The archive is all in present tense
Winner of the 2021 Barrow Street Book Prize
Cover art by Dorothy Hoover
Cover art by Dorothy Hoover
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About
A love letter to archives, the book is a series of poems that follows a researcher who is exploring a fantastical, limitless archive. There she keeps encountering objects from her past, as well as developing a relationship with a gender-bending archivist who leads her through memories of her first love, investigations into her family's history, and into a more complex understanding of the nature of memory--both official and unofficial. Judge's Comments "the archive is all in present tense works like a preservationist who leaves breadcrumbs for the generations that follow, so they’ll understand what was vital and what will continue to be vital for their time. Both the inventiveness of the conceit and the urgency in the content are incredibly compelling, and the language on these lines holds the passion of the present progressive. Sit down, put on your white gloves, and explore!" --A Van Jordan, author of When I Waked, I Cried to Dream Again |
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Reviews
"Thus the archive preserves the past but also creates a new future for each person who interacts with it."--Hester L. Fury, North American Review
"Hoover communicates beautifully the sense of aloneness that comes with self-interrogation, the asking of tough questions about the struggle to be heard."--Max Winter, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"Hoover’s archive is a dream space where the historical record bleeds into memories and emotions"--Kristofer Collins, Pittsburgh Magazine
"Hoover, a Pittsburgh-native, pushes the boundaries of the archive and suggests that to be unbound is both to be free and to be unremembered."--Arianna Ramírez, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Thus the archive preserves the past but also creates a new future for each person who interacts with it."--Hester L. Fury, North American Review
"Hoover communicates beautifully the sense of aloneness that comes with self-interrogation, the asking of tough questions about the struggle to be heard."--Max Winter, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"Hoover’s archive is a dream space where the historical record bleeds into memories and emotions"--Kristofer Collins, Pittsburgh Magazine
"Hoover, a Pittsburgh-native, pushes the boundaries of the archive and suggests that to be unbound is both to be free and to be unremembered."--Arianna Ramírez, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Interviews
"I think about the way we handle archival materials with care as being intertwined with the erotic, and the way that queer touch can be healing and liberatory, even if it happens over the distance of time and space."--Interview with Lisa Cheby in Bomb magazine
"Archival discoveries raise questions like how has the story of queer resistance been whitewashed? Looking at the story of Compton, I am reminded of how queer activism was about housing rights, sex worker rights, fighting police brutality, protecting queer youth." --Interview with Karen Rigby in Poetry Northwest
"The archive can be an instrument of force."--Interview with Megan Wildwood on the New Books Network
"I think about the way we handle archival materials with care as being intertwined with the erotic, and the way that queer touch can be healing and liberatory, even if it happens over the distance of time and space."--Interview with Lisa Cheby in Bomb magazine
"Archival discoveries raise questions like how has the story of queer resistance been whitewashed? Looking at the story of Compton, I am reminded of how queer activism was about housing rights, sex worker rights, fighting police brutality, protecting queer youth." --Interview with Karen Rigby in Poetry Northwest
"The archive can be an instrument of force."--Interview with Megan Wildwood on the New Books Network
