# On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths - Hardcover

by **Lucia Perillo** (Author)

**Honored as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012 by _The New York Times Book Review_**

The poems in _On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths_ are taut, lucid, lyric, filled with complex emotional reflection while avoiding the usual difficulties of highbrow poetry.--_New York Times Book Review_

  
Perillo has long lived with, and written about, her struggle with debilitating multiple sclerosis. Her bracing sixth book of poems, published concurrently with her debut story collection, takes an unflinching, though not unsmiling, look at mortality. Perillo has a penchant for dark humor, for jokes that stick.--_Publishers Weekly_, starred review

  
Perillo's poetic persona is funny, tough, bold, smart, and righteous. A spellbinding storyteller and a poet who makes the demands of the form seem as natural as a handshake, she pulls readers into the beat and whirl of her slyly devastating descriptions.--_Booklist_

Whoever told you poetry isn't for everyone hasn't read Lucia Perillo. She writes accessible, often funny poems that border on the profane.--_Time Out New York_

Lucia Perillo's much lauded writing has been consistently fine--with its deep, fearless intelligence; its dark and delicious wit; its skillful lyricism; and its refreshingly cool but no less embracing humanity. --Open Books: A Poem Emporium

  
The poetry of Lucia Perillo is fierce, tragicomic, and contrarian, with subjects ranging from coyotes and Scotch broom to local elections and family history. Formally braided, Perillo gathers strands of the mythic and mundane, of media and daily life, as she faces the treachery of illness and draws readers into poems rich in image and story.

_When you spend many hours alone in a room  
you have more than the usual chances to disgust yourself--  
this is the problem of the body, not that it is mortal  
but that it is mortifying. When we were young they taught us  
do not touch it, but who can keep from touching it,  
from scratching off the juicy scab? Today I bit  
a thick hangnail and thought of Schneebaum,  
who walked four days into the jungle  
and stayed for the kindness of the tribe--  
who would have thought that cannibals would be so tender?_

**Lucia Perillo**'s _Inseminating the Elephant_ (Copper Canyon Press, 2009) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and received the Bobbitt award from the Library of Congress. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

  

### Author Biography

Lucia Perillo: Lucia Perillo graduated from McGill University in Montreal in 1979 with a major in wildlife management, and subsequently worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. She completed her MA in English at Syracuse University, and has published five books of poetry. She was a MacArthur Fellow in 2000 and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2009. She lives in Olympia, Washington.

**Number of Pages:** 81

**Dimensions:** 0.6 x 9.6 x 7.1 IN

**Publication Date:** May 29, 2012

**Award:** National Book Critics Circle Award (2012)

**Award:** Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award (2013)

## Details

- **Price:** 22.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 22.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths - Hardcover

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