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by Jennifer L. Knox (Author)
The poems in Jennifer L. Knox's darkly imaginative collection, Crushing It, unearth epiphanies in an unbounded landscape of forms, voices and subjects--from history to true crime to epidemiology--while exploring our tenuous connections and disconnections. From Merle Haggard lifting his head from a pile of cocaine to absurdist romps through an apocalypse where mushrooms learn to sing, this versatile collection is brimming with dark humor and bright surprise. Alongside Knox's distinctive surrealism, Crushing It also reveals autobiography in poems about love, family, and adult ADHD, and Knox's empathetic depictions of the ego's need to assert its precious, singular "I" suggest that a self distinct from the hive, the herd, the flock, is an illusion. With clear-eyed spirit, Crushing It swallows all the world, and then some.
Author Biography
Jennifer L. Knox is a celebrated poet and writer whose work is known for its dark and imaginative humor. The author of four previous books of poetry, including Days of Shame & Failure (2015), Knox's poems have appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, Granta, McSweeney's, and four times in The Best American Poetry series. Her non-fiction writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Knox has been honored with three Milwaukee Poetry Slam champion titles and an Iowa Arts Council Fellowship for her crowdsourced poetry project, Iowa Bird of Mouth. An avid mushroom hunter, cook, and parrot enthusiast, Jennifer lives in central Iowa, where teaches at Iowa State University and in a series of private poetry writing classes online. She and her husband are proprietors of an artisanal spice blend company called Saltlickers.
