WINE-DARK SEA - Softcover

Poetry. In a clear-cut voice "as simple as ink," Mathias Svalina's THE WINE-DARK SEA vocalizes the urge to write oneself alive. Through this lyric journal of taut poems, each titled The Wine-Dark Sea, Svalina breathes life into overlooked places: the driveway a car turns into at the end of a workday, how a tree holds the dirt, the edge of a page on which "I'd always assumed / I'd die alone." Every poem is a baffled drop, a pulse trying not to be dead, and beneath the spine of each sentence, Svalina hides, carrying us, seeking an exit. It is impossible not to be stained by THE WINE-DARK SEA.

Mathias Svalina was born in Chicago. He is the author of THE WINE-DARK SEA (Sidebrow Books, 2016), WASTOID (Big Lucks Books, 2014), THE EXPLOSIONS (Subito Press, 2012), I AM A VERY PRODUCTIVE ENTREPRENEUR (Mud Luscious Press, 2011) and DESTRUCTION MYTH (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2009). With Zachary Schomburg, he co-edits Octopus Magazine and Octopus Books. He currently teaches writing and literature in Denver, Colorado.