Rubbing Elbows
Published on 8. September 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
34 pages
978-1-63534-284-0 (ISBN)
Description
Rubbing Elbows indulges in the imagined lives of certain celebrities and sometimes places these celebrities in situations that address social issues, such as racism and sexism. These poems manifest these fantasies about stars living and dead—some, like Clara Schumann, long dead. Poems such as "Conversations with Whitney over Colas" get uncomfortably close to recent deaths and checks our expectations of public lives. Some of the poems cover famous events or songs, like "El Paso," which gives voice to women hypersexualized and demonized because of their race or the tragic shooting at Pulse in 2016. And the poems that drift away from celebrity culture still address public life and collective voyeurism. Sometimes playful and sometimes painful, Rubbing Elbows gets close to some of our most beloved personalities and public life.
More details
Language
English
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 2 mm
Weight
58 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-63534-284-0 (9781635342840)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
DeMisty D. Bellinger was born and raised in Milwaukee. She went to the magnet schools that focused on art and graduated from the Milwaukee High School of the Arts. After taking a year off, DeMisty studied English at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. She went on to receive an MFA in Creative Writing from Southampton College on Long Island, NY, and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she focused on creative writing in fiction. In 2012, she attended Bread Loaf Writers Conference for fiction.
DeMisty earned many accolades for her writing, including the Mari Sandoz/Prairie Schooner Award in Short Fiction while she was a student in Nebraska and a Vermont Studio Center fellowship in 2015. Her short-short, "Tiger Free Days," was listed in the Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions of 2014.
Many of her poems, short stories, and essays can be found online in various publications, including Helen, Necessary Fiction, Driftless Review, WhiskeyPaper, Blue Fifth Review, and Former People: A Journal of Bangs and Whimpers. You can find links to many of her works at demistybellinger.com.
Besides writing fiction, DeMisty plays viola with a community orchestra, raises twin girls with her loving husband, and teaches Creative Writing at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts.