Poetry. Winner of the 42 Miles Press Poetry Award. The poems in MOUTH are about the world of the mouth and its many satellites. Words, especially. And when you're lucky, another mouth. The poems address the beautiful failures of language to mean what it says, and to be less than the physical at the end of the day, you are left with only the words in your head, the mouth on your face. Quotidian, weird, intimate, witty, and skittery, Knapp's poems are refractions through a funhouse mirror. They're self-conscious without being self-important. The wounded heart is everywhere apparent; we of that tribe can be grateful for one more of us to voice it, brilliantly. MOUTH is a charmer of a first book. Read it and weep over your nachos and wine; it will leave you wanting more.--Kim Addonizio The keynotes of MOUTH are rueful resiliency and brash celebration in spite of losses. Characteristically charming and dauntless poems include the comic elegy 'Goodbye, Milwaukee' and the poems about unsustainable romance like 'Trust Me, ' 'Lover Walking, ' 'Utopia, Texas, ' and 'Adult Dating.' Also, the wonderfully touching poem of romantic realism, 'The Only One You'll Ever.' Tracey Knapp's protagonist is a funny, brave woman who refuses to quit appreciating life ( I write to say I have not yet splattered ) and who knows she should never shut up.--Mark Halliday Tracey Knapp's MOUTH sings of missed cabs, visible nipples, and awkward martinis. In other words: everything that matters. Pick striped shirts with her. Groan at the sky. Feel the moon dip into the trees. Don't be late. She has wine and cable.--Daniel Nester
