Crisis Chronicles Press is thrilled to announce the publication of So Marvelously Far, an essential new poetry collection by Ohio's own Nick Gardner.
So Marvelously Far is 64 pages, perfect bound, 5.5 x 8.5". ISBN: 978-1-64092-946-3. Front cover art by Tracy Graziani. Available now for only $10 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44143 USA.
Join us November 23rd 2019, 2 pm, for the official book launch, Streetlight Imaginations, at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library, 1876 South Green Rd., South Euclid, Ohio.
December 14th 2019: Poetry Reading with Nick Gardner at Main Street Books in Mansfield, Ohio.
February 6th 2020: Nick Gardner and Nik Macioci at Gramercy Books, 2424 East Main Street, Bexley, Ohio.
February 9th 2020: Uncloistered Poetry feat. Nick Gardner, Michael Hackney and Andrew Field at Calvino's Restaurant and Wine Bar, 3143 W Central Ave, Toledo, Ohio.
April 21st 2020: Poetry+ featuring Nick Gardner and Terry Provost at Art on Madison, 14203 Madison, Lakewood, Ohio.
“This first book of poetry by Nick Gardner composed of 49 poems written in sonnet form brings the diurnal under the close and sustained scrutiny of a poetic sensibility that is at once broad and focused, a sensibility attuned to the brokenness of life while affirming the possibility of redemption. Gardner not only extracts meaning in such poems as ‘Dog Food’ which looks the blunted reality of opiate addiction clearly if not profoundly in the eye, or in ‘Grounding’ where the poetic sensibility seems to drift in an airy medium somewhere between longing and optimism while insisting on a vision that edges toward apocalypse, but also constructs meaning by drawing upon the desultory events, occurrences, and people of lived life, yoking them to insight and poignancy. Between the poles of angry sadness and hopeful anticipation, there are works like ‘Searching for Veins in Mr. Powell’s Cornfield’ which collapses several layers of meaning into one another. The images Gardner employs are oftentimes dark as they argue the harsh truth of the micro realities of drug addiction in small town America. Nonetheless, they also argue a guarded hope that poetically makes itself known as a shot across the bow of an oftentimes listing ship of life. The effect of So Marvelously Far is one of unsettling vision as well as one of poetic power. The work warns in ironic tones of the normalization of an increasingly dehumanized landscape, one redolent of the Avett Brothers in their song ‘Head Full of Doubt.’ More importantly, it is also a celebration of a remarkable and prescient poetic sensibility that will likely be around for some time.”
—Steven Joyce, Associate Professor of German & Comparative Literature, The Ohio State University; author of Transformations and Texts, The Apostate Djin, The Winds of Ilion, and A Sea of Other.
Read a sample poem from So Marvelously Far at Oddball Magazine.
December 14th 2019: Poetry Reading with Nick Gardner at Main Street Books in Mansfield, Ohio.
February 6th 2020: Nick Gardner and Nik Macioci at Gramercy Books, 2424 East Main Street, Bexley, Ohio.
February 9th 2020: Uncloistered Poetry feat. Nick Gardner, Michael Hackney and Andrew Field at Calvino's Restaurant and Wine Bar, 3143 W Central Ave, Toledo, Ohio.
April 21st 2020: Poetry+ featuring Nick Gardner and Terry Provost at Art on Madison, 14203 Madison, Lakewood, Ohio.
“This first book of poetry by Nick Gardner composed of 49 poems written in sonnet form brings the diurnal under the close and sustained scrutiny of a poetic sensibility that is at once broad and focused, a sensibility attuned to the brokenness of life while affirming the possibility of redemption. Gardner not only extracts meaning in such poems as ‘Dog Food’ which looks the blunted reality of opiate addiction clearly if not profoundly in the eye, or in ‘Grounding’ where the poetic sensibility seems to drift in an airy medium somewhere between longing and optimism while insisting on a vision that edges toward apocalypse, but also constructs meaning by drawing upon the desultory events, occurrences, and people of lived life, yoking them to insight and poignancy. Between the poles of angry sadness and hopeful anticipation, there are works like ‘Searching for Veins in Mr. Powell’s Cornfield’ which collapses several layers of meaning into one another. The images Gardner employs are oftentimes dark as they argue the harsh truth of the micro realities of drug addiction in small town America. Nonetheless, they also argue a guarded hope that poetically makes itself known as a shot across the bow of an oftentimes listing ship of life. The effect of So Marvelously Far is one of unsettling vision as well as one of poetic power. The work warns in ironic tones of the normalization of an increasingly dehumanized landscape, one redolent of the Avett Brothers in their song ‘Head Full of Doubt.’ More importantly, it is also a celebration of a remarkable and prescient poetic sensibility that will likely be around for some time.”
—Steven Joyce, Associate Professor of German & Comparative Literature, The Ohio State University; author of Transformations and Texts, The Apostate Djin, The Winds of Ilion, and A Sea of Other.
Read a sample poem from So Marvelously Far at Oddball Magazine.
Nick Gardner has his bachelor's degree in English from The Ohio State University and is currently enrolled in the MFA fiction writing program at Bowling Green State University. His chapbook Decomposed (2017) is published through Cabin Floor Esoterica. In his seventh year of recovery from opioid addiction, his research involves the current drug epidemic as well as alternative recovery methods. He has won awards in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry from The Ohio State University in Mansfield and performed readings of his work at Overdose Awareness Day as well as other local events. He lives in Mansfield, Ohio and Bowling Green, Ohio.
