Publisher Description

Pretend the World confronts our false sense of safety in our self-created worlds. From her St. Paul kitchen to the historical shores of Lake Superior, from an airplane above Bagdad to a clothing factory in Guangdong, Kathryn Kysar pretends the glimmering and the sordid in these honest, searing poems that explore the inequities, cracks, and fissures in women's constructed lives.Kathryn Kysar is the author of Dark Lake (Loonfeather Press, 2002), a book of poetry, and is the editor of Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers (Borealis Books, 2008). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Anderson Center, and she has published poems in many anthologies and magazines, including Great River Review, Mizna, and Painted Bride Quarterly. She serves on the board of directors for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.

Author Biography

Kathryn Kysar is the author of a book of poetry Dark Lake (Loonfeather, 2002) and the editor of a collection of essays, Riding Shotgun: Women Writing About Their Mothers (Borealis, 2008). Her poems have been heard on A Writer's Almanac and published in many literary magazines including Great River Review, Midland Review, Mizna, Painted Bride Quarterly, and The Talking Stick. A winner of the Lake Superior Writer's and SASE poetry contests, Kysar has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Minnesota State Arts Board, Norcroft, The Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, and Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents: 1/ Last October The Ghost Husband Cutting Bread The Hideaway Salvation Dream Poem Inspected by Number 5 Farm House Girl Ada Asleep The Fruit 2/ Mackinac Island: Spring Melt Returning to Lake Superior Early Spring Berries, Venison, and Ice The Day Ten People Died at Red Lake Under the Plastic Tarp The Burden Holding Her The Effects of Rock and Roll on an Unborn Fetus Bones 3/ Faultlines Flying East I Sit Still in Church with a Pencil Golden Numbers Playing with Planes Diary of a First Grader German Things I Learned from my Grandmother Stolen Groceries Eating Sushi with Robert Bly and Sam Hamill Japanese Garden At Sunset 4/ The Storm Reverend Tennyson Comes to Call Last Night's Dream: Another Love Poem Adrift Chinook Montana 1992 First Kiss Train Stop Frederica, The Aging Flamenco Dancer, Arrives at the Eastern European Resort Love Poem Little Witches Frankie in the Attic The Falls of St. Anthony: A Short History At the Anderson Center

