Kearney, Douglas: Mess and Mess and

Mess and Mess and by Douglas Kearney (Noemi Press, paperback) Publication Date: October 15, 2015 Publisher Marketing: Poetry. African & African American Studies. Douglas Kearney writes, "If my writing makes a mess of things, it's not to flee understanding, but to map (mis-)understanding as a verb." The map's guide is MESS AND MESS AND, in which Kearney defines the terms that member his poetics, taking even prefixes as a call for semantic inquiry. Within are essays that explore "the Negrotesque," gloss specific poems and poetry collections, the inspirations (from life, literature, and otherwise) he drew upon when putting his pen to the page—as well as studies and drafts from his journals. Simultaneously playful and cutting, Kearney's collection interrogates that which inspires, troubles, and recurs in his work, the mess(es) there. "The joy in reading MESS AND MESS AND comes from the way Douglas Kearney's writing performs and transforms the sensations of the historic, imagined and re