M by Hannah Brooks-Motl

For international orders, please visit our distributor, here. Swinging between examination and revelation, Hannah Brooks-Motl’s second collection of poems, M, holds a unique place in contemporary poetry, written almost as a document to chart the act of a writer reading. By transposing lines directly from the essays of Michel de Montaigne with her own, she creates a shimmering mirage that enables two distinct voices to blend with confidence and to question the steps we take to make sense of the world. That degree of ambition requires great care and thoroughness, the ability to see the past clearly in order to invent a skillfully considered and electric present. “Blowing hot and cold with the same mouth”The weapon of memory shattered the sunLift your eyes to it“In the venerable tradition of mining, Hannah Brooks-Motl engages the poetics of excavation, taking Montaigne’s Essays as substrate. The ’M’ of the title may be far removed, but his (and her) spirit holds sway via ‘the burning lig