju · Rating 3 out of 5]

About childhood, angels, and orgasms -- odd set of obsessions and lots of fun prose poems. Sometimes bawdily funny, other times wry. An imperfect book, but with some gems.

[Michael Brockley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poems in Nin Andrews' WHY THEY GROW WINGS gather momentum as the reader proceeds through the collection until they approach the radiance of the poems found in THE BOOK OF ORGASMS.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Witty, whimsical with wild and weird relationships -- I enjoyed every poem in this collection.

[Jan Moens · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/10