Nelson has been the recipient of a 2016 macarthur fellowship, a 2012 creative capital literature fellowship, a 2011 nea fellowship in poetry, and. Nelson describes how collecting objects and images of blue distracted her from the worst passivity of her years of depression. Bluets is a book by american author maggie nelson, published by wave books in 2009. Maggie nelson is the author of numerous books of poetry and nonfiction, including something bright, then. An intellectual yet beautiful and inspiring exploration of every aspect of the colour blue. A guardian book of the year maggie nelson is one of the most electrifying writers at work in america today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation olivia laing bluetswinds its way through depression, divinity, alcohol, and desire, visiting along the way with famous blue figures, including joni mitchell, billie holiday, yves klein, leonard cohen and andy warhol. December 2009 gina myers nonfiction bluets by maggie nelson. A guardian book of the year maggie nelson is one of the most electrifying writers at work in america today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation olivia laing bluets winds its way through depression, divinity, alcohol, and desire, visiting along the way with famous blue figures, including joni mitchell, billie holiday. Maggie nelson is a poet, art critic, and author of nonfiction books such as the art of cruelty. With bluets, maggie nelson has entered the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists.
Maggie nelson is the author of numerous books of poetry and nonfiction. A murder 2005, the latest winter 2003, and shiner 2001, which was a finalist for a norma farber first book award. This story, which includes nelsons account of falling in love with dodge, who is fluidly. The author maggie nelson, born in 1973, has authored half a dozen books, among them poetry collections, memoirs, and nonfiction. In the 61st of 240 short, often interrelated prose sections, nelson writes, gass argues that what we readers really want is the penetration of. Susie deford, bomb in the end nelson breaks free of romances tyranny. After reading maggie nelsons bluets, an examination of love and suffering and her personal obsession with the color blue, i immediately went out and got the argonauts, which is a hybrid of sorts, although id call it lyric essay. The nonfiction authors books, especially 2011s the art of cruelty. She teaches in the school of critical studies at calarts. In the 240 prose entries the book consists of, nelson deals with the personal loss of a. Maggie nelson s the argonauts is a genrebending memoir, a work of autotheory offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language. A lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue. Sarah macdonald vice i cant stop thinking about bluets.
Bluets by maggie nelson, 9781933517407, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Maggie nelsons bluets takes aim at one of todays most beloved forms of writingthe autobiographycoyly challenging the genres attachment to truthful stories of the self and the form thought best to convey them. Maggie nelsons bluets opens with the line, suppose i were to begin by saying that i had fallen in love with a color. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Nelson has enveloped this core idea in a layer of narrative consisting of a quasiepistolary re. Oclcs webjunction has pulled together information and resources to assist library. Nov 06, 2017 the crux of the book is a meditation on nelson s love for the color, an examination of other people who have been fascinated by it before, like wittgenstein, joni mitchell, and leonard cohen. This question of agency in life, in love, in the love of blue undergirds the book as nelsons. Maggie nelson continues to raise the bar higher in what a reader can expect from a book. The work hybridizes several prose and poetry styles as it documents nelson s multifaceted experience with the color blue, and is often referred to as lyric essay or prose poetry. Maggie nelsons the argonauts is a genrebending memoir, a work of autotheory offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language.
A guardian book of the year maggie nelson is one of the most electrifying writers at work in america today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation olivia laing bluets winds its way through depression, divinity, alcohol, and desire, visiting along the way with famous blue figures, including joni mitchell, billie holiday, yves klein, leonard cohen and andy warhol. Maggie nelson has never been one to shirk a knotty problem. Bluets by maggie nelson 2009, paperback for sale online. To hear the mass media speak of it, the mere suggestion of embellishment, never mind invention, disrupts the hopeful economy of memoirs in which. She is generally described as a genrebusting writer defying classification, working in autobiography, art criticism, theory, scholarship, and poetry. The compact hybrid book of literature, memoir, and poetry at only 99 pages in length lingers long after the cover is turned over. An intellectual yet beautiful and inspiring exploration of every aspect of. Maggie nelsons bluets opens with the line, suppose i were to begin by. I dont read much memoir people generally bore me, so i was late to reading maggie nelsons bluets. Online series, original literature join pen america today defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Bluets is brilliant and sad, and it adds to the excellent body of work this prolific, young writer has created. Bluets is maggie nelsons 2009 hybridization of lyrical essays, aka 240 meditations upon the color blue.
