NPM 23

Today I'm recommending Éireann Lorsung's second book Her Book (Milkweed Editions 2013).
I've been a fan of Éireann's since I read her first book, Music for Landing Planes By. I remember writing her an email fan letter, because the book moved me and changed my ideas of what a poem could allow. Éireann responded so graciously, and we have been internet friends ever since. I was lucky enough to meet her in person in the summer of 2013 when she came to the US to promote Her Book and we got to read together in Minneapolis. Éireann is incredibly kind and who I think of when I think of good literary citizenship. She is generous and supportive of other writers, helpful and an astute reader of others' work. I'm so happy to know her and her poems.
Éireann is also the publisher of MIEL and editor of 111O.
MIEL was established in 2011 to promote and publish difficult, innovative, intelligent, and deeply felt writing and visual art. We publish poetry, short prose, photographs, and prints in forms that bridge the trade edition and artist's book.
They are invested in books as objects and are interested in contributing to a tactile reading experience, whether paper or electronic.
Everything they've published has been stunning and beautiful as an object.
111O is a literary journal I'm so lucky to have been published in twice. Their interest lies in making an object that is both attractive and approachable, and in showcasing the work of writers and artists we admire with grace, simplicity, and dignity. That’s why the format of the magazine is small and will stay small. They figure a story, a photograph, and ten poems don’t impinge on your reading time–but they’re enough to show you something new.They’re interested in tinges of surrealism, magic tricks, the 20th century, the prose poem, natural histories, museums, theory, photography, list-making.
Lorsung's own books live up to these ideals. If you haven't already bought her first book, pick up a copy when you are buying Her Book.
From the poet who brought us Music For Landing Planes By, Éireann Lorsung’s luminous voice is distilled through multiple unnamed female speakers in this, her second collection. Full of youth, wonder, and imagination, Her book crosses distances and generations to celebrate the lives of women, their individual and shared experiences, and the bonds that bring them together. This is also a book about translation — of experience into art, of knowledge across time and space — and conversation — with, for instance, work by Kiki Smith, widely known as a feminist artist. Lorsung writes additionally about her time spent in England and friendships she formed with women there.