Awe and Other Words Like Wow - by Kat Georges (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In her second poetry collection, Kat Georges consciously searches for joy in a world of growing darkness. Georges (Our Lady of the Hunger) has an adamant insistence on seeking light in the darkest of places, setting her work apart in a media-driven world bent on promoting grief and devastation for the sake of clicks. Georges provides both solace and inspiration for the reader. These new poems combine humor and deep insight into human nature to capture moments of much-needed wonder and enchantment. Kat Georges is an internationally-acclaimed poet, playwright, editor, and designer, whose work has been widely published in journals and anthologies, including The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (Thunder's Mouth Press), Arriving at a Shoreline (Great Weather for Media), From The Inside: NYC Through the Eyes of Poets Who Live Here (Blue Light Press), The Verdict Is In (also editor; Manic D Press), Love, Love Magazine (Paris), and Ladyland: Anthologie de Littérature Féminine Américaine (13E Note Editions), and many other publications. She lives in New York City.

Review Quotes

High Praise for Awe and Other Words Like Wow

"Kat Georges' Awe and Other Words like Wow offers a powerful beacon for contemporary dystopias. These poems celebrate embracing our authentic self, creative genius, and therapeutic moments in nature as opposition to society's ravaging materialism. This book dazzles with its visionary witnessing, spiritual epiphanies, refreshing humor, anthems, and odes to love, reminding the reader that all life is holy." -Lisa Panepinto, poet, Where I Come From The Fish Have Souls

"This Book! These poems! This poet! The intelligence! The kindness! The love! Awe Now! Dig Wow!" -Gary Lawless, poet, In Ruins, Caribouddhism

"If, as Emily Dickinson said, 'hope is the thing with feathers, ' Kat Georges gives us many feathery things in this smart, beautiful, heartfelt collection." --Julia Watts, author, Needlework and Lovesick Blossoms

"Awe and Other Words Like Wow is truly human, kind, and aware, bringing us back to the heart of now . . . wow." --Neal Taylor, co-founder, LA Dada

"Life makes different sounds depending on the weight of contact--a clarity and pleasure Kat Georges won't let you miss! Poems that collide with precision--Moments existing in traces connected leading to language--I see what only you can feel and yet I remember--The function of memory's constant creation is on these pages." --Fork Burke, poet, Durch die Blume

"Awe and Other Words Like Wow, Kat Georges' generous new collection of poems, offers the reader a multitude of joys. Georges' urges us to open our eyes to the small pleasures and beauties that we might miss while on our devices. In the delightful poem, "I Want to Marvel at the Universe But All I See Are Bricks," the poet catalogues a spring season in New York City: "an orchestra of pedestrians chatter in the warm sun, /a radio broadcasts seventies soul." This is a book that encourages the act of awe and "our deep deep roots / blooms of dreams / too resilient to crush." --Maw Shein Win, author, Storage Unit for the Spirit House

"When you look beyond the fierce persona Kat Georges presents in performance, you might be surprised at the tender heart of her poems. Her new collection, Awe and Other Words Like Wow, is full of hope delivered with an exuberant voice. Georges is a keen observer of urban life. It's not that she doesn't see the grit, but she hears a siren as a soprano. In the midst of calamity, don't we all want a day when life, "a jigsaw puzzle which, for a time, sits on display without missing pieces," the way she entreats in her opening poem, "Awe." This is a poet who, in the face of a sister's breathless report about Yosemite Falls and its thundering 2400 foot drop of snow runoff, can turn to her window above Bleecker Street to find "streams of people / it's spring in New York City," every bit as exhilarating." --Karen Hildebrand, author, Crossing Pleasure Avenue

"Kat Georges' Awe and Other Words Like Wow is a terrific collection of poems that crackle in your imagination and your heart, highlighting those moments of astonishment, surprise and yes, a bit of heartache, in parlance that's vivid, playful, and eloquent. Georges opens her soul and in so doing raises our spirits, a gift to all those who love language. This is poetry at its finest." Richard Modiano, Director Emeritus Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center

"All true poets embrace the challenge of simulataneity--expansion and contraction, effusio

About the Author

Kat Georges is an internationally known poet and playwright, who cofounded San Francisco's Marilyn Monroe Memorial Theater in 1992, where she served as co-artistic director for eight years. Her books include the poetry collections Awe and Other Words Like Wow, Our Lady of the Hunger, Punk Rock Journal, and Slow Dance at 120 Beats Per Minute. Her work has appeared in journals worldwide, including The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (Thunder's Mouth Press), Arriving at a Shoreline (Great Weather for Media), From The Inside: NYC Through the Eyes of Poets Who Live Here (Blue Light Press), The Verdict Is In (as editor; Manic D Press), Love, Love Magazine (Paris), and Ladyland: Anthologie de Littérature Féminine Américaine (13E Note Editions), and many other publications. Her nonfiction prose and essays have been published in San Francisco Examiner, Orange County Register, La Habra Daily Express, and more. She was born and raised in Southern California, where, following her graduation from California State University, Fullerton, she published The Eye Magapaper, an acclaimed music journal covering the SoCal punk scene in the early 80s. She is cofounder and codirector of Three Rooms Press. She lives in New York City.