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Sprung
A semi-finalist in a national contest and a full-length collection of poetry, Sprung, (San Francisco Bay Press, 2012) explores gendered narratives, letting imaginary friends speak.
“The series of poems that comprise Laura Madeline Wiseman’s Sprung feature an unlikely antagonist. Alter ego? Animus? Evil twin? Master manipulator? Muse? Imaginary friend? Or foe? Wiseman is a smart woman, a gutsy poet who seduces the reader with possibilities in this delightfully disturbing collection.”
- Grace Bauer, author of Beholding Eye and Retreats and Recognitions
“Laura Madeline Wiseman confronts taboos that have long preoccupied the human imagination in Sprung, her sexy and volatile debut collection of poetry. With razor-sharp wit, Wiseman places the body at center stage and examines its inextricable ties to systems of identity and power. The body itself comes to life—at once omnipotent and tragically impotent—and Wiseman fiercely calls it by its name. She gardens and does laundry with it, takes it to England on a crusade, joins a marching band, plays Santa, and seeks solace with it at a Humans Anonymous meeting. Wiseman’s poems wake us from the mind-numbing world of propriety and political correctness, and take us an exciting aesthetic and linguistic journey. Think of the bold, raw, sensual energies of Rachel Zucker, Nin Andrews, and Whitman spiked with a neo-feminist edge. In Wiseman’s Sprung, nothing is sacred, and no one is safe.”
- Hadara Bar-Nadav, author of A Glass of Milk to Kiss Goodnight and The Frame Called Ruin
“Sprung is brimming with humor and intelligence as Wiseman’s characters pull us along with them on their escapades, telling the story of a couple from its beginnings in marching band where one promises and one is promised, “I’m going to be with you always,” tracking the arc of the relationship through to the inevitable break up. Straightforward enough? Then consider the fact that one of the pair is imaginary. Pulsing beneath the surface of this engaging story is a dialogue about gender and its relationship to the self, carefully teasing apart the culturally-imposed binary nature of gendered stereotypes and upending the notions of what is real and what is imaginary. Wiseman, the wise woman that she is, answers: ‘The imaginative world is the only real world after all.’”
- Cati Porter, author of Seven Floors Up and (al)most delicious
“Laura Madeline Wiseman’s collection, Sprung, delves into an intimate and uncertain world that is by turns visceral, domestic, succulent, and uncomfortable. Poems that are striking on their own together weave a masterful and playful narrative of a highly unusual relationship. In asking whether we can count on or even control the imaginary, Sprung completely bypasses any distinction between the real and the unreal and makes for a compelling and engaging read.”
- Cheryl Dobinson, editor of The Fence
“Laura Madeline Wiseman’s risqué collection, Sprung, is bold and exacting of our assumptions of gendered relationships and sexual identity. This is a dazzling collection and given the focus of the work, is distinctly feminine in its narrative arc and scope. Sprung is an intelligent, highly imaginative collection filled with sensuality and lyrical wildness which makes it a treasure to read.”
- Amanda Auchter, author of The Glass Crib and The Wishing Tomb
“The series of poems that comprise Laura Madeline Wiseman’s Sprung feature an unlikely antagonist. Alter ego? Animus? Evil twin? Master manipulator? Muse? Imaginary friend? Or foe? Wiseman is a smart woman, a gutsy poet who seduces the reader with possibilities in this delightfully disturbing collection.”
- Grace Bauer, author of Beholding Eye and Retreats and Recognitions
“Laura Madeline Wiseman confronts taboos that have long preoccupied the human imagination in Sprung, her sexy and volatile debut collection of poetry. With razor-sharp wit, Wiseman places the body at center stage and examines its inextricable ties to systems of identity and power. The body itself comes to life—at once omnipotent and tragically impotent—and Wiseman fiercely calls it by its name. She gardens and does laundry with it, takes it to England on a crusade, joins a marching band, plays Santa, and seeks solace with it at a Humans Anonymous meeting. Wiseman’s poems wake us from the mind-numbing world of propriety and political correctness, and take us an exciting aesthetic and linguistic journey. Think of the bold, raw, sensual energies of Rachel Zucker, Nin Andrews, and Whitman spiked with a neo-feminist edge. In Wiseman’s Sprung, nothing is sacred, and no one is safe.”
