Bluets by maggie nelson book

Nelson has been the recipient of a 2016 macarthur fellowship, a 2012 creative capital literature fellowship, a 2011 nea fellowship in poetry, and. Her other collections of poetry include something bright, then holes 2007, jane. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide. This story, which includes nelsons account of falling in love with dodge, who is fluidly. Bluets is maggie nelsons 2009 hybridization of lyrical essays, aka 240 meditations upon the color blue. Oclcs webjunction has pulled together information and resources to assist library. Over the course of the poem, the reader must piece together the events that have triggered nelson to write the book. The work hybridizes several prose and poetry styles as it documents. Nov 06, 2017 the crux of the book is a meditation on nelson s love for the color, an examination of other people who have been fascinated by it before, like wittgenstein, joni mitchell, and leonard cohen. For me bluets is maggie nelsons best book yet and puts her on a par with anne carson. The book, not even a hundred pages long, is split in 240.

Nelson has been the recipient of a 2016 macarthur fellowship, a 2012 creative capital literature fellowship, a 2011 nea fellowship in poetry, and a 2010 guggenheim fellowship in nonfiction. When i want a sprawling, consuming book about love and loss, i turn to maggie nelsons bluets. Maggie nelson is the author of nine books of poetry and prose, many of which have become cult classics defying categorization. The work hybridizes several prose and poetry styles as it documents nelson s multifaceted experience with the color blue, and is often referred to as lyric essay or prose poetry.

I mention this because wave books doesnt market maggie nelsons bluets, a collection of 240 somethings, as poetry. Maggie nelson on the color blue as a lens on memory. As a bookshop affiliate and an amazon associate, the rumpus earns a percentage from qualifying purchases. Maggie nelsons bluets opens with the line, suppose i were to begin by saying that i had fallen in love with a color. Nelson describes how collecting objects and images of blue distracted her from the worst passivity of her years of depression. Maggie nelson a lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue, while folding in, and responding to, the. Bluets, katie schmid, last book i loved, maggie nelson, poetry.

Maggie nelson is the author of numerous books of poetry and nonfiction. Oct 01, 2009 with bluets, maggie nelson has entered the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists. A guardian book of the year maggie nelson is one of the most electrifying writers at work in america today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation olivia laing bluets winds its way through depression, divinity, alcohol, and desire, visiting along the way with famous blue figures, including joni mitchell, billie holiday. A guardian book of the year maggie nelson is one of the most electrifying writers at work in america today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation olivia laing bluets winds its way through depression, divinity, alcohol, and desire, visiting along the way with famous blue figures, including joni mitchell, billie holiday, yves klein, leonard cohen and andy warhol. Bluets by maggie nelson meet your next favorite book. Its a love story, but its also an exploration of motherhood and gender and family and queerness and. Maggie nelson is one of the most electrifying writers at work in america today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation olivia laing bluets winds its way through depression, divinity, alcohol, and desire, visiting along the way with famous blue figures, including joni mitchell, billie holiday, yves klein, leonard cohen and andy warhol. Nelsons book bluets 2009 is perhaps her most wellknown work mix of scholarship and poetry. December 2009 gina myers nonfiction bluets by maggie nelson. Bluets is smart yet intimate, quiet yet provocative, and a welcome addition to the poetic nonfiction discourse. Apr 05, 2010 i mention this because wave books doesnt market maggie nelsons bluets, a collection of 240 somethings, as poetry. The nonfiction authors books, especially 2011s the art of cruelty.

Maggie nelson is a poet, art critic, and author of nonfiction books such as the art of cruelty. Maggie nelson is the author of numerous books of poetry and nonfiction, including something bright, then. Yet what could be more invented than a life story that reads like a novel. Bluets is a book by american author maggie nelson, published by wave books in 2009. In the 61st of 240 short, often interrelated prose sections, nelson writes, gass argues that what we readers really want is the penetration of. Susie deford, bomb in the end nelson breaks free of romances tyranny. Maggie nelson has never been one to shirk a knotty problem. A reckoning and 2016s the argonauts, make room for the gentle yet. Bluets is brilliant and sad, and it adds to the excellent body of work this prolific, young writer has created. Jun 15, 2017 for me bluets is maggie nelson s best book yet and puts her on a par with anne carson. Oct 15, 2009 with bluets, maggie nelson has entered the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists.

