Amie Zimmerman’s new book is False Spring, a collection of poetry out from Roof Books in February of this year. Roof Books is a storied and influential press in avant-garde poetry, with a catalog that reads like a who’s who of conceptual and language writing—Jackson Mac Low, Charles Bernstein, Tan Lin, Brenda Iijima, among others. The poet Ryan Eckes called her new a book “a gem,” saying “Amie Zimmerman revisits moments in the street and memory in the body, examining the individual in relation to the collective, figuring it out as we go. And sudden beautiful conclusions appear, hard won, opening