
This book is testament to what a palimpsest the imagination is, if only we would allow one layer to be scratched away until the next shines through, then the next and the next until we see we are not at all alone, especially not in the mind. Laura A. Ring excavates the imagination—brilliantly and gently, as if a fragment of thought could be harmed if mishandled—and unearths the contingencies upon which insight relies. From such a slim volume can our sense of the imagination be made new? Astonished, I think so.
—Katie Ford, author of Blood Lyrics and If You Have to Go
Such artistry, such invention in Laura Ring’s marvelous Field Notes Recovered from the Expedition to Devil’s Peak! From the striking image of “The body / stripped / to wolf-tooth” to the beautiful imperative “Drink the blue of the world,” Ring’s poems are spare and potent. This sequence of field notes based on a fictitious expedition, in which “Harriet Callas, archaeologist and alpinist, sets off in search of the fabled burial hoards of Inyaarluin,” is a ceremonious study in blurring the distinctions between synthetic and authentic. The book’s framework shifts between fabricated found fragments and footnotes, operating in the vein of literary hoaxes and found text, but layering, and commenting on those in ways that accentuate the inventiveness of language and meaning-making. Examining issues related to ecology, evidentiality, artificiality, the funereal, and the archival, all while underscoring Picasso’s famous maxim that “art is a lie that makes us realize truth,” Ring crafts a majestic meta-manuscript.
—Simone Muench, author of Orange Crush and Wolf Centos
Pre-Order Field Notes Recovered from the Expedition to Devil’s Peak today using the PayPal link below — orders will ship mid-November 2021.
Both of the Foster-Stahl Chapbook Series new releases will debut at a special event at Rozz-Tox in Rock Island, IL on Thursday, November 11 — more details coming soon!
Contact us regarding bulk orders for discounts for book discussion groups, classrooms, etc.: 309-732-7330
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