Bright Body
AUTHOR
Aliki Barnstone
In Bright Body, Aliki Barnstone seeks to unite mind and body, spirit and matter, the individual and the body politic. Many of the poems are set in Las Vegas, a monument to materialism. This city of extremes informs Barnstone's vision and serves as a backdrop for her meditations on American history, war, the environment, erotic love, and the love of mother and child.
Reviews
"For Aliki Barnstone, poetry seems a natural medium. The vision and cadences of these poems suggest a sensibility for which poetry is as inevitable as breathing or eating."
—Robert Pinsky
Aliki Barnstone was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and grew up in Bloomington, Indiana. She comes from a literary, artistic family: her father is the writer Willis Barnstone, her mother the artist Elli Tzalopoulou-Barnstone, and her brother the poet Tony Barnstone. Aliki Barnstone’s first book of poetry, The Real Tin Flower (1968), was published by Macmillan when she was 12. It featured an introduction by Anne Sexton. Barnstone earned her BA and MA at Brown University and her PhD from the University of California–Berkeley. She is the author of eight books of poetry, including Dwelling (2016), Bright Body (2011), Dear God, Dear Dr. Heartbreak: New and Selected Poems (2009), and Madly in Love (1997; 2014).