Field Guide to Autobiography

by Melissa Eleftherion

How does a person begin to enumerate the many fragments & fractals that comprise a life? field guide is an attempt at memoir through the lens of various animals & minerals including katydids, wrens, abalone shells, and apple trees.

"This isn’t conventional nature poetry; it’s a poetry that helps us understand the future and the world that embeds us." - Juliana Spahr

"Here are whorls, and bursts of light, where to fly is to sing is to fly, where “soft noises” compose a listening to instruct your ontological imagination. Following Eleftherion’s exertion towards classification, we are led to its (im)possibility. Read this book! You never know what form you may be compelled to assume." - Elise Ficarra

Genres: Poetry

101 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2017

About the author

Melissa Eleftherion (she/they) is a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. Born & raised in Brooklyn, she holds degrees from Brooklyn College, Mills College, and San Jose State University. They are the author of four poetry collections: field guide to autobiography (The Operating System, 2018), gutter rainbows (Querencia Press, 2024), Suture (Cooper Dillon, 2026), & Malocchia (White Stag, 2026), twelve chapbooks including abject sutures (above/ground press, 2024), & several books currently touring the rejection circuit. Her work has been widely published & featured in venues like Quarter after Eight, Sixth Finch, Entropy, & Barren Magazine. Melissa now lives in Northern California where she manages the Ukiah Branch Library, curates the LOBA Reading Series, and serves as Poet Laureate Emeritus of the City of Ukiah. Recent work is available at www.apoetlibrarian.wordpress.com.

Reviews

[Mills College Library]

811.6 E388f 2017