Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota by Amelia Gorman

Davitt, author of The Gates of NeverĪ thoughtful and intelligent collection of one-page poems and elegant illustrations that slowly bud from gentle cricket song into a poison-leafed and weedy future. I want to wrestle with some of these poems until they yield meaning, but they dance, just out of reach, evanescent and tantalizing.' 'A delicate blend of ecological awareness and mythological sensibility, Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota lures the reader in with a semblance of clarity and rationality, and then tips you into a complex surreal world that resembles ours-it is ours-but is also not. Praise for Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota Brought to fruition by indie speculative publisher Interstellar Flight Press, Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota is set for release September 6, 2021.Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota Only one of the poems, “Brittle Naiad,” is credited as being previously published, which means that the collection mainly represents new work. Because each one of these plants and animals is beautiful and weird.” Gorman articulates the hope that the poems “help other people see the beauty and weirdness that I think is under the surface of any living thing. The author’s note is worth reading as well, providing some high-level context on invasive species and the Gorman’s mixed feelings about them. See their good sportsmanship as they flit about to congratulate the winners and assure the losers of their good play.”

“Spiny Waterflea” begins with the lines “The spiny water fleas enjoy a game of water polo. Some images are more whimsical, as in “Queen Anne’s Lace”: Fishers are equipped with metal teeth, and snapping turtles are endowed with fur, while the narrator states, “I try to remember the way the world is supposed to work.” Loons no longer have legs, while sunfish do. In “Zebra Mussel,” Gorman depicts a changed world. The narrator in “Walnut Twig Beetle” notes “I’ve been eating beetles since the crops died/ and the basement with the preserves flooded”. For example, in the prose poem “Trapdoor Snail,” Gorman includes the lines: Climate change, wars, and post-apocalyptic worlds provide the backdrop to some of the entries. Some of the poems are explicitly set in the future, as demonstrated by the inclusion of dates others implicitly so.

Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota by Amelia Gorman