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Open Books: Event Archive
June 28, 2007 07:30 PM
LUCIA PERILLO
We’re pleased to welcome the highly decorated (MacArthur Fellowship, Kingsley Tufts Award, etc.) Lucia Perillo to read from her new collection of essays, I’ve Heard the Vultures Singing: Field Notes on Poetry, Illness, and Nature ($24.95 Trinity Univ.) As in her terrific poetry, the tone in these essays is no nonsense and witty. The book might well be described as being investigative prose – what is found when one studies the life of a poet and naturalist who has a degenerative disease. In her introductory piece Ms. Perillo writes, “Anyone looking to find his or her body here should be forewarned that this particular ride has already been taken.” She is not offering a feel-good communal experience, rather she’s giving the gift of honest experience written incisively and insightfully. It’s a pleasure to keep the company of one who says, “I can take heart in the oddness of my path, even though it did not lead me to the kind of wilderness I expected.” The topics of her essays range from birdsong (“it’s not easy to be a bird-watcher when you can’t walk”) to being a sexual character living with disease (“it seems that if I can get deep enough into my body, maybe all its disturbing symptoms will disappear”) to the economics of poetry (“my embarrassment about being a poet comes partly from… poetry’s having so little value in the marketplace”). This is a wide-ranging collection of fierce, funny pieces. Expect nothing less from this event.
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