Review

"The spirited poems in Kathryn Kysar's Pretend the World radiate a lyric vitality as they explore the world of nature, motherhood, sexuality, and celebrate the lost bounty of the past."--Dorianne Laux, author of The Book of Men "In poems that 'tick from her tongue, ' Kathyrn Kysar skillfully weaves the personal with the political. I'm thinking of pieces like 'Cutting Bread' and 'Playing with Planes, ' but also 'the weight of war in a mother's heart.' This is a sure lyric voice rooted in the Midwest, but also the world at large. In language both precise and vivid ('Exactness is [her] prayer'), we experience 'soft, tendril-like bones' and watch as '[c]rimson curls a leaf's edge.' Pretend the World brings to mind, but with a twist, the Whitmanic ethos: who touches this book, touches a woman."--Francisco Aragón, author of Glow of Our Sweat "In Kathryn Kysar's poems, culture and history become an umbilical cord burrowed deep into Midwestern soil, spiraling and reemerging, literally, in China. These are poems that merge landscape and interiority to re-inspire life. What results is a voice strong and delicate as a nexus of white tree branches mid-winter, emanating poem after gorgeous poem that in total whisper like wind over land and water the constant reminder: 'we are all learning to leave.' Profound, wise, playful, Kysar is a rare and amazing poet. A beautiful, awesome book of graces to be wildly celebrated."--Ed Bok Lee, author of Real Karaoke People and Whorled "Balancing the delicate acts of loving and grieving, Kathryn Kysar microscopes the world of modern woman/motherhood. Kysar's ability to politicize parenting and gender offer a gripping but blunt way of seeing the lives we create, the wars we wage, the things we consume, and the connections we make without overbearing sentimentality or righteousness. Pretend the World is a searing testament to being a mother in a world filled with monsters."--Poetry Foundation
"The spirited poems in Kathryn Kysar's Pretend the World radiate a lyric vitality as they explore the world of nature, motherhood, sexuality, and celebrate the lost bounty of the past."--Dorianne Laux, author of The Book of Men "In poems that 'tick from her tongue, ' Kathyrn Kysar skillfully weaves the personal with the political. I'm thinking of pieces like 'Cutting Bread' and 'Playing with Planes, ' but also 'the weight of war in a mother's heart.' This is a sure lyric voice rooted in the Midwest, but also the world at large. In language both precise and vivid ('Exactness is [her] prayer'), we experience 'soft, tendril-like bones' and watch as '[c]rimson curls a leaf's edge.' Pretend the World brings to mind, but with a twist, the Whitmanic ethos: who touches this book, touches a woman."--Francisco Aragón, author of Glow of Our Sweat "In Kathryn Kysar's poems, culture and history become an umbilical cord burrowed deep into Midwestern soil, spiraling and reemerging, literally, in China. These are poems that merge landscape and interiority to re-inspire life. What results is a voice strong and delicate as a nexus of white tree branches mid-winter, emanating poem after gorgeous poem that in total whisper like wind over land and water the constant reminder: 'we are all learning to leave.' Profound, wise, playful, Kysar is a rare and amazing poet. A beautiful, awesome book of graces to be wildly celebrated."--Ed Bok Lee, author of Real Karaoke People and Whorled "Balancing the delicate acts of loving and grieving, Kathryn Kysar microscopes the world of modern woman/motherhood. Kysar's ability to politicize parenting and gender offer a gripping but blunt way of seeing the lives we create, the wars we wage, the things we consume, and the connections we make without overbearing sentimentality or righteousness. Pretend the World is a searing testament to being a mother in a world filled with monsters."--Poetry Foundation

Review Quote

"The spirited poems in Kathryn Kysar 's Pretend the World radiate a lyric vitality as they explore the world of nature, motherhood, sexuality, and celebrate the lost bounty of the past."-- Dorianne Laux , author of The Book of Men "In poems that 'tick from her tongue,' Kathyrn Kysar skillfully weaves the personal with the political. I'm thinking of pieces like 'Cutting Bread' and 'Playing with Planes,' but also 'the weight of war in a mother's heart.' This is a sure lyric voice rooted in the Midwest, but also the world at large. In language both precise and vivid ('Exactness is [her] prayer'), we experience 'soft, tendril-like bones' and watch as '[c]rimson curls a leaf's edge.' Pretend the World brings to mind, but with a twist, the Whitmanic ethos: who touches this book, touches a woman."-- Francisco Aragon , author of Glow of Our Sweat "In Kathryn Kysar 's poems, culture and history become an umbilical cord burrowed deep into Midwestern soil, spiraling and reemerging, literally, in China. These are poems that merge landscape and interiority to re-inspire life. What results is a voice strong and delicate as a nexus of white tree branches mid-winter, emanating poem after gorgeous poem that in total whisper like wind over land and water the constant reminder: 'we are all learning to leave.' Profound, wise, playful, Kysar is a rare and amazing poet. A beautiful, awesome book of graces to be wildly celebrated."-- Ed Bok Lee , author of Real Karaoke People and Whorled "Balancing the delicate acts of loving and grieving, Kathryn Kysar microscopes the world of modern woman/motherhood. Kysar's ability to politicize parenting and gender offer a gripping but blunt way of seeing the lives we create, the wars we wage, the things we consume, and the connections we make without overbearing sentimentality or righteousness. Pretend the World is a searing testament to being a mother in a world filled with monsters."- Poetry Foundation

Description for Sales People

The author's second poetry collection, since "Dark Lake" (2002). Kathryn Kysar is editor of "Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers" (2008), a critically-acclaimed anthology with work by Jonis Agee, Heid Erdrich, Diane Glancy, et al. The poems reflect on contemporary concerns: motherhood, Mideastern conflict, searching for peace at home and abroad. The author has national visibility as board member of AWP.

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