Solarium, Jordan Zandi
Best Poetry of 2016, The New York Times
"Simplicity is the highest form of sophistication,” Da Vinci said, and Jordan Zandi was listening. Rather than overpower the reader with flashy intelligence or dazzle via the latest fashion, this poet offers startling discoveries of expression. With straightforward syntax and diction Zandi’s poems find their way to fresh sound and unexplored regions of the interior.
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Additional Info
Jordan Zandi grew up in the rural Midwest, and in 2011 graduated with an MFA in poetry from Boston University, where he was the recipient of a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship to Bolivia. His poetry has appeared in The New Republic and Little Star.
PRAISE FOR SOLARIUM:
"Zandi’s mellow, sometimes deliberately goofy lines (“As loud as cats — and happiness!”) can almost fool you into missing the agile intellect that makes this one of the year’s strongest first books."
—The New York Times
"Zandi’s debut collection radiates a fragile warmth in what proves to be an aching and uncommonly ingenious exploration of youth and memory.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A first book made eventful by the weirdness and clarity of Zandi’s mind. Poetry is like solitaire: we go to it to pass the time. Zandi reminds us that passing the time is a very serious activity. His balletic inner life belies the gravity at its core.”
—The New Yorker
“Solarium is a completely original gem of a book. I have never met Jordan Zandi, but I would like to, for there is a sweet spirit haunting his guileless poems. His inner world is always interacting with the outer world, and as a result everything seems to be shining.”
—Henri Cole, author of Middle Earth