Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes [Paperback]

Linda D. Addison (Author), Gordon Linzner (Editor), Marge Simon (Illustrator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0917053133 | ISBN-13: 978-0917053139 | Publication Date: July 1, 2001 | Edition: 1st

This collection of poetry received the HWA Bram Stoker award and includes interior illustrations by Marge Simon, full color cover by Colleen Crary, and an introduction by Charlee Jacob

Consumed, Reduced To Beautiful Grey Ashes captures the path between things gone bad and transformation. This volume includes both original pieces and reprints from such sources as Edgar: Digested Verse, Dark Regions, and Pirate Writings.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Linda brings a tight focus to small, intimate details which in turn illuminate and echo larger concerns. What I like about her work is that it reads like the observations you might get from a friend, albeit a friend with a gift of language and insight, who's been let into a few more secrets about what's out there in the world than the rest of us have experienced. --Charles De Lint, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science-fiction

This collection [Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes] reads like a string of pearls, with images that recur in poem after poem, reminding us of theme in the most subtle manner. The message penetrates and lingers long after the final poem has been consumed. --Jacquline Jones LaMon, AALBC.com & African Voices

These are poems with roots sunk deep into the darkness and light of the human spirit. With studied control and subtle perception, Linda's poems are luminous wet, whole 'shiny things' that blaze long after the pages are turned. --Sheree Renée Thomas, Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction

About the Author

Linda Addison is the first African-American to receive the Bram Stoker award. She has published poetry, stories and non-fiction in Asimov s SF Magazine, The Urbanite, and Sheree Thomas Dark Matter, A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, published by Warner Books. This is her second collection.

Twice, At Once, Separated her story in Dark Matter, is on the Honorable Mention list in Gardner Dozois The Year's Best Science Fiction (2000).

Product Details

• Paperback: 56 pages
• Publisher: Space and Time; 1st edition (July 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0917053133
• ISBN-13: 978-0917053139
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 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: #4,392,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Life, Death and the Love Between, March 3, 2008

By 

Joey D. Pinkney "JoeyPinkney.com" (Garner, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes (Paperback)

Although only 31 poems, "Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes" takes the reader in a million different directions as author Linda Addison ponders life, death and the love between. While some of the poems in this book are disturbing, like "Mourning Meal", others are so personal that the reader may find themselves feeling like they are looking into a mirror more so than reading the words of another.

"Consumed..." has a dark energy, not to be confused with being evil nor depression. Darkness in the sense of being the opposite of ignorant bliss. For example, there are poems of love that are not lighthearted in nature.

Linda Addison composes these poems in a way that explores the depth of emotions that can be conjured when you give yourself up in totality to another person. "Before You" is such a poem. The relinquishing of the subject's independence is what we all experience on some level when we enter deeply into a relationship.

There are other poems in "Consumed..." that exposes the curiosity of the writer. Poems like "A Bare Tree in February", "Turning Edges" and "Breathe" ponder the origin of human existence in a way that only Linda Addison can render.

"Consumed..." is a personal collection of poetry that is timeless in its approach to be an offering of one's soul. The level of introspective creativity will call the reader to come back to the poems in this book time and again.

Joey Pinkney
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5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful, moving collection, November 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes (Paperback)

This wonderful poetry collection is broken down into three sections: Things Gone Bad, In Between and Transformation. It's an emotional reading experience, and an important work by one of her generation's greatest poets.