Unraveling at the Name
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Overview
This startling debut packages eros, motherhood, divorce, and a lesbian choice into a first book that knows that the narrative of transformation ultimately transcends the specific circumstances of the journey. In selecting Unravelling at the Name, Marilyn Hacker wrote: "Here is a new voice accomplished both in mind and music, a poet with perfect pitch in her mother tongue."
Jenny Factor received her A.B. summa cum laude from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges in 1991, and her M.F.A. from Bennington College.
Hayden Carruth Award Winners:
Misterioso by Sascha Feinstein TP $14.00, 1-55659-136-5 • CUSA
Uncertain Grace by Rebecca Wee TP $14.00, 1-55659-154-3 • CUSA
2002 Lambda Literary Award Finalist, Lesbian Poetry
Synopsis
Jenny Factor is both a romantic poet and a dark modernist who utilizes formal poetic structures to contain subjects as varied as motherhood, eros, sexuality, and the unusual act of self-re-creation. Optimistic, searching, and unforgiving, Unraveling at the Name is arranged around a central narrative of shifting identities, as the book's speaker leaves a heterosexual marriage and sets off on an exploration of her own sexuality and the difficulties and joys of single working motherhood.
About the Author
Jenny Factor, recipient of the 2001 Hayden Carruth Award, has worked as a contract archeologist, a freelance writer and editor, and a writer for EarthLink. She received her bachelor of arts in anthropology from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges in 1991, and her master of fine arts degree in poetry from Bennington College in 2000."
Publishers Weekly
In probing "Unstable Singularities," keeping a "Rendezvous in Greenwich" or contemplating "A High Cold Bright Full Moon," Jenny Factor's speaker in Unraveling at the Name finds "Our sexuality takes form only after some interpreting." In 37 formal lyrics (some in multiple, time-shifting parts), that maxim is full borne out, as marriage, motherhood, the past, various sex acts and varying complexions come under scrutiny. While a voice warns that "a marriage and the stiff form of all heterosexual culture will fall on you like starch," Factor's speaker cheerfully executes "orgiastic shifts in key." (June) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.