Junk
Tommy Pico
(Author)
Description
The third book in Tommy Pico's Teebs trilogy, Junk is a breakup poem in couplets: ice floe and hot lava, a tribute to Janet Jackson and nacho cheese. In the static that follows the loss of a job or an apartment or a boyfriend, what can you grab onto for orientation? The narrator wonders what happens to the sense of self when the illusion of security has been stripped away. And for an indigenous person, how do these lost markers of identity echo larger cultural losses and erasures in a changing political landscape? In part taking its cue from A.R. Ammons's Garbage, Teebs names this liminal space "Junk," in the sense that a junk shop is full of old things waiting for their next use; different items that collectively become indistinct. But can there be a comfort outside the anxiety of utility? An appreciation of "being" for the sake of being? And will there be Chili Cheese Fritos?Product Details
Price
$15.95
$14.83
Publisher
Tin House Books
Publish Date
May 08, 2018
Pages
80
Dimensions
5.8 X 8.8 X 0.2 inches | 0.3 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781941040973
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About the Author
Tommy "Teebs" Pico is the author of the books IRL, Nature Poem, and Junk. He's been the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Whiting Foundation, the Lambda Literary Foundation, the Poetry Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Brooklyn Public Library. He co-curates the reading series Poets with Attitude, co-hosts the podcast Food 4 Thot, and is a contributor editor at Literary Hub. Originally from the Viejas Indian reservation of the Kumeyaay nation, he now lives in Los Angeles, CA.
Reviews
Pico is the master of making the stone stony, of returning the sheer absurdity of being to everything, from grief to intimacy to dating apps to donuts. Junk insists on the urgency of the quotidian, of, to borrow a phrase from Pico, 'vibrant inconsequence.' It's rare to read a book that makes living feel so alive.--Kaveh Akbar, author of CALLING A WOLF A WOLF
Tommy Pico's books are contemporary epics. He writes poetry of rare brilliance, assured in form and forceful in its interrogation of myth and cultural expectations and self.--Whiting Award Committee
Build[s] into an apocalyptic crescendo via Pico's propulsive fervor . . . Pico demonstrates that a person's many selves, traumas, anxieties, hookups, and breakups can become a marker of courage and survival.--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
[Tommy Pico] writes poems that are complex yet accessible, that sound like 2018 but that have staying power long past it, in the same way that O'Hara's poems resonate long past their midcentury milieu. . . . Through Pico's lens, nothing is not worth our attention.--Los Angeles Review of Books
[Pico] weaves pop culture and slang throughout his deep-rooted criticisms of US history and culture, wooing readers into a comfortable, if brief, moment of familiarity (see: Janet Jackson lyrics) so that the swift pivot to violence and heartache hits like a gut punch.--BuzzFeed
A mash-up of humor, cutting-edge language, and shattered stereotypes, Pico's work paints a whole new portrait of queer identity . . . Truly incredible.--PrideLife
Junk is a true American odyssey, complete with a reluctant hero who defies all odds to survive. Repulsed by the trashiness of empire, the violence of occupation, this book nonetheless searches in earnest for real tenderness, a romance that isn't corny. . . . This is poetry of the highest order, on the level of a pop song, with the crystalline visions of a seer. I consumed it greedily, repeatedly, and am forever changed because of it.--Jenny Zhang, author of SOUR HEART
Tommy Pico's books are contemporary epics. He writes poetry of rare brilliance, assured in form and forceful in its interrogation of myth and cultural expectations and self.--Whiting Award Committee
Build[s] into an apocalyptic crescendo via Pico's propulsive fervor . . . Pico demonstrates that a person's many selves, traumas, anxieties, hookups, and breakups can become a marker of courage and survival.--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
[Tommy Pico] writes poems that are complex yet accessible, that sound like 2018 but that have staying power long past it, in the same way that O'Hara's poems resonate long past their midcentury milieu. . . . Through Pico's lens, nothing is not worth our attention.--Los Angeles Review of Books
[Pico] weaves pop culture and slang throughout his deep-rooted criticisms of US history and culture, wooing readers into a comfortable, if brief, moment of familiarity (see: Janet Jackson lyrics) so that the swift pivot to violence and heartache hits like a gut punch.--BuzzFeed
A mash-up of humor, cutting-edge language, and shattered stereotypes, Pico's work paints a whole new portrait of queer identity . . . Truly incredible.--PrideLife
Junk is a true American odyssey, complete with a reluctant hero who defies all odds to survive. Repulsed by the trashiness of empire, the violence of occupation, this book nonetheless searches in earnest for real tenderness, a romance that isn't corny. . . . This is poetry of the highest order, on the level of a pop song, with the crystalline visions of a seer. I consumed it greedily, repeatedly, and am forever changed because of it.--Jenny Zhang, author of SOUR HEART
