{"title":"Joseph Fasano","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-crossing","title":"The Crossing","description":"\u003cp\u003eJoseph Fasano's much anticipated fourth book, \u003cem\u003eThe Crossing\u003c\/em\u003e, is his most intimate yet. By turns lamentation and consolation, it confronts grief and gain, always trying, as the Polish poet Adam Zagajewski wrote, \"to praise the mutilated world.\" \"Immensity \/ will only dare to come to you,\" one poem tells us, \"when surrender is ready in your hands.\" Here are poems that know that to have a self is to be both a witness to history and responsible for it. \"History \/ is only the body trying to become \/ a story that will outlast it,\" Fasano writes, and yet these poems also seek the dignity of the individual, a meaningful communion with others in what's common: \"As long as love \/ runs,\" we read, \"it is earthsong; it is wild \/ to be ridden in its irons \/ to another world. Another world. This one.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDorothea Lasky writes, \"This is the poet I trust to see the world as it is, quietly writhing around us, like Kafka and Rilke before him.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJoseph Fasano\u003c\/strong\u003e is a writer and educator. He studied mathematics and astrophysics at Harvard University before changing his course of study and earning a degree in philosophy, with a focus on philosophy of language after Wittgenstein. He did his graduate study in poetry at Columbia University, working with Mark Strand, Lucie Brock-Broido, Richard Howard, and others. Beyond his Professorships, Fasano is passionate about developing inclusive learning communities outside the walls of academic institutions. As an educator, his mission is to help each student synthesize diverse fields of study to develop a unique and informed voice, a depth of attention, and a capacity to break free of reductive mindsets. His \"Poetry Prompts,\" originally designed to help children create, have spread around the world, helping millions of people of all ages find their voices through the craft and magic of poetry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFasano is the author of two novels: \u003cem\u003eThe Swallows of Lunetto\u003c\/em\u003e (Maudlin House, 2022) and \u003cem\u003eThe Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing\u003c\/em\u003e (Platypus Press, 2020), which was named one of the \"20 Best Small Press Books of 2020.\" His books of poetry are \u003cem\u003eThe Last Song of the World\u003c\/em\u003e (forthcoming from BOA Editions, 2024); \u003cem\u003eThe Crossing\u003c\/em\u003e (Cider Press Review, 2018), praised by Ilya Kaminsky for its 'lush drive to live, even in the darkest moments'; \u003cem\u003eVincent \u003c\/em\u003e(Cider Press Review, 2015), which \u003cem\u003eRain Taxi Review\u003c\/em\u003e hailed as a 'major literary achievement'; \u003cem\u003eInheritance\u003c\/em\u003e (Cider Press Review, 2014), a James Laughlin Award nominee; \u003cem\u003eFugue for Other Hands\u003c\/em\u003e (2013) , which won the Cider Press Review Book Award and was nominated for the Poets' Prize, 'awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA winner of the \u003cem\u003eRATTLE Poetry Prize,\u003c\/em\u003e he serves on the Editorial Board of Alice James Books, and he is the Founder of the Poem for You Series. His writing has appeared in \u003cem\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement, The Yale Review, The Southern Review, The Missouri Review, Boston Review, American Poets, Measure, Tin House, American Poetry Journal, The Adroit Journal, American Literary Review, Verse Daily, the PEN Poetry Series, the Academy of American Poets' poem-a-day program\u003c\/em\u003e, and other publications.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Late in Joseph Fasano's new book, \u003cem\u003eThe Crossing\u003c\/em\u003e, are the lines: 'he knows \/ you cannot live in two worlds \/ forever.' In some sense, that is the challenge explored throughout: How does one continue in the face of great loss without denial, or despair, or consoling heavens? Yet, how still to acknowledge a palpable sense of the sacred, the beautiful, and the numinous in a world such as ours? Further, how to accept, if not reconcile, the pull of those two spheres? The first and longest poem, '\u003cem\u003eThe Crossing\u003c\/em\u003e,' poem weaves together images and stories of a marionette's daughter, an alchemist, the narrator's ailing wife, an injured doe, a pianist, a Vietnam War veteran, a roan horse, nightingales, Job, and more.... The poet's narrative wends in and out—braiding, knotting, fraying—each story with its own music, each adding to the overall polyphony. Among repeated avowals of 'I don't know,' the poet concedes: 'What we have is music and its fading. \/ What we have is the hymn in us, and no player.' Offering neither bromides nor answers, it is as if the narrator is trying to ground himself, slow down his mind, clear his thoughts, in order to accept and perhaps witness to the mysterious, plangent complexity of life as he has found it. Again and again, the poet calls on us simply to 'Listen.'\" - \u003cstrong\u003eRalph Hamilton\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"This is the poet I trust to see the world as it is, quietly writhing around us, like Kafka and Rilke before him.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eDorothea Lasky\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Like Wagner and Mahler, preternaturally rich.