Join us on Tuesday, June 25 at 7pm PT when Madeleine Cravens joins us to celebrate the release of her collection, Pleasure Principle, with Angie Sijun Lou at 9th Ave!
Praise for Pleasure Principle
"In Madeleine Cravens's Pleasure Principle, a tough particularness operates perfectly in tandem with a subtle musicality and a relentlessness of vision, a commitment to saying what has been experienced just as it was experienced, and what has been imagined as if it had been experienced. And yet these poems are also poems that acknowledge the world as governed by possibility as much as by pattern--when Cravens writes, 'There was a world inside the world. I wanted the hard pit,' she is writing her way toward a possible world, the world in the seed in the world. This book is itself such a seed, both the beginning of a poet and a renewal of poetry." --Shane McCrae, author of Pulling the Chariot of the Sun
"Madeleine Cravens's Pleasure Principle draws the world with an astounding clarity of vision, yet every setting is infused with tenderness. These are taut and quiet poems, driven by an exhilarating lyric sensibility. The book begins where a photograph would end--her lines hum with the frequency of unseen light, hidden desires, forgotten objects, and memories retrieved from the mystery of childhood. A truly wonderful debut announcing a poet assured of her voice." --Aria Aber, author of Hard Damage
About Pleasure Principle
An astonishing debut collection of poems about desire and the chaos of youth.
In her stunning debut collection, Madeleine Cravens explores desire in all its transgressive power and wildness. Pleasure and pain are inextricable in these carefully observed poems, capturing a young woman on the threshold of adulthood as she seeks to understand herself. With a hard-edged vulnerability and singularly bold style, Cravens is unsparing about the struggle to make sense of one's longings.
Taking us from the parks and plazas of Brooklyn to the freeways of California, these poems allow us to watch a life unfold where "womanhood felt like an incorrect container," and love is performed "in the historic way, with bartering and harsh alliances." As Cravens casts her questioning eye across the possibilities of queer relationships and the curious shapes of family bonds--both the ones we're born into and the ones we choose--she urges readers to consider how we become ourselves.
Moving, captivating, and funny, Pleasure Principle heralds the arrival of a fearless and vibrant new voice in American poetry.
About Madeleine Cravens
Madeleine Cravens was a 2022-2024 Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She received her MFA at Columbia University, where she was a Max Ritvo Poetry Fellow. She was the first-place winner of Narrative Magazine's 2021 Poetry Contest and 2020 30 Below Contest, and a finalist for the 2022 James Hearst Poetry Prize. Her poems can be found or are forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, Best New Poets, The Kenyon Review, The New Yorker, and The Washington Square Review. She was raised in Brooklyn and lives in Oakland. Pleasure Principle is her debut poetry collection.
About Angie Sijun Lou
Angie Sijun Lou is a Kundiman Fellow and a PhD candidate in literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her writings have appeared in the Kenyon Review, Joyland, Best Small Fictions, and Gulf Coast. She lives in Oakland.
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Praise for Pleasure Principle
"In Madeleine Cravens's Pleasure Principle, a tough particularness operates perfectly in tandem with a subtle musicality and a relentlessness of vision, a commitment to saying what has been experienced just as it was experienced, and what has been imagined as if it had been experienced. And yet these poems are also poems that acknowledge the world as governed by possibility as much as by pattern--when Cravens writes, 'There was a world inside the world. I wanted the hard pit,' she is writing her way toward a possible world, the world in the seed in the world. This book is itself such a seed, both the beginning of a poet and a renewal of poetry." --Shane McCrae, author of Pulling the Chariot of the Sun
"Madeleine Cravens's Pleasure Principle draws the world with an astounding clarity of vision, yet every setting is infused with tenderness. These are taut and quiet poems, driven by an exhilarating lyric sensibility. The book begins where a photograph would end--her lines hum with the frequency of unseen light, hidden desires, forgotten objects, and memories retrieved from the mystery of childhood. A truly wonderful debut announcing a poet assured of her voice." --Aria Aber, author of Hard Damage
About Pleasure Principle
An astonishing debut collection of poems about desire and the chaos of youth.
In her stunning debut collection, Madeleine Cravens explores desire in all its transgressive power and wildness. Pleasure and pain are inextricable in these carefully observed poems, capturing a young woman on the threshold of adulthood as she seeks to understand herself. With a hard-edged vulnerability and singularly bold style, Cravens is unsparing about the struggle to make sense of one's longings.
Taking us from the parks and plazas of Brooklyn to the freeways of California, these poems allow us to watch a life unfold where "womanhood felt like an incorrect container," and love is performed "in the historic way, with bartering and harsh alliances." As Cravens casts her questioning eye across the possibilities of queer relationships and the curious shapes of family bonds--both the ones we're born into and the ones we choose--she urges readers to consider how we become ourselves.
Moving, captivating, and funny, Pleasure Principle heralds the arrival of a fearless and vibrant new voice in American poetry.
About Madeleine Cravens
Madeleine Cravens was a 2022-2024 Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She received her MFA at Columbia University, where she was a Max Ritvo Poetry Fellow. She was the first-place winner of Narrative Magazine's 2021 Poetry Contest and 2020 30 Below Contest, and a finalist for the 2022 James Hearst Poetry Prize. Her poems can be found or are forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, Best New Poets, The Kenyon Review, The New Yorker, and The Washington Square Review. She was raised in Brooklyn and lives in Oakland. Pleasure Principle is her debut poetry collection.
About Angie Sijun Lou
Angie Sijun Lou is a Kundiman Fellow and a PhD candidate in literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her writings have appeared in the Kenyon Review, Joyland, Best Small Fictions, and Gulf Coast. She lives in Oakland.
