Mezzanines - by Matthew Olzmann (Paperback)

About the Book

Mezzanines ushers us into a world where language seeks proof of our existence.

Book Synopsis

"There's something inherently spiritual about Olzmann's Mezzanines. . . . It's a place of reflection and contemplation, a temporary reprieve from the world's chaos and a reach for a vision of paradise." --The Los Angeles Review of Books

". . .the poems [in Mezzanines] have doors that open and invite you inside. The rooms of the house may be odd, and the stairwells may lead in strange directions, but you, as the reader, remain beckoned. [Olzmann] hasn't invited you in just to leave you. He's got stories to tell, and they're good." --The Huffington Post Blog

There is no place Matthew Olzmann doesn't visit in his poignant debut. From underwater to outer space, Mezzanines is a contained universe, constantly shifting through multiple perceptions of the surreal and the real. A lyrical conversation with mortality, Olzmann explores identity, faith, and our sense of place, with an acute awareness of our minute existence.

From "NASA Video Transmission Picked Up By Baby Monitor"

How many shadows are there left to name?
Logophobia is the fear of words. Keraunothnetophobia
is the fear of falling man-made satellites.
Imagine this last one:
you walk outside and look to heaven
expecting a sky lab plunging down on you--wires
everywhere, bolts loosening, metal body in flames.
Instead, you see only blue, endless blue,
the color of a baby's new blanket, cloaking everything.

Matthew Olzmann is a graduate of the MFA program for writers at Warren Wilson College. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Kenyon Review, New England Review, Inch, Gulf Coast, Rattle, and elsewhere. He's received fellowships from Kundiman and the Kresge Arts Foundation. Currently, he is a writer-in-residence for the InsideOut Literary Arts Project and the poetry editor of The Collagist.

Review Quotes

"Olzmann's masterful debut heralds the arrival of a delightful and daring poetry that scorches and coils its way through galaxies, strip malls, and the intricacies of the human body. With a wickedly delightful wisdom at its core, Mezzanines practices the most graceful kind of alchemy--its greatest strength is how it turns tiny heartbreaks into a bright and satisfying beauty." --Aimee Nezhukumatathil

"Olzmann has an outsider's wit and a boarder crosser's slick vision. From seam, threshold, and cut, these poems navigate the galactic and the aquatic, the immediate and the imaginary, the reasonable and the American. He's amused by his own bewilderment. What's more, he manages to never abandon love. Olzmann's skilled play, terrific ear, and immense heart make Mezzanines a must-read." --Pat Rosal

"With Mezzanines Matthew Olzmann has given us a vibrant new poetry, as soulful as it is funny. Sci-fi and snake charms, love poems, ship wrecks, and a dash of artful self-parody--the materials of his narratives come from all over the cosmos to find, in this wonderful poet's hands, a shape crackling with power that's connective, convincing, and true." --David Baker

About the Author

Author: Matthew Olzmann is a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Kenyon Review, New England Review, Inch, Gulf Coast, Rattle and elsewhere. He's received fellowships from Kundiman and the Kresge Arts Foundation. Currently, he is a writer-in-residence for the InsideOut Litereary Arts Project and the poetry editor of The Collagist.