We Take Me Apart

2nd finalist for the 2011 Asian American Literary Award for Poetry Shortlisted for the 2011 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry Nominated for the McLaughlin-Esstman-Stearns First Novel Prize There is no more perfect place to be than in Molly Gaudry s tender dirt-floored novella We Take Me Apart. Oh cabbage leaves oh roses oh orange-slice childhood grins: this book broke my heart. Its sad memory-tropes come from fairy tales & childhood books. With language Gaudry is as loving & careful as one is with a matchbook . . . when wishing to set the whole word on fire. --Kate Bernheimer author of The Complete Tales of Merry Gold Molly Gaudrys debut evokes the spirit of iconic fairy tales that have transported readers for centuries. Her variations on these themes delineate the psychological journey from girlhood to womanhood. But We Take Me Apart is more than a retelling. In it Gaudry reconstitutes the essence of what makes fairy tales compelling and she does so imaginatively and with great attention to language the earmarks of poetry.--Christopher Kennedy author of Encouragement for a Man Falling to His Death Molly Gaudrys We Take Me Apart works thread into lace . . . especially vivid in this book-length work is the mothers entrance and exit where the ragged lines swell and turn sonnet-like with love.--Terese Svoboda author of Weapons Grade Molly Gaudrys We Take Me Apart is a dazzleflage of a book. The stuttering disrupted language of this cubist concoction disappears before your ears sinks into your eyes. This aggressive dress camouflage reweaves Gertrude Steins rewoven grammar of worsted silk-screened gabardine into a fully ripped patois-ed pattern of stunning wonder.--Michael Martone author of Michael Martone