Join us for a bilingual reading in English and French with poet Alexander Dickow, who will read from his new collection in English, The Distance, and You In It, as well as a selection of his French poetry. This in-person event will be cosponsored by The Alliance Française de Charlottesville and will be free and open to the public. We recommend arriving early for the best seating.
About the Book: The Distance, and You In It, a two part narrative and dramatic poem, features Hob, a demiurgic trickster akin to figures like Maui, Coyote, Panurge, Till Eulenspiegel, and so forth. Like these tricksters, Hob embodies an essentially amoral force of nature; he often speaks with the crooked words of someone who follows no rules. In part one, Hob pulls himself from the void and sets out in search of a suitable pair of boots. In the second part’s series of dramatic tableaux, Hob meddles in the intimate relationship of a pair of genderless lovers, Anah and Aviv. This joyful, playful mythology is shot through with moments of longing and suffering.
About the Author: Alexander Dickow grew up in Moscow, Idaho, in the Pacific Northwest. He is professor of French at Virginia Tech, and writes poetry, fiction, essays, and literary criticism in French and English. His books of poetry include Caramboles (bilingual, Argol Editions, 2008), Trial Balloons (chapbook, Corrupt Press, 2012), and Appetites (MadHat Press, 2018). Works in French include a novel, Le Premier Souper (La Volte, 2021); a hybrid work in poetic prose called Rhapsodie curieuse (diospyros kaki) (Louise Bottu, 2017); and a book of critical fragments, Déblais (Louise Bottu, 2021). Dickow has translated works by Max Jacob, Sylvie Kandé, Gustave Roud, and Henri Droguet. His scholarship usually involves French poetry of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
The Distance, and You In It will be released on April 5. To order the book, please see below for the New Dominion Bookshop book order form or call the shop at 434-295-2552.
"Full of delicious wordplay (and swordplay), a dizzying grammar that draws us right in amongst the characters, and even a surprise at the end, The Distance, and You In It delivers a seriously tongue-in-cheek model for navigating lives gone beyond our control ad absurdum."
—Jay Besemer
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