Fabulosa

by Karen Rigby

Karen Rigby writes with "fingers cocked like a gun." Deliciously inventive in its linguistic unfurlings, Fabulosa fibrillates with "noir and glitz" in these strange, seductive poems that are in conversation with a range of players from Dior to Endeavour Morse to Hieronymus Bosch. Shimmering with diamond-cut precision, Fabulosa underscores Rigby's observation that "I never write / without measuring, each line / hooking a quicksilver hunger." There is no bloat in this book; it is exquisitely hewn. Underpinning the collection is a keen interest in cinema, fashion, feminism, transformation, and textuality (from ars poeticas to portmanteaus to ekphrastics). Seamed with goldshine and darkness, we find in these fireball poems a "wilderness / glanced through the bull's eye." As the title suggests, Fabulosa is indeed absolutely fabulous! -Simone Muench

Genres: Poetry

76 pages, Paperback

Published June 10, 2024

About the author

Karen Rigby is the author of Chinoiserie (Ahsahta Press, 2012).

Reviews

[Andy Oram · Rating 5 out of 5]

The word "poem" appears in many titles in this collection, and indeed the thrust of the book seems to be the creation of verse itself, more than the varied and far-flung references in the poems. How many authors would think of comparing nipples to "rivets on a gunwale"? Occasionally I feel like Rigby is trying too hard (I am left unmoved by her exegesis on a tangelo), but her poems in generally manage to break out of the frames that she initially provides.

Although the author says, "I can serve glamour," the intricacy of her wordplay makes me feel more like I have to stop and consider each stanza in relation to the whole. Maybe that's what Rigby wants when she asks, "What's there to contemplate / if everything's explainable?" Many poems are not explainable, but they are dense and full of intriguing pointers to her life and to things in our culture.

[OK · Rating 4 out of 5]

High femme: stilettos diamonds & suicide

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this on August 4th, 2025 for The Sealey Challenge. Was entranced by Karen Rigby’s poetry at a spring reading at UpUp Books in PDX.

[Taylor Franson-Thiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kinda fascinatingly meta

[Sam Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so thankful to the publisher, Karen Rigby, and Edelweiss for granting me access to this collection of poetry before it's projected to hit shelves on June 10, 2024. Rigby positions fashion and history on the same pedestal, comparing fabric shades and hues with different post-war sequences through time. We also witness our MC experiencing loss and love through different angles of vision, setting up a season of heartbreak for all those involved.