Image of The Donkey Elegies by Nickole Brown

The Donkey Elegies by Nickole Brown

$12.00

Author: Nickole Brown
Title: The Donkey Elegies
ISBN: 978-1-943977-71-0
Publication Date: 01/16/20
Retail Price: $12.00
6 x 9” Paperback; 38 Pages
Distributed by Ingram and Sibling Rivalry Press
Author is available for appearances and interviews
Author website: www.nickolebrown.com
Publisher Contact: [email protected]
Trade, library, and educational discounts available
Desk copies available for educators
Download the Press Sheet

---

An Essay in Poems
The Donkey Elegies closely examines an animal’s history, tracing how one species hauled the stones that built our civilizations, plowed the fields that fed generations, and carted soldiers and weapons from war to war. The poems undo the brunt end of every lewd joke and unearth the sacred origins of a creature we rarely consider except as melancholy cartoon or dumb, stubborn brute. In these twenty-five linked pieces, a truth is made real: that we must cherish each living thing, each animal, each human being for all their worth.

---

PRAISE FOR THE DONKEY ELEGIES

“We no longer live lives close to those necessary others who are here with us, the animals, and so there is in us a great lack—of wisdom, of empathy, of attention. For this, Nickole Brown's book-length poem The Donkey Elegies might well be first remedy. With great wisdom and empathy, and with exquisite attention to history, culture, language, gender, memory, and the beautiful, weary world about us, Brown allows us to truly see and for a blessed moment be with that most humble of beasts, and in so doing she challenges us to turn to the holinesses in our own worlds, to hold them close—closer yet.”

—Joe Wilkins, author of Fall Back Down When I Die and When We Were Birds

“In The Donkey Elegies, Nickole Brown sets out to cleanse our wounded sight, nourish our withered assumptions, and crack open the narrow cage of our souls. By restoring dignity to our misunderstood kin, she asks us to explore along with her the origins of humans’ self-serving stories and reflect on the ways clichés of language and thought perpetuate violence and diminishment. True seeing, addressing occlusions of one’s own moral sight, requires a concerted vulnerability on the part of the writer, and here, Brown’s gorgeous language is infused with radical tenderness, authentic surprise, and restless curiosity. As acts of rescue, reclamation, and repair, her poems serve as extended heart-songs to all of us, and especially to the least of us.”

—Lia Purpura, author of All The Fierce Tethers and Rough Likeness

---

Nickole Brown received her MFA from the Vermont College, studied literature at Oxford University, and was the editorial assistant for the late Hunter S. Thompson. She worked at Sarabande Books for ten years. Her first collection, Sister, a novel-in-poems, was first published in 2007 by Red Hen Press and a new edition was reissued by Sibling Rivalry Press in 2018. Her second book, a biography-in-poems called Fanny Says, came out from BOA Editions in 2015 and won the Weatherford Award for Appalachian Poetry. The audio book of that collection came out in 2017. Her poems have, among other places, appeared in The New York Times, The Oxford American, Poetry International, Gulf Coast, and The Best American Poetry 2017. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, and the Kentucky Arts Council. She was an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for four years until she gave up her beloved time in the classroom in hope of writing full time. Currently, she teaches periodically at a number of places, including the Sewanee School of Letters MFA Program, the Great Smokies Writing Program at UNCA, Poets House, the Poetry Center at Smith College, the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, and the Hindman Settlement School.

She currently lives with her wife, poet Jessica Jacobs, in Asheville, North Carolina, where since 2016 she’s volunteered at four different animal sanctuaries. She’s at work on a bestiary of sorts about these animals, but she doesn’t want it to consist of the kind of pastorals that always made her (and most of the working-class folks she knows) feel shut out of nature and the writing about it—she yearns for poems to speak in a queer, Southern-trash-talking kind of way about nature beautiful, damaged, dangerous, and in desperate need of saving. A chapbook of the first nine poems called To Those Who Were Our First Gods won the 2018 Rattle Chapbook Prize. The Donkey Elegies is the second result of this project.

