Before the City [Paperback]

Kirby Wright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 8, 2003

These poems fuse surrealism, lyricism, and human commentary to create a Brueghalesque landscape.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Wright's talent for seeing and naming the essence of a place is a talent born in Hawaii, in aloha aina, the love of the land in which a person has roots and hopes. --Maui Weekly

I recognize Kirby Wright as one of my own people, the citizens of the Pacific Rim. His heart is in Hawaii and California, aina and querencia. --Maxine Hong Kingston

Kirby Wright's poetry has always driven to the heart of the land and its people. --Rudolfo Anaya

About the Author

Kirby Wright was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a graduate of Punahou School in Honolulu and the University of California at San Diego. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, where he studied under poet and author Frances Mayes. Kirby was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and is a past recipient of the Ann Fields Poetry Prize, the Academy of American Poets Award, the Browning Society Award for Dramatic Monologue, and Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellowships in Poetry and The Novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 101 pages
• Publisher: Lemon Shark Press; 1st edition (August 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974106704
• ISBN-13: 978-0974106700
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,568,498 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kirby Wright was born and raised in Honolulu. He is a graduate of Punahou School. He was an Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellow and holds degrees from University of California at San Diego and San Francisco State University. Wright is the author of the companion novels PUNAHOU BLUES and MOLOKA'I NUI AHINA, both set in Hawaii. He won a Visiting Writer Fellowship in Hong Kong and represented Hawaii at the 2009 International Writers Conference, where he lectured and gave recitals with poet Gary Snyder and 7 Pacific Rim colleagues, including Korean novelist Young-ha Kim and Chinese writer Bi Feiyu, who wrote the screenplay for the movie SHANGHAI TRIAD.

Wright was a Resident at the 2010 Martha's Vineyard Writers Colony in Edgartown, Mass. He is currently the 2011 Artist in Residence at Milkwood International, Czech Republic.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keiki O Ka Aina, October 7, 2003

By 

Puanani Naki (Nanakuli, Hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Before the City (Paperback)

I was there at Iolani Palace in '93 when Wright was handing out copies of "Aloha, Lili'uokani," a broadside framed with Hawaiian petroglyphs. The persistent blues feel of that poem reminded me of IZ's "Hawaii '78," and I think if IZ was still alive today he would put music to the words. That poem is in this collection and there are 9 other poems set on Oahu and Moloka'i. I would totally recommend buying this nani book if you are from the islands or an ex-pat living on the mainland. A hui hou!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Blood Meaning, July 5, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Before the City (Paperback)

It's nice to read a book of "original" poetry--poetry that has sense of reaching for the deep, blood meaning. BEFORE THE CITY has a lot of substance, expressed in creative, heartfelt observation. At once sarcastic, then ironic, maudlin, angry, hopeless; ultimately hopeful--it's all there, like a painting that provides the eyes with a multitude of lines, colors, shapes, and dimensions. Many beautiful lines reminding of me the surrealism in reality. No one poem overwhelmed me, but all as a group impressed upon me a strong ability to see, to hold onto the feeling and "milk it dry." Very few poets should keep using up precious trees to implant their words-- but Kirby Wright should keep doing it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars As much about the rest of the US as about Hawaii, June 30, 2004

By 

Gerard Jones (Ashland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Before the City (Paperback)

I lived in Hawaii for a year; Kirby Wright lived there a lot longer than that. Hawaii's a different country, a more innocent land, a different "state" than the rest of the US. It infects you, that state does, and when you're infected by Hawaii and find yourself in Northern California, and Southern California, and Sunnyvale, and New Jersey you look at those places differently than if you were from just another part of the country. Or Kirby Wright does. He can't help it. There are more poems set in California in this book than there are poems set in Hawaii, but what we get to see when we read it is what the rest of us look like to a guy with this thing they call Aloha in his heart. It's a cool thing to have in your heart. I never quite got it but I recognize it when I see it. "Love in the Library," that's my favorite. It could have happened anywhere. As could many of the other pieces...well, except for the ones that happened in Hawaii. For those you pretty much have to have been there, or you have to be Kirby Wright. Thanks. G.