{"title":"Deborah Landau","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into Deborah Landau's evocative poetry, where raw emotion meets sharp intellect. Her collections explore love, loss, and the complexities of modern life with unflinching honesty and lyrical grace.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"soft-targets-book-deborah-landau-9781780375441","title":"Soft Targets","description":"Deborah Landau’s fourth book of poetry, Soft Targets, draws a bull’s-eye on humanity’s vulnerable flesh and corrupted world. In this ambitious lyric sequence, fear of annihilation expands beyond the self to an endangered planet on which all inhabitants are “soft targets”. Her melancholic examinations recall life’s uncanny ability to transform ordinary places – subways, cafés, street corners – into sites of intense significance that weigh heavily on the modern mind.  ‘O you who want to slaughter us, we’ll be dead soon \/ enough what’s the rush,’ Landau writes, contemplating a world beset by political tumult, random violence, terror attacks and climate change. Still there are the ordinary and abundant pleasures of day-to-day living, though the tender exchanges of friendship and love play out against a backdrop of 21st-century threats with historical echoes, as neo-Nazis marching in the US recall her grandmother’s flight from Nazi Germany.  Deborah Landau is director of the Creative Writing Program at New York University. She has published three previous collections in the US, most recently The Uses of the Body (2015) and The Last Usable Hour (2011) with Copper Canyon Press.  CNN commissioned an opinion piece from her, ‘We are all soft targets’, in the light of US inaction on gun control following the latest shootings in August 2019.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49542624739601,"sku":"GOR010841634","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49738159915281,"sku":"NGR9781780375441","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52717166002449,"sku":"NLS9781780375441","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1780375441.jpg?v=1751432470"},{"product_id":"skeletons-book-deborah-landau-9781472158994","title":"Skeletons","description":"ONE OF THE NEW YORKER'S BEST BOOKS OF 2023  'Deborah Landau's poems make me feel alive. They are the city, the body, the evening drink transformed into pure essence. If you want to be returned to your senses and remember the pleasures of the world, this book is for you' Alex Dimitrov  'Landau's stunning collection Skeletons opens: \"So whatever's the opposite of a Buddhist that's what I am\", and these are poems wonderfully full of attachments, in love with love, friends, sex, flavours and vistas and language, because \"isolation it burns\". Behind it is all is rage against \"death, incessant klepto\", but Landau is a first-rate phrasemaker and gets down in words \"life, the full force of it \/ pressing us together good and hard.\"' Nick Laird  'Landau captures the ways humans persist, despite our collective anxiety, in our longing for \"something tender, something that might bloom\"' Publishers Weekly (starred review)  'Landau's killer wit evokes Dorothy Parker crossed with Sylvia Plath - leaping spark after spark, growing to deadly dark fire' Los Angeles Times  'Deborah Landau has developed a style of writing poetry that reminds me of Maggie Nelson and Anne Carson, these long poems that feel dreamy because they are so lyrical' Boston Globe  Existentialism takes on a glamorous flair in Deborah Landau's dazzling new collection. Through a series of poems preoccupied with loneliness and mortality, Skeletons flashes with prismatic effect across the persistent allure of the flesh.   Initiated during Brooklyn's early lockdown, the book reflects the increasingly troubling simultaneity of Eros and Thanatos, and the discontents of our virtual lives amidst the threats of a pandemic and corrosive politics. Spring blooms relentlessly while the ambulances siren by. Against the mounting pressure that propels the acrostic 'Skeletons', a series of interstitial companion poems titled 'Flesh' negotiate intimacy and desire.   The collection culminates in an ecstatic sequence celebrating the love and connection that persist despite our fraught present moment. Shrugging off her own anxiety and disillusionment with characteristic humour and pitch-perfect cadence, Landau finds levity in pyrotechnic lines, sonic play, and a wholly original language, asking: 'Any way outta this bag of bones?'","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49751453073681,"sku":"NGR9781472158994","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50206502060305,"sku":"GOR013888632","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1472158997.jpg?v=1750715342"},{"product_id":"uses-of-the-body-book-deborah-landau-9781556594816","title":"The Uses of the Body","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A thrilling meditation on the passages of a woman's life.\"--\u003ci\u003eO, The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Landau's killer wit evokes Dorothy Parker crossed with Sylvia Plath--leaping spark after spark, growing to deadly dark fire. \u003ci\u003eThe Uses of the Body\u003c\/i\u003e is her best book, its acerbic tone interspersed with lines of grave and startling beauty.\" --\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Like Richard Linklater's \u003ci\u003eBoyhood,\u003c\/i\u003ebut for girls (and women): Deborah Landau's vividly relatable third collection, \u003ci\u003eThe Uses of the Body\u003c\/i\u003e, reminds us that coming of age lasts well beyond adolescence.\" --\u003ci\u003eVogue\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e* \"As freshly immediate as ever, award-winning poet Landau reveals that 'the uses of the body are manifold,' moving in four sections with a roughly chronological feel from wedding parties to flabby bodies around the pool to the realization 'But we already did everything'--all with an underlying sense of urgency: 'Life please explain.' As Landau explores her physical self and her sexuality, she's tart, witty, fluid, direct, and brutally honest, and her work can be appreciated by any reader.\"--\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal,\u003c\/i\u003estarred review\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Deborah Landau . . . is both confessional and direct, like Sylvia Plath and Allen Ginsberg. Her taut, elegant, highly controlled constructions meditate upon yearning and selfhood.\"--\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDeborah Landau's \u003ci\u003eUses of the Body\u003c\/i\u003e presents the very specific challenges of womanhood. Her poems address what it means to be alive--\u003ci\u003eright now\u003c\/i\u003e--in a female body. She fills her poetry with compelling nouns: wine glasses, bridal gowns, and \"books and teacups and ghosts.\" And \u003ci\u003ewhat\u003c\/i\u003e ghosts: underneath evocative images and poetic play, there's a moving, yearning mysticism.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom \"Mr and Mrs End of Suffering\":\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe uses of the body are wake up.\u003cbr\u003e The uses of the body, illusion.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe uses of the body. Rinse repeat.\u003cbr\u003e To make another body.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSeptember. Draw the blanket up.\u003cbr\u003e Lace your shoes.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe major and minor passions. Sunlight. Hair.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe basic pleasures. Tomatoes, Keats, meeting a smart man for a drink.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe uses of the body.\u003cbr\u003e It is only a small house. It gets older.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eIts upper and lower.\u003cbr\u003e Its red and white trim.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eIt's tempting to gloss over this part,\u003cbr\u003e so you won't really see me.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDeborah Landau\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of two books of poetry. She was educated at Stanford, Columbia, and Brown, where she earned her PhD. Currently she is the director of the NYU Creative Writing Program and lives in New York City.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49939192873233,"sku":"CIN155659481XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":49940587512081,"sku":"CIN155659481XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51036939616529,"sku":"NIN9781556594816","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52684197101841,"sku":"NLS9781556594816","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/155659481X.jpg?v=1750798362"},{"product_id":"skeletons-book-deborah-landau-9781556596650","title":"Skeletons","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWitty and glam,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eSkeletons\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cb\u003eis a prismatic collection\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003ewhich\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eshrugs off even the most disillusioned nihilist with humor and intimacy.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eExistentialism takes on a glamorous flair in Deborah Landau's dazzling new collection. Through a series of poems preoccupied with loneliness and mortality, \u003ci\u003eSkeletons\u003c\/i\u003e flashes with prismatic effect across the persistent allure of the flesh. Initiated during Brooklyn's early lockdown, the book reflects the increasingly troubling simultaneity of Eros and Thanatos, and the discontents of our virtual lives amidst the threats of a pandemic and corrosive politics. Spring blooms relentlessly while the ambulances siren by. Against the mounting pressure that propels the acrostic \"Skeletons,\" a series of interstitial companion poems titled \"Flesh\" negotiate intimacy and desire. The collection culminates in an ecstatic sequence celebrating the love and connection that persist despite our fraught present moment. Shrugging off her own anxiety and disillusionment with characteristic humor and pitch-perfect cadence, Landau finds levity in pyrotechnic lines, sonic play, and a wholly original language, asking: \"Any way outta this bag of bones?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50269090480401,"sku":"CIN1556596650G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51036885614865,"sku":"NIN9781556596650","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52689220043025,"sku":"NLS9781556596650","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52935440367889,"sku":"CIN1556596650VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1556596650.jpg?v=1750761043"},{"product_id":"soft-targets-book-deborah-landau-9781556595660","title":"Soft Targets","description":"Starred Review in \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e: \"Through the cadence of these poems, which sometimes resemble lullabies in their dreaminess and gorgeous lyricism, Landau captures the ways humans persist, despite our collective anxiety, in our longing for 'something tender, something that might bloom.'\"\u003cbr\u003e \"...Terse and yet lyrical, floating in white space on the page like stark, intimate thoughts, \u003ci\u003eSoft Targets\u003c\/i\u003e is a riveting example of how we cannot take the body out of thinking, and we shouldn't.\" ―\u003ci\u003eLit Hub\u003c\/i\u003eDeborah Landau's fourth book of poetry, Soft Targets, draws a bullseye on humanity's vulnerable flesh and corrupted world. In this ambitious lyric sequence, the speaker's fear of annihilation expands beyond the self to an imperiled planet on which all inhabitants are \"soft targets.\" Her melancholic examinations recall life's uncanny ability to transform ordinary places--subways, cafes, street corners--into sites of intense significance that weigh heavily on the modern mind.\u003cbr\u003e \"O you who want to slaughter us, we'll be dead soon\/enough what's the rush,\" Landau writes, contemplating a world beset by political tumult, random violence, terror attacks, and climate change. Still there are the ordinary and abundant pleasures of day-to-day living, though the tender exchanges of friendship and love play out against a backdrop of 21st century threats with historical echoes, as neo-Nazis marching in the United States recall her grandmother's flight from Nazi Germany.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50380884115729,"sku":"CIN1556595662G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52106539827473,"sku":"CIN1556595662VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52667444134161,"sku":"NLS9781556595660","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52751505424657,"sku":"NIN9781556595660","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1556595662.jpg?v=1750894456"},{"product_id":"last-usable-hour-book-deborah-landau-9781556593345","title":"The Last Usable Hour","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe poems of Landau's stunning second collection are dark, urgent, sexy, deeply sad, and, above all, powerful.--\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly, \u003c\/i\u003e starred review\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLandau's intimate, lonely poems are profoundly engaged with the experience of the self in its starkest moments: when it is deprived, nocturnal, barely lingual.She creates a deeply erotic and resonant encounter between the lyric I and its solitude. --\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShe is both confessional and direct, like Sylvia Plath and Allen Ginsberg. Her taut, elegant, highly controlled constructions meditate upon yearning and selfhood. Landau reminds us of the nuanced beauty of language as, through their directness, her tight, graceful poems make readers feel as if they spoke only to them. --\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese beautiful harrowing poems are new-minted and young, but also age-old, broken and wise. She has found the perfect tone for her 'city of interiors.'--\u003ci\u003eHuffington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHooray for a writer who can weave presence and absence, longing and loss of longing, into a tapestry of language as rich, honest, and compelling as this.--Naomi Shihab Nye\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLandau registers the intensities of the flesh: pleasure, desire, limitation, and, ultimately, disappearance.--Mark Doty\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is always nighttime in Deborah Landau's second collection--a series of linked lyric sequences, including insomniac epistolary love poems to an elusive someone. Here is a haunted singing voice, clear and spare, alive with memory and desire, yet hounded by premonitions of a calamitous future. The speaker in this ghost book is lucid and passionate, even as everything is disappearing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eblame the egg blame the fractured stones\u003cbr\u003eat the bottom of the mind\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eblame his darkblue glare and craggy mug\u003cbr\u003ethe bulky king of trudge and stein\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ehow I love a masculine in my parlor\u003cbr\u003ehis grizzly shout and weight one hundred drums\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ein this everywhere of blunt and soft sinking\u003cbr\u003eI am the heavy hollow snared\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ethe days are spring the days are summer\u003cbr\u003ethe days are nothing and not dead yet\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDeborah Landau\u003c\/b\u003e was educated at Stanford University, Columbia University, and Brown University, where she was a Javits Fellow and received a PhD in English and American literature. She co-hosts Open Book on Slate.com and is the Director of the NYU Creative Writing Program. She lives in the Soho neighborhood of New York City.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50390163128593,"sku":"CIN1556593341G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51036868182289,"sku":"NIN9781556593345","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52137986883857,"sku":"NLS9781556593345","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52604921381137,"sku":"CIN1556593341VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1556593341.jpg?v=1750861894"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-deborah-landau.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}