A Beautiful Name for a Girl

By Kirsten Kaschock

Poetry. Human identity testing itself: are the speakers of these poems mother, teacher, creative artist--or are they merely bones to be sorted and juggled? The ramifications of identity ("we'd know... the translation / into mother to be exaltation. Murder, also") leap up sharply in the book's central poem, "Snuff Ballet," in which one speaker, a dancer, is tested by inquisitors who may be a board from whom she seeks a grant. But perhaps these voices, which quickly become intimate and judgmental ("When was the last time you had sex?"), are merely criticism internalized, part of the "one-woman show."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1934103179
• ISBN13: 9781934103173
• Release Date: January 2011
• Publisher: Ahsahta Press
• Length: 104 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.