Calling a Wolf a Wolf
by Kaveh Akbar
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""The struggle from late youth on, with and without God, agony, narcotics and love is a torment rarely recorded with such sustained eloquence and passion as you will find in this collection." -Fanny Howe. This highly-anticipated debut boldly confronts addiction and courses the strenuous path of recovery, beginning in the wilds of the mind. Poems confront craving, control, the constant battle of alcoholism and sobriety, and the questioning of the self and its instincts within the context of show more this never-ending fight. From "Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before": Sometimes you just have to leave whatever's real to you, you have to clomp through fields and kick the caps off all the toadstools. Sometimes you have to march all the way to Galilee or the literal foot of God himself before you realize you've already passed the place where you were supposed to die. I can no longer remember the being afraid, only that it came to an end. Kaveh Akbar is the founding editor of Divedapper. His poems appear recently or soon in The New Yorker, Poetry, APR, Tin House, PBS NewsHour, and elsewhere. He is the author of the chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic (Sibling Rivalry). The recipient of a 2016 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, Akbar was born in Tehran, Iran, and currently lives and teaches in Florida"-- show lessTags
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Member Recommendations
Member Reviews
Kaeh Akbar is, hands down, my new favorite poet. I carried this book with me for the past month, and I didn't want to let it go. Every single poem is surprising and illuminating and crushing. I can't formulate good enough sentences to express just how much I love this book, how much I've learned about what poetry can do, and how to craft poems equally compelling as they are genuine. Following him on Twitter was one of the best decisions I've ever made, and I'm so full of gratitude to be able to read his words.
"How do I look today, better or worse than a medium-priced edible arrangement?"
Gold.
Gold.
A powerful collection; Akbar manages to evoke the growth of moving on from assuming you'll die so well, and manages to do it without glorifying the pain itself, but with compassion. Some really beautiful stuff in here, for sure.
A brilliant book of poetry focused on addiction and its effect on one man's life.
A harrowing intense read. Kaveh's poetry is dark and mysterious and earth shattering. A must read for the modern poet.
Some truly gorgeous images in this collection, very well done.
Passes the Emily Dickinson test with flying colors.
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Author Information
10+ Works 2,961 Members
Kaveh Akbar is the author of a previous poetry collection, Calling a Wolf a Wolf, and the editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine. He serves as the poetry editor of the Nation and teaches at Purdue University and in the low-residency MFA programs at Randolph College and Warren Wilson.
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- Members
- 333
- Popularity
- 95,100
- Reviews
- 7
- Rating
- (4.23)
- Languages
- English, Multiple languages
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 1
