Barrie Cole is a critically acclaimed Chicago-based writer who has written more than 15 plays including Reality is an Activity, Capacity, Meaning is Tricky, Reverse Gossip, Elevator Tours and Fruit Tree Backpack along with numerous poems, essays, monologues and hybrid works. Lacquer is a Thrilling Word is her first book.
PRAISE:
The poems in Lacquer is a Thrilling Word explore unconventional forms- fortune cookie fortunes, drive-thru orders and to-do lists wrestling pleasure from the mundane and ridiculous while reveling in permission, attention and the sublimity of language. There are run-on sentence poems including one about assembling new varieties of mushrooms. There is a poem about angel watching (as opposed to birds) and another about collecting a bouquet of icicles.  Poet Alison Luterman says, “To enter the pages of Lacquer is a Thrilling Word is to walk inside the wild and wonderful, kaleidoscopically shape-shifting mind of Barrie Cole, appreciating an odd truth bomb here, a moment of delight or humor there, and now and again a totally unexpected light ray of divine wisdom shooting through a dusty stained-glass window that was somehow exported from an ancient Gothic cathedral to a grocery store in downtown Chicago. There are too many delightful lines to quote in a blurb, but let’s just say that she had me at “I am still a good person if I have had an unfortunate haircut, the kind where there are bangs of insanity, the kind wherein cutting more could not even begin to improve it, a haircut that makes purchasing a wig a genuine consideration and I am still a good person if I paid the bill late and I was too anxious to attend the party and too anxious to say hello to the neighbor and so pretended not to see her at all and this was no surprise, because I do this more often than I do not, but I am still good. Probably. ” I’ll leave you to discover the rest on your own.
–Alison Luterman, Author of In the Time of Great Fires and Hard ListeningÂ
–Justin Hayford Chicago Reader
–Kerry Reid Ghost Light, Chicago Reader
Brailey Sheridan –
Barrie is amazing! If your English teacher ruined poetry for you, give this book a try! Barrie will change your mind. Lacquer really IS a thrilling word!
Julie Hansen –
Lacquer Is a Thrilling Word is as delightful, wise and divine as I expected it would be. Since receiving it, “the crowd of me [has been] going wild” (thanks for the awesome phrase Barrie! I use it daily.) From the day I heard Barrie read “Still Life” I’ve held on to her blaringly authentic view of all things “life” like a life preserver.
Sarah Zimmerman –
Fantastic collection of poetry from an old soul experienced writer, but a new foray into poetry. How to pick a favorite? Maybe it’s still, I’m still a good person if I stepped on my glasses….then somehow she moves to if she is just still, she won’t make mistakes, then will be a still life of herself. This collection allows us to join Ms. Cole on a beautiful romp through words, language, imagination, and human experience. It’s painful and funny and magical. We are lucky to have this amazing mind in our midst! Must read and a great gift.
Clint Pross –
Insightful and hilarious, Lacquer is a Thrilling Word surprises on every page. Not to be missed!
Sadie Levinsohn –
This book is incredible. Barrie writes about words memories and ideas in ways that are the same time hilarious, tender, observational, curious, honest, and playful.