Hover over her - (Wick First Book) by Osowski (Paperback)

About the Book

"The poems in Leah Osowski's exquisite debut, hover over her, trace the various constructions of adolescence and gender in twenty-first century America through the experience of three young women who speak in a single, collective voice. That's the easy, catalogue-like description. But the narrative through-line is complicated by the notion of geography: the poems' geographies, the girls' physical spaces, the landscapes of Osowski's lyrical music and syntax. In one way or another, these poems are constantly trying to locate themselves, living in the liminal spaces between comfort and fear, discovery and youth"--Foreword, page xi.

Book Synopsis

"In Leah Osowski's exquisite debut, hover over her, the poet immerses us in geographies of unrealized adolescence, where young women are singular amidst their cacophonous backdrops, whether beside a lake, inside a Dali painting, or stretched out in a flower garden. These spaces are turned inside out for us through Osowski's linguistic curiosity and unforgettable imagistic palate. Negative possibilities hang around every corner as well, showing us the ways in which we are also complicit in the constructions and obstructions of gender. As the speaker in 'she as pronoun' says, 'she's I and she's you every / time you hid beneath your own arms.' But through the evolution and renaissance of Osowski's speaker, we find affirmation in these shared connections, transparency in the landscapes of growth and escape, and the freedom that comes from the task of unflinchingly examining our whereabouts inside of them."

--Adrian Matejka, author of The Big Smoke

About the Author

Leah Poole Osowski is from Massachusetts and received an MFA in poetry from University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Black Warrior Review, Hotel Amerika, New Delta Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Salamander, and Third Coast, among others.