Let the World Have You

Let the World Have You

Written by: Harvey, Mikko

The new collection from RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award winner Mikko Harvey.


Mikko Harvey’s new collection invites readers into a world that is and is not the world we know. In poems at once surreal, satiric, and tender, we encounter a cast of surprising non-human characters — the bear who sells herbal remedies, the politically influential lizard, the mean butterfly — yet at the core of this book is Harvey’s impulse to confront the challenges of human intimacy. Let the World Have You is a vibrant report on the ways in which we are delightfully, awkwardly, heartbreakingly entangled: with each other, with the environment we inhabit, and with the psychological environments that inhabit us.

The new collection from RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award winner Mikko Harvey.


Mikko Harvey’s new collection invites readers into a world that is and is not the world we know. In poems at once surreal, satiric, and tender, we encounter a cast of surprising non-human characters — the bear who sells herbal remedies, the politically influential lizard, the mean butterfly — yet at the core of this book is Harvey’s impulse to confront the challenges of human intimacy. Let the World Have You is a vibrant report on the ways in which we are delightfully, awkwardly, heartbreakingly entangled: with each other, with the environment we inhabit, and with the psychological environments that inhabit us.

Published By House of Anansi Press Inc — Apr 5, 2022
Specifications 96 pages | 6 in x 8 in
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Excerpt
Written By

MIKKO HARVEY is the author of Unstable Neighbourhood Rabbit (House of Anansi, 2018), which was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. His poems appear in such places as Iowa Review, Kenyon Review, Maisonneuve, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019. A graduate of Vassar College and Ohio State University, he has received the 2017 RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award and the 2019 Salt Hill Philip Booth Poetry Prize, as well as fellowships from MacDowell, the Vermont Studio Center, and Yaddo. He works as a writer for an immigration law firm and currently lives in upstate New York.

Written By

MIKKO HARVEY is the author of Unstable Neighbourhood Rabbit (House of Anansi, 2018), which was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. His poems appear in such places as Iowa Review, Kenyon Review, Maisonneuve, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019. A graduate of Vassar College and Ohio State University, he has received the 2017 RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award and the 2019 Salt Hill Philip Booth Poetry Prize, as well as fellowships from MacDowell, the Vermont Studio Center, and Yaddo. He works as a writer for an immigration law firm and currently lives in upstate New York.

There’s magic here, a towering and welcoming imagination, the best kind, the kind that takes your hand into strange places, knows that fear makes sense, and helps you see what’s here.

” —The Boston Globe

Strange and sly, the poems in Mikko Harvey’s collection Let the World Have You are mocking, hopeful, and entertaining … Moving from the absurd image to the sharp and piercing comment, Harvey’s poems are always a pleasure here.

” —The Miramichi Reader

Dazzling, heartfelt poems populated by inventive narrative and uncanny imagery. Let the World Have You is a treasure trove of playfully serious odes to being.

” —

Mikko Harvey is a poet with a quirky sensibility. To me, his casual, melancholic, funny poems are like sugar water for the hummingbird.

” —

PRAISE FOR MIKKO HARVEY AND LET THE WORLD HAVE YOU

“Dazzling, heartfelt poems populated by inventive narrative and uncanny imagery. Let the World Have You is a treasure trove of playfully serious odes to being.” — Mark Leidner, author of Returning the Sword to the Stone

“Mikko Harvey is a poet with a quirky sensibility. To me, his casual, melancholic, funny poems are like sugar water for the hummingbird.” — Henri Cole, author of Blizzard

PRAISE FOR MIKKO HARVEY AND UNSTABLE NEIGHBOURHOOD RABBIT

“Bizarre but compelling, Harvey’s poetic ‘playground’ is fascinating territory.” ― Toronto Star

“A startling debut.” ― Winnipeg Free Press

“Lively, sometimes intense, and linguistically inventive.” ― Quill & Quire

“All words are adult, said Maurice Blanchot. And this book is saying to words (like ‘nature’) die! *gently* die! And be born again: babies, children, reindeer. So, don't read this book if you don’t want to think like a child (and don’t read it if you don't think childthought is absolutely magnified). Don’t read this book if you don’t want to lose your I. Don’t read this book if you don’t want to cry.” ― Darcie Dennigan, author of Madame X and Palace of Subatomic Bliss

“In Unstable Neighbourhood Rabbit, as it should be the case, natural elements act like neighbours and old friends, people act like animals, animals act like people, names determine fate, rice and goats and bowls determine how we interpret the world, our palms control our thinking, our imaginations are celebrated and called upon to take responsibility for what they call into existence, our imaginations transform us as necessary, everything is a sign, everything is heroic and epic and fragile, everything matters, the wind can undo our shoelaces.” — Dara Wier, award-winning author of Reverse Rapture

PRAISE FOR MIKKO HARVEY

“[Harvey] is able to transform ordinary experiences into revelations about the world and our place within it. These poems blend humor and observation, often in close proximity, and make excellent use of voice, whether spoken or filtered through narration. A thoroughly commendable series of poems, and I am thankful for having the opportunity to read them.” — Mary Biddinger, author of A Sunny Place with Adequate Water and Small Enterprise

“The author of these poems has an energy that promises a life in poetry and also delights this reader. The poems are witty, smart, fun, and written with authority … they are memorable. I kept coming back to them and enjoying them all over again … maybe the best test of all for the best poetry.” — Kelly Cherry, author of The Woman Who and The Retreats of Thought