North of Crivitz
North of Crivitz by Richard Holinger, published by Kelsay Books on August 21, 2020, is a collection of poetry that explores the intricate relationship between the natural world and human experience. This 68-page edition presents Holinger’s keen observations of the rural Midwest, where he juxtaposes the beauty of the landscape with the realities of its human-altered environment. Through his work, readers encounter a lyrical examination of personal and regional identity, reflecting on themes of change, loss, and appreciation.
In these taut poems, Holinger’s naturalist perspective reveals a deep connection to the geography he inhabits, inviting readers to engage with both the familiar and the transformative aspects of life in the Midwest. The poet’s diction resonates with the sounds and rhythms of the Upper Midwest, creating a vivid sense of place. As he navigates the interplay between the natural and the constructed, Holinger offers insights into the emotional landscapes that shape his experiences, making this collection a thoughtful exploration of both the external world and the inner self.
Official synopsis Publisher
Whatever solace that these taut poems deliver shoulders as much salt as sugar. Here, Holinger’s naturalist’s eye for redemptive detail confronts the realist’s doggedness for a cold-eyed fact. Within these lines, one hears Emerson and Frost wrestling in verdant woods north of Crivitz, the former erecting his spire of “spiritual facts” while the latter’s muddy boot kicks at footings bracing the whole façade. Amid this fervent tussle, the poet hankers for what might “redeem” both himself and the beloved topography he inhabits.
-Kevin Stein, Ph.D., Illinois Poet Laureate 2003-2017, Caterpillar Professor and Director of Bradley University’s Creative Writing Program, author of seven books of poetry, including Wrestling Li Po for the Remote.
Richard Holinger’s North of Crivitz invites the reader into a geography and a life both proudly regional and powerfully resonant. Holinger accurately differentiates the natural lineaments of the rural Midwest, but equally important to him is the “treeless Midwest” the continual changes wrought by its human-built environment, which mirror the poet’s own changes, losses, and appreciations over time. Speaking with diction “thick in the vowels / and consonants of the Upper Midwest,” Holinger makes a local habitation lyrical-like Frost before him, whose North of Boston echoes in this book’s very title.
-Christina Pugh, author of the 2019 Juniper Prize for Poetry (Stardust Media) and four other books. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, Poetry, and The Kenyon Review. Awarded a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, she is a professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a consulting editor for Poetry.
In fine poems where a man finds the way into a place where deer incite him to dance with them, wandering to ponds when days give back to the night, to a woods on County C where stillness is untranslatable yet, often with a fishing pole in hand, nearly always with the past as companion-brother, father, grandparent, wife-Richard Holinger gives us a map to the interior and the way home.
-Carol Frost, author of ten books of poetry, most recently Alias City. Recipient of two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, she is featured in four Pushcart Prize anthologies and is Chair of English at Rollins College.
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