[04/01/25] Sobol, Adrian: Hair Shirt

Malarkey Books, paperback

Publication Date: April 1, 2025

Publisher Marketing: 

HAIR SHIRT, Adrian Sobol’s second full-length poetry collection, continues his particular take on poetry. Filled with trademark black humor and absurdity, these poems transport you to a world full of stand-up-performing ghosts, invincible donkeys, surrealist torch songs, murderous priests, horses that execute criminals with math, the bittersweet beauty of the midwest, and—arguably—too much sea. Through a variety of characters, scenarios, and lyrical deftness, HAIR SHIRT offers poems for those who have ever felt intense regret, got drunk on longing, and wondered what art could be found in a life surrounded by such existential debris.

“HAIR SHIRT has a heart made of CVS receipts and anchored by a serial prose poem called ‘Torch Song,’ where longing is packaged in soft surrealism with undertones of Russell Edson and James Tate. ‘If you were an appliance, I’d keep you plugged in,’ Sobol writes. ‘Maybe run my lips across the socket.’ When it’s not finding new ways to yearn, this collection is busy with celebrity sightings before retreating to poetry’s rightful position of incredulity: ‘the loudest people / at this party // won’t stop taking / about how introverted they are.’ If you’ve ever guffawed alone, HAIR SHIRT is for you.”

—Krystal Languell, author of Systems Thinking with Flowers

“Adrian’s poems have a fresh, authentic, and at times spectacular beauty. Comic, clever, and wise, these poems also make for good company. I’m afraid Adrian Sobol is the real thing.”

— Matt Cook, author of Irksome Particulars