FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
EVERYTHING AS IT IS BITTER HERB
Julia Rose Lewis’ How to Hypnotize a Lobster
Boston, MA (4 June 2018)—Fathom Books is pleased to announce the release of Julia Rose Lewis’ fourth shortbook of poems, How to Hypnotize a Lobster.
In HtHaL, Lewis—author of Zeroing Event (Zarf, 2016), Exhalation Halves Lambda (Finishing Line, 2017), Phenomenology of the Feral (KF&S, 2017) and co-author of Strays (Haverthorn, 2017)—examines forms on the road to desire: forms mathematical, metric, homophonic. These are 17 terse poems of pluck and sometimes open bathos, punctuated by strangely lyrical declaratives: ‘The kisser said done / is done and in-between me and those teeth are prehensile lips / to grasp not to dine on.’
The shortbook features a striking cover image by Chilean artist Alvaro Tapia Hidalgo, whose paintings and graphic works have appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, New Republic, The Moscow Times, New Philosopher, and Newsweek.
How to Hypnotize a Lobster won Fathom’s PITCH VIPER PRIZE in 2017. Prize judge Laura Goode says of the text: ‘This collection [. . .] situates [the] unattainable absolute within an original and inevitable poetic moment, keenly controlled, intricately felt, and stark in its elegance.’
Lewis read Biology and Chemistry at Bryn Mawr and took her MFA from Kingston University London in 2015; she is pursuing a PhD at Cardiff. She performs widely at venues in the UK and the US, most recently at / alongside the Museum of Futures, Enemies Project, and Writers Centre Kingston. Recent work has appeared in Volta, HVTN, amberflora, Hippocrates Initiative International, Poetry Wales, Noble / Gas Qtrly, and datableedzine.
Fathom Books seeks text fit to meet—or be—the Gorgon: avant-garde, neo-gnostic, queer, monstrous, dire, other. We also have a special interest in world Englishes.
All Fathom substrates are sustainably-sourced, and our books lovingly printed by Eberhardt, an independent, artisan-run press in OR. How to Hypnotize a Lobster is available in limited edition quantities via our website; a list of select stockists will appear by year’s end.
Follow Fathom / SHARKPACK on Twitter @sharkpackpoetry.
Fathom Books / PO Box 6288 / Holliston MA, 01746.
Media Contact: editor@fathombooks.org.
SHARKPACK Poetry Review 