Perception consists of short poems rooted in observed objects. Using metaphoric description as well as association, the poems inhabit the objects or entities that they contemplate — ranging from paintings and shop signs to wallpaper and flower species.  These poems are seeking to enact a tenor of attention — the power of singular focus — that is too easily lost in our multi-tasking age.

“Christina Pugh’s Perception transports us, from its opening starburst of phrases, through ravishing particulars...”

–– Phillis Levin

“...I already find myself returning often to these beautiful, intricate meditations, grateful for what they release, grateful for what they restore.”

–– Mary Szybist

About the Author

Christina Pugh’s books of poems include Grains of the Voice (Northwestern University Press, 2013), Restoration (Northwestern University Press, 2008) and Rotary (Word Press, 2004), which received the Word Press First Book Prize; and the chapbook Gardening at Dusk (Wells College Press, 2002). Pugh’s fourth book of poems, Perception, was published by Four Way Books in February, 2017.  Her poems have appeared widely.  Pugh was recently awarded a 2015 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship to complete her fifth book of poems, Stardust Media.  Her honors have also included the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, an individual artist fellowship in poetry from the Illinois Arts Council, the Grolier Poetry Prize, an AWP Intro Journals Award, and the Ruth Lilly Fellowship from Poetry. She lives in Evanston, Illinois, and is a professor in the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In addition to her teaching, she is Consulting Editor for Poetry magazine.   

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