She teaches in the school of critical studies at calarts. She first published bluets with wave books in 2009. Maggie nelson on the color blue as a lens on memory, loneliness, and the paradoxes of love to wish to forget how much you loved someone and then, to actually forget can feel, at times, like the slaughter of a beautiful bird who chose, by nothing short of grace, to make a habitat of your heart. In the 240 prose entries the book consists of, nelson deals with the personal loss of a. A lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue.

I dont read much memoir people generally bore me, so i was late to reading maggie nelsons bluets. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Each numbered fragment is either a sentence or a short paragraph, none longer than two hundred words. Online series, original literature join pen america today defend free expression, support persecuted writers, and promote literary culture. Her other nonfiction titles include the national book critics circle award winner the argonauts 2015, the art of cruelty. A guardian book of the year maggie nelson is one of the most electrifying writers at work in america today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation olivia laing bluetswinds its way through depression, divinity, alcohol, and desire, visiting along the way with famous blue figures, including joni mitchell, billie holiday, yves klein, leonard cohen and andy warhol. Maggie nelsons bluets takes aim at one of todays most beloved forms of writingthe autobiographycoyly challenging the genres attachment to truthful stories of the self and the form thought best to convey them. Maggie nelson is the author of numerous books of poetry and nonfiction, including something bright, then holes soft skull press, 2007 and women, the new york school, and other true abstractions university of iowa press, 2007. After reading maggie nelsons bluets, an examination of love and suffering and her personal obsession with the color blue, i immediately went out and got the argonauts, which is a hybrid of sorts, although id call it lyric essay. Maggie nelsons bluets opens with the line, suppose i were to begin by. In her 2015 article on maggie nelsons the argonauts, olivia laing wrote that the nelsonian unit of thought is not the chapter but the paragraph, a mode that allows for deep swerves and juxtapositions, for the interspersing of anecdote and analysis. Sarah macdonald vice i cant stop thinking about bluets.

Maggie nelson continues to raise the bar higher in what a reader can expect from a book. To hear the mass media speak of it, the mere suggestion of embellishment, never mind invention, disrupts the hopeful economy of memoirs in which. To hear the mass media speak of it, the mere suggestion of embellishment, never mind invention. Bluets by maggie nelson, 9781933517407, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. When i want a sprawling, consuming book about love and loss, i turn to maggie nelson s bluets. The compact hybrid book of literature, memoir, and poetry at only 99 pages in length lingers long after the cover is turned over. Nelson has enveloped this core idea in a layer of narrative consisting of a quasiepistolary re. She is generally described as a genrebusting writer defying classification, working in autobiography, art criticism, theory, scholarship, and poetry. Maggie nelsons the argonauts is a genrebending memoir, a work of autotheory offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language. Maggie nelson on the color blue as a lens on memory, loneliness, and the paradoxes of love to wish to forget how much you loved someone and then, to actually forget can feel, at times, like the slaughter of a beautiful bird who chose, by nothing short of. Such a simple concept and yet have you reflected on the color in all its variations, collected it as an herbalist collects plants, investigated the color on such a d 1. Numerous and frequentlyupdated resource results are available from this search. An intellectual yet beautiful and inspiring exploration of every aspect of the colour blue.

She dreams someone sends her cornflowers, the american name for bluets. The author maggie nelson, born in 1973, has authored half a dozen books, among them poetry collections, memoirs, and nonfiction. Bluets by maggie nelson 2009, paperback for sale online. With bluets, maggie nelson has entered the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists. Reliable information about the coronavirus covid19 is available from the world health organization current situation, international travel. Maggie nelson is the author of numerous books of poetry and nonfiction, including something bright, then holes soft skull press, 2007 and women, the new york school, and other true abstractions university of. A murder 2005, the latest winter 2003, and shiner 2001, which was a finalist for a norma farber first book award. Nelson melds intellectual ideas with snippets of memoir and poetic description. Maggie nelson s the argonauts is a genrebending memoir, a work of autotheory offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language. This question of agency in life, in love, in the love of blue undergirds the book as nelsons. Something that began as an appreciation, an affinity became something more serious and then it became somehow personal.