Post Moxie: Poems

by Julia Story

Winner of the 2009 Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry, selected by Dan Chiassonn From "The Above Song": Foie gras has been outlawed. So has gravitas,
faux grass, middle class. the past. Julia Story lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Genres: Poetry

77 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Julia Story is the author of Post Moxie (Sarabande Books), winner of the Ploughshares 2010 John C. Zacharis First Book Award. Her recent work can be read at Sixth Finch, Salamander, and Pangyrus. She is from Indiana and now lives in Somerville, Massachusetts and Dorset, England.

Reviews

[Heather Gibbons · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderful book! I read this really fast, in two sittings, which rarely happens. Not sure what it means, though, that I read it so fast-- did I gobble it up voraciously because it was so delicious, or because it goes down easily and the poems aren't thorny-problematic enough to force me to slow down? Regardless, I love how (seemingly) breezy and casual and fun some of these poems are, with bracingly weird and subversive flashes in them. And the not-breezy ones are striking, stark, gorgeous. The sense of voice is satisfyingly consistent without being one-dimensional and the tone is both conversational and bad-ass confrontational in ways that take me by surprise. And the prose blocks are totally cool-- she manipulates syntax in ways that create all kind of different rhythms within the prose block form.

[hh · Rating 4 out of 5]

i had the good fortune to hear julia story read before picking up this book; she has a wonderful way of embodying her work.

these poems build their own cabinet of mysteries and insist upon their own logic. they ask you to discover what is difficult in yourself and in the world without revealing anything.

i checked this out from the library, but need to buy it. very much looking forward to her next collection.

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Your dream inside my dream." Reading these 64 prose poems without titles feels like slow motion floating between differently sized clouds. The clouds don't resemble birds or rats or traffic jams, but instead resemble everything and anything that can fit inside a box.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

from Post Moxie by Julia Story:

(Reviewer's Note: Please imagine this as block text...)

Do they not have those dogs anymore?
The neighbors with the toy dogs. The
new season meant they'd yip when I
walked by, exploding out their tiny door
like cannoned rats. The green mattress of
spring with its calling trees, its antidote
to heartbreak. But I refer rather than
believe. I have faith I'll keep thinking
the same things. Spring tries to sweep my
shadow into its maw. The good people of
earth want to help me but I don't believe
in this anymore.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very compelling stanza poems. I enjoyed this collection very much.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great summer read! Couldn't put it down. Will have to reread at some point at a much more deliberate pace.