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eRichard Howard\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"As wild and unpredictable as the best of Lorca.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eLois P. Jones\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Fasano makes pain almost bearable with the beauty of his language, the wild leaps of his metaphors.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eLinda Pastan\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!----\u003e","brand":"Cider Press Review","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48865683996989,"sku":"9781930781535","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/files\/9781930781535ita.jpg?v=1717187921"},{"product_id":"vincent","title":"Vincent","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"This book-length poem, told through the mask of a murderer, demands to be read in one sitting. Indeed, the thing held me spellbound with its quiet mania, its seductive otherworldliness, from start to finish, so much so that I wondered, who would dare refuse the ride, the chance to be driven by a single unrelenting sentence to a lyricism bordering on derangement from which there is no return? Not only is this Joseph Fasano's finest book to date, it's also the best long contemporary poem that I've read since I can't remember when.\"—\u003cstrong\u003eTimothy Liu\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"What does it mean to enter into and imagine the darkest corners of the human psyche? In \u003cem\u003eVincent\u003c\/em\u003e, Joseph Fasano not only puts on the mask of depravity, he imagines the speech acts and interior monologues of a killer, as though that killer had the associative diligence and skill of a poet. The result is an unnerving book that challenges the reader's assumptions about the role of beauty in poetry. Vincent is a chilling, memorable accomplishment.\" — \u003cstrong\u003eMark Wunderlich\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJoseph Fasano\u003c\/strong\u003e is a writer and educator. He studied mathematics and astrophysics at Harvard University before changing his course of study and earning a degree in philosophy, with a focus on philosophy of language after Wittgenstein. He did his graduate study in poetry at Columbia University, working with Mark Strand, Lucie Brock-Broido, Richard Howard, and others. Beyond his Professorships, Fasano is passionate about developing inclusive learning communities outside the walls of academic institutions. As an educator, his mission is to help each student synthesize diverse fields of study to develop a unique and informed voice, a depth of attention, and a capacity to break free of reductive mindsets. His \"Poetry Prompts,\" originally designed to help children create, have spread around the world, helping millions of people of all ages find their voices through the craft and magic of poetry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFasano is the author of two novels: \u003cem\u003eThe Swallows of Lunetto\u003c\/em\u003e (Maudlin House, 2022) and \u003cem\u003eThe Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing\u003c\/em\u003e (Platypus Press, 2020), which was named one of the \"20 Best Small Press Books of 2020.\" His books of poetry are \u003cem\u003eThe Last Song of the World\u003c\/em\u003e (forthcoming from BOA Editions, 2024); \u003cem\u003eThe Crossing\u003c\/em\u003e (Cider Press Review, 2018), praised by Ilya Kaminsky for its 'lush drive to live, even in the darkest moments'; \u003cem\u003eVincent\u003c\/em\u003e (Cider Press Review, 2015), which Rain Taxi Review hailed as a 'major literary achievement'; \u003cem\u003eInheritance\u003c\/em\u003e (Cider Press Review, 2014), a James Laughlin Award nominee; \u003cem\u003eFugue for Other Hands\u003c\/em\u003e (2013) , which won the Cider Press Review Book Award and was nominated for the Poets' Prize, 'awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA winner of the R\u003cem\u003eATTLE Poetry Prize\u003c\/em\u003e, he serves on the Editorial Board of Alice James Books, and he is the Founder of the Poem for You Series. His writing has appeared in \u003cem\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement, The Yale Review, The Southern Review, The Missouri Review, Boston Review, American Poets, Measure, Tin House, American Poetry Journal, The Adroit Journal, American Literary Review, Verse Daily, the PEN Poetry Series, the Academy of American Poets' poem-a-day program\u003c\/em\u003e, and other publications.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Robert Browning meets Randall Jarrell meets Ai in Joseph Fasano's explosive narrative of a man's psychosis.  It is not only excellently crafted, but there is not a moment to lose interest in its urgency as it barrels on to its disastrous end.  Vincent is a must-read.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eNoelle Kocot\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!----\u003e","brand":"Cider Press Review","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48865722597693,"sku":"9781930781177","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/files\/9781930781177ita.jpg?v=1717189614"},{"product_id":"inheritance","title":"Inheritance","description":"\u003cp\u003ePoetry by Joseph Fasano, author of \u003cem\u003eFugue for Other Hands\u003c\/em\u003e. In this second collection, Fason explores poetry in longer, more detailed forms.