Ringer
Rebecca Lehmann’s second collection of poetry, Ringer, won the 2018 Donald Hall Prize for Poetry from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, judged by Ross Gay. It was published by University of Pittsburgh Press (Pitt Poetry Series) in September, 2019. You order it here and here.
Praise for Ringer
“Part eco-poetic, part confessional, [Ringer] transports the reader to landscapes internal and external with acerbic wit and renegade fury.” —Publishers Weekly
“Highly recommended; Lehmann’s talent for engaging outwardly will win her readers among poetry fans and newbies alike.”–Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal, starred review.
“Ringer teems with excellent poems…Lehmann, generously and gracefully, swings us through entire lives.”–Nick Ripatrazone, The Millions, “Must-Read Poetry: September, 2019”
“Rebecca Lehmann’s Ringer is a beautiful book. There’s something propulsive and yearning and broken with sadness in these poems. And ecstatic. And astonished. (‘His eyes / were four dozen Canadian geese lifting off a late summer river, all at once.’ God I love that!) And loving. And there is something that might put its foot up your ass. All made of a gorgeous racket that will probably make you gasp. By which I mean: be in the world anew. As poetry, if we’re lucky, sometimes helps us to be.” —Ross Gay
“What a great title! It’s perfectly true—the whole book rings with surprising images and zingy word-choices, all dedicated to presenting the most mundane things in their truly astonishing particularity. Sharply attuned to issues relating to women—and the ways they’ve intensified in the current political climate—the work speaks with a fierce and necessary determination infused with an energy not devoid of hope.” —Cole Swensen
“Ringer by Rebecca Lehmann is a voice-driven wonder that takes on Trump-era America–misogyny, white nationalism, alternative facts, and gun violence–against a backdrop of domesticity and personal loss. Lehmann combines dazzling figurative language with unrelenting imperative into nitro-fueled poems that plumb the tension between the personal and political, and create a wholly original tough-as-nails missive to female strength in the face of miscarriage, harassment, and the daily grind of motherhood.” —Erika Meitner
Between the Crackups
Between the Crackups won the Crashaw Prize and was published by Salt in 2011. You can order it here and here.
Praise for Between the Crackups
‘Rebecca Lehmann is an advance scout in the war between the heart and the intellect. The heart wants peace, but the mind wants to blow us all to kingdom come, because we are working in factories, we are lost in Detroit and Memphis, we are driving South. What can save us? she seems to be asking. Not God with his wafers and hymns. Not sex with its tricky ambushes. Not anger that is setting the world on fire. Maybe it’s love, she says, or maybe words with their euphoric brew. Or maybe not.’ —Barbara Hamby
‘These poems read like just-fashioned old-fashioned letters–not e-mails, not texts, not tweets–from one’s neglected, slightly pissed-off subterranean self. They are bold, agitated, self- and other-mocking, artfully raw, nonchalantly inventive, infused with necessity, and altogether stunning.’ —Mark Levine
“A glittering, furious book” — Melissa Ginsburg, The Rumpus
“Lehmann’s collection Between the Crackups puts my mind at ease, each poem reassures me that between the crackups, along the dirty seam that runs across our lives, is acumen, beauty and humor.” — Claire Nelson, The Southeast Review
“An often deliciously dark book” — Valerie Wetlaufer, Drunken Boat
Listen to Between the Crackups reviewed on Late Night Library