Join us on Tuesday, June 25 at 7pm PT when Madeleine Cravens joins us to celebrate the release of her collection, Pleasure Principle, with Angie Sijun Lou at 9th Ave!
Praise for Pleasure Principle
"In Madeleine Cravens's Pleasure Principle, a tough particularness operates perfectly in tandem with a subtle musicality and a relentlessness of vision, a commitment to saying what has been experienced just as it was experienced, and what has been imagined as if it had been experienced. And yet these poems are also poems that acknowledge the world as governed by possibility as much as by pattern--when Cravens writes, 'There was a world inside the world. I wanted the hard pit,' she is writing her way toward a possible world, the world in the seed in the world. This book is itself such a seed, both the beginning of a poet and a renewal of poetry." --Shane McCrae, author of Pulling the Chariot of the Sun
"Madeleine Cravens's Pleasure Principle draws the world with an astounding clarity of vision, yet every setting is infused with tenderness. These are taut and quiet poems, driven by an exhilarating lyric sensibility. The book begins where a photograph would end--her lines hum with the frequency of unseen light, hidden desires, forgotten objects, and memories retrieved from the mystery of childhood. A truly wonderful debut announcing a poet assured of her voice." --Aria Aber, author of Hard Damage
About Pleasure Principle
An astonishing debut collection of poems about desire and the chaos of youth.
In her stunning debut collection, Madeleine Cravens explores desire in all its transgressive power and wildness. Pleasure and pain are inextricable in these carefully observed poems, capturing a young woman on the threshold of adulthood as she seeks to understand herself. With a hard-edged vulnerability and singularly bold style, Cravens is unsparing about the struggle to make sense of one's longings.
Taking us from the parks and plazas of Brooklyn to the freeways of California, these poems allow us to watch a life unfold where "womanhood felt like an incorrect container," and love is performed "in the historic way, with bartering and harsh alliances." As Cravens casts her questioning eye across the possibilities of queer relationships and the curious shapes of family bonds--both the ones we're born into and the ones we choose--she urges readers to consider how we become ourselves.
Moving, captivating, and funny, Pleasure Principle heralds the arrival of a fearless and vibrant new voice in American poetry.
About Madeleine Cravens
Madeleine Cravens was a 2022-2024 Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She received her MFA at Columbia University, where she was a Max Ritvo Poetry Fellow. She was the first-place winner of Narrative Magazine's 2021 Poetry Contest and 2020 30 Below Contest, and a finalist for the 2022 James Hearst Poetry Prize. Her poems can be found or are forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, Best New Poets, The Kenyon Review, The New Yorker, and The Washington Square Review. She was raised in Brooklyn and lives in Oakland. Pleasure Principle is her debut poetry collection.
About Angie Sijun Lou
Angie Sijun Lou is a Kundiman Fellow and a PhD candidate in literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her writings have appeared in the Kenyon Review, Joyland, Best Small Fictions, and Gulf Coast. She lives in Oakland.
read more
Praise for Pleasure Principle
"In Madeleine Cravens's Pleasure Principle, a tough particularness operates perfectly in tandem with a subtle musicality and a relentlessness of vision, a commitment to saying what has been experienced just as it was experienced, and what has been imagined as if it had been experienced. And yet these poems are also poems that acknowledge the world as governed by possibility as much as by pattern--when Cravens writes, 'There was a world inside the world. I wanted the hard pit,' she is writing her way toward a possible world, the world in the seed in the world. This book is itself such a seed, both the beginning of a poet and a renewal of poetry." --Shane McCrae, author of Pulling the Chariot of the Sun
"Madeleine Cravens's Pleasure Principle draws the world with an astounding clarity of vision, yet every setting is infused with tenderness. These are taut and quiet poems, driven by an exhilarating lyric sensibility. The book begins where a photograph would end--her lines hum with the frequency of unseen light, hidden desires, forgotten objects, and memories retrieved from the mystery of childhood. A truly wonderful debut announcing a poet assured of her voice." --Aria Aber, author of Hard Damage
About Pleasure Principle
An astonishing debut collection of poems about desire and the chaos of youth.
In her stunning debut collection, Madeleine Cravens explores desire in all its transgressive power and wildness. Pleasure and pain are inextricable in these carefully observed poems, capturing a young woman on the threshold of adulthood as she seeks to understand herself. With a hard-edged vulnerability and singularly bold style, Cravens is unsparing about the struggle to make sense of one's longings.
Taking us from the parks and plazas of Brooklyn to the freeways of California, these poems allow us to watch a life unfold where "womanhood felt like an incorrect container," and love is performed "in the historic way, with bartering and harsh alliances." As Cravens casts her questioning eye across the possibilities of queer relationships and the curious shapes of family bonds--both the ones we're born into and the ones we choose--she urges readers to consider how we become ourselves.
Moving, captivating, and funny, Pleasure Principle heralds the arrival of a fearless and vibrant new voice in American poetry.
About Madeleine Cravens
Madeleine Cravens was a 2022-2024 Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She received her MFA at Columbia University, where she was a Max Ritvo Poetry Fellow. She was the first-place winner of Narrative Magazine's 2021 Poetry Contest and 2020 30 Below Contest, and a finalist for the 2022 James Hearst Poetry Prize. Her poems can be found or are forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, Best New Poets, The Kenyon Review, The New Yorker, and The Washington Square Review. She was raised in Brooklyn and lives in Oakland. Pleasure Principle is her debut poetry collection.
About Angie Sijun Lou
Angie Sijun Lou is a Kundiman Fellow and a PhD candidate in literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her writings have appeared in the Kenyon Review, Joyland, Best Small Fictions, and Gulf Coast. She lives in Oakland.
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