Debt

by David Armand

The twenty poems in David Armand’s latest collection, Debt, are a series of emotional meditations on fatherhood, growing up poor, and the legacies we leave behind for our families. Deftly using his own experiences, then casting them out into the world so that they become a part of the universal exploration of life and all of its intricacies, Armand paints an honest and devastating portrait of what it means to be a father, a husband, and a son.

40 pages, Paperback

Published June 29, 2018

About the author

David Armand was born and raised in Louisiana. He has worked as a drywall hanger, a draftsman, and as a press operator in a flag printing factory. From 2017-2019, he served as Writer-in-Residence at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he currently holds the Leola R. Purcell Endowed Professorship in English. In 2010, he won the George Garrett Fiction Prize for his first novel, The Pugilist's Wife, which was published by Texas Review Press. He has since published three more novels, four collections of poetry, and a memoir. His latest book, Mirrors, was recently published by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press. Armand is also the 2022 recipient of the Louisiana Writer Award, which is presented annually by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana, which recognizes outstanding contributions to Louisiana’s literary and intellectual life exemplified by a contemporary Louisiana writer’s body of work. Armand's next novel, Walk the Night, is forthcoming from Texas Review Press.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this slim collection of poetry, David Armand explores the world of poverty and the working poor. His narrative poems are filled with Bic lighters and Budweiser beer, rifles and cigarettes, and small stacks of money sitting on kitchen tables used to pay the bills -- stacks that never quite make it to the end of the month. A must read for poetry lovers.