Over the Anvil We Stretch - by Anis Mojgani (Paperback)

About the Book

Over The Anvil We Stretch contains swampy, powerful poems that are as exciting as the pocket knife you got for your birthday, the three legged frog on the lawn and the jar of marbles your mother kept in the kitchen. Mojgani's poems are the sound of the river and the stars burning above. He manages to capture the axe in the stump with blood still on the handle. Anis Mojgani has drawn a map of the country in the shape of his wild surreal poems. These are memories of a life, captured through the blue green filter of the bayou. Mojgani's latest poems are tinged with the sound of crickets spying on us in the darkness. They move forward honestly, brutally and sweetly. The reader will be led into briar patches as well as the moonlight just on the other side.

Book Synopsis

Over The Anvil We Stretch contains swampy, powerful poems that are as exciting as the pocket knife you got for your birthday, the three legged frog on the lawn and the jar of marbles your mother kept in the kitchen.

Mojgani's poems are the sound of the river and the stars burning above. He manages to capture the axe in the stump with blood still on the handle. Anis Mojgani has drawn a map of the country in the shape of his wild dreams. These are memories of a life, captured through the blue green filter of the bayou.

Mojgani's latest poems are tinged with the sound of crickets spying on us in the darkness. They move forward honestly, brutally and sweetly. The reader will be led into briar patches as well as the moonlight just on the other side.

Review Quotes

Anvil is a book of poetic truth, packed with humor and insight. It is a juggling act of the epic and the intimate. I read it, and it echoes. Shut up so I can hear more."
- David Gordon Green, filmmaker, All the Real Girls and The Pineapple Express

"Anis Mojgani, Andrea Gibson, and other young poets of their talent are the future of American poetry, and frankly, that fills me with joy!"
- Thomas Lux, Guggenheim Fellow & recipient of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his book, Split Horizons

"[Anis is] probably the best poetry slammer alive. The intellect, optimism, and humility with which he speaks feel like proof of the relevance of 'spoken word' as a genre. He processes the world in slices of beauty, frustration, and sympathy..."
- Willamette Week Newspaper

About the Author

Anis Mojgani was the Poet Laureate of Oregon. A two-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam and winner of the International World Cup Poetry Slam, he has been awarded residencies from the Vermont Studio Center, Caldera, AIR Serenbe, The Bloedel Nature Reserve, The Sou'wester, and the Oregon Literary Arts Writers-In-The-Schools program. A recipient of an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate Fellowship, Anis has done commissions for the Getty Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum; and his work has appeared on HBO, National Public Radio, and elsewhere.,