In her intimate new collection, Barbara Kingsolver, the beloved author of The Poisonwood Bible and more than a dozen other New York Times bestsellers, winner or finalist for the Pulitzer and countless other prizes, now trains her eye on the everyday and the metaphysical in poems that are smartly crafted, emotionally rich, and luminous. In her second poetry collection, How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) (Harper), Kingsolver offers reflections on the practical, the spiritual, and the wild. She begins with “how to” poems addressing everyday matters such as being hopeful, married, divorced; shearing a sheep; praying to unreliable gods; doing nothing at all; and of course, flying. Next come rafts of poems about making peace (or not) with the complicated bonds of friendship and family, and making peace (or not) with death, in the many ways it finds us. Some poems reflect on the redemptive powers of art and poetry itself; others consider where everything begins. Closing the book are poems that celebrate natural wonders — birdsong and ghost-flowers, ruthless ants, clever shellfish, coral reefs, deadly deserts, and thousand-year-old beech trees — all speaking to the daring project of belonging to an untamed world beyond ourselves. Altogether, Kingsolver’s new poems are about transcendence: finding breath and lightness in life and the everyday acts of living. It’s all terribly easy and, as the title suggests, not entirely possible. Or at least, it is never quite finished. Kingsolver will be joined in conversation by Lavinia Singer, editor of poetry at Faber & Faber.
Please note: This is a ticketed event. Purchasing a preorder copy of How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) ($24.99) entitles you to attend our virtual event with Kingsolver and Singer on Sunday, October 4, at 1pm (PT). After you have purchased the book, we will automatically register you for the Zoom event, and will send you an email two days prior to the event containing a link to the event and instructions on how to access it. Your copy of How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) will ship on the day of the event.
Buy the Book-Inclusive Event Ticket
Related
