Bad Star

by Rebecca Hazelton

Just enough knife, just enough feather—Rebecca Hazelton's Bad Star cuts and caresses with masochistic precision in this brilliant dissection of modern love. I would say to potential readers: take a deep breath and see how far you can go.

—Allison Benis White, Self Portrait with Crayon

Bad Star is a gripping, lyric noir that chronicles the travails of a clear-eyed femme fatale we root for despite, or because of, her love of “small violences/ which swoon her silent/ and unafraid.” Hazelton recasts a tale of star-crossed lovers with a fierce intelligence, a profound exploration of eroticism, and a music so exquisite it carries us through from violence to radiance: “what joy,/ to feel opened up/ to wonder…to have the real/ fear at last.
— Katy Didden, The Glacier’s Wake

Genres: Poetry

40 pages, Paperback

First published December 18, 2013

About the author

Rebecca Hazelton is the author of Fair Copy (Ohio State University Press, 2012), winner of the 2011 Ohio State University Press / The Journal Award in Poetry, and Vow, from Cleveland State University Press. She was the 2010-11 Jay C. and Ruth Halls Poetry Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison Creative Writing Institute and winner of the “Discovery” / Boston Review 2012 Poetry Contest. Her poems have appeared in AGNI, Best New Poets, and Best American Poetry. She recently won a Pushcart.

Reviews

[hh · Rating 5 out of 5]

gut punch.