{"title":"David Ebenbach","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"some-unimaginable-animal-1","title":"Some Unimaginable Animal","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003eIn his much-anticipated second poetry collection, David Ebenbach addresses the full scope of the human condition—past, present, and future. Exploring the vast sweep of history, from our ancient evolutionary origins to our future archaeological remains, Ebenbach’s deceptively light-handed poems penetrate to the core of what it means to be human, a brief but exquisite being, full of appetites both healthy and harmful. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDavid Ebenbach\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of the novel \u003cem\u003eMiss Portland\u003c\/em\u003e, selected by Peter Orner for the 2016 Orison Poetry Prize, and three short story collections: \u003cem\u003eThe Guy We Didn’t Invite to the Orgy and Other Stories\u003c\/em\u003e (winner of the Juniper Prize, University of Massachusetts Press), \u003cem\u003eBetween Camelots\u003c\/em\u003e (winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, University of Pittsburgh Press), and \u003cem\u003eInto the Wilderness\u003c\/em\u003e (Winner of the Washington Writers Publishing House Fiction Prize, WWPH). He is also the author of a full-length collection of poetry, \u003cem\u003eWe Were the People Who Moved\u003c\/em\u003e (Winner of the Patricia Bibby Prize, Tebot Bach) and a guide to the creative process called \u003cem\u003eThe Artist’s Torah\u003c\/em\u003e (Cascade Books). Ebenbach holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MFA in Writing from Vermont College. He teaches creative writing at Georgetown University.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003e“Ebenbach is a seeker and seer, steeped in Jewish tradition and, like Walt Whitman, a poet who so loves the world, with its griefs, mysteries, and joys, that he teaches us to love the world with him.” – \u003cstrong\u003eJesse Lee Kercheval\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003e“Sometimes wisdom is offered with a light touch, with a wink and a nod. Sometimes the poem that charms us is the poem that disarms us, not because we are persuaded that we no longer need to be on constant guard against the threats of the world, but rather because our sense of wonder is restored to us, wonder that is wide enough to hold the pleasure and pain of the world. […] Cling to this book. It will add life to your life.” – \u003cstrong\u003eRichard Chess\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: small;\"\u003e“These are poems that rejoice in all that is creaturely and make sharp fun at our brief place on earth. And if we are ever tempted to get whiney and world-weary, these wise and important poems remind us in the most generous way that ‘the snow \/ follows us just to say, get over yourselves, \/ we all have our problems.’” – \u003cstrong\u003eVictoria Redel\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Orison Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41321638527126,"sku":"9781949039238","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/products\/img_proxy_6dcbf761-af4d-415b-a3d3-c826b454b68b.jpg?v=1642160461"},{"product_id":"whats-left-to-us-by-evening","title":"What's Left to Us by Evening","description":"\u003cp\u003eHow does one live in a world that is both beautiful and broken—a world of cherry blossoms and gun violence, fellowship and political enmity, plague and rebirth? \u003cem\u003eWhat's Left to Us by Evening\u003c\/em\u003e, David Ebenbach's unsparing and timely new poetry collection, examines the obligation—and privilege—of carrying all these things. The wide-ranging influences on the poems in Ebenbach's third collection include Judaism, the Asian poetic tradition, the natural and built environments, and current events.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDavid Ebenbach\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of numerous books of fiction (\u003cem\u003eHow to Mars, Miss Portland, The Guy We Didn't Invite to the Orgy, Into the Wilderness, Between Camelots\u003c\/em\u003e), poetry (\u003cem\u003eSome Unimaginable Animal, We Were the People Who Moved\u003c\/em\u003e), and essays (\u003cem\u003eThe Artist's Torah\u003c\/em\u003e). He lives very happily with his family in Washington, DC, where he teaches creative writing at Georgetown University.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"There’s something reassuring about the way David Ebenbach writes about even the most troubling issues of our time. His poems, often deceptively gentle, offer a kind of tender good humor born of long-suffering patience.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003eRon Charles, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"'The world is on its way to you' writes David Ebenbach, and the world in these pages is one made of equal parts grit and tenderness. It's a world of work, violence, politics, and little apocalypses, but also singing, birdwatching, prayer, and flowers bursting into bloom. At one point, a 'worker lowers \/ his bag of tools \/ through the cherry blossoms'—and this might be an apt metaphor for the perspective of this evocative book: behind the world's tough machinery is an undeniable beauty, and these poems are made by a poet skilled enough to help us see it.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eMatthew Olzmann\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"David Ebenbach's poems in \u003cem\u003eWhat's Left to Us by Evening\u003c\/em\u003e are funny, engaging, kind, generous-spirited, moving, clever, even childlike. It's almost easy to forget he's writing again and again about a world-wide pandemic, a bitterly-contested election, earth-threatening climate change—in short, the apocalypse. In this book, 'our children \/ ask for pie' while the poet carries with him the consciousness of great and irretrievable loss, 'the passport \/ of someone who died.' Ebenbach talks to us in such a way that we can't help but look. He hits all of our world's pressure points in a simple, straightforward, yet wholly imaginative and unforgettable fashion.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eDana Roeser\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"David Ebenbach asks us to look on as 'from the scaffolding \/ the worker lowers \/ his bag of tools \/ through the cherry blossoms.' The blossoms may put one in mind of Imagist poets, but Ebenbach won't settle for mere imagism. He suggests, as Walter Benjamin did, that every monument to civilization is a monument to barbarism. And yet however starkly aware he is of the human world's exploitations and injustices, he won't settle either for facile, fashionable despair. Considering an abandoned subway tunnel, Ebenbach claims that 'we light this expanse of \/ soda bottles and human waste and see the verdant \/ potential,' just as elsewhere he notes 'that joy is not passive, \/ but something \/ you move toward, \/ however awkward.' Precious few current poets move in that direction more deftly or affectingly than Ebenbach.\" -\u003cstrong\u003e Sydney Lea\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Orison Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42034883133590,"sku":"9781949039368","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/products\/9781949039368ita.jpg?v=1660853032"}],"url":"https:\/\/itascabooks.com\/collections\/david-ebenbach.oembed","provider":"Itasca Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}