Black Sabbatical - (Linda Bruckheimer Kentucky Literature) by Brett Eugene Ralph (Paperback)

About the Book

A debut collection that sings with gutbucket colloquialisms, hallucinatory interludes, and Kentucky's storytelling tradition.

Book Synopsis

"Reading these absolutely terrific poems, with their southern colloquial drawl and sober Buddhist insight, is a bit like having a sage old sleepy tiger purr in your ear while you lie at the edge of the swamp in back of Billy-Joes's pickup truck."--Dazed & Confused Magazine

"Sustaining, inspiring, even rescuing."--Will Oldham, musician

"A true beast of a man with insight and beauty to spare."--Harmony Korine, filmmaker

"Brett Eugene Ralph can look at a woman dancing alone, 'eyes closed, lips parted, held aloft / in one hand half a mango, / a gigantic butcher knife / clutched in the other, ' and know immediately that she's praying."--Andrew Hudgins

Brett Eugene Ralph lives in rural western Kentucky. His country-rock ensemble, Brett Eugene Ralph's Kentucky Chrome Revue, can be heard in seedy dives throughout the South.

Review Quotes

Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Rain Taxi, The Believer, Oxford American, The Southern Register, Octopus, Poetry

About the Author

Ralph's work has appeared in Conduit, Mudfish, Willow Springs, The American Poetry Review, The McSweeney's Book of Poets Picking Poets, and Thus Spake the Corpse: An Exquisite Corpse Reader. Currently, he teaches at Hopkinsville Community in rural western Kentucky. His country-rock ensemble, Brett Eugene Ralph's Kentucky Chrome Revue, can be heard in seedy dives throughout the South.