{"product_id":"cruel-futures-city-lights-spotlight-no-17-9780872867581","title":"Cruel Futures: City Lights Spotlight No. 17","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCruel Futures\u003c\/em\u003e is a witchy confessional and wildly imagistic volume that examines subjects as divergent as Alzheimers, Medusa, mumblecore, and mental illness in sharp-witted, taut poems dense with song. Chronicling life on an endangered planet, in a country on the precipice of profound change compelled by a media machine that produces our realities, the book is a high-energy analysis of popular culture, as well as an exploration of the many social roles that women occupy as mother, daughter, lover, and the resulting struggle to maintain personhood--all in a late capitalist America.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eCruel Futures\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Gim nez Smith seeks release from the pressures of societal expectations in this collection of brief yet powerful poems. ... Gim nez Smith's crisp lyrics and imagery highlight ever-present threats to female personhood and autonomy.\"--\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eCruel Futures\u003c\/em\u003e is one of those rare books, rare pieces of art, that manages to be extremely intimate, vulnerable and close while also doing a kind of searing cultural critique. The poems can be tender or ironic, and sometimes a blending of the two, which is not easy.\"--\u003cstrong\u003eRoss Gay\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"In the body, through the lyric, and twitching with every sense of the word 'nerve, ' this book sings a mongrel nation into and across its cruel futures. Like Neruda in his \u003cem\u003ePlenos Poderes\/Full Powers\u003c\/em\u003e, Gim nez Smith has all the mastery she needs to cast a cold eye on her positioning, and ours. In this way \u003cem\u003eCruel Futures\u003c\/em\u003e is an autobiography that won't stay in its genre or premise, caring less to author a self than to follow turns of magic in words that might soothe our 'collisions with the living.'\"--\u003cstrong\u003eFarid Matuk\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Declamatory anthems to no nation, these songs stride as they deal and wheel with skin and kin: history, catastrophe, the body, love. 'Upturned and defiant, all types of shade, no outskirt, \/ vital like a saint, ' the poems in \u003cem\u003eCruel Futures\u003c\/em\u003e shimmer with Gim nez Smith's lyric attention: full of grit, sharp and knowing.\"--\u003cstrong\u003eHoa Nguyen\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e City Lights Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/27\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780872867581\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 88\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.25lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.00h x 5.50w x 0.40d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/19\/2018\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Carmen Gim\u0026#233;nez Smith","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36645486952604,"sku":"9780872867581","price":13.56,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_1e180c3c-982d-4b22-942c-22fd17a7be7e.jpg?v=1603861232","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/cruel-futures-city-lights-spotlight-no-17-9780872867581","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}