Intimacies, Received signals agency, as trauma is
held to the light and finally named.
In this astonishing second collection by Taneum Bambrick,
violence hides in the glint of the carving knife—every intimacy a shadow, every
memory a maze to navigate. Set primarily in rural Southern Spain, Intimacies,
Received moves through streets and fields, households and years, following
a survivor of sexual assault as she painstakingly reassembles a narrative of
self. A brilliant storyteller, Bambrick builds through palimpsest—layering
vivid imagery to recall embodiment and dissociation, illness and isolation,
queer female sexuality amidst acts of misogyny—utilizing varied forms including
ekphrasis, persona, and a lyric essay. Ultimately, Intimacies, Received
signals agency, as trauma is held to the light and finally named.
"A collection of poems by Taneum Bambrick"--
“[Bambrick is] entirely committed to illuminating the
intricacy of human nature.” —The Rumpus
“Vantage is a work of art which also functions
as a call, as if from under the ground, a cry from water and air.”—Sharon Olds,
from the introduction
“Read this book for its quotidian beauty.” —RHINO
“Vantage is stunning, a true feat of language.”
—The Adroit Journal
“Within a puzzle of forms…it’s the pitch and precision
of detail in Bambrick’s prose poems that glean tenderness.” —High Country
News
“[Bambrick relies] on the belief that love can exist,
intensely and profoundly, within a process of damage and decay.” —Poetry
Northwest
“Taneum Bambrick sees, really sees, our America:
blood on a baseball hat, purposeless dams, a wooden corn nut latched to a
silver chain. Her clarity constantly surprises...It’s such a rigorous vision,
one that acknowledges even the violence of space, the violence of sounds, the
violence that ‘commodities its own impact.’”—Kaveh Akbar
