Architect

by Alison Thumel

“When he died, my brother became the architect of the rest of my life,” writes Alison Thumel in Architect , which interweaves poems, lyric essays, and visual art to great emotional effect. In this debut collection, the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright become a blueprint for elegy, as Thumel overlays the language of architecture with the language of grief to raze and reconstruct memories, metaphors, and myths. With obsessive and exacting focus, the poet leads us through room after room in a search to answer whether it is possible to rebuild in the wake of loss. Meanwhile, the midwestern landscape beyond these rooms—the same landscape that infuses the low, horizontal forms of Wright’s Prairie Style buildings—shapes the figures in Architect as well as their “For years after my brother’s death, I collected news articles on people who died young and tragically in landlocked states. Prairie Style deaths—boys sucked down into grain silos or swept up by tornadoes or fallen through a frozen pond. The boys I didn’t know, but the landscape I did. The dread of it. How many miles you can look ahead. For how long you see what is coming.”
 

Genres: Poetry

78 pages, Paperback

First published March 21, 2024

Reviews

[Jessica Poli · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful blend of history and memoir, architecture and elegy.

[Wisconsin Alumni]

Alison Thumel MFA’21
Author

From the author:

Winner, 2024 Miller Williams Poetry Prize
Selected by Patricia Smith

“When he died, my brother became the architect of the rest of my life,” writes Alison Thumel in Architect, which interweaves poems, lyric essays, and visual art to great emotional effect. In this debut collection, the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright become a blueprint for elegy, as Thumel overlays the language of architecture with the language of grief to raze and reconstruct memories, metaphors, and myths. With obsessive and exacting focus, the poet leads us through room after room in a search to answer whether it is possible to rebuild in the wake of loss. Meanwhile, the Midwestern landscape beyond these rooms — the same landscape that infuses the low, horizontal forms of Wright’s Prairie Style buildings — shapes the figures in Architect as well as their fates: “For years after my brother’s death, I collected news articles on people who died young and tragically in landlocked states. Prairie Style deaths — boys sucked down into grain silos or swept up by tornadoes or fallen through a frozen pond. The boys I didn’t know, but the landscape I did. The dread of it. How many miles you can look ahead. For how long you see what is coming.”

[jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inside a memory / is it’s ruin. / Inside ruin, what?

Loved every moment of this. Compact and beautiful and burning, and so so generous :) guides us into, around, and so gently out of every home and it’s resonances. High high praise :))

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A shattering but also playful and nourishing collection

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal poetry!

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sealey Challenge 2024. 20/31

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

Exactly what I am looking for in contemporary poetry: clarity of style, cohesive vision, and original insight. Can't praise this collection highly enough! Ripe for rereading.

[Megan E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just an absolute stunning collection of poetry I will be thinking about for a long time.

[Chahna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars