FOUR by Mónica de la Torre

BUY IT NOW!
Switchback’s latest title debuted on March 1 at the AWP Conference and now it can be yours. FOUR’s cover price is $25, but we’re offering those who weren’t able to nab this gem at AWP a chance to get a copy for $20. To take advantage of this debut sale, order using the link below by midnight on Sunday, March 18.

Synopsis
Characterized by its rejection of experiential and narrative linearity, Mónica de la Torre’s FOUR exposes and deconstructs the scaffolding of time. De la Torre posits “all writing is prediction,” and the reader is privy to the evolution of the speaker’s discourse as her predictions are both fulfilled and disappointed, necessitating amendment and revision. FOUR reads like a daydream transcribed, full of meditations on the weather, photographs, strangers on the subway, and the power of language to document, anticipate, and break down the barriers of time. When de la Torre writes that “we strive to tolerate being strictly in the moment,” readers cannot help but nod in agreement.

About FOUR
FOUR is composed of four individually titled booklets: Lines to Undo Linearity, Shift, Mariposa Negra, and Photos While U Wait. The booklets, printed on Risograph in blue, green, orange, and black, are separately bound and bundled together in a wrap-around paper band, which displays the title. FOUR is printed in a limited edition run of 500 copies. The first fifty copies are signed by the author.

About the Author
Mónica de la Torre’s books include two poetry collections in English, Talk Shows (Switchback, 2007) and Public Domain (Roof Books, 2008), and two others in Spanish, Acúfenos (Taller Ditoria, 2006) and Sociedad Anónima (UNAM/Bonobos, 2010). Her most recent book project is Taller de Mecanografía, written collectively with the late Aura Estrada, poet Gabriela Jauregui, and artist Laureana Toledo and published in 2011 by Tumbona Ediciones in Mexico City. She lives in Brooklyn and is senior editor at BOMB Magazine.

From Nick Sturm, over at Jellyfish:

WHAT A TREMENDOUS TIME WE’RE HAVING!

In many ways I am not a rabbit
or a spool of ribbon and that is important
because it is amazing How wrong
it would be to say I am going skiing
or Do you want to share this cantaloupe
when you mean Let’s do something
incredible It is not about being specific
It is about opening up your genius mouth
and decorating what comes out in all
sorts of felt and vapor and astonishment
My friends know this and are always unlocking
the garden where I sit in my naked wreckage
I have hidden an amp in the hawthorn
There is a jackhammer in the begonias
You can use it anytime you like

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“The Gospel According to Kelly, Night-Shift Manager, Forest City Fuel & Foods” by Joe Wilkins

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO

(Art by Emily St. Clair)

The Grateful Release of Our More Robust Natures
by BJ Love

Star Wars is on TV and all we can do is go to Dairy Queen
and dare each other into new flavor combinations, our
handholding just a gateway to Oreos and backrubs and
it all tastes really rich to me, like knowing how beavers
build their dams but wanting to hear your take on it all
anyway because I have a gnawing suspicion that today
can be totally interesting on a budget, it’s true, we can’t
go to Granada, but we can go on this walk and you look
so full of facts and I have a can full of silver spray paint
dying to be more beautiful and the world is so full of bridges
that have no ideas of love so let’s hit these purple streets
and create more famous versions of ourselves on them,
after all, this is how our histories have always been made
and love can be easily retrofitted into it, over it, and though
some people are always three steps ahead, it will be me
who gets to yell, Watch out! and pull you back into my
peeling but other wise healthy arms and tell you that
having heroes is wildly important, and feel really good
about myself and then you will thankfully kiss my silver
sprayed palms and you will see your beautiful reflection
kissing you back and you will say, boop boop, in a pretty
authentic robot voice and though translation is frequently
difficult, I will have no problems understanding exactly
what you mean, exactly what you are (not a robot), because
this language is ours and it is heartbased and sometimes
we feel, a little heart is all you need, but sometimes a little
heart is hard to draw, so I’m making mine really big, big
enough to hold our whole names and it’s a rebellion, yes
but only a minor one and if we are caught, at least they’ll
print our pictures in the paper, side by side, with a caption
that will surely say something about Love, how it leaves
its mark in the most surprising and out of the way places.