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Joseph Fasano's stunning second collection of poems, \u003cem\u003eInheritance,\u003c\/em\u003e offers us poem after poem of fierce beauty and visionary power, work whose subtext is always the vigilance of a restless dialectic, a kind of music that listens, that longs to transfigure suffering without violating its factual heartbreak. The counterpoint here would pitch testament against silence in a great bold fugue where loss connects, shame forgives, bitterness kneels—all as testament to the enormity of who we were, are, and are not yet. 'I've learned this much from music,' he writes, 'If you refuse \/ music, music will be given to you.' And what music indeed, what gifts. With just his second book, Joseph Fasano is one of the best poets I know.\"—\u003cstrong\u003eBruce Bond\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJoseph Fasano\u003c\/strong\u003e is a writer and educator. He studied mathematics and astrophysics at Harvard University before changing his course of study and earning a degree in philosophy, with a focus on philosophy of language after Wittgenstein. He did his graduate study in poetry at Columbia University, working with Mark Strand, Lucie Brock-Broido, Richard Howard, and others. Beyond his Professorships, Fasano is passionate about developing inclusive learning communities outside the walls of academic institutions. As an educator, his mission is to help each student synthesize diverse fields of study to develop a unique and informed voice, a depth of attention, and a capacity to break free of reductive mindsets. His \"Poetry Prompts,\" originally designed to help children create, have spread around the world, helping millions of people of all ages find their voices through the craft and magic of poetry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFasano is the author of two novels: \u003cem\u003eThe Swallows of Lunetto\u003c\/em\u003e (Maudlin House, 2022) and \u003cem\u003eThe Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing\u003c\/em\u003e (Platypus Press, 2020), which was named one of the \"20 Best Small Press Books of 2020.\" His books of poetry are \u003cem\u003eThe Last Song of the World\u003c\/em\u003e (forthcoming from BOA Editions, 2024); \u003cem\u003eThe Crossing\u003c\/em\u003e (Cider Press Review, 2018), praised by Ilya Kaminsky for its 'lush drive to live, even in the darkest moments'; \u003cem\u003eVincent\u003c\/em\u003e (Cider Press Review, 2015), which Rain Taxi Review hailed as a 'major literary achievement'; \u003cem\u003eInheritance\u003c\/em\u003e (Cider Press Review, 2014), a James Laughlin Award nominee; \u003cem\u003eFugue for Other Hands\u003c\/em\u003e (2013) , which won the Cider Press Review Book Award and was nominated for the Poets' Prize, 'awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA winner of the R\u003cem\u003eATTLE Poetry Prize\u003c\/em\u003e, he serves on the Editorial Board of Alice James Books, and he is the Founder of the Poem for You Series. His writing has appeared in \u003cem\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement, The Yale Review, The Southern Review, The Missouri Review, Boston Review, American Poets, Measure, Tin House, American Poetry Journal, The Adroit Journal, American Literary Review, Verse Daily, the PEN Poetry Series, the Academy of American Poets' poem-a-day program\u003c\/em\u003e, and other publications.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"In these moving, incandescent, and often mysterious poems, Joseph Fasano makes pain almost bearable with the beauty of his language, the wild leaps of his metaphors.  His is a strong and original voice!\" -\u003cstrong\u003e Linda Pastan\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Almost everywhere you turn in \u003cem\u003eInheritance\u003c\/em\u003e, you find a poet brave enough to return poetry to its troubled and eternal origins…Fasano's otherworldly melancholy and grace turns out to also be a 'worldly clarity.' This is the poet I trust to see the world as it is, quietly writhing around us, like Kafka and Rilke before him. This is the poet who proves the world isn't what needs restoring so much as us.  With \u003cem\u003eInheritance\u003c\/em\u003e, the necessary gifts of one poet's visionary spirit are now not just his but thankfully ours.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eDorothea Lasky\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!----\u003e","brand":"Cider Press Review","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48865766572349,"sku":"9781930781146","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/files\/9781930781146ita.jpg?v=1717190701"},{"product_id":"fugue-for-other-hands","title":"Fugue for Other Hands","description":"\u003cp\u003eEloquent, haunting, and dangerously attuned to both the beauty and the suffering of almost everything alive, the poems in Joseph Fasano's exquisite \u003cem\u003eFugue for Other Hands\u003c\/em\u003e suggest the poetry Young Werther might have written if Goethe had transported him into 21st-century American adulthood instead of burying him under a linden tree in fictional Wahlheim. And yet there s no mistaking these poems so distinctive in their conception, and so bold in their execution for anyone else's. I can think of very few recent books of poetry that manage to create such a vivid, wild, psychologically resonant and quite possibly unforgettable atmosphere as that of Fasano's perpetual autumn--\u003cstrong\u003eTimothy Donnelly\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSomewhat indescribable, as original things often are, the poems of Joseph Fasano feel hunted, gathered, built like fires, brewed like storms. Elemental and feral, \u003cem\u003eFugue for Other Hands\u003c\/em\u003e is full of disturbing deeds and haunted rituals. At once mythic and specific, these poems are