Coolth - Hajara Quinn
Coolth - Hajara Quinn
I HAVE COME TO TERMS WITH THE FACT THAT EVERYTHING I TELL MYSELF MIGHT VERY WELL ALREADY BE HALF A TRUTH AGO.
84 Pages
5.25 x 8
ISBN: 978-1-941985-09-0
Publication Date: July 23rd, 2018
WINNER OF THE RUTH STONE FIRST BOOK PRIZE
Like a coconut-scented suntan lotion that only the applicant can smell, Hajara Quinn’s Coolth is a effortless tide pool. Blending the incantational voice of Mary Ruefle with the allegorical magic of Lucie Brock-Broido, Quinn impeccably collapses distances: between the present and the past, the mundane and the ethereal, the self and the other. But her voice is as sure of itself as it is unsure of the world. Coolth is a debut collection that suspiciously grabs the rope swing and dives into the lake of un-unbelonging. The perfect summer read for the emotionally demure.
“An Exercise In Joy.”
PRAISE FOR COOLTH
"'A boy in a pool in CA / says Marco and a boy in a pool / in NJ says Polo.' Hajara Quinn's debut boldly paints our world with new phrases and ways of seeing. One poem speaks of "a battalion of clouds / dry humping into the distance" and another says "I named my jade plant Boom Town / and watched it booming / in its fit of sun." Coolth reveals a new kind of transcendentalism—a pool party of cartoons and realities. These poems are built with inherent humanity and love. As Quinn says, 'Turn to your neighbor, / and smell their hot jazz.'"
—Rachel B. Glaser, Hairdo and Paulina & Fran
"Coolth poureth forth like a pep rally into the emerald lap of the corn belt. It hums more than it moans, but on the other hand, it moans more than it hums. Either way, Coolth is the meatloaf of poetry books, guaranteed to render the open mind opener. As Meatloaf says, “I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that.” Whatever that is is the heart of what Coolth is."
—Zachary Schomburg, Manmother and Fjords vol. I
"Delightfully lucid and touchingly witty, these poems open up trap doors in my brain that I never knew existed. I fall through them excitedly, willingly. I want to keep falling. Reading Coolth is like finding secret passageways in familiar places. Hajara Quinn is my favorite living poet."
—Ling Ma, Severence
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