Until We Talk - by Darrell Bourque (Paperback)

About the Book

"UNTIL WE TALK is a set of jazz-inflected ghazals tied to epigraphs from Colum McCann's novel APEIROGON and illuminated with Bill Gingles's abstract expressionist paintings. Predominately rooted in the tragic losses in contemporary Israeli and Palestinian families, the poems braid those losses into parallel losses in geopolitical race, ethnic, class, and caste conflicts"--

Book Synopsis

This collection is a set of jazz-inflected ghazals tied to epigraphs from Colum McCann's award-winning novel Apeirogon and illuminated with Bill Gingles' abstract expressionist paintings.

Until We Talk is of race, ethnicity, human rights, social justice, hate crime, terror, supremacy, colonialism/post-colonialism/neo-colonialism, the Other. Predominately rooted in the tragic losses in contemporary Israeli and Palestinian families, the poems braid those losses into parallel losses in geo-political race, ethnic, class, and caste conflicts.

Review Quotes

When I began writing Apeirogon, I had a feeling that it would extend itself into the world. Like Rami and Bassam, I didn't want the story to end. I wanted it to become a sort of Scheherazade tale, a ruse in the face of death, an ongoing celebration of life, a song. I wanted a musician to create his or her own apeirogon. I wanted a poet to create his or her own shape. I wanted a reader to do it too. In other words, I wanted Abir and Smadar to be entirely alive in the vast expanse of us all. Darrell Bourque's poems have extended the apeirogon and given even further life to Abir and Smadar. I am stunned and humbled that a poet of such stature would take my words and shape them into something so new and beautiful--something, in fact, profoundly more beautiful. I read these poems, one a day, over the course of weeks--and they gave great grace to my days.--Colum McCann

About the Author

Darrell Bourque is professor emeritus of English from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where he also directed the interdisciplinary humanities studies program. He served as a Louisiana Poet Laureate and was recipient of the Louisiana Book Festival's Writer Award and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Humanist of the Year Award. His publications include Burnt Water Suite, The Blue Boat, In Ordinary Light-New and Selected Poems, Megan's Guitar and Other Poems from Acadie, and Migraré.

Bill Gingles is an artist and former art educator. His paintings are represented by galleries in the U.S., British Columbia, and London. He works and lives in Louisiana with his wife Diana and their three Jack Russell terriers: Bridget, Farley, and Penny.