The Engineers

by Katy Lederer

In her long-anticipated fourth collection, The Engineers, Katy Lederer draws on the newfangled languages of reproductive technology, genetic engineering, and global warming to ask the age-old What is “ the self” ? What is “ the other” ? And how to reproduce “ one' s self” ? In poems that are both lyrical and playfully autobiographical, Lederer imagines form as a kind of genetics, synthesizing lines out of a rigorous constraint. Things can go wrong. The body— or poem— malfunctions, evacuating crucial parts of itself (miscarriage), or growing too aggressively or quickly (cancer). The body— or poem— attacks or even eats itself (autoimmune dysfunction; autophagy). Written almost entirely in the choral “ we,” the poems move among the perspectives of the bewildered parent, the unborn child, and the inscrutable God who looks down upon the human world. In a post-Roe landscape, the poems complicate and ultimately refashion our pre-conceived notions of the self— and of life. Radical, uncanny, and stunningly original, The Engineers takes us on a journey to a place we' ve never been, but that is hauntingly familiar.

Genres: Poetry

90 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 15, 2023

About the author

Katherine (Katy) Lederer is an American author and poet, best known for the memoir Poker Face .

Lederer is the daughter of author Richard Lederer and the sister of well-known poker players Howard Lederer and Annie Duke.

Reviews

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems about the body, humanity, survival -- broken down to an indecipherable level.

from Simile: "Like / metaphor: two components brought together. // Egg: coin / Sperm: sun // We pay shade money / for this son."

from Frozen Angels: "Could we be beautiful? / Unbeautiful. // Be fruitful. / We are fruitful. // Be truthful: / we feel nothing. We are as hopeful // as a dormant spring."

from Mutations I: "We had been organisms mostly, as we slung our legs across the plain. / Observed, we were observable. Before we saw, we closed our eyes. / Before we could become ourselves, we had to name the animals: / successive in our shortening, unable to extend our lives."

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I was reading this book of poetry I kept hearing Everyone's Gone to the Moon by Jonathan King playing over and over in my head. I was also reminded of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I would call this association more 'impressions' than actual 'connections' to the poems. Original and very thought provoking.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not understand most of these poems, but in a way that I generally did not mind.