blood-stained, grief-scarred, providing their solace only from their commitment to art's depths. \"Say you were the wild gift,\" one poem states; Fasano has such a gift, and therefore with his bare hands and torn heart makes poems worth living in. --\u003cstrong\u003eJeanne Marie Beaumont\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJoseph Fasano\u003c\/strong\u003e is a writer and educator. He studied mathematics and astrophysics at Harvard University before changing his course of study and earning a degree in philosophy, with a focus on philosophy of language after Wittgenstein. He did his graduate study in poetry at Columbia University, working with Mark Strand, Lucie Brock-Broido, Richard Howard, and others. Beyond his Professorships, Fasano is passionate about developing inclusive learning communities outside the walls of academic institutions. As an educator, his mission is to help each student synthesize diverse fields of study to develop a unique and informed voice, a depth of attention, and a capacity to break free of reductive mindsets. His \"Poetry Prompts,\" originally designed to help children create, have spread around the world, helping millions of people of all ages find their voices through the craft and magic of poetry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFasano is the author of two novels: \u003cem\u003eThe Swallows of Lunetto\u003c\/em\u003e (Maudlin House, 2022) and \u003cem\u003eThe Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing\u003c\/em\u003e (Platypus Press, 2020), which was named one of the \"20 Best Small Press Books of 2020.\" His books of poetry are \u003cem\u003eThe Last Song of the World\u003c\/em\u003e (forthcoming from BOA Editions, 2024); \u003cem\u003eThe Crossing\u003c\/em\u003e (Cider Press Review, 2018), praised by Ilya Kaminsky for its 'lush drive to live, even in the darkest moments'; \u003cem\u003eVincent \u003c\/em\u003e(Cider Press Review, 2015), which Rain Taxi Review hailed as a 'major literary achievement'; \u003cem\u003eInheritance\u003c\/em\u003e (Cider Press Review, 2014), a James Laughlin Award nominee; \u003cem\u003eFugue for Other Hands\u003c\/em\u003e (2013) , which won the Cider Press Review Book Award and was nominated for the Poets' Prize, 'awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA winner of the\u003cem\u003e RATTLE Poetry Prize\u003c\/em\u003e, he serves on the Editorial Board of Alice James Books, and he is the Founder of the Poem for You Series. His writing has appeared in \u003cem\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement, The Yale Review, The Southern Review, The Missouri Review, Boston Review, American Poets, Measure, Tin House, American Poetry Journal, The Adroit Journal, American Literary Review, Verse Daily, the PEN Poetry Series, the Academy of American Poets' poem-a-day program\u003c\/em\u003e, and other publications. It has been widely anthologized and translated into many languages, including Spanish, Swedish, Lithuanian, Chinese, Russian, and Ukrainian.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Eloquent, haunting, and dangerously attuned to both the beauty and the suffering of almost everything alive, the poems in Joseph Fasano's exquisite \u003cem\u003eFugue for Other Hands\u003c\/em\u003e suggest the poetry Young Werther might have written if Goethe had transported him into 21st-century American adulthood instead of burying him under a linden tree in fictional Wahlheim. And yet there's no mistaking these poems so distinctive in their conception, and so bold in their execution for anyone else's. I can think of very few recent books of poetry that manage to create such a vivid, wild, psychologically resonant and quite possibly unforgettable atmosphere as that of Fasano's perpetual autumn, where a 'Teutonic man- \/ child' has 'cuffed himself fast \/\/ to a balsam,' where the wind is like 'a scribe \/ in his blindness, pacing the stones of his chamber,' and where October itself stands 'hunched like a colt \/ in a suit of black leaves.' Audacious, moody, surreal but never silly, wise but never pithy or pontificating, Fugue for Other Hands is like a skull-sized mushroom that appears in the forest after a rainstorm it is a logical product of the forest, and of the storm, and of time itself, but we still gasp when we behold it, and we are humbled to have it entrusted to us.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eTimothy Donnelly\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"I have seen these poems coming for some time, but it is only now, when they are ample within my grasp, dark to my eyes and dolorous to my hearing feast and leave not plenty is the poet's desperate gospel that I have learned their active nature, how they attend in the reading: it is country-living and country-perishing that is consecrated here, where Joe Fasano traverses each threshold 'the way a child touches everything, with the hand of his murderer.' These hinterland poems are singularly lovely, but it is in their multifold gathering that they score, that they gain their ultimate musical identity, 'a symphony of release' the poet calls it, like Wagner and Mahler, preternaturally rich.\" -\u003cstrong\u003e Richard Howard\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!----\u003e","brand":"Cider Press Review","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48865808122173,"sku":"9781930781115","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/files\/9781930781115ita.jpg?v=1717191415"}],"url":"https:\/\/itascabooks.com\/collections\/joseph-fasano.oembed","provider":"Itasca Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}