“A perfect book for the contemplative weirdo.” –Lena Dunham
“J. Hope Stein is one of my favorite poets–her images are outrageously vivid and memorable. Her music is alive, is unpredictable, is tender, is voracious. She updates the music of a great poet—say, John Berryman—into the 21st century, making the bard alive again, making the voice bristle with a verbal energy in this moment in time. But she is a poet all her own–unlike anyone else–writing a kind of music in which “the sky/drools sweetly to the ear” with sound that is full of emotion, full of erotic, ecstatic, essential moments: “I’m listening to Beethoven/…music swells/as it disappears into my pelvis.”
This is the kind of music that can take our most domestic moments–in which two people find themselves bewildered, and yet inseparable, in love–and see how they “act as two animals holding invisible balloons.” This music teaches us that our domestic joys, perhaps, are our last defense.
J. Hope Stein uses this defense of music, this shield of verbal art, against our moment’s ugliest creatures: “The steel men. The financiers. The patrons/of the petroleum arts,” and other kinds of trash, Donald Trump first in line among them. This poet knows that a time comes when only music and sensuality can still protect the soul. A time comes when there is no more time for the trivial. And she gives us the incredible energy, incredible verve of such saving music. Like I said, one of my favorite poets.” —Ilya Kaminsky, author of Dancing in Odessa and the forthcoming Deaf Republic.
“Occasionally I Remove Your Brain through Your Nose is a gem, in turns just as serious and as playful as the title suggests.” Review by Cheyanne Gustason for New Pages here.
“Her writing blends the characteristics of the depersonalized public performance with the closeness of two honeymooners. In other words, her poems are resoundingly human.” Review by Matt Fowler, Hostile Sphere Press
To read her poem “Central Maze” in The New Yorker go here
To read Ted & Sylvia from this collection go here: Lenny Letter
To read The Husband Poems from this collection go here: Poetry International
To read I Raise a Toast to the Car Seat on My Bathroom Floor go to Jessica Grose’s excellently curated, How Motherhood Changed My.. in the Mother’s day edition of The New York Times
The Little Astronaut is J. Hope Stein’s newest collection. Proceeds from the sale go to Every Mother Counts for more go here: J. Hope Stein
Occasionally, I Remove Your Brain Through your Nose, by J. Hope Stein. Her poems are published in Lenny Letter, The New Yorker, Verse, HTML Giant, Tarpaulin Sky, Everyday Genius, Ping-Pong, Talisman, and Poetry International. She was an associate producer on the film Sleepwalk with Me and a consulting producer on the film Don’t Think Twice. Her latest writing can be seen in The New One. For the New York Times review of The New One on Broadway go here To preorder The New One: Painfully true stories from a Reluctant Dad, with Poems by J. Hope Stein go here.
The New One: Painfully true stories from a Reluctant Dad, with Poems by J. Hope Stein can be purchased on audible here in bookstores June 16th. A hilarious exerpt of which can be found here: A Sleepwalker and an Insomniac walk into a Bed (NYTimes)
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