lucky wreck (Autumn House Poetry) [Paperback]

Ada Limon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2006

The winner of the 2005 Autumn House Poetry Prize, selected by Jean Valentine.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the first lines of lucky wreck, I was drawn in by this smart, jaunty, musing, quirky voice... --Jean Valentine

Ada s new book has a smart clip of anger to some of the poems, edgy parameters of disappointment to others, lots of personal relationship narratives, conflicts and emotional realizations; decisions, choices, changes, hopes and sadness, a type of survival poetry searching the world, getting into a deeper knowledge of people, and as the searchlight strobes out from the lighthouse through the fog and mist to lost travelers and explorers, structure changes toward an inventive orthodoxy of the heart s stormy reign...bravo... --Jimmy Santiago Baca

Product Details

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: Autumn House Press (January 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932870083
• ISBN-13: 978-1932870084
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,219,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ADA LIMÓN grew up in Glen Ellen and Sonoma, California. A graduate of New York University's MFA Creative Writing Program, she has received fellowships from the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and won the Chicago Literary Award for Poetry. She is the author of three books of poetry, Lucky Wreck (Autumn House Press, 2006), This Big Fake World (Pearl Editions, 2007), and Sharks in the Rivers (Milkweed Editions, 2010). She is currently at work on a novel, a book of essays, and a new collection of poems.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucky us--this what poetry is all about, March 27, 2006

By 

Taypee (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: lucky wreck (Autumn House Poetry) (Paperback)

With much contemporary poetry moving towards obtuse language and cool emotional distance, we are lucky indeed to find LUCKY WRECK. In this book, Ada Limón reminds us of the first time we fell in love a poem, and why--as her poems speak directly to us, with nothing in the way, while exploring subjects worth caring about: love, loss, death, joy, family, the self, the soul, and the world--all the big ticket stuff. These poems are deeply generous and moving in the way they risk honesty and extend themselves to the reader. While the poems often start in a personal place, she inevitably propels them, and us, into a universal truth through humor and voracious attention to beauty. She shuns sentimentality, yet conveys an infinite tenderness for our species, and others, in all their glorious absurdity. From the greatest to the least, there is no subject in which she does not discover some surprising worth--from ladybugs to sunken ships to feral cats--nothing's too big or too small to show us what it means to be alive, and in the world.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surveying the Wreckage, July 19, 2008

By 

Kayla B. Gatalica "kgatalica" (California, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: lucky wreck (Autumn House Poetry) (Paperback)

Fearlessly written in a voice that sparks curiosity and leads readers down the path of metaphoric discovery, this book is unique and energetic. The poems within are edgy and original. This is truly a daring, one-of-a-kind effort, angry at times, yet exhibiting almost childlike innocence and inquiry at others. There is something strangely familiar, and almost scarily honest, in this.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing, January 9, 2007

By 

Robert P. Gummerson "paying attention" (Santa Rosa, CA.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: lucky wreck (Autumn House Poetry) (Paperback)

Wow. In the first eighteen pages she took me from laughing out loud to having tears roll down my face. Bravo Ada!