“A multitude of joys.” —Maw Shein Win, author Storage Unit for the Spirit House
“Georges is a keen observer of urban life. It’s not that she doesn’t see the grit, but she hears a siren as a soprano.” —Karen Hildebrand, author Crossing Pleasure Avenue
“This is poetry that pops and flows—rhapsodic, philippic, giddy and wise.” —George Wallace, author, Poppin’ Johnny
In her second poetry collection, Kat Georges consciously searches for joy in a world of growing darkness. She finds it in unexpected places: at the doctor’s office, after being diagnosed with a serious ailment; on the streets of New York, after hearing a young child’s laugh; facing off with noisy neighbors; in a supermarket vegetable section encounter with a philosopher. Her adamant insistence on seeking light in the darkest of places sets her work apart in a media-driven world seeking out the grief and devastation, and provides both solace and inspiration for the reader. These new poems combine humor and deep insight into human nature to capture moments of much-needed wonder and enchantment. Cover design by Susan Shup.
AWE AND OTHER WORDS LIKE WOW: Poems by Kat Georges
978-1-953103-41-3 | 128 Pages | TRP-108 | $16.00
Pub Date: 09/26/23
HIGH PRAISE FOR AWE AND OTHER WORDS LIKE WOW
“This book! These poems! This poet! The intelligence! The kindness! The love! Awe Now! Dig Wow!” –Gary Lawless, poet, In Ruins, Caribouddhism
“If, as Emily Dickinson said, ‘hope is the thing with feathers,’ Kat Georges gives us many feathery things in this smart, beautiful, heartfelt collection.” —Julia Watts, author, Needlework and Lovesick Blossoms
“Awe and Other Words Like Wow is truly human, kind, and aware, bringing us back to the heart of now . . . wow.” —Neal Taylor, co-founder, LA Dada
“Life makes different sounds depending on the weight of contact—a clarity and pleasure Kat Georges won’t let you miss! Poems that collide with precision—Moments existing in traces connected leading to language—I see what only you can feel and yet I remember—The function of memory’s constant creation is on these pages.” —Fork Burke, poet, Durch die Blume
“Awe and Other Words Like Wow, Kat Georges’ generous new collection of poems, offers the reader a multitude of joys. Georges’ urges us to open our eyes to the small pleasures and beauties that we might miss while on our devices. In the delightful poem, “I Want to Marvel at the Universe But All I See Are Bricks,” the poet catalogues a spring season in New York City: “an orchestra of pedestrians chatter in the warm sun,/a radio broadcasts seventies soul.” This is a book that encourages the act of awe and “our deep deep roots / blooms of dreams / too resilient to crush.” —Maw Shein Win, author, Storage Unit for the Spirit House
“When you look beyond the fierce persona Kat Georges presents in performance, you might be surprised at the tender heart of her poems. Her new collection, Awe and Other Words Like Wow, is full of hope delivered with an exuberant voice. Georges is a keen observer of urban life. It’s not that she doesn’t see the grit, but she hears a siren as a soprano. In the midst of calamity, don’t we all want a day when life, “a jigsaw puzzle which, for a time, sits on display without missing pieces,” the way she entreats in her opening poem, “Awe.” This is a poet who, in the face of a sister’s breathless report about Yosemite Falls and its thundering 2400 foot drop of snow runoff, can turn to her window above Bleecker Street to find “streams of people / it’s spring in New York City,” every bit as exhilarating.” —Karen Hildebrand, author, Crossing Pleasure Avenue
“Kat Georges’ Awe and Other Words Like Wow is a terrific collection of poems that crackle in your imagination and your heart, highlighting those moments of astonishment, surprise and yes, a bit of heartache, in parlance that’s vivid, playful, and eloquent. Georges opens her soul and in so doing raises our spirits, a gift to all those who love language. This is poetry at its finest.” Richard Modiano, Director Emeritus Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center
“All true poets embrace the challenge of simulataneity—expansion and contraction, effusion and distillation, squeezing an idea down to a golden nugget while at the exact same time letting the damn thing flow. This is what makes the poems of Kat Georges so special . . . This is poetry that pops and flows—rhapsodic, philippic, giddy and wise. This is a proving grounds for Kerouac’s boisterous, gleam-eyed mad ones—delirious, desirous, joyous, burning like fabulous yellow roman candles in the self-exploding night.” —George Wallace, Writer in residence, Walt Whitman Birthplace
Past Praise for Kat Georges
For Our Lady of the Hunger
“Poet Kat Georges hungrily devours love, politics, memory, sex, feminism and whimsy and transforms them into a muscular poetry demanding to be read aloud.” —Ron Dakron, author, Hello Devilfish
“A series of thought-provoking poems that use everyday vernacular to fashion a persona that walks right off the page. There is variety of style and mood here that takes the reader through the urban jungle through the eyes of a woman who has seen, and thought about it, much. Deeply textured and immensely readable.” —Joanie Zosike, actor, founder of NY Dada
“Kat Georges writes with fierce wit about girlhood and womanhood and rock and roll. This collection has my favorite of her poems, “Lithium,” which perfectly nails that moment between freewheelin’ adolescence and broke-ass adulthood when you don’t know whether to laugh or cry or just tear shit up. Eat this book!” —Meagan Brothers, author, Weird Girl and What’s His Name
“Compelling writing that is urban and contemporary with humor in the mix.” —Writing Thru It
For Three Somebodies: Plays about Notorious Dissidents
“Brilliant in the abstract.” —Library Journal
“The works of Kat Georges pack a real punch. That’s an understatement. I was reeled in by the energy and the layers of art apparent in each play.” —Ashley Adams, author, Passages North
“The writing plucks at strings of thought and left me feeling I had experienced something important.” —David Loux, author, Chateau Laux
“Brilliant, original, enthralling.” —Lisa Panepinto, poet, On This Borrowed Bike
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kat Georges is a New York City-based author, poet, playwright, and graphic designer. A poet since early childhood, she has edited and designed numerous anthologies, including The Verdict Is In (1993, manic d press), and Life as a Sweeping Generalization (1989, Alien Resident Press). Her previous full-length books include of Our Lady of the Hunger: Poems and Three Somebodies: Plays about Notorious Dissidents. Her poems short stories appear in Arriving at a Shoreline, Love Love Magazine, Ladyland, Signs of Life, Have a NYC 1 and Have a NYC 2 (NYC noir), and many more anthologies. Since 2008, she has been co-editor of the internationally-acclaimed MAINTENANT: A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art.” She is co-founder and co-director of Three Rooms Press and lives in Greenwich Village, New York City.
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