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Reviews
Heather Nagami’s
first book of poetry, Hostile, is written as though literature,
and perhaps language, must begin again.
It finds its way as it goes, as it finds out what poetry can be.
That it does so with grace, power, and amazing courage, is obvious
with every word encountered, every step around the parameters
of what is possible.
— Charles Alexander
Hardly ever has found language, appropriated
discourse, sounded more closely attuned to what Ms. Niedecker
once referred to as the “condensery” of poetry —
not Reznikoff’s Testimony, nor the early novels of Kathy
Acker. Nagami is listening for all the elements in the language.
What strikes me as a reader is the degree to which these texts
remain true to their source materials while demonstrating a total
commitment to the traditional effects of poetry — concision,
a foregrounding of the formal elements of poetry, even a goofball
elegance that has much to do with the New York School’s commitment
to wit. What a great project!
— Ron Silliman
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Heather Nagami's
poems have appeared in Antennae, Rattle, and Xcp (Cross-Cultural
Poetics). Heather received a B.A. in Literature/Creative Writing
at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an M.F.A. at University
of Arizona, where she also taught poetry and edited Sonora Review.
With her husband, Bryan, she runs overhere Press, a small press that
publishes hand-bound chapbooks with an emphasis on poets of color and
other underrepresented peoples. She teaches college writing at Northeastern
University in Boston.
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