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 the American working class in the nation's rust belt inform these poetic oral histories.

In the narrative and investigative tradition of Gwendolyn Brooks, Edward Sanders, and Muriel Rukeyser, this riveting collection of poetic plays and photo-documentary poems exposes the human cost of corporate greed and gives voice to the growing crisis faced in industrial communities across America.

Review Quotes

"Nowak relies on his life as a person . . . with the sturdy underpinning of class . . . and brings it back, humming. And sleek with seeing and hearing! We get a sharp eye, a literary & philosophical broadening of what used to be labeled 'working class poetry, ' . . . deepened with a hard but contemporary lyric and narrative. A much needed parade." --Amiri Baraka, from the Afterword

"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." --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.