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Killing Orpheus
Brief Description
An ambitious collection of poems that reckon with life and death through the point of view of famous speakers throughout history and literature, spanning from Penelope to Frankenstein's monster. A book that holds death in one hand and wonder in the other, Killing Orpheus explores the...
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Killing Orpheus
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Description
An ambitious collection of poems that reckon with life and death through the point of view of famous speakers throughout history and literature, spanning from Penelope to Frankenstein's monster.
A book that holds death in one hand and wonder in the other, Killing Orpheus explores the horror of mortality, the brutality of history, and the gentle miracles of love. Using received forms, especially the sonnet, this collection cycles through various speakers, including an aging Penelope, Frankenstein's monster, Isaac beneath Abraham's blade, and an elephant in Hannibal's army.
Here are sprays of flowers and hungry alligators, lethal snakes, and a baby's first breath. Here are poems that reckon with death, but for the sake of life. Here is a poetic consciousness that shows us we must dare to make "a truce with loss" in order to go "spinning into love's bizarre abyss."
Series: Carnegie Mellon University Press Poetry Series
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780887487255
Publisher: Carnegie-Mellon University Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 19 February 2026
Country: United States
Imprint: Carnegie-Mellon University Press
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 8.0mm
Width: 140.0mm
Height: 216.0mm
Weight: 172g
Pages: 88
About the Author
Forester McClatchey is a poet and critic from Atlanta, Georgia. He received his MFA from the University of Florida, and his work appears in 32 Poems, The Hopkins Review, Literary Matters, Subtropics, and Gulf Coast, among others. He teaches at Atlanta Classical Academy.
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