Oneiric, fabulist, hilarious, surreal. No single term seems to sufficiently contain Mikko Harvey’s delightful, cheeky, absurdist, inimitable debut poetry collection.
A bomb and a raindrop make small talk as they fall through the air; a visit to the phlebotomist evolves into a nightmarish party; a boy notices himself turning into a piano key. Reading Unstable Neighbourhood Rabbit is like spending the day at a strange amusement park. At first the rides appear familiar—then you realize they possess the power to not only thrill and terrify, but destabilize your very notion of amusement. These poems veer sharply away from what’s normally expected of poetry, instead bringing readers to that darkened, awkward, interior space where we are free to be most ourselves.
Oneiric, fabulist, hilarious, surreal. No single term seems to sufficiently contain Mikko Harvey’s delightful, cheeky, absurdist, inimitable debut poetry collection.
A bomb and a raindrop make small talk as they fall through the air; a visit to the phlebotomist evolves into a nightmarish party; a boy notices himself turning into a piano key. Reading Unstable Neighbourhood Rabbit is like spending the day at a strange amusement park. At first the rides appear familiar—then you realize they possess the power to not only thrill and terrify, but destabilize your very notion of amusement. These poems veer sharply away from what’s normally expected of poetry, instead bringing readers to that darkened, awkward, interior space where we are free to be most ourselves.
| Published By | House of Anansi Press Inc — Apr 3, 2018 |
| Specifications | 72 pages | 5.5 in x 8.5 in |
| Keywords | provocative poetry; accessible; funny; creepy; poetry for people that don't like poetry; contemporary poetry; poems; canlit; dunk tank kayla czaga; stereoblind emma healey; a pillow book suzanne buffam; 1996 sara peters; poetry lovers; |
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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. |
Short-listed, League of Canadian Poets’ Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, 2018
“Bizarre but compelling, Harvey’s poetic “playground” is fascinating territory.” —Toronto Star
“Lively, sometimes intense, and linguistically inventive.” —Quill & Quire
“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
“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