In the Permanent Collection

Trying to make sense of a disordered world Stefanie Wortman's debut collection examinesworks of art as varied as casts of antique sculpture 19th-century novels and even scenesfrom reality television to investigate the versions of order that they offer. These deft poems yield moments of surprising levity even as they mount a sharp critique of human folly.Intensity of heart intensity of mind flowering as one: Stefanie Wortman's poemsredeem 'wit' back to its root meaning of 'insight' or 'vision' the same root as theSanskrit 'veda.' For example: the resonance of 'shades' when the words 'blind king' ona truck mean not Lear but 'installer of shades.' Or a dance of death where the words'trips' and 'plays' have doubled heartbreaking and celebratory meanings. In the PermanentCollection merits its title.-Robert Pinsky author of Gulf Music and 1997-2000 Poet LaureateThese poems seem haunted by a mostly nameless melancholia. In The PermanentCollection however turns its grim geography of prisons mortuaries and tawdrysuburbs into something close to classical elegy. 'In sunken rooms' Wortman writes'on scratchy rugs maybe we've never known happiness.' It's that 'maybe'-the smarthedge-that renders her poems complex often beguiling but never without a gestureof redemption. This should be part of any serious poet's permanent collection.-Chad Davidson author of The Last Predicta and judgeIn this gorgeous self-possessed book Stefanie Wortman doses out pleasure andpain in perfect measure her symphonic formal skills setting us up for unexpectedheartbreak. Wortman's poems look for redemption in and as art-and as such consoleeven as they seek out consolation themselves. They are spirited and hauntedintimate and estranged. In the Permanent Collection is a first book by a poet who hasalready hit her stride.-Gabriel Fried author of Making the New Lamb TakeSTEFANIE WORTMAN was born in Kansas City. She earned an MAfrom Boston University and a PhD from the University of Missouri. Herpoems and essays have appeared in the Yale Review Antioch ReviewBoston Review Southwest Review and other publications. She currentlylives in Rhode Island.