Admit One: An American Scrapbook

by Martha Collins

Praise for Martha
“A dazzling poet whose poetry is poised at the juncture between the lyric and ethics, Martha Collins has addressed some of the most traumatic social issues of the twentieth century . . . in supple and complex poems. . . .[N]o subject is off limits for her piercing intellect.”
—Cynthia Hogue, AWP Chronicle

Genres: Poetry

104 pages, Paperback

First published February 17, 2016

About the author

Born in Nebraska and raised in Iowa, Martha Collins was educated at Stanford University and the University of Iowa. She founded the creative writing program at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and for ten years served as Pauline Delaney Professor of creative writing at Oberlin College. She served as Distinguished Visiting Writer at Cornell University in 2010, and currently teaches (and is available for) short-term workshops. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps not the most conventionally 'poetic' book of poetry I've ever read but an important one. Collins uses the stories of Carrie Buck, the woman whose forced sterilization is the subject ofthe famous Supreme Court eugenics case, and Ota Benga, the African exhibited in the NY zoo, interspersed with those of her own family, to throw light on race relations in the early part of the 20th Century and, by implication, today. It's a fascinating idea though, I would argue, at some points perhaps a bit programmatically executed.

Still, Admit One joins a series of other recent poetry collections such as Prelude to Bruise and Voyage of the Sable Venus that all focus on a narrative of sorts. It's interesting to see a shift from more 'random' collections of poems to ones with a specific program and/or narrative arc. I have sneaking suspicion this is a good way for contemporary poetry to develop a greater audience by tapping into a public more used to reading novels. I also think this type of collection generates a more sustained invest on the part of the reader, one which I happen to relish.

I sincerely hope this book finds the larger readership it deserves.

[Maughn Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

In her last of a trilogy of books of poetry on the history of American racism Collins connects the dots among exhibits of human specimens in zoos and fairs, the eugenics movement, intelligence tests, anthropometric measurements, healthy baby contests, US immigration policy, miscegenation laws (and the 'Pocahontas exception'), forced interment of epileptics, the mentally ill and the morally 'depraved', forced sterilization laws, the origins of the words 'Nordic' and 'moron', the KKK, Hitler, and 'militant Christianity'. The result is equally illuminating and terrifying.

[Ya Boi Be Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely stunning and wonderful poetry collection. It's part family history, national history, and poetic comtemplation on the collection's focus on the many connected manisfestations of racism during a certain time in American history that haunts us to today.
It did take me a second to follow her poetic style. It is typically very fragmentary or jump-y. What really helped me was listening to her read her own poems which you can also do here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGJHA... . Most poems are super easy to follow but her association-based shape poems (I lack poetry terms as you can tell) are a bit difficult to wrap your head around if your a vasual poetry reader like me. Those ended up being my favorite those as well as the found poems made by Martha Collins rifling through her grandparent's newspaper writings (which was an amazing level of vulnerability to show and deal with her family's past in such a public manner through published poetry).
But each poem is worthy. In general this is more of a book-long poem where each poem sort of builds off of the previous but they are still strong individually. I enjoyed how Collins weaved in and out of certain people, figures, and ideas into the poetry to make connections.

[Tallon Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books you can learn a lot from. This poetry book investigates the dark history of eugenics in the United States, and the historical ramifications of it. Collins' writing style itself wasn't to my tastes, a bit plain. But, the poetry form is simply a vehicle for Collins to tell this narrative, and it is successful in doing so. 6/10

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read. Collins tackles many of the darker themes of twentieth-century America-- white supremacists, eugenics, forced sterilization-- and contextualizes them within more familiar American history as well as her family's own involvement in the movements. I picked up the book for its mention of the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis (I think the author and I went to the same centennial exhibits at the Missouri History Museum) and I liked the way Collins related early anthropology to pseudoscientific movements like phrenology and eugenics and traced their effects over time and across the U.S.

Two things kept me from liking this more, though: one, the book tries to cover so much ground across so much time and space and so many historical figures. It's a lot to do in less than 100 pages of poetry, and such scope meant that none of it felt very in-depth. A poem would introduce the life story of Ota Benga or Carrie Buck, and perhaps they would be mentioned again a few poems later, but it still felt like individuals were dropped in favor of themes. Collins mentioned her family's connection to individual events, but didn't elaborate. I wanted more of a human connection than a lecture, and I didn't get it.

Second (and this may be more my own fault as reader than the fault of the text), I'm not sure that poetry was the best form for this narrative. I liked the poems throughout when Collins dove deep into the double or triple meanings of a word, though I don't think those poems would have been able to stand alone without the collection. The rest of the poems were mostly narrative, which just isn't my preferred form of poetry.

Anyway, it's a smart look at a few key movements in twentieth-century American history and the relationships they had to each other and the institutionalized prejudices of the day. But for an in-depth examination of these themes, or a personalized response, I'd look elsewhere.

[Libby Walkup · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is just wow. It's a researched based poetic look at the history of the US in regard to racism, ableism, eugenics, sterilization, and euthanasia. Not a joyful read, but clever, well researched, playful in language, and, really, so apt given the current climate. I recommend to all.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very heavy, very important read. Many of the pieces are not "conventionally poetic" (as another reviewer so astutely put it), but their content is worth so much more than their form.