Occasional Wild Parties

Penguin Modern Poets 5

Occasional Wild Parties brings together Sam Riviere, one of the most discussed of the new generation of British poets, whose 'post-internet' poetry sees him acting now as scribe, now as DJ, taking in everything from technologized romance to celebrity culture as filtered through Kim Kardashian's make-up routine; the 'elegant ghoul' Frederick Seidel, zooming through the dark underbelly of international high society on his Ducati racing bike; and the wonderfully observant Kathryn Maris, whose work ranges with a dark wit over incomprehensible deities, wayward mothers, the politics of children's sports contests, and psychoanalysis. All three lift the lid on their corners of civilized society to show the less glittering realities that lie just beneath the surface. 
 
"On the verge of perpetrating acts of artistic barbarism 
 
"I perceived a spoon as the title of a plate of food" 
- SAM RIVIERE, 'Mindfulness' 
 
"Deer garter-belt across our vision 
And stand there waiting for our decision. 
 
"Our only decision was how to cook the venison. 
I am civilized but 
I see the silence 
And write the words for the thought balloon." 
- FREDERICK SEIDEL, 'Kill Poem' 
 
"The man in the basement wrote stories about heroin. 
The woman in the attic read stories with heroines. 
The woman in the attic noticed a bruise that ran from the top to the base of her thigh. 
The bruise looked like Europe. 
The man in the basement was in love with the sister of the secretive man who loved him more. 
He whooped to the woman, 'You killed your student?' 
To himself he wept, 'I killed my father.'" 
- KATHRYN MARIS, 'The House with Only an Attic and a Basement'

Sam Riviere's books include 81 Austerities (Faber, 2012; winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection), Kim Kardashian's Marriage (Faber, 2015) and the pamphlets Standard Twin Fantasy (2014) and True Colours (2016). Safe Mode, an ambient novel, is published by Test Centre (2017). He lives in Edinburgh. 
 
Frederick Seidel was born in St Louis and lives in New York City. His collections include Final Solutions (1962), Sunrise (1980), Going Fast (1998; a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry), Ooga- Booga (2006), Nice Weather (2012) and Widening Income Inequality (2016). He has won many prizes. 
 
Kathryn Maris is originally from New York and has lived in London since 1999. Her collections are The Book of Jobs (Four Way Books, 2006) and God Loves You (Seren, 2013); her third, The House with Only an Attic and a Basement, is forthcoming from Penguin in Spring 2018.

Kathryn Maris

A neurotically funny collection that looks under the hood of adult life 
 
As in life, she was a pain in the arse 
in death. He could hear her roaring 
all the way from the fifth circle, 
'Why the hell do you get to be in a 
better circle than me, I'm wrathful 
because of your lust -' 
 
Deploying a chorus of voices both ancient and modern to explore a world of sexual politics and singles cruises, dysfunctional families and psychoanalysis, awkward cohabitations and self-help guides for the would-be Dream Girl, this is the third collection from a unique poetic talent: observant, obsessive and wickedly witty. 
 
'The funniest book I've read in years. Maris flexes her wit and wisdom to create a litany of nervous characters in a style that's mordant, sarcastic, satiric yet often compassionate . . . a poet of risk, she is dark, deep and often laugh out loud' 
DALJIT NAGRA 
 
'Her dry, droll, clinically deadpan manner is all her own; but her themes - obscure hurts, implacable dissatisfactions, hardwired propensity for victimhood and suffering - reflect the experience of humanity at large' 
CHRISTOPHER REID

Kathryn Maris

The House with Only an Attic and a Basement

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