BABETTE

BABETTEPoetry. Rescue Press, 2015. Paperback, 100 pages. 8" x 5" From the press: Sara Deniz Akant's Babette, selected by Maggie Nelson for Rescue Press' Black Box Poetry Prize, mixes motor thrum with incantation, promising to "make no pattern known again." Perpetually on the move, Babette's populacefrom Penny "turned into a toy" to the always absent, always there "gohst in the glare"are machines of the living, at once spectre, shell, meat, and instrument.

Victor Segalen

an artist and writer who has produced the same acclaimed body of experimental art and prose as real-life Renee Gladman

the latter of which was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize

Where two women make love in a restaurant restroom (and are invited to leave)

It's heartfelt and delightful and and and and and and and and and and and

Through both glancing references and longer meditations

whether by whim or concerted performance

full of longing

Although each work stands alone as a dialogue within and among its poems

artist-curators Fran Cottell and Marian Schoettle revisit their collaboration

Hochuli asks

Its tone is one of self-sufficient prayer—a pronouncement rather than a plea—addressed to no one in particular and to anyone