Winged Insects
AUTHOR
Joel Long
Winner of the White Pine Press Poetry Prize, selected by acclaimed poet Jane Hirshfield, and a finalist for the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award (BookScouter), this debut collection showcases Joel Long's remarkable ability to bridge inner and outer worlds. Long's poems are written accessibly without destroying the art, following in the footsteps of poets like Roethke by masterfully using language to show rather than tell (Thereadingwarehouse). With the vitality and exuberance of Whitman combined with keen literary prowess (Thereadingwarehouse), these quietly tender and keenly observed poems transform everyday objects and events through the lens of interior life. From the vulnerability of "Beating the Shark" to the simple joy of "Slow," Long crafts real-life scenes filled with concrete imagery and emotional depth that invite readers into moments both profound and unexpected—poetry that teaches us what it means to truly live.
Reviews
“Joel Long’s perceptively imagined poems reside in the permeable membrane of inner and outer, where the world’s events and objects are transformed by interior life. Quietly tender and keenly observed, these poems are thoughtful beauty and grace.”
—Jane Hirshfield
“These poems . . . offer openings into new worlds profound familiar, and unexpected.”
—Pattiann Rogers
Joel Long grew up in Montana but moved to Utah in 1990. Joel Long’s book Winged Insects won the White Pine Press Poetry Prize. Lessons in Disappearance (2012) and Knowing Time by Light (2010) were published by Blaine Creek Press. His chapbooks, Chopin’s Preludes and Saffron Beneath Every Frost were published from Elik Press. His poems and essays have appeared in Gettysburg Review, Sports Literate, Prairie Schooner, Bellingham Review, Rhino, Bitter Oleander, Massachusetts Review, Terrain, and Water-Stone Review, among others. He lives in Salt Lake City.