Teratology: Poems

by Susannah Nevison

Winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry, this unique debut collection explores the psychic existences beget by physical abnormality and imperfection. Susannah Nevison’s poems name and reclaim the body, making and unmaking it , portraying the “marvelous monsters” that we all are—whether outside or in. Unflinching and brave, Teratology marks the emergence of a highly imaginative and compassionate poetic voice.

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2015

Reviews

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susannah Nevison's "Teratology" has become my poetic bible. The poems rotate on the idea of a broken body, a disabled body, and the myths and monsters that create relationships with a disabled body. The collection captures what it means for an imperfect and abnormal body to also be a dark and scientific beauty. Part human, part animal, part monster--trauma, pain, mechanics--primal, instinctual, medical--transforming and in constant motion.
What I like most about Nevison's "Teratology" is that it is true to the author while also making a home in the reader's body. "Teratology" is a song you've yet to hear, and an experience you'll never have again.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

What are we but sinew
and synapse, a system’s grim accumulation--
but softer?

[Laura Passin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haunting and lyrical.

[Karrie Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been trying to find the words to review this collection because I have never read anything like it. Brutal beauty. Those are the words that came to me, finally. The brutality of surgery, yes, but more so the brutality of what the surgeries aim to do. To fix: "After seventeen hours, you realized/you'd have to lie. You'd have to say, my pain is below a three/on your scale." To me, this line (this whole poem) represents perhaps the most brutal transformation of all, the way going under the knife requires on some level a conversion, a coerced one.

Incredible poetry that I have returned to again and again.

[Erica Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Precise, brutal, and strange: If this were a poetry sub-genre, it would be my favorite. The mythological poems are engaging, but the surgery poems elevate this collection to something special. One of my favorite books so far this year. Bonus points for the design.

[Sidney Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant collection. Loved the surgical themes and the 'My Father Loves Horses' poems intense and sonically beautiful. Looking forward to reading it again,

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beyond gorgeous and fascinating: "The hunt for symmetry becomes one way/ of turning landscape into self,/ assembling the greater picture."

[Morgan Nikola-Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susannah Nevison is a PHENOMENAL talent and this collection so incredibly captures the plight of living inside a flawed body.

[Barbara Verchot]

Did not give this gem enough attention last year. I KNOW it deserves a re-read.