Riverain

Oberlin College Press has always championed the prose poem, publishing such stellar examples as Russell Edsons The Tunnel, Beckian Fritz Goldbergs Egypt from Space, and Jeffrey Jeffrey Skinner's 2016 prize-winner Chance Divine. James Haugs Riverain is a masterful addition to that list. From the deadpan pastoral of Cows Are a Good Idea to quizzical fables like Silent River, this collection is mysterious, hilarious, and utterly unpredictable. Pulitzer Prizewinning poet James Tate described Haugs previous collection as marvelous poems, ones that help us see what might have been or could have been, in a world full of light. These new prose poems are equally revelatory, illuminating the natural world, contemporary culture, and New England metaphysics in witty and heartbreaking ways.