How Formal?

by Stephanie Barbé Hammer

How Formal? takes readers on a wild but accessible ride through sestinas, haiku, sonnets and psalms with some stop-overs in free verse and prose poetry.

142 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2014

About the author

7 time Pushcart Prize nominee, Stephanie Barbé Hammer wrote her first poem when she was 6 and had just finished The Cat In The Hat. She has been a writer ever since. But first she became a professor and moved to the West Coast. She wrote scholarly articles and research books, before finally attempting to publish her creative writing in her mid 40's. Since then she has published short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in a bunch of good places including, The Bellevue Literary Review, Pearl, NYCBigCityLit, CRATE, Hole In the Head, and the Hayden’s Ferry Review. She is currently the author of a prose poem chapbook prose poem chapbook _Sex with Buildings_ (Dancing Girl Press), the full length poetry collection _How Formal?_ (Spout Hill Press), the fabulist novel _The Puppet Turners of Narrow Interior_ (Urban Farmhouse Press), and a magical realist novelette_Rescue Plan_ (Bamboo Dart Press). in 2022 she brought out 2 new books: Pretend Plumber: An Adventure (Inlandia Books), and a mini-memoir in poems, City Slicker (Bamboo Dart Press.

Her new fabulist novel PRETEND PLUMBER just launched with Inlandia Books in May 2022

Reviews

[Gracie Bawden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephanie Barbe Hammer 's poems juxtapose formal, traditional poetic form with a thoroughly modern twist. Emails and memos collide with bible verses and torah passages. Friendships and lovers in sunny california collide with deeply philosophical thought. Although there were many references I didn't understand, as Hammer draws from her various cultures - as a convert to judaism, as a desendant of Russian aristocrats and Norwegians, I'm sure that with a little research and some further readings of these poems, there will be many more rich and clever layers to excavate. Regardless, these poems are smart (almost irritatingly so) and witty, full of sass and definitely worth a read.

[Kim Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intimidated by fancy stuff like formal dinner parties and poetry? Not to worry. Stephanie Barbe Hammer comes to the rescue with her erudite yet playful new collection. Often witty and always sharply observant, this collection explores politics, gender, religion, and the many ways we and our relationships are broken and might be mended. It touches the intensely personal and the universal, and leaves the reader entertained, edified, and energized.