Each day we highlight one of the 36 finalists leading up to the April 8 announcement of the Minnesota Book Awards, presented by Education Minnesota. Today we feature 2017 Poetry finalist:
Yes Thorn by Amy Munson
Published by: Tupelo Press
Category Sponsor: Wellington Management, Inc.
Yes Thorn abides with mysteries—mortality, spirituality, sexuality, nature, divinity, love—and interrogates them without necessarily pressing toward or expecting explanation. Its diction is sometimes ornate, but language and images that dwell in more classically lyric places are often undercut or mixed with tougher, blunter elements.
About the Author:
Amy Munson lives in Minneapolis. Her work has received grants and support from the McKnight Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board and has appeared in journals such as the Kenyon Review, the Gettysburg Review, West Branch, and Image. She received her MFA in poetry from Eastern Washington University’s Inland Northwest Center for Writers, and she teaches at the University of Northwestern–St. Paul.
Rave Reviews:
“Yes Thorn uses language in new and exciting ways. And I admire how this poet asks the critical questions: What connects us, to each other and to belief? Can we be connected — to ideas, to lovers, to religious belief, to family — without also being inscribed by these connections? Can we be moved by desire and longing without becoming subject to them?” — Paisley Rekdal
“[W]hatever the origin and inspiration, this wonderful book of poems will prick you and infect your imagination long after you have read it. I truly look forward to reading more of Munson’s work in the future.” —Daniel Klawitter, NewPages
“The poems were striking: we could not forget the effect of her language, words that were perhaps familiar, but not usually found together pounding emotion onto the page, delving into both interpersonal relationships, the self and our relationship to the divine.” – Minnesota Book Awards judge
Beyond the Book:
Profile on Amy (McCann) Munson for Northwestern Examiner