Genealogies

Poetry. Brad Crenshaw's GENEALOGIES, an epic poem in blank verse that transgresses and transcends conventional poetic genres is a tour de force of dazzling originality. This book-length poem concerns a sixteenth-century privateer rendered immortal by his Native American wife, and includes time travel, birdmen, genetic manipulation and a plot to assassinate the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, with stops at a Grateful Dead concert and forays into quantum mechanics, infectious diseases, horse racing and Manichaeism, among other diversions. Part science fiction, part philosophical conjecture, GENEALOGIES mines our literary history and contemporary philosophical and scientific investigations to create a work of astonishing range and power. The author of MY GARGANTUAN DESIRE—a suite of Shakespearian sonnets presented as prose poems—once again challenges and enchants his readers with deep intelligence and a rare music.