About this item
A resonant new collection of poetry from Adrian Matejka, author of The Big Smoke, a finalist for The Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award Map to the Stars, the fourth poetry collection from National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Adrian Matejka, navigates the tensions between race, geography, and poverty in America during the Reagan Era. In the time of space shuttles and the Strategic Defense Initiative, outer space is the only place equality seems possible, even as the stars serve to both guide and obscure the earthly complexities of masculinity and migration. In Matejka's poems, hope is the link between the convoluted realities of being poor and the inspiring possibilities of transcendence and escape - whether it comes from Star Trek, the dream of being one of the first black astronauts, or Sun Ra's cosmic jazz.
About the Author
Adrian Matejka grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana and is a graduate of the MFA program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He is the author of "The Devil's Garden" (Alice James Books, 2003) which won the New York / New England Award and "Mixology" (Penguin, 2009) , a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series. His third collection of poems, "The Big Smoke" (Penguin, 2013) , was awarded the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award, 2014 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and 2014 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. "Map to the Stars" was published by Penguin in 2017. Among Matejka's other honors are the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, Cave Canem, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and a Simon Fellowship from United States Artists. His mixed media collaboration with Nicholas Galanin and Kevin Neireiter inspired by Funkadelic, "Standing on the Verge & Maggot Brain" (Third Man Books) and a full-length collection of poems "Somebody Else Sold the World" (Penguin) were published in 2021. "Last On His Feet," a graphic novel illustrated by Youssef Daoudi about the boxer Jack Johnson is forthcoming from Liveright in fall 2022.
