The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine - (Penguin Poets) by Mark Yakich (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

An unconventional collection from a National Poetry Series award-winning poet, author of Spiritual Exercises

Mark Yakich 's acclaimed debut collection, Unrelated Individuals Forming a Group Waiting to Cross, examined the blessing and curse of romantic love in its multiplicities. The poems in his new collection approach questions of suffering and atrocity (e.g., war, genocide, fallen soufflés) with discerning humor and unconventional comedy. These poems show how humor can be taken as seriously as straight-ahead solemnity and how we can re-envision solemnity in terms other than lamentation, protest, and memorial.

Review Quotes

"This bold second collection is profane, political and humorous in its engagement with what it means to live, especially as a poet, in terrible times." -- Publisher's Weekly

"Yakich's poetry radiates an aura of fresher imaginative possibilities that is invigorating in politically literal times."
-San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author

Mark Yakich has worked in the European Parliament in Brussels and has degrees in political science, West European studies, and poetry.