- Hadara Bar-Nadav, author of A Glass of Milk to Kiss Goodnight and The Frame Called Ruin
“Sprung is brimming with humor and intelligence as Wiseman’s characters pull us along with them on their escapades, telling the story of a couple from its beginnings in marching band where one promises and one is promised, “I’m going to be with you always,” tracking the arc of the relationship through to the inevitable break up. Straightforward enough? Then consider the fact that one of the pair is imaginary. Pulsing beneath the surface of this engaging story is a dialogue about gender and its relationship to the self, carefully teasing apart the culturally-imposed binary nature of gendered stereotypes and upending the notions of what is real and what is imaginary. Wiseman, the wise woman that she is, answers: ‘The imaginative world is the only real world after all.’”
- Cati Porter, author of Seven Floors Up and (al)most delicious
“Laura Madeline Wiseman’s collection, Sprung, delves into an intimate and uncertain world that is by turns visceral, domestic, succulent, and uncomfortable. Poems that are striking on their own together weave a masterful and playful narrative of a highly unusual relationship. In asking whether we can count on or even control the imaginary, Sprung completely bypasses any distinction between the real and the unreal and makes for a compelling and engaging read.”
- Cheryl Dobinson, editor of The Fence
“Laura Madeline Wiseman’s risqué collection, Sprung, is bold and exacting of our assumptions of gendered relationships and sexual identity. This is a dazzling collection and given the focus of the work, is distinctly feminine in its narrative arc and scope. Sprung is an intelligent, highly imaginative collection filled with sensuality and lyrical wildness which makes it a treasure to read.”
- Amanda Auchter, author of The Glass Crib and The Wishing Tomb
- GenresPoetry
100 pages, Paperback
First published September 15, 2012
138 people want to read
About the author
Laura Madeline Wiseman
52 books152 followersLaura Madeline Wiseman's latest books are Velocipede, published by Stephen F. Austin State University Press and Through A Certain Forest published by BlazeVOX [books]. Her collaboratively written chapbook with Andrea Blythe, Every Girl Becomes the Wolf is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press.
She is also the author of the full length collections of poetry An Apparently Impossible Adventure (BlazeVOX [books], 2016), Drink (BlazeVOX [books], 2015), Wake (Aldrich Press, 2015), Some Fatal Effects of Curiosity and Disobedience (Lavender Ink, 2014), American Galactic (Martian Lit, 2014), Queen of the Platform (Anaphora Literary Press, 2013) and Sprung (San Francisco Bay Press, 2012).
Her collaborative books are People Like Cats with Chuka Susan Chesney, (Red Dashboard, LCC in 2016), Leaves of Absence with artist Sally Deskins (Red Dashboard, LCC, 2016), The Hunger of the Cheeky Sisters with artist Lauren Rinaldi (Les Femmes Folles, 2015, and Intimates and Fools (Les Femmes Folles, 2014) with artist Sally Deskins.
Her flash novel is The Bottle Opener (Red Dashboard, LCC 2014).
Her letterpress books are Unclose The Door (Gold Quoin Press, 2012) and Farm Hands (Gold Quoin Press, 2012).
Her chapbooks are Threnody (Porkbelly Press, 2014), Spindrift (Dancing Girl Press, 2014), Stranger Still (Finishing Line Press, 2013, First Wife (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2013), Men and Their Whims (Writing Knights Press, 2013), She Who Loves Her Father (Dancing Girl Press, 2012), Branding Girls (Finishing Line Press, 2011), Ghost Girl (Pudding House, 2010), and My Imaginary (Dancing Girl Press, 2010). Her early DIY chapbooks include Plastic Matches (2002).
She is also the editor of Bared: Contemporary Poetry and Art on Bras and Breasts (Les Femmes Folles Books, 2017) and Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2013).
