{"product_id":"heavaob","title":"Heavy Bloom, by Angelina Oberdan Brooks","description":"\u003cp align=\"justify\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePoetry, chapbook, 32 pages, from\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b00ff;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"color: #2b00ff;\"\u003e\u003ca style=\"color: #2b00ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/bottlecap.press\/collections\/bottlecap-features\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"color: #2b00ff;\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/bottlecap.press\/collections\/bottlecap-features\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eBottlecap Features\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe poems in \u003cem\u003eHeavy Bloom\u003c\/em\u003e move from watching an 18-wheeler strike a blue heron to being stalked by a mountain lion in West Texas to considering the carelessness with which we harm each other. The originating images in these poems are memories or fragments of language that Angelina Oberdan Brooks collected as she found a way to bloom while processing loss on all fronts. Her hands largely stopped working, which led to a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis and a disintegration of the life she’d planned. Her father’s cancer became terminal, and he slowly died at home—over months and then days. To all of this, the relationship she was in didn’t hold up. Unable to cope, Brooks moved herself and her three dogs into an SUV and solo-camped from the Blue Ridge in NC to the Uintas in UT. \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBrooks collected fragments of images and language as she roadtripped across the country. She dives deep into Robert Bly’s Leaping Poetry and follows each initial image through to its wild associations. \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThrough writing these poems, Brooks learned what she already knew: America is beautiful and horrifying. Indeed, death is more certain than life, and loss is more common than love. We want to turn towards our screens and away from any discomfort, but we can't. Richard Wilbur wrote that “[o]ne of the jobs of poetry is to make the unbearable bearable, not by falsehood but clear, precise confrontation”; the poems in \u003cem\u003eHeavy Bloom\u003c\/em\u003e sit with the uncomfortable, look at loss directly, and hope to make way for future joy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAngelina Oberdan Brooks earned an M.A. in English and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Poetry) at McNeese State University in 2010, where she began teaching writing. Brooks has since held a variety of teaching positions at both community colleges and research universities; currently, she teaches at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Brooks’s poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared in many journals, including \u003cem\u003eCold Mountain Review\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLitmosphere\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eItalian Americana\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eRain Taxi\u003c\/em\u003e, and the \u003cem\u003eSouthern Indiana Review\u003c\/em\u003e. Her first textbook, \u003cem\u003eA Creative Introduction to Technical Writing\u003c\/em\u003e, came out from Kendall\/Hunt in January 2023. Her prior textbook projects have included working on Thomas Oberdan’s \u003cem\u003eScience, Technology, and the Texture of our Lives\u003c\/em\u003e (Tavenner Publishing Co. 2017), serving on the faculty advisory board for \u003cem\u003eThe Hub\u003c\/em\u003e by Peter Adams (Macmillan 2020), and collaborating on the instructor’s manual with Elizabeth Catanese for Alfred Rosa and Paul Eschholtz’s fourteenth edition of \u003cem\u003eModels for Writers\u003c\/em\u003e (Bedford St. Martins 2021). She wrote the introduction to a bilingual collection of poetry by \u003cem\u003eElisa Bagiani\u003c\/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eGuest in the Woods\u003c\/em\u003e, Chelsea Press, 2013). Brooks is the executor of the Daniela Gioseffi Literary Estate; the Daniela Gioseffi Papers are currently housed in the American Collection at Yale's Beinecke Library. She co-edited a collection of essays by and about Daniela Gioseffi, \u003cem\u003ePioneering Italian American Culture: Escaping La Vita Della Cucina\u003c\/em\u003e (Bordighera Press, 2013). \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Angelina Oberdan Brooks","offers":[{"title":"Chapbook","offer_id":45299409551675,"sku":"HEAVAOB","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital Download (PDF)","offer_id":45299409584443,"sku":"HEAVAOBe","price":7.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0062\/4420\/4614\/files\/heavyfront.png?v=1697490203","url":"https:\/\/bottlecap.press\/products\/heavaob","provider":"Bottlecap Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}