Nanopedia

by Charles Jensen

Taking the form of "the world's smallest encyclopedia" of American culture, the prose poems in NANOPEDIA explore concepts coined in or corrupted by (or both) America from vantage points that are both deeply personal and politically charged.

Genres: Poetry

73 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2018

About the author

Charles Jensen is the author of six chapbooks of poems, including the recent Story Problems and Breakup/Breakdown, and The First Risk, which was a finalist for the 2010 Lambda Literary Award. A second collection, Nanopedia, was published in 2018 by Tinderbox Editions. His previous chapbooks include Living Things, which won the 2006 Frank O’Hara Chapbook Award, and The Strange Case of Maribel Dixon (New Michigan Press, 2007). His poem “Tucson” received the 2018 Zócalo Poetry Prize. A past recipient of an Artist’s Project Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, his poetry has appeared in American Poetry Review, Bloom, Columbia Poetry Review, Copper Nickel, Field, The Journal, New England Review, and Prairie Schooner. He is the founding editor of the online poetry magazine LOCUSPOINT, which explores creative work on a city-by-city basis. He lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Robert Vaughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of poems so much that I read one of Charles's poems, "Himbo," for National Poetry Month. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55lgx...

[E.H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strong collection of prose poems--a lot of good ones, a handful of creepy ones, a certain number of poems about getting blowjobs from (semi-anonymous?) men--didn't expect that. A few poems about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, as you do. "Millennials" was a stand-out, also "Unamericana," "Intelligent Design," "Prequel." (Also several others.)

[Serena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nanopedia by Charles Jensen uses prose poems to examine the American life whether at a distance or in its most intimate setting between two lovers. His poems reach into the darkness to reveal a tragic comedy of errors, an American history that continues to write and rewrite itself.