Surkan, Neil: Ruin

KNIFE FORK BOOK, paperback

Publication Date: October 17, 2023

Publisher Marketing: Oscillating between existential enormity and the "tiny electronic mess" of the self, Ivanna Baranova's Continuum telescopes temporal vastness into sharp and shimmering poetic utterance.

Oscillating between existential enormity and the "tiny electronic mess" of the self, Continuum telescopes temporal vastness into sharp utterance. Keenly perceptive and sonically incantatory, Continuum follows the porous "I" across elastic thresholds of past, present, and future, emphasizing and exalting spontaneous movements in day-to-day consciousness. Baranova probes the structures that demand we situate ourselves transactionally, calling upon the power of connection that makes our survival not only possible but purposeful, despite the inevitabilities of pain and grief. When "every rational option" tries and fails, these poems challenge us to embrace irrational options--the substance of dreams--in manifesting transformational visions of the future that refuse neat resolution. Continuum enjoins us to will these futures a reality. Lovingly dialogic, this collection bears witness to ongoing destruction and renewal, the inexhaustible ordinary. If language creates us, Continuum's poetics are a testament to the limitless possibilities of making and remaking the self.