Monk Fruit - by Edward Salem (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In Monk Fruit, Edward Salem prowls the edges of prophecy and punch line, like Rumi on acid.

Edward Salem is a poet who knows the void but refuses its totalizing darkness, choosing instead to light matches in its depths. Salem reveals, then expands, worlds with each poem. From Detroit to Gaza, the Big Bang to whatever calamity comes next, he reports from far ahead of the curve, beyond the current cosmic crunch with "poise and peculiarity" (Ottessa Moshfegh). A thrilling debut collection and punk treatise, Monk Fruit bypasses ideology, finds a side door, and rearranges the furniture.

Review Quotes

"Intimately provocative yet subtle. . . there is a vulnerability to the voice that I feel deserves to be acknowledged and encouraged."
--Ottessa Moshfegh

About the Author

Edward Salem's second poetry collection, Intifadas (2026), was selected for the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry and was a finalist for the National Poetry Series. He is also the author of Monk Fruit (2025). Salem won the 2022 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize and BOMB's 2021 Fiction Contest. His writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, The New York Review of Books, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. He is the co-founder of City of Asylum/Detroit, a nonprofit that provides safe-haven fellowships to writers and artists in exile who have been persecuted for their work.