Drone

by Kim Garcia

DRONE is a lyric meditation on modern warfare, in our technological and digital age. Written from a variety of perspectives and personas, it explores the human, animal, personal, and domestic aspects of the wars being fought by the US for incomprehensible reasons with indefinable outcomes. Swift and wide ranging, these poems explore experiences of soldiers, military families, prisoners, immigrants, and more.

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2016

About the author

Kim Garcia is the author of The Brighter House, winner of The White Pine Press Poetry Prize 2015, DRONE, winner of the 2015 Backwaters Prize, Tales of the Sisters, winner of the 2015 Sow’s Ear Chapbook Contest, and Madonna Magdalene, released by Turning Point Books in 2006. Her poems have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Crazyhorse, Mississippi Review, Nimrod and Subtropics, and her work has been featured on The Writer’s Almanac. Recipient of the 2014 Lynda Hull Memorial Prize, an AWP Intro Writing Award, a Hambidge Fellowship and an Oregon Individual Artist Grant, Garcia teaches creative writing at Boston College.

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection is a merger event of the great titular word: drone. Think predator, think victim, think symbols like birds, think killing like religion and god, think pilot, think relieved army veteran, think his beaten wife, think child of pilot, think murdered, think murderer, think technology and progress, think about progress conceptually, think about bodies after death, think about physics of bodies moved, think about a person, looking skyward. Truly, think drone, and it very well is likely covered within these pieces.

One of the best collections I’ve read in terms of structure and depth of concept. Final two poems were both absolute powerhouse finales, securing the 4 star (vs. 3.5 stars). I also particularly loved the mix of narrative and lyrical, the power of images, the feeling of surveillance, the ever presence of looking upward and waiting for the appearance of an eye.

The greatest of all is the power of this collection to conceptualize the breadth of the shattering that comes from drones: as arbiters of killing and dehumanization on both ends of the metal beast. Yet some optimism prevails, partially in hope of growth, partially in trust of process, partially in widespread empathy, and regularly in pregnancy, womb, compassion, and birth.

[Skye · Rating 1 out of 5]

Entitled white woman exploiting other people's stories to make herself feel woke? Not interested.

[John Pappas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a gift to our nation's conscience and soul.