Each dayย as we count down to the announcement of the Minnesota Book Awards, we highlight one of the thirty-two finalists. Today we feature 2015 Poetry finalist Sean Hill.
Travel, Distance, and History in Verse
Dangerous Goods by Sean Hill
Published by Milkweed Editions
Category Sponsor: Wellington Management
A collection of verse on travel, distance, and history, Dangerous Goods features poems of reminiscence and coming of age, observations on modern life and times past. From the Bahamas, London, and Cairo, to Bemidji, Minnesota, and Milledgeville, Georgia, Hill explores the relationship between travel, migration, alienation, and home. Here, playful โpostcardโ poems addressed to โNostalgiaโ and โMy Third Crush Todayโ sit alongside powerful reflections on the immigration of African Americans to Liberia during and after the era of slavery. Part shadowbox, part migration map, part travelogue-in-verse, Dangerous Goods is poignant, elegant, and deeply moving.
About the author:
Sean Hill was born and raised in Milledgeville, Georgia, and received an MFA from the University of Houston. He has received fellowships and grants from Cave Canem, the Bush Foundation, The MacDowell Colony, the University of Wisconsin, the Jerome Foundation, and Stanford University where he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry. His first book, Blood Ties & Brown Liquor, was published by the University of Georgia Press in 2008. In 2009 Hill became an editor at Broadsided Press. He lives in Bemidji, MN.
ย The reviews are in:
โMeasuring the โdistance between desiresโ and the fear and possibilities of displacement, Sean Hillโs brilliant new book will make your heart skip โlike those ๏ฌat stones that kiss the skin / of the pond and ๏ฌy off again.โ Where Hillโs ๏ฌrst book was an evocation of his Georgia homeplace, Dangerous Goods travels widely and well, from nineteenth-century Liberia to present day Minnesota, from โBlacks on Boatsโ to postcards written to nostalgia and regret. Channeling Richard Hugo and Jay Wright, Hillโs poignant, pointed poetry is a divining rod, knowing well that the dark is โan ocean for us all.โโ โKevinย Young, author of Book of Hours
โSpanning centuries, countries, and subjects, Hillโs poems convey the dangerous goods that fascinate, inspire, and engage the reader. The authorโs originality gives a promising glimpse of a fascinating career.โ โ MN Book Awards judge
In the media:
Sean Hill Reads โPostcard to Wrong Addressโ on PRX
Sean Hill Reads โPostcard to Nostalgiaโ on PRX
Join us at the Awards Gala!
Award winners will be announced at the 27th Annual Minnesota Book Awards Gala on Saturday, April 18 at the historic St. Paul Union Depot. The opening reception begins at 7 p.m., followed by the awards ceremony at 8 p.m. Tickets are $50 and are available by visiting www.thefriends.org/gala.
Have you readย Dangerous Goods?ย What are your thoughts? We welcome your comments!