Burn Lake

By Carrie Fountain

Book Overview

Selected for the 2009 National Poetry Series by Natasha Trethewey

Set in southern New Mexico, where her family's multi­cultural history is deeply rooted, the poems in Carrie Fountain's first collection explore issues of progress, history, violence, sexuality, and the self. Burn Lake weaves together the experience of life in the rapidly changing American Southwest with the peculiar journey of Don Juan de O ate, who was dispatched from Mexico City in the late sixteenth- century by Spanish royalty to settle the so-called New Mexico Province, of which little was known. A letter that was sent to O ate by the Viceroy of New Spain, asking that should he come upon the North Sea in New Mexico, he should give a detailed report of "the configuration of the coast and the capacity of each harbor" becomes the inspiration for many of the poems in this artfully composed debut.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143117718
• ISBN13: 9780143117711
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Penguin Adult Hc/Tr
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Fantastic

She's got talent, that's for sure. Hints of a theme of silence from the Universe; exploration and inquiry into difficult or downright mundane situations become a backdrop for a desperate Cosmos that needs enjoying more than understanding. My philosophical and spiritual beliefs differ, but the bleak outlook in no way left me unable to deliberately soak up the pleasure of her impeccable word choice, bringing synesthesia and illustration to the forefront of even my most languid moments.

Poems about place and people....

I attended Carrie Fountain's reading in Austin last week, and bought the book--and it's wonderful....