{"product_id":"please-make-me-pretty-i-dont-want-to-die-poems-paperback","title":"Please Make Me Pretty, I Don't Want to Die: Poems - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eTawanda Mulalu\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe debut collection of an exciting new voice in poetry\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003ePlease make me pretty, I don't want to die\u003c\/i\u003e explores tactility, sound, sensuality, and intimacy. Set across the four seasons of a year, these fresh and original poems by Tawanda Mulalu combine an inviting confessional voice and offbeat imagery, and offer an appealing mixture of seriousness and humor. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe speaker of these poems probes romantic and interracial intimacy, the strangeness and difficulty of his experiences as a diasporic Black African in White America, his time working as a teacher's assistant in a third-grade classroom, and his ambivalent admiration for canonical poets who have influenced him, especially Sylvia Plath. Juxtaposing traditional forms such as sonnets and elegies with less orthodox interjections, such as prose-poem \"prayers\" and other meditations, the collection presents a poetic world both familiar and jarring--one in which history, the body, and poetry can collide in a single surprising turn of image: \"The stars also suffer. Immense and dead, their gasses burn \/ distant like castanets of antebellum teeth. My open window \/ a synecdoche of country.\"\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTawanda Mulalu\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Gaborone, Botswana, in 1997. He is the author of the chapbook \u003ci\u003eNearness\u003c\/i\u003e, and his poems have appeared in many publications, including the \u003ci\u003eParis Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBrittle Paper\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eLolwe\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in New York City.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 104\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.4 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 13, 2022\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51783041548576,"sku":"9780691239033","price":22.63,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/568068e7ccd7d66b540c0f462cad6823.webp?v=1780578639","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/please-make-me-pretty-i-dont-want-to-die-poems-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}