Dick of the Dead (New) [Paperback]

Rachel Loden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2009 | Series: New

Dick of the Dead is an investigation into American sexual and political consciousness, and at its eccentric heart lies the undead and uneasy 37th president of the United States, Richard M. Nixon. Also sifting the evidence (or implicated in its findings) are an experimental subject in a pink tutu, a Finnish gravedigger, an exiled Anglo-Saxon poet, and an industrious gang of fairies. Loden's Nixon is never merely the consummate villain deplored by his critics nor the tragic visionary statesman acclaimed by his apologists. He is nearly a force of nature: throwing off his gravestone in the garden at Yorba Linda, calling up his troops, his family, and even his black and white cocker spaniel, he is ready to smash death by any means necessary, to beat back a sea of pretenders and retake Washington by storm. Dick of the Dead is a trip through the underworld of the American psyche, much funnier and ultimately much more serious than any one book of poems has a right to be.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Rachel Loden's intelligently obsessive, darkly witty poems are a ''serious pleasure.'' Politics and popular culture have no defense against her penetrating gaze, and yield their sad truths, their falseness, as if she possesses X-ray vision. I trust Loden's take on our convoluted world, the glut of it: worthy of keen attention, however corrupt. Potent solace, poetry of her caliber. --David Trinidad

Few books of poetry have so perfectly rendered the suffering and emotional impoverishment this nation has endured since the presidency of Richard Nixon. Like no other poet now living, Rachel Loden articulates the twisted cultural imaginary and horror that arises from decades of sustained mass cultural delusion. She is Walter Benjamin's Angel of History falling backward through televisions, across press room podiums, and into, one hopes, the canon -- where she belongs. She is without doubt one of the greatest poets writing today. --Gabriel Gudding

About the Author

Rachel Loden is the author of Hotel Imperium, which won the Contemporary Poetry Series Competition of the University of Georgia Press and was named one of the ten best poetry books of the year by The San Francisco Chronicle. She has also published four chapbooks, including The Last Campaign and The Richard Nixon Snow Globe. Her work has appeared in New American Writing, Denver Quarterly, Jacket, The Paris Review and elsewhere, and in the anthologies Best American Poetry 2005 and Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry, among others.

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Ahsahta Press (May 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934103071
• ISBN-13: 978-1934103074
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,605,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rachel Loden's second full-length book Dick of the Dead was published by Ahsahta Press in May 2009. She is also the author of Hotel Imperium, which won the Contemporary Poetry Series Competition of the University of Georgia Press. It was named one of the ten best poetry books of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, which called it "quirky and beguiling," and was shortlisted for the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award. Loden has also published four chapbooks, including The Last Campaign (which won the Hudson Valley Writers' Center chapbook competition) and The Richard Nixon Snow Globe (Wild Honey Press). Her work has appeared in New American Writing, The Paris Review, two editions of the Best American Poetry series, Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry, and many other magazines and anthologies. Loden's microplay, "A Quaker Meeting in Yorba Linda," was performed in New York as part of Plays on Words: A Poets Theater Festival curated by Tony Torn, Lee Ann Brown and Corina Copp. Awards include a Pushcart Prize, a Fellowship in Poetry from the California Arts Council, and a grant from the Fund for Poetry.