Blind Date With Cavafy [Paperback]

Steve Fellner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2007

Steve Fellner's debut book of poems, Blind Date with Cavafy, was the winner of the 2006 Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize. It was selected by Denise Duhamel. In selecting this book for the prize, Duhamel wrote, Blind Date with Cavafy serves up hilarious pathos and devastating humor. Bleak, deadpan, enthusiastic, earnest: Steve Fellner's book is all of these things, something all of things in one poem, sometimes all of these things in one line.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The poems in Blind Date with Cavafy shimmer with vulnerability, leaps, and dizzying riffs. --Denise Duhamel

Blind Date with Cavafy is fine writing at its best; I'll be looking into my copy again and again. --David Kirby

Steve Fellner's poems, fashioned out of an edgy wit, will break your heart. --Timothy Liu

About the Author

Steve Fellner was born and raised in Chicago, and is currently an Assistant Professor of English at SUNY Brockport. His poems and essays have appeared in Doubletake, North American Review, Northwest Review, Mid-American Review, Western Humanities Review, among others. Blind Date with Cavafy is his first book of poems and was chosen by Denise Duhamel as the winner of the 2006 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize. He has completed a memoir entitled Where I Went Wrong. He can be reached at [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Marsh Hawk Press (March 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 097855552X
• ISBN-13: 978-0978555528
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,132,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keenly observed, beautifully drawn, March 31, 2007

By 

Cantling (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blind Date With Cavafy (Paperback)

Steve Fellner's debut collection eschews self-regarding eloquence in favor of direct, funny, and cunningly crafted verse. His eye takes in everything from 19th-century acrobats and the legendary Tomb of Eve to modern call centers and the adopted child's uneasy search for Mother. Blind Date with Cavafy makes you pay closer attention to those half-overheard conversations in midnight diners. It shows you the commonplace in the exotic, the fantastic in the mundane.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 20/20, April 1, 2007

By 

Reader (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blind Date With Cavafy (Paperback)

"We become our own gods without even knowing it." Fellner writes in his poem The Concept of an External Soul and whether those gods are the gods of his God in the Box poem or locked in a safe with Knowledge: a blue-eyed dwarf, the mind of these poems is ingenious and unpredictable enough to seduce a reader into following. A mother and a son get drunk on imaginary wine "never wanting to forget the taste of nothing," we condescend to science fiction writers allowing them to believe that we too, believe that earth and the planets "and all the other galaxies in the Universe are a popcorn trail, leading us to the heart of God." These poems reach into history, out to gods, up to God, down to earth, through time and space to date Cavafy, to chastise Catallus, to "Consider the Fates" plus Eve, Miss Lala, Joice Heth and their speaker, in the brilliant, strange and wholly unforgettable Self-Portrait. But they never seem to be reaching beyond their grasp. For the authentic, direct voice,agility,and the circus of the best kind of strangeness, you should go out with these poems. This is one blind date you'll thank your friends for.