Queen for a Day: Selected And New Poems (Pitt Poetry Series) [Paperback]

Denise Duhamel (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pitt Poetry Series | Publication Date: February 22, 2001

"Somewhere between Sex and the City, Sharon Olds and Spalding Grey lies the poetry of Denise Duhamel, who in six volumes during the 1990s (all from small independent or small university presses) established herself as a vivacious, sarcastic, uninhibited and sometimes sex-obsessed observer of contemporary culture. Long fascinated by downtown New York, Duhamel got poetic mileage from her once-rough neighborhoods. Now she lives and teaches in Miami: this new-and-selected sums up her NYC years . . . Its humor, anger and forceful personality could make the book a genuine popular hit." --Publishers Weekly"Duhamel is an entertainer, as her new, retrospective collection confirms. . . . Throughout the book, each poem is utterly engaging, as hard to abandon as a chapter in a taut thriller." --BooklistCelebrates ideas and topics that aren't often the subect of bards and poets. Her playful, inventive way of string together ideas is evident. . . . Despite the frolicsome nature of much of her work, Duhamel writes incisively about serious themes and issues. The clash between high and low art never seems abraisive in Duhamel's work." --Pittsburgh Tribune- Review"Duhamel writes about Garcia-Lorca's Deli, Georgia O'Keefe's pelvis, a Barbie Doll in a Twelve-Step Program, Barbie as a Bisexual, Barbie's GYN appointment, and the difference between Pepsi and the Pope. . . . If you like knee-slapping, quasi-existential poetry, go out and pick up a Queen for a Day." --RALPH: The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy, and the Humanities"Engagingly charts her evolution as a fictionist-from ribald, bemused poems about body parts and coming of age dramas to increasingly sophisticated mock-narratives. Her work is tremendous fun, but often there's an underpinning of sadness in it as well, which keeps the poems from being mere play. You'll want to read parts of this book aloud to your smart friends. Or to give it as a gift." --Stephen Dunn"Denise Duhamel is a red-headed, red-lipped wild woman, a human and humane poet who isn't afraid to tackle any subject: violence, racism, A.I.D.S., bulimia, childishness, the myth of Bluebeard, the phenomenon of Barbie. It's been a singular joy to read this "selected" and see Duhamel's work grow and develop over the years. Queen for a Day is exuberant, brazen, bold, honest as hell, audaciously unpretentious and outrageously self-referential, a Frank O'Hara meets Lucille Ball meets Sandra Bernhard of a book: sin verguenza!" --Dorianne LauxDenise Duhamel's Queen for a Day includes poems from her five previous full-length books (The Star-Spangled Banner, Kinky, Girl Soldier, The Woman with Two Vaginas, and Smile!) as well as her chapbook, How the Sky Fell. Her poems have been anthologized widely, including four editions of The Best American Poetry. Her work has been featured on NPR's "All Things Considered," MPR's "The Writers' Almanac," and PBS's "Fooling with Words." She has collaborated with the poet Maureen Seaton in two volumes: Oyl and Exquisite Politics. Duhamel is assistant professor at Florida International University in Miami.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Somewhere between Sex and the City, Sharon Olds and Spalding Gray lies the poetry of Denise Duhamel, who in six volumes during the 1990s (all from small independent or small university presses) established herself as a vivacious, sarcastic, uninhibited and sometimes sex-obsessed observer of contemporary culture. Long fascinated by downtown New York, Duhamel got poetic mileage from her once-rough neighborhoods. Now she lives and teaches in Miami: this new-and-selected sums up her NYC years. The weakest poems come first. "Sometimes the First Boys Don't Count" could be Olds exactly ("I swallowed like a brave girl taking her medicine"); "Bulimia" predictably evokes "the palate hidden and secret as a clitoris." Later Duhamel found ways to write about sex and sexual politics without being bound to confessional realism. The Woman with Two Vaginas from 1995 claimed to translate Inuit tales: "He-Whose-Penis-Never-Slept," the title poem, and others found mythological parallels for dilemmas women still face. Kinky (1997), a series of poems about Barbie, played on the doll's status as ironic ideal: when "Barbie Joins a Twelve Step Program," having "been kidnapped by boys/ and tortured with pins," she realizes her "God must be Mattel." Duhamel's most recent work finds two new subjects: her husband's Filipino culture and language, and her position in the poetry world: "I was suddenly angry at my dad for not being Ashbery." (Apr.)Forecast: With its self-conscious ease, its nervous in-jokes and its general lack of formal interest, Duhamel's work will be held up as a model by few highbrow critics. On the other hand, its humor, anger and forceful personality could make the book a genuine popular hit.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Duhamel is an entertainer, as her new, retrospective collection confirms. Her earliest poems are the most serious in tone, portraying such matters of sex and self-respect as fat thighs and bulimia with compassionate understanding. Her versions of sexually charged Inuit myths and famous fairy tales are lighter, though thoughtfully bemused rather than comic. Humor really enters her work in a series about the Barbie doll, which she treats as a toy made of plastic yet possessed of consciousness and conscience. In her most recent work, her poet friends and poet husband figure prominently, and her sexual-political concerns merge vitally with her everyday life. Throughout the book, each poem is utterly engaging, as hard to abandon as a chapter in a taut thriller. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press; 1 edition (February 22, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822957620
• ISBN-13: 978-0822957621
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #93,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Definitely a Woman, April 19, 2002

By 

Stefanie Furniss (Tallahassee, Fl.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Queen for a Day: Selected And New Poems (Pitt Poetry Series) (Paperback)

Denise Duhamel is very much so a woman. Her poems deal with modern day issues of women today, and still have the sound and rhythym that is appealing to the mind. In one collection you can take a trip down memory lane and think back on the nights where you would stay up watching television like "Nick at Nite" or the day you felt beautiful for the first time and felt like you could be completely exposed in front of someone like in "For the One Man Who Likes My Thighs". Women can relate to the pressures of being beautiful and somewhat psychotic efforts we take to get there. She's real.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's delicious it's delovely it's Denise Duhamel, March 26, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Queen for a Day: Selected And New Poems (Pitt Poetry Series) (Paperback)

Denise Duhamel's poems amuse the muse. She can make you laugh; she can astound you with the turns her mind takes. She knows the difference between day and night, between Pepsi and Coke, and between Pepsi and Pope. In David Lehman's words, "With her cunning ingenuity she can talk on almost any subject, and this conversational ease as much as her celebration of culture and her good humor and deadpan funniness make her an excellent example of New York School poetics."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nick at Nite?, April 18, 2002

By 

Esteban Ventura (Tallahassee, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Queen for a Day: Selected And New Poems (Pitt Poetry Series) (Paperback)

Upon reading her poem Nick at Nite, you will understand just why I like Ms. Duhamel's work. It's crass, frank, funny, and altogether moving. The only question I would pose her if I did have the chance is whether her play on the words Nick at Nite was intentional or not. Either way if you enjoy witty poems with a bit of sentimentality to it this book is for you.