Shut Up Shut Down - by Mark Nowak (Paperback)

About the Book

The hard times faced by steelworkers and miners in America's rust belt inform these poetic oral histories.

Book Synopsis

The hard times faced by steelworkers and miners in America's rust belt inform these poetic oral histories.

Review Quotes

"I could liken this book to a verse drama or film in which voices mix and cross, documentary history meshes with dialogue, photography is framed and given meaning by language. But the cumulative effect of "Shut Up Shut Down" outdistances such description. The several long poems that make up this book build into each other with devastating force and understatement, breaking poetic boundaries, regenerating the rich tradition of working-class literature. Nowak is a highly gifted and conscious artist, carrying, like the oldest bards, a group narrative which must be told if his listeners are to understand who they are and on what their lives depend--and this, in our time, means all of us."--Adrienne Rich

About the Author

A poet and labor activist heralded by Adrienne Rich for "regenerating the rich tradition of working-class literature," Mark Nowak regularly leads transnational poetry workshops between American and international trade unions. The author of Revenants and Shut Up Shut Down, he has also been a contributor to the Poetry Foundation's Harriet blog.