Nelson has been the recipient of a 2016 macarthur fellowship, a 2012 creative capital literature fellowship, a 2011 nea fellowship in poetry, and a 2010 guggenheim fellowship in nonfiction. Maggie nelson is the author of numerous books of poetry and nonfiction, including something bright, then holes soft skull press, 2007 and women, the new york school, and other true abstractions university of iowa press, 2007. To hear the mass media speak of it, the mere suggestion of embellishment, never mind invention. Oct 01, 2009 with bluets, maggie nelson has entered the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists. Bluets, katie schmid, last book i loved, maggie nelson, poetry. Maggie nelson is the author of numerous books of poetry and nonfiction, including something bright, then holes soft skull press, 2007 and women, the new york school, and other true abstractions university of. When i want a sprawling, consuming book about love and loss, i turn to maggie nelson s bluets. Jun 15, 2017 for me bluets is maggie nelson s best book yet and puts her on a par with anne carson. There is much that can be said about this book, and so much has already been said, that i am only going to concern myself with p90 on which nelson states, recently, i found out that les bluets can translate as cornflowersi had only ever heard, a small. Numerous and frequentlyupdated resource results are available from this search. Reliable information about the coronavirus covid19 is available from the world health organization current situation, international travel.
For me bluets is maggie nelson s best book yet and puts her on a par with anne carson. A reckoning and 2016s the argonauts, make room for the gentle yet. Yet what could be more invented than a life story that reads like a novel. Bluets uses a nonlinear structure to explore the emotional and philosophical ramifications of grief. Nelsons book bluets 2009 is perhaps her most wellknown work mix of scholarship and poetry. Maggie nelson a lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue, while folding in, and responding to, the. Bluets by maggie nelson meet your next favorite book. When i want a sprawling, consuming book about love and loss, i turn to maggie nelsons bluets. She dreams someone sends her cornflowers, the american name for bluets. Maggie nelson on the color blue as a lens on memory, loneliness, and the paradoxes of love to wish to forget how much you loved someone and then, to actually forget can feel, at times, like the slaughter of a beautiful bird who chose, by nothing short of grace, to make a habitat of your heart. Her other nonfiction titles include the national book critics circle award winner the argonauts 2015, the art of cruelty. The work hybridizes several prose and poetry styles as it documents. Each numbered fragment is either a sentence or a short paragraph, none longer than two hundred words.
Maggie nelson is the author of nine books of poetry and prose, many of which have become cult classics defying categorization. The book, not even a hundred pages long, is split in 240. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide. Something that began as an appreciation, an affinity became something more serious and then it became somehow personal. Apr 05, 2010 i mention this because wave books doesnt market maggie nelsons bluets, a collection of 240 somethings, as poetry. That was true for the argonauts, but it hits even closer to home in the case of bluets. Maggie nelson is one of the most electrifying writers at work in america today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation olivia laing bluets winds its way through depression, divinity, alcohol, and desire, visiting along the way with famous blue figures, including joni mitchell, billie holiday, yves klein, leonard cohen and andy warhol. Her other collections of poetry include something bright, then holes 2007, jane. And while nelson has published poetry proper with hanging loose and soft skull, shes also published two hybrid prose works, jane. As a bookshop affiliate and an amazon associate, the rumpus earns a percentage from qualifying purchases. Over the course of the poem, the reader must piece together the events that have triggered nelson to write the book. Oct 15, 2009 with bluets, maggie nelson has entered the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists.
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