"Wright has found a way to wed fragments of an iconic America to
a luminously strange idiom, eerie as a tin whistle, which she uses
to evoke the haunted quality of our carnal existence."-The New
Yorker
Inspired by numerous visits inside Louisiana state prisons-where
MacArthur Fellow C.D. Wright served as a "factotum" for a portrait
photographer-One Big Self bears witness to incarcerated men and
women and speaks to the psychic toll of protracted time passed in
constricted space. It is a riveting mosaic of distinct voices,
epistolary pieces, elements from a moralistic board game, road
signage, prison data, inmate correspondence, and "counts" of
things-from baby's teeth to chigger bites:
Count your folding money Count the times you said you wouldn't
go back Count your debts Count the roaches when the light comes on
Count your kids after the housefire
One Big Self-originally published as a large-format limited
edition that featured photographs and text-was selected by The New
York Times and The Village Voice as a notable book of the year.
This edition features the poem exclusively.
C.D. Wright is the author of ten books of poetry, including
several collaborations with photographer Deborah Luster. She is a
professor at Brown University.
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