The Lazarus Project

by K.C. Hanson

The Lazarus Project is a collection of poems based on photos found in antique stores, junk shops, and over the internet, separated from their history, lost in boxes, drawers, or attics until their families are gone or whoever finds them no longer knows who they were or what they did. In a sense they represent the history which the poet Thomas McGrath said we threw out the back of the wagon train on our way out west. K.C. Hanson gives voice to the people in the picturesrescues them, and us, from time.

64 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2014

About the author

K.C. Hanson received his MFA from Minnesota State University Moorhead, and is a winner of the Rachel Baker Award for Creative Writing. His work has been featured in The Blue Bear Review, Ginosko, Red Weather, and other magazines. He now lives in Moorhead, Minnesota, where he teaches English at Minnesota State Community and Technical College and North Dakota State University.

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sitting here wondering, how can such a thin little book with 36 photos and poems draw me back into itself so? Although Hanson's book of poetry in various styles is brief, it brings about in the reader a sense of mystery, pathos, longing, dread and hope. Sometimes, in that order!

One of my favorites in this collection is "The Servant". The entire washed out photo itself is a poem that speaks of two lives bound together, and of the irony of their distinct positions in life. One is a privileged infant and the other a hired hand directed to play a part wearing a "borrowed.. servant's outfit". Yet, like Kathryn Stockett's Abilene Clark, the servant girl states the truth of the matter: it is she through her duty and likely affection who elevates the child to his status of family heir. "Some will say then this child was raised an heir, but it was I who delivered him up to there." This, dear readers, is all interpreted in one frozen frame photo.

Being from the Midwest, another favorite of mine is "Here," which Hanson published in other places. I grew up in a culture that teaches (always implicitly) that to live is to brace against elements of nature and fate and God, to live out the austerity we inherited from the Old Country even when there are signs the Old Country has long abandoned that mindset. "Excitement here moves forward like a pawn at end game - step by step and on and on until the weather forces it to quit."Yep.

Passages here in this little volume are memorize-able, which is the wonder of poetry. In a way K.C. Hanson's The Lazarus Project makes me recall Katherine Applegate, who seems to have mastered the art of tracing the world (interior and exterior alike) lightly and with greater impact.

[Sharon Zink · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting a lot more from this book. In the beginning, a guy is gunned down unexpectedly; and at the end another guy is gunned down unexpectedly. In between another guy goes to Bosnia, where the first murdered man is from, and tries to find out why he was murdered. The writing was professional and enjoyable, but I could make no connections in the plot.

[Nancehanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

From concept to execution, this slim volume of poems about the forgotten people in the antique photographs is masterfully done. Author K.C. Hanson brings life to the people, raising them from the dead.