[11/10/26] Lewty, Jane: Vespers

University of Iowa Press, paperback

Publication Date: November 10, 2026

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Often called "evening prayer," vespers is held around sunset. Its purpose: to give thanks for the day and offer a sacrifice of praise to God. In Jane Lewty's Vespers, she superimposes the tropes of the Christian ritual onto a very different type of sacrifice--that of making art.

Through nightly devotion, the speaker of these poems maps ritual until it degrades: the speaker as an obedient robot, a scribe-concubine, a centaur wearing skates, a poet seeking virtuosity and dexterity. Vespers asks: What if writing prompts are a bad idea? What if one could become addicted to the incremental process? Is it possible to walk away from an addiction without suffering and trauma?