glimmers,
as it determines the
shape of one
hand
upon the other: breath
and a
an and a small letter
misspelled
as
an eth.
glimmers,
as it determines the
shape of one
hand
upon the other: breath
and a
an and a small letter
misspelled
as
an eth.
Wellman is our latter-day Brecht…
Marjorie Perloff
AWE is the tale of the three dead letters of the English language: Thorn, Eth, and AE (pronounced —-). The teller of these stories, for there are more than one, is an old cat (O/C) with the sad excuse of a story tale, er, tail; and a mess of other possible tails and worlds (that is), a mess of If(f)s; both blissful and broken by the sheer, immense particularity of it all; and so he glows in the dark. A wise cat among wonders. A cat who challenges all tails but his own….
Mac Wellman’s recent work as a playwright includes: The Offending Gesture, directed by Meghan Finn at the Connelly Theater in 2016 and Horrocks (and Toutatis Too) Woo World Wu at Emerson College in Boston in 2013 (with Erin Mallon & Tim Sirgusa). He has received numerous honors, including NEA, Guggenheim, and Foundation of Contemporary Arts fellowships. In 2003 he received his third Obie, for lifetime Achievement. In 2006 his third novel, Q’s Q, was published by Green Integer, and in 2008 a volume of stories, A Chronicle of the Madness of Small Worlds, was published by Trip Street Press. His books of poetry include Miniature, Strange Elegies, and Split the Stick from Roof Books, Left Glove (Solid Objects Press), and Awe (UDP). His novel Linda Perdido won the 2011 FC2 Catherine Doctorow Prize for Innovative Fiction. He is Distinguished Professor of Play Writing at Brooklyn College.
What Wellman does best [is] approach the mystery of things without succumbing to the mute darkness.
Charles McNulty, Village Voice
Wellman is our latter-day Brecht, providing the Verfremdung, the ‘making strange’ that makes us see what has been before us all along.
Marjorie Perloff
He is James Joyce reborn as a rap artist.
Mel Gussow, New York Times
ISBN: 978-1-946433-24-4
Trade Paperback
Smyth-sewn. 88 pp, 5.25 x 6.25 in
Publication Date: June 01 2019
Distribution: Asterism Books (US), Coach House Books via Publishers Group Canada (Canada), Inpress Books (UK)