Monday, October 27, 2014

Happy 10th! Amanda Jernigan on Track & Trace


Dear Biblioasis,

I've been dipping back into Zach Wells' book Track & Trace, which I bought and browsed when it first came out -- but it's only now, on further reading, that I appreciate the neat fit of Seth's austere cartoons (if I can call them that) with the rigorously pent emotions in Zach's poems. As John Metcalf once wrote to me, talking about Ben Jonson's "On My First Daughter," "It may be that it is the distance itself which is so moving."

That's a brief appreciation, as I can hear the baby stirring and the toddler (who's been at the park with his saintly grandmother) approaching home, but I hope it will serve your turn. I, too, lament the speed with which backlist books fall off the publicity radar. For years I've dated the flyleaves of books according to when I bought the books -- but it's often years before I really get round to reading them. Better, I think, to record the date (with a really good book, dates) of reading: the date(s) when the words actually entered/re-entered your thought and life.


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