Dunce

Description Reviews **Now in softcover!** FINALIST for the 2020 PULITZER PRIZE Long listed for the 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD Long listed for the 2019 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST for the 2019 LA TIMES BOOK PRIZEIn Dunce, Mary Ruefle returns to the poetic practice that has always been at her core. With her startlingly fresh sensibility, she enraptures us in poem after poem by the intensity of her attention, with the imaginative flourishes of her being-in-the-world, always deep with mysteries, unexpected appearances, and abiding yearning. "These poems grace the readers with wonder, wisdom, and whim . . . securing Ruefle’s reputation among poets as the patron saint of childhood and the everyday."—Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW Death is old news in Dunce, the gaze here candid and unflinching, but not without moments of fragility and tenderness. Adorned with no additional emotion, sandbagged by no additional weight, mortality is just another guest on these pages.