Description
“Learning to Drown is that rare book of poems you read over and over again, savoring its texture, taste, and cohesion. SM Stubbs delivers poems that are thrilling in their tone and form and exhilarating in their stunning metaphorical leaps, yet remain tightly controlled, accessible, and thematically cohesive. He reminds us that ‘history is how we’re tethered to certain/stretches of land.’ In poem after gripping poem, he explores how our experience of the past-geographical, ideological, and personal-is essential and traumatic simultaneously. These are vigilant, luminous, necessary poems.”
– Steve Bellin-Oka, author of Instructions for Seeing a Ghost
“Like a ‘flame on a candle that won’t quit, ‘ the poems in Learning to Drown shine an incandescent and intimate light upon memory, childhood, and survival in the aftermath of trauma. From barstools to backyards in late summer, SM Stubbs brings his deeply perceptive and vulnerable observations to the most meaningful and devastating moments of his life. Told in unflinching detail, these poems are a testament, giving voice to the complicated journey from ruin to rebirth, dazzling us with ‘a beauty we have to tilt our heads to see.’”
– Vandana Khanna, author of Burning Like Her Own Planet and Afternoon Masala
SM Stubbs lives in Brooklyn, NY, where he and his wife co-owned a craft-beer bar. Born and raised in South Florida, he attended Wake Forest and then Indiana University where he acquired his MFA. He was the recipient of a scholarship to and on staff at Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best New Poets. His work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Poem-A-Day, New Ohio Review, december, Iron Horse, The Rumpus, Crab Creek Review, Cagibi, Anacapa Review and elsewhere.
