Slant Six Author:Erin Belieu "Belieu?s lyric musicality and strong sense of satire create an energetic tension and a rollicking fun book to read." —Publishers Weekly, on Slant Six“I?ve never read a poem by Erin Belieu that I didn?t want to immediately rip from its bindings so I could fold it up and carry around in my pockets and read so many times that the paper turned back... more » into pulp. She?s just that good. That honest and brave and beautiful and wise and funny. She writes poems we need. Poems that say who I am and who you are and how and why we got to be this way. Poems that wonder if we can ever change. Poems that know us and show us and grace us. Poems that remember us and forget us and leave us dazzled in their dust. In Slant Six, she?s outdone herself. It?s a spellbinding, heart-opening beauty of a book.? —Cheryl Strayed"Erin Belieu . . . is always ready to surprise, to astonish, and, ultimately, to defy comparison."—Boston Book Review"[One] of America's finest poets."—Robert Olen ButlerErin Belieu's fourth collection, Slant Six, is an inundation of the humor and horror in contemporary American life—from the last saltine cracked in the sleeve, to the kitty-cat calendar in an office cubicle. With its prophecies of impending destruction, and a simultaneous flood of respect for Americans, Erin Belieu's poems close like Ziploc bags around a human heart.From "12-Step":I am considering
lighthousesin a completely new light—their butch neutrality, their grand
but modest surfaces.A lighthouse could appear
here at any moment.I have been making this effort,
placing myself in uncomfortable positions,only for the documented health benefits . . . Erin Belieu is the author of three books, and her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, the New York Times, and the Atlantic. Belieu co-founded VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and currently directs the creative writing program at Florida State University. She lives in Tallahassee, Florida.« less