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by Anthony Cappo (Author)
When You're Deep in a Thing reimagines the coming of age book and the masculine tropes of the bildungsroman, suggesting that adulthood never vanquishes the kids we were. When Cappo's speaker returns home for holidays, "memories / of hangdog childhood seep in / like methane." Despite temporal distance, he perpetually finds himself in the museum of paternal absence, the house his father left, where "ghosts whisper" and "frames / fade to shame." From this possessed site, the collection bravely asks, how does one make sense of boyhood? Become a man without guidance? As the certainties of a religious upbringing vanish, the physical and spiritual boundaries of the world threaten to disintegrate. From depression, to political violence, to the certainty of death, Cappo's exigent debut ventures to discover an intimate humanity against all odds. At these poems' horizons, a tenacity remains, a determination to find sweetness, candor, and connection in this troubled world, where "the air's still, // The ground a trembling silence," yet "scathed we set out again."
Author Biography
Anthony Cappo is the author of the poetry chapbook, My Bedside Radio. His poems and other writings have appeared in Thrush Poetry Journal, Prelude, The Rumpus, Yes Poetry, and other publications. Anthony received his M.F.A. in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College. He grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and now lives in New York City. His work can be found at anthonycappo.com.
