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Theorem
Our edges touched. Our stories abutted.
The same light struck us at different times.
When the body meets geometry meets the world’s edges, what uncertainties emerge? Theorem is both question and answer, proposition and proof. Accompanied by luminescent images that complicate and dissect the speaker’s voice, this collaboration is a glorious meditation on what it means to hold secrets across time and space.
Advance praise for Theorem
Entering the pages of Theorem, its risky business of collaboration, where the lyrical reaches of language alternate with the curious powers of visual art, one delights (and delights, and delights), in the book’s mystery and control; its structure and freedom; an extended, five-section exercise in restraint, simplicity, and the open-ended investigation of the self.
—Kirsten Andersen, Provincetown Arts, 2020
Books about self-discovery often culminate in a revelation, which readers may find temporarily satisfying. But what happens after that? In Theorem, Bradfield’s words and Contro’s images open up another possibility. The revelation is not in arrive at a destination but in beginning to map the journey, as well as in recognizing that one’s perspective of past events changes as time goes by. This is the enigma of being alive and alert. This is what Theorem offers the willing reader—a place to return to in order to set out again and see what has changed.
—John Yau, poet, critic, curator
The same light struck us at different times.
When the body meets geometry meets the world’s edges, what uncertainties emerge? Theorem is both question and answer, proposition and proof. Accompanied by luminescent images that complicate and dissect the speaker’s voice, this collaboration is a glorious meditation on what it means to hold secrets across time and space.
Advance praise for Theorem
Entering the pages of Theorem, its risky business of collaboration, where the lyrical reaches of language alternate with the curious powers of visual art, one delights (and delights, and delights), in the book’s mystery and control; its structure and freedom; an extended, five-section exercise in restraint, simplicity, and the open-ended investigation of the self.
—Kirsten Andersen, Provincetown Arts, 2020
Books about self-discovery often culminate in a revelation, which readers may find temporarily satisfying. But what happens after that? In Theorem, Bradfield’s words and Contro’s images open up another possibility. The revelation is not in arrive at a destination but in beginning to map the journey, as well as in recognizing that one’s perspective of past events changes as time goes by. This is the enigma of being alive and alert. This is what Theorem offers the willing reader—a place to return to in order to set out again and see what has changed.
—John Yau, poet, critic, curator
- GenresPoetry
96 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2020
About the author
Elizabeth Bradfield
16 books65 followersElizabeth Bradfield is the author of Toward Antarctica (Boreal Books/Red Hen, 2019) Once Removed (Persea, 2015), Approaching Ice (Persea, 2008), and Interpretive Work (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press, 2008). She is also co-editor of two anthologies: Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry (Mountaineers Books, 2023) and Broadsided Press: Fifteen Years of Poetic/Artistic Collaboration, 2005 - 2020 (Provincetown Arts Press, 2022).
Liz is editor of Broadsided (http://www.broadsidedpress.org), a modern incarnation of the traditional broadside. Her poetry been published in such journals as The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, The Sun, and elsewhere.
Bradfield grew up in Tacoma, Washington, has received a Stegner Fellowship, a Bread Loaf Scholarship, the Audre Lorde Prize. She lives on Cape Cod, works as a naturalist, and teaches at Brandeis University.
Liz is editor of Broadsided (http://www.broadsidedpress.org), a modern incarnation of the traditional broadside. Her poetry been published in such journals as The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, The Sun, and elsewhere.
Bradfield grew up in Tacoma, Washington, has received a Stegner Fellowship, a Bread Loaf Scholarship, the Audre Lorde Prize. She lives on Cape Cod, works as a naturalist, and teaches at Brandeis University.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 29, 2020
I need a couple more rereads to really appreciate this gem of a book. So delicate and yet essential. I love the conversation between words and images and the unique story of this book’s development. It’s pretty obvious that I’m a fan of Bradfield’s work, and the rich and intricate layering that Contro’s images provide, deepening texture, allowing the merest space between language and thought, makes this interplay a flaky croissant of a literary delicacy.
Also reminds me of her work editing Broadsidedpress.org - worth a look if you’re not familiar and you appreciate images that question and answer rather than illustrate text. I’ve asked some friends to join me for a group read (with author zoom!) and am really looking forward to that conversation.
Also reminds me of her work editing Broadsidedpress.org - worth a look if you’re not familiar and you appreciate images that question and answer rather than illustrate text. I’ve asked some friends to join me for a group read (with author zoom!) and am really looking forward to that conversation.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews