Brawling, street-wise prose poems push the boundaries of narrative form, taking the reader through the physical and psychological landscapes of East Los Angeles.
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More About the Author
Sesshu Foster has taught composition and literature in East L.A. for 20 years. He's also taught writing at the University of Iowa, the California Institute for the Arts, the University of California, Santa Cruz and Naropa University's Summer Writing Program. His work has been published in The Oxford Anthology of Modern American Poetry, Language for a New Century: Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond, and State of the Union: 50 Political Poems. One of his last readings at St. Mark's Poetry Project NYC is Mp3 archived at www.salon.com and local readings are archived at www.sicklyseason.com. He is currently collaborating with artist Arturo Romo and other writers on the website, www.ELAguide.org. His most recent books are the novel Atomik Aztex and World Ball Notebook. Atomik Aztex won a 2006 Believer Magazine Annual Book Prize and World Ball Notebook won the 2009 Asian American Writers Workshop Poetry Prize. His blog, with links to Mp3 files, photos and video is www.atomikaztex.wordpress.com.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poetry for our day - Foster is a dazzling talent,
By A Customer
This review is from: City Terrace Field Manual (Paperback)
It doesn't matter if you've never seen a barrio, if you've never set foot in the inner city, if you feel you can't relate to the frustrations and failures of povery-level existence in East L.A. This book isn't a tract or a sociological study. It's about the stories we tell ourselves, that we tell about people we know and used to know, related in language as harsh as life, and as lovely. How does Foster manage to keep his eye trained so unblinkingly on the ruin around him, the damage and debris, the lives wasted and the buildings razed, and yet write with such grace, and yearning? Plenty of the poems are angry, plenty of them rant against a system skewed against the poor working person, the lone man exhausted after a day at work trying to get his broken down car to a community meeting in the rain, the vet unable to make his way back into the world, even 20 years later. But even in these there is the surprise of a line veering into reverie, or leaping into joke, an image that tastes of pleasure. This is Foster's love song to City Terrace; he is a lover with his eyes wide open, aware of all his loved one's shortcomings and fatal flaws, adoring of its smallest charms. The freshness of Foster's language is a revelation, and a gift. And the book itself, the physical item, is gorgeous, worthy of the genius inside. In this info-glutted world, this is the kind of book we need, that cuts through to the red-hot core of who we are. It deserves to be read.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Edgy, Funny, Substantial,
By wonderama (L.A.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: City Terrace Field Manual (Paperback)
The thing I liked about this book was how the words and images reflect the chaotic, blurry landscape of what it's like to live in L.A. It's not just black & white here, and Foster, who is a mixed-race Asian/Caucasian who grew up in East L.A., shows that complexity through a sharp sense of language and imagery, without sentimentality or preachiness. This is some of the best prose/poetry coming out of LA.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fresh perspective,sharp insight,
By Marquita Momcat (Running Springs, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: City Terrace Field Manual (Paperback)
Sesshu Foster manages to strip away the conventions of most modern poetry. With the sparest prose, he achieves a work of balance and beauty, while describing a true time and a place of grit, violence and confusion. Sesshu Foster has made the sublime lucid and the ineffable experierience clear. An outstanding choice
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