The Lichtenberg Figures

by Ben Lerner

Overview

The Lichtenberg Figures, winner of the Hayden Carruth Award, is an unconventional sonnet sequence that interrogates the relationship between language and memory, violence and form. “Lichtenberg figures” are fern-like electrical patterns that can appear on (and quickly fade from) the bodies of people struck by lightning.

Throughout this playful and elegiac debut—with its flashes of autobiography, intellection, comedy, and critique—the vocabulary of academic theory collides with American slang and the idiom of the Old Testament meets the jargon of the Internet to display an eclectic sensibility.

Ben Lerner, the youngest poet ever published by Copper Canyon Press, is co-founder of No: a journal of the arts. He earned an MFA from Brown University and is currently a Fulbright scholar in Spain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781619320734
Publisher:	Copper Canyon Press
Publication date:	12/18/2012
Series:	Hayden Carruth Award for New and Emerging Poets
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	96
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Ben Lerner is the author of three books of poetry and was named a finalist for the National Book Award for his second book, Angle of Yaw. He holds degrees from Brown Univeristy, co-founded No: a journal of the arts, and teaches at the University of Pittsburgh.

Editorial Reviews

The Lichtenberg figures are the fernlike patterns that appear on anything struck by lightning. And surely lighting strikes with this first collection, winner of the Hayden Carruth Award for Emerging Poets, which blends biting social commentary with unexpected images. (LJ 10/15/04) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal