A01=Kim Addonizio
Author_Kim Addonizio
Category=DC
Category=DCC
Category=DCF
contemporary
death
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_poetry
life
love
poet
relationships
women writers
Product details
- ISBN 9781324130659
- Weight: 130g
- Dimensions: 155 x 211mm
- Publication Date: 19 May 2026
- Publisher: WW Norton & Co
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Set in locations from dive bars to Montparnasse Cemetery, from an ancient Greek temple to a tourist shop in Assisi, Exit Opera explores the ever-vexing issues of time, mortality, love and loss, and considers the roles of art and human connection. Whatever their nominal subject–jazz, zombies, Buddhism, Siberian tigers–these poems make for a compelling mix of humour and pain, difficulty and solace. In a nod to Keats, one of the many fellow travellers in these poems, Addonizio invites us to “[inscribe] a few verses on whatever water / you can find” and assures readers that they are not alone in navigating the challenges and changes of mortal life. As she writes in “My Opera”:
The staging is difficult.
Exploding stars are involved, high-redshift galaxies, interior chambers,
a little country blues, a little jazz guitar, a jam jar containing
a tiny ocean & a tinier rowboat rocking gently in the swells
that I am steering toward you in the dark.
Kim Addonizio is the author of eight poetry collections and two books on writing poetry: The Poet’s Companion and Ordinary Genius. Her collection Tell Me was a finalist for the National Book Award. She lives in Oakland, California.
