State Park, by Jenny Mueller

ISBN: 978-1-932-41862-0
$17

Winner of the the Elixir Press Annual Poetry Awards. Contest judge Adrian Matejka had this to say about STATE PARK: "Jenny Mueller's second collection of poems, STATE PARK, introduces the reader to an ever- widening landscape of splintered memories and equally fractured images. Mueller's taut lines and the magnetic possibilities she uncovers in sound and language come together to create an utterly singular poetic experience. This is a poet whose awareness of (dis) placement is only matched by her skill in verse and metaphor and so the natural world simultaneously serves as epicenter and pastoral for contemplation. As the speaker in 'White' says, 'you hear / the constant pushing of surfaces, / noises of breaching and of soil.' The same could be said of the thoughtful juxtapositions of action and reflection in these poems and it is inside of tensions that we discover our own personal geographies, our more real intentions in this unforgettable collection."

Jenny Mueller is the author of STATE PARK (Elixir Press, 2017) and BONNEVILLE (Elixir Press, 2007). A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the University of Utah's creative writing PhD program, she has also published two chapbooks. She lives in St. Louis and is professor of English at McKendree University in Lebanon, Illinois.