{"product_id":"back-to-the-woods-paperback","title":"Back to the Woods - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eCynthia Cruz\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e National Book Critics Circle Award Winner Cynthia Cruz reevaluates the paradox of the death drive in her eighth collection of poetry, \u003ci\u003e Back to the Woods\u003c\/i\u003e. Could it be that in ceaselessly snuffing ourselves out we are, in fact, trying to survive? In \"Shine,\" Cruz's speaker attests that \"if [she] had a home, it would be \/\/ a still in a film \/ where the sound \/ got jammed.\" This book inhabits the silence of the empty orchestra pit, facing \"dread, and its many \/ instruments of sorrow.\" The quiet asks, \"Did you love this world \/ and did this world \/ not love you?\" We return to the site of our suffering, we perform the symphony of all our old injuries, to master what has broken us. To make possible the future, we retreat into the past. \"I don't know \/ the ending. \/\/ I don't know anything,\" our speaker insists, but she follows the wind's off-kilter song of \"winter \/ in the pines\" and \"the dissonance \/ of siskins.\" Cruz heeds the urgency of our wandering, the mandate that we must get back to the woods, not simply for the forest to devour us -- she recognizes in the oblivion \"flooding out \/ from its spiral branches\" an impossible promise. At the tree line, we might vanish to begin again. \u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Cruz is the author of seven previous collections of poems: \u003ci\u003eHotel Oblivion\u003c\/i\u003e (Four Way Books, 2022), \u003ci\u003eGuidebooks for the Dead\u003c\/i\u003e (Four Way Books, 2020), \u003ci\u003eDregs\u003c\/i\u003e (Four Way Books, 2018), \u003ci\u003eHow the End Begins\u003c\/i\u003e (Four Way Books, 2016), \u003ci\u003eWunderkammer\u003c\/i\u003e (Four Way Books, 2014), \u003ci\u003eThe Glimmering Room\u003c\/i\u003e (Four Way Books, 2012) and \u003ci\u003eRuin\u003c\/i\u003e (Alice James Books, 2006). \u003ci\u003eDisquieting: Essays on Silence\u003c\/i\u003e, a collection of critical essays exploring the concept of silence, was published by Book*hug in the spring of 2019. \u003ci\u003eThe Melancholia of Class\u003c\/i\u003e, an exploration of melancholia and the working class, was published by Repeater Books in July of 2021. \u003ci\u003eSteady Diet of Nothing\u003c\/i\u003e (Four Way Books, 2023), is Cruz's debut novel. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Cruz earned a BA in English Literature at Mills College, an MFA in poetry at Sarah Lawrence College, an MFA in Art Writing from the School of Visual Arts, and an MA in German Language and Literature from Rutgers University. She is the recipient of fellowships from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony and a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University.\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eHer collection, \u003ci\u003eHotel Oblivion, \u003c\/i\u003ewas a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Award and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the European Graduate School where her research focuses on Hegel and madness. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 74\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.24 x 8.82 x 5.91 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 15, 2023\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42695982972991,"sku":"9781954245648","price":21.54,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0105\/8226\/1823\/files\/42935dc7ed43007bc6e6b5a3318d49c0.webp?v=1765005786","url":"https:\/\/dhlswag.com\/products\/back-to-the-woods-paperback","provider":"BBB","version":"1.0","type":"link"}