The Ribbon Around the Bomb by Elizabeth Levine

(2 customer reviews)

$14.99

 

With an unflinching imagination, Levine inhabits and gives voice to some of the best minds of past generations. These intimate yet dramatic monologues, steeped in human tribulation, resonate with insight and compassion.

–John Parras, author of Dangerous Limbs/ editor of Map Literary

 

Elizabeth Levine’s poems are passionate and unforgettable explorations of a woman artist’s life and psyche.

–Maria Mazziotti Gillan, American Book Award, Director, Poetry Center, Passaic Community College

 

Turning a blaring light on sex, motherhood, regret, loss, Levine takes off. Where one language fails, another intervenes, until poem after poem she is beating all her wings. ​

–Professor Martha Witt, Author of As Broken As Things Are

 

In her  debut book of poems The Ribbon Around the Bomb, Elizabeth Levine
proves herself a poet of exceptional grace with a natural gift of both lyricism and psychological  insight. Her poems that explore the suicides of some of our most beloved poets(  including Sylvia Plath, Hart Crane, Randall Jarrell ) are highlights of this book as she skillfully weaves  fact and imagination to arrive at a greater emotional truth.  The title poem alone is worth the price of this compelling book .
–Laura Boss,  author of The Best Lover (NYQ); –editor of Lips

 

« And so we though we knew them. After all, what their poems did not reveal, surely their biographers must have shared with us. But Levine, daring and defying presumption, and spirit-like, enters them, talks through them, each and everyone, to us. This is well the first and the last time you shall hear them before, transformed, you return to those precious poems you left behind. »

–Professor Frank Niccoleti, Wight Foundation

 

Elizabeth’s work takes her reader’s to church in a desert of red sand. She feeds you her Spanish like the red wine and the skin of Chirst her speaker gets on line for again, and again, with the visceral clarity of a dusty machete that cuts into you life an unknown truth. She also borrows beautifully from a reg e gaines workshop.

–Dimitri Reyes, Rutgers Newark- MFA

 

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The Ribbon Around the Bomb

by Elizabeth Levine

$14.99, paper

978-1-63534-829-3

2019

Elizabeth Levine , M.A., M.P.H., M.F.A. is a graduate of the WPU MFA Program. She is a trilingual author and poet and teaches  as Adjunct Faculty in the English Department at William Paterson University. Her debut chapbook, Ribbon Around the Bomb, addresses the subject of poets who have committed suicide and is available for purchase by Finishing Line Press. Her bilingual poem “Where We Walked” and “After the Drive By” have been published in the Montclair Write Group Sampler. Her second poetry chapbook, God Doesn’t Live at Our House Anymore is a collection of poems that directly relates to her identity as a mother before and after her daughter’s death. Her third chapbook Ranting deals with social justice issues including immigration, higher education, and criminal justice. Her fourth chapbook Savage is a collection of poems about addiction and mental illness.

Her novel, What Remains, written under the pseudonym Charlotte Clear, is currently being adapted as a play under the title “And She Was There.” Levine’s novel deals with themes of trauma and resiliency. One of the chapters, “Powerless”, which takes place in Bolivia and is written in English and Spanish, was chosen and produced as a Selected Short by the New Jersey Playwrights in the first New Jersey Selected Shorts in 2015 and produced at WPU. A second chapter, “What Is Lost” was selected for the Creative Writing Panel of the North Eastern Modern Language Association’s International Conference in Toronto, Canada.

 

2 reviews for The Ribbon Around the Bomb by Elizabeth Levine

  1. anon –

    ribbon around the bomb is a great poem.. it really touched me how in a few words someone can make the reader relate to the poem

  2. Richard Gilman (verified owner) –

    Elizabeth Levine has beautifully undertaken an ambitious attempt to appreciate what drives these creative poetic minds to choose death over life. Writing with raw emotion, she lays bare the toll of loss, trauma, and despair. Her poems challenge readers to reflect on our own creativity: its sources and its costs. A collection that proves to be an unexpected treasure.

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