{"product_id":"philomath-by-devon-walker-figueroa-9781571315229","title":"Philomath","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the 2022 Levis Reading Prize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle's 2021 John Leonard Prize for Best First Book\u003cbr\u003e\"Top Ten Pick\" for Fall 2021 Poetry Titles\u003cbr\u003e\"Poetry Title to Watch\" for 2021\u003cbr\u003e\"Must-Read Book of September 2021\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSelected by Sally Keith as a winner of the 2020 National Poetry Series, this debut collection is a ruminative catalogue of overgrowth and the places that haunt us.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith Devon Walker-Figueroa as our Virgil, we begin in the collection's eponymous town of \u003cem\u003ePhilomath\u003c\/em\u003e, Oregon. We drift through the general store, into the Nazarene Church, past people plucking at the brambles of a place that won't let them go. We move beyond the town into fields and farmland—and further still, along highways, into a cursed Californian town, a museum in Florence. We wander with a kind of animal logic, like a beast with \"a mind to get loose \/ from a valley fallowing \/ towards foul,\" through the tense, overlapping space between movement and stillness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAn explorer at the edge of the sublime, Walker-Figueroa writes in quiet awe of nature, of memory, and of a beauty that is \"merely existence carrying on and carrying on.\" In her wanderings, she guides readers toward a kind of witness that doesn't flinch from the bleak or bizarre: A vineyard engulfed in flames is reclaimed by the fields. A sow smothers its young, then bears more. A neighbour chews locusts in his yard.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor in \u003cem\u003ePhilomath\u003c\/em\u003e, it is the poet's (sometimes reluctant) obligation \"to keep an eye \/ on what is left\" of the people and places that have impacted us. And there is always something left, whether it is the smell of burnt grapes, a twelfth-century bronze, or even a lock of hair.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47471337341164,"sku":"9781571315229","price":34.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781571315229-philomath.jpg?v=1775240469","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/philomath-by-devon-walker-figueroa-9781571315229","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}