American Barricade

by Danniel Schoonebeek

“a groundbreaking first book that stands to influence its author’s generation.” —Boston Review

American Barricade was selected by Poets & Writers as one of the 10 Best Debut Poetry Books of the Year in 2014.

AMERICAN BARRICADE explores the songs of personal and national histories forced to sing the tunes of economic and ancestral oppression. As though leafing through the pages of a fragmented American family album, Schoonebeek alternates between the voices of son and prophet, king and peasant, husband and enemy. These poems leap boundaries of generation, class, and race, and foretell the imminent collapse of American power structures and remind us that restoring them is only possible through love and human connection.

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2014

About the author

Danniel Schoonebeek’s first book of poems, American Barricade, was published by YesYes Books in 2014. It was named one of the year’s ten standout debuts by Poets & Writers and called “a groundbreaking first book that stands to influence its author’s generation” by Boston Review.

In 2015, he was awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry fellowship from the Poetry Foundation and his second book of poems, Trébuchet, was selected as a winner of the 2015 National Poetry Series and will be published by University of Georgia Press in 2016.

Recent work appears in The New Yorker, Poetry, Kenyon Review, Fence, Tin House, and elsewhere. A recipient of awards and honors from Poets House, the Millay Colony for the Arts, the Akademie Schloss Solitude, and Oregon State University, he hosts the Hatchet Job reading series in Brooklyn and edits the PEN Poetry Series.

In 2016, Poor Claudia will publish his latest book, a travelogue called C’est la guerre.

Reviews

[B Malley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reread, though I never shelved this the first time around. Still not quite my cup of tea but Schoonebeek does such interesting things with description and names and rhythms and where both lines and thoughts end. "Poem for Four Years" has lived in my head since I first read it, as has "Thimblerigger" -- a few more of the poems may start taking up space, "Poem for a Seven Hour Flight" is one of 'em.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the interior picture suggests, the poems balance in the sunset of industry and culture. They wander through family expectations, but they do not land. They float in the night, they float in your bones - in America are you ever really home?

from "Horoscope:"

Today you will face down yourself in the mirror and say, None of this belongs to me.
You will desecrate your body and when you are through, you will desecrate it again.
A hermit crab crawling into a soda can, you will crawl inside your shadow and walk.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful and poignant book of poems that delve into what it means to live within the US, within capitalism, within family.

[Biscuits · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable debut collection. I'm sure I will be writing about this book soon.

[hh · Rating 3 out of 5]

i'm interested in a lot of the questions these poems raise.