Her work has appeared in Margie, Prairie Schooner, Arts & Letters, Feminist Studies, Mid-American Review, Blackbird, 13th Moon, Cream City Review, Poet Lore and elsewhere. Awards and grants include the Academy of American Poets Award and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation grant. Currently, she teaches writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
She is also the author of the full length collections of poetry An Apparently Impossible Adventure (BlazeVOX [books], 2016), Drink (BlazeVOX [books], 2015), Wake (Aldrich Press, 2015), Some Fatal Effects of Curiosity and Disobedience (Lavender Ink, 2014), American Galactic (Martian Lit, 2014), Queen of the Platform (Anaphora Literary Press, 2013) and Sprung (San Francisco Bay Press, 2012).
Her collaborative books are People Like Cats with Chuka Susan Chesney, (Red Dashboard, LCC in 2016), Leaves of Absence with artist Sally Deskins (Red Dashboard, LCC, 2016), The Hunger of the Cheeky Sisters with artist Lauren Rinaldi (Les Femmes Folles, 2015, and Intimates and Fools (Les Femmes Folles, 2014) with artist Sally Deskins.
Her flash novel is The Bottle Opener (Red Dashboard, LCC 2014).
Her letterpress books are Unclose The Door (Gold Quoin Press, 2012) and Farm Hands (Gold Quoin Press, 2012).
Her chapbooks are Threnody (Porkbelly Press, 2014), Spindrift (Dancing Girl Press, 2014), Stranger Still (Finishing Line Press, 2013, First Wife (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2013), Men and Their Whims (Writing Knights Press, 2013), She Who Loves Her Father (Dancing Girl Press, 2012), Branding Girls (Finishing Line Press, 2011), Ghost Girl (Pudding House, 2010), and My Imaginary (Dancing Girl Press, 2010). Her early DIY chapbooks include Plastic Matches (2002).
She is also the editor of Bared: Contemporary Poetry and Art on Bras and Breasts (Les Femmes Folles Books, 2017) and Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2013).
Her work has appeared in Margie, Prairie Schooner, Arts & Letters, Feminist Studies, Mid-American Review, Blackbird, 13th Moon, Cream City Review, Poet Lore and elsewhere. Awards and grants include the Academy of American Poets Award and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation grant. Currently, she teaches writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 23, 2012
Sprung is a entertaining read that playfully explores imaginary friends from an interesting and unique perspective that keeps you guessing on what hard situation will come next. Its a great book to make you laugh and think at the same time.
January 6, 2013
Wiseman gives both voice and emotive personality to her imaginary cock, a varied and complex character in SPRUNG. The book is both funny and serious. For readers with an interest in fantasy, sexuality, and/or the cultural dynamics of masculinity and femininity, this book should not be overlooked.
May 22, 2013
Witty and imaginative conversations between a woman and her imaginary cock.
January 16, 2013
Just let me say that I'm not a huge fan of poetry, I got this book as a first read and was like why not...Um yea... didn't really enjoy it at all.
A friend of mine read it after me that ( She loves poetry mostly all that she reads) ... was like I don't understand what she s trying to say in her work. but no worries you didn't have to pay for it!
The only people that might like this book would be poetry lovers and even that is a 50 - 50 shot!
I gave it a try, just not my cup of tea!
A friend of mine read it after me that ( She loves poetry mostly all that she reads) ... was like I don't understand what she s trying to say in her work. but no worries you didn't have to pay for it!
The only people that might like this book would be poetry lovers and even that is a 50 - 50 shot!
I gave it a try, just not my cup of tea!
February 17, 2013
Occasionally I'll come across a poet that makes me want to write poetry. Although I enjoy poetry, and I write it for myself, some poets make me want to REALLY write it. To work at it and perfect it. Wiseman is one of those poets. After reading a few of her poems I went for a walk from my office to the library and saw the city as a series of poems. She does that to me.
February 13, 2013
First of all, Thank you to Goodreads and the author for sending me a free copy of this book. I like the raw humor from this book and just laugh along the way. It was easey and refeshing to read this book and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to lighten up their day.
May 15, 2013
[Received via GoodReads Giveaways]
An ultimately uninteresting collection that might interest others more than I.
An ultimately uninteresting collection that might interest others more than I.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews