by Robin Reagler (Author)
“Into The The is an entirely musical and fanciful book of poems that flaunt the poet’s formal dexterity. The title poem, both an homage and questioning of Wallace Stevens, reminds us that the mind is not of use to us without the joys of the body, “A roaring praise/tests my fingernails…” This is a book of strict observance of all that can be touched.”
- Jericho Brown, author of Tradition, winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Reagler’s poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Pleiades, Iowa Review, Copper Nickel, Colorado Review, North American Review, and other journals.
She earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a PhD from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.
Into The The is a lyrical voyage of love through the American South in its vast and beautiful variety.
Available from Waterstones and Amazon and wholesale from Gardners UK. Able to stock on consignment in the UK.
Publisher: Backlash Press
ISBN: 1954780168, Poetry
Weight: 272g
Dimensions: 13.97 x 0.97 x 21.59 cm
Pages: 105
More Reviews
“This book is SO good. It is queer in more ways than two. While the is emblematic, thethe is more than doubling down on the sum of its parts. You get the feeling I am not merely a sliding pronoun in search of a Bible belt to tighten around everyone’s throats. With polemics kicked to the curb, what we getis a romp through the things of this worlddiscarded along the way yet cradled andcompacted in the mind’s catacombic kiln tillthat crushed dust of the Deep South becomesthe tincture that just might save us in the end. In times like these, it seems like we’ve been waiting forever for this enchanted elixir, these Looney Tunes arising from our most unruly tongues.”
- Timothy Liu
I’ve been waiting for this wonderful collection for so long-and look: here it is, right when it’s most needed! Truly remarkable for its attention to internal and external realities, vividly aware of the ways they are entangled (shaping as they respond to each other), the poems in Into TheThe are bursting with fresh insights and imbued with a joyous passion for life. Honoring the “thousand secrets // otherwise known as // selfhood,” the poet enlightens and enlarges our idea of what it means to be human, tracing the longings which make each of us “a hostage of the sky.” To read this book is to breathe more deeply, taking a needed and restorative step forward into openness: “Darkness, I have been so lonely. Lie down with me in the grass and read me our future in the constellations of fireflies.” I am so grateful to be revived by the bright energy Reagler brings to the poet’s task of being “present…there in just the way / that you meant to be.”
- Laura Mullen
About the Author
Into The The (BacklashPress, 2021) won the Backlash Best Book Award. Robin Reagler served 22 years as the Executive Director of Writers in the Schools (WITS) and volunteered as Chair of the AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) Board of Trustees. She is Vice President of LitNet, the organization that advocates for the literary sector, and board secretary for the Justice HubCharter School, focusing on equity and social justice for youth. She lives in Houston, Texas.