orogeny

by Irène Mathieu

Orogeny buries deep into rock and soil, silence and speech, into the pulse of what connects us as mothers, sisters, lovers, and ghosts—the quest for home and for a language that can account for both what might become and what has been lost. Searching ecologies, history, and embodied experience, Irène Mathieu’s lyric voice pieces together a world, which is at once our own and a map of possibility, a “fetal dream of ourselves, a sea of curled and floating ideas.” —Megan Kaminski, author of Deep City, judge of the 2016 Bob Kaufman Book Prize

Genres: Poetry

114 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2016

About the author

Dr. Irène P. Mathieu is an academic pediatrician, writer, and public health researcher. Her work is focused on community-engaged and mixed-methods research, medical education, and health equity.
She holds a BA in International Relations from the College of William & Mary and a MD from Vanderbilt University. Irène completed her residency in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she was selected as a Global Health Track resident. She has received fellowships from the Fulbright Program, Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Currently a candidate for a Master’s degree in public health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Irène is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and an affiliate faculty member of the Center for Health Humanities & Ethics at the University of Virginia. With Valencia Robin, she leads the Poetry of Power workshop for high school students in Charlottesville, VA.
(Source: irenemathieu.com)

Reviews

[Justin Goodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Orogeny is as ambitious as the personification of Pangaea suggests. In this, and in its wholistic approach, it reminds me of Aimee Nezhukumatathil's At The Drive-In Volacno (the shared geological framing is interesting). There are poems like "languages" that feel out of place, both as compelling poems in themselves and in the shared space of the collection, but these are far and few between. Overall a great collection. Reread the "introduction" once you've gone through it so you can appreciate the framing even more.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a deeply deeply beautiful book of poems that invokes our understanding of the relationship between mankind and the Earth as well as each other. The Pangaea series is astounding and the poems questioning identity in our troubling culture resound amongst the creative, wildly intelligent writing.

It's obvious Mathieu has an artist's hand supported by an intellectual's heart.

[Kate Finegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need to read this book again and really sink my fingernails into it, dig until my fingernails are coated with the earth these pages hold. This book is gorgeous and vital and earthy and erotic and urgent and just so so so good.

[saradevil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I solid collection exploring multiple different states of consciousness and interaction.