Trying X Trying - (Carnegie Mellon University Press Poetry) by Dora Malech (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Poetry that wrestles with language, loss, and resilience in times of crisis.

In Trying × Trying, Dora Malech dissects the language of our times; she turns over the familiar phrases of politics, parenthood, and pandemic to reveal what lies beneath. Through playing with the double meaning of "trying" as both perseverance and reproductive struggle, these poems navigate public and private spheres and interrogate the words we use to make sense of uncertainty and belief.

With sharp lyricism and restless energy, Malech transforms language into prayer and protest. Sound bends, meanings shift, and repetition becomes a revelation as she traces the tensions between individual and collective experience. Trying × Trying is an enlightening meditation on persistence, reminding us that even in fractured times, poetry finds a way forward.

Review Quotes

"Dora Malech's verse is a treat to read, melodious, euphonious, clever, and rife with delicious riddles, often ending in bon mots or wisdom, a breathtaking line or image. . . The paronomasia here and all over trying x trying is astounding, and the cryptic title - trying x trying - likewise highlights Malech's elusive cleverness, her coy, seductive use of words, her dexterity with language. Dora Malech's verse makes you think of an acrobat who makes it look so easy, flying through the air, swinging on the trapeze, gracefully contorting, spinning, landing in a seemingly single effort."-- "Compulsive Reader"

"Sometimes when reading any original, energetic page of Dora Malech, there is an uncanny sense that it must be the first poem ever written or read: the witness of language's very invention."-- "Poetry Northwest"

"In Dora Malech's Trying x Trying we encounter a speaker who brilliantly pinpoints the pulses and currents that undergird public and private spaces and events, the political, the ecological, parenting, and the self. These poems believe deeply in the power of words as spells, prayers, songs, and talismans--and they interrogate the nature of language itself as the nexus of existence, torquing and bending signifiers and sounds until they radiate with insight. There is a danger, a fire, a smolder beneath these poems and their dazzling beauty and music--this is a book of awareness, of light and growth and small gestures--a book of resilience that lets us deep into the speaker's internal life, her contemplative strength and optimism."-- "Erika Meitner, author of Useful Junk"

About the Author

Dora Malech is a poet and associate professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and editor-in-chief of The Hopkins Review. Her most recent book of poetry is Flourish, and her poems have appeared in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, Poetry, and The Best American Poetry.