Image of The Donkey Elegies by Nickole Brown Image of The Donkey Elegies by Nickole Brown Image of The Donkey Elegies by Nickole Brown Image of The Donkey Elegies by Nickole Brown
Image of Lesbian Fashion Struggles by Caroline Earleywine Image of Lesbian Fashion Struggles by Caroline Earleywine
Lesbian Fashion Struggles by Caroline Earleywine
$12.00
Image of Sagittarius A* by Ben Kline Image of Sagittarius A* by Ben Kline
Sagittarius A* by Ben Kline
$12.00
Image of Reconstructions by Bradley Trumpfheller Image of Reconstructions by Bradley Trumpfheller
Reconstructions by Bradley Trumpfheller
$12.00
Image of God's Boy by Andrew Hahn Image of God's Boy by Andrew Hahn
God's Boy by Andrew Hahn
$12.00
Image of Everything Here by Billie Swift Image of Everything Here by Billie Swift
Everything Here by Billie Swift
$12.00
Image of Breath of Eden by James Kangas Image of Breath of Eden by James Kangas
Breath of Eden by James Kangas
$12.00
Image of Star Map with Action Figures by Carl Phillips Image of Star Map with Action Figures by Carl Phillips
Star Map with Action Figures by Carl Phillips
$12.00
Image of I Miss You, Delicate (THE SAD, SWEET ONE) by Baruch Porras-Hernandez Image of I Miss You, Delicate (THE SAD, SWEET ONE) by Baruch Porras-Hernandez
I Miss You, Delicate (THE SAD, SWEET ONE) by Baruch Porras-Hernandez
$12.00
Image of Lovers of the Deep-Fried Circle (THE FUNNY ONE) by Baruch Porras-Hernandez Image of Lovers of the Deep-Fried Circle (THE FUNNY ONE) by Baruch Porras-Hernandez
Lovers of the Deep-Fried Circle (THE FUNNY ONE) by Baruch Porras-Hernandez
$12.00
Image of the specimen's apology by George Abraham Image of the specimen's apology by George Abraham
the specimen's apology by George Abraham
$15.00
Image of Revelations by Ruben Quesada Image of Revelations by Ruben Quesada
Revelations by Ruben Quesada
$10.00
Image of Corporal Muse by Allison E. Joseph Image of Corporal Muse by Allison E. Joseph
Corporal Muse by Allison E. Joseph
$12.00
Image of Where Wind Meets Wing by Anthony Frame Image of Where Wind Meets Wing by Anthony Frame
Where Wind Meets Wing by Anthony Frame
$10.00
Image of Tourist by Bryan Borland Image of Tourist by Bryan Borland
Tourist by Bryan Borland
$10.00
Image of Revisions by Eric Tran Image of Revisions by Eric Tran
Revisions by Eric Tran
$12.00
Image of Touched by Luther Hughes Image of Touched by Luther Hughes
Touched by Luther Hughes
$12.00
Image of Death by Sex Machine by Franny Choi Image of Death by Sex Machine by Franny Choi
Death by Sex Machine by Franny Choi
$12.00
Image of Tertulia by Seth Pennington Image of Tertulia by Seth Pennington
Tertulia by Seth Pennington
$10.00
Image of Portrait of the Alcoholic by Kaveh Akbar Image of Portrait of the Alcoholic by Kaveh Akbar
Portrait of the Alcoholic by Kaveh Akbar
$12.00
Image of Adventures in Property Management by Chelsea Werner-Jatzke Image of Adventures in Property Management by Chelsea Werner-Jatzke
Adventures in Property Management by Chelsea Werner-Jatzke
$12.00
Image of In Whatever Light Left to Us by Jessica Jacobs Image of In Whatever Light Left to Us by Jessica Jacobs
In Whatever Light Left to Us by Jessica Jacobs
$12.00
Image of All the Rage by sam sax Image of All the Rage by sam sax
All the Rage by sam sax
$12.00
Image of Tonight, We Fuck the Trailer Park Out of Each Other by C. Russell Price
Tonight, We Fuck the Trailer Park Out of Each Other by C. Russell Price
$12.00
Image of The Evolution of Parasites by Emily Jaeger with Illustrations by Robin Levine Image of The Evolution of Parasites by Emily Jaeger with Illustrations by Robin Levine
The Evolution of Parasites by Emily Jaeger with Illustrations by Robin Levine
$12.00
Image of Sad Girl Poems by Christopher Soto Image of Sad Girl Poems by Christopher Soto
Sad Girl Poems by Christopher Soto
$10.00 — Sold out
Image of ALA Over the Rainbow Title! Hook by Peter LaBerge Image of ALA Over the Rainbow Title! Hook by Peter LaBerge
ALA Over the Rainbow Title! Hook by Peter LaBerge
$12.00
Image of Top 10 ALA Over the Rainbow Title! When the Only Light Is Fire by Saeed Jones Image of Top 10 ALA Over the Rainbow Title! When the Only Light Is Fire by Saeed Jones
Top 10 ALA Over the Rainbow Title! When the Only Light Is Fire by Saeed Jones
$12.00
Image of I'm So Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had On by Khadijah Queen (DIGITAL CHAPBOOK) Image of I'm So Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had On by Khadijah Queen (DIGITAL CHAPBOOK)
I'm So Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had On by Khadijah Queen (DIGITAL CHAPBOOK)
$3.00
Image of SRP $10 CLASSIC! Fat Girl by Jessie Carty FREE U.S. SHIPPING! Image of SRP $10 CLASSIC! Fat Girl by Jessie Carty FREE U.S. SHIPPING!
SRP $10 CLASSIC! Fat Girl by Jessie Carty FREE U.S. SHIPPING!
$10.00
Image of FINAL PRINT RUN! ALA Over the Rainbow Title: Burnings by Ocean Vuong Image of FINAL PRINT RUN! ALA Over the Rainbow Title: Burnings by Ocean Vuong
FINAL PRINT RUN! ALA Over the Rainbow Title: Burnings by Ocean Vuong
$10.80 — Sold out
Image of To the One Who Raped Me by Dustin Brookshire Image of To the One Who Raped Me by Dustin Brookshire
To the One Who Raped Me by Dustin Brookshire
$10.80
Image of Close by Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal: an SRP Digital Chapbook (eBook)
Close by Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal: an SRP Digital Chapbook (eBook)
$1.00
Image of Fag Hag - A Scandalous Chapbook of Fabulously-Codependent Poetry
Fag Hag - A Scandalous Chapbook of Fabulously-Codependent Poetry
$10.80
You might also like