Alcalay, Ammiel: Controlled Demolition

Litmus Press, paperbackPublication Date: March 12, 2025Publisher Marketing: CONTROLLED DEMOLITION: a work in four books combines three of ammiel alcalay's previously published poetic texts—Scrapmetal (2007), the cairo notebooks (1993), and from the warring factions (2002)—with a new work, "Controlled Demolition." Unlike most writing categorized as "documentary" poetry, here the author and his process are constant reference points, serving as a prism to refract changes over time and circumstance in what becomes a mix of memoir, poetry, auto-critique, prose narrative, history, and investigative journalism by other means. "The notion of follow the person is a constant in Alcalay's poetics. The implication is this: the energy one artist can invest in really knowing the mind, commitments, affections, and beliefs of a progenitor or a kindred who is simply out of reach—too far away or too long-dead—is a conjuring agent, a potential that, once mobilized in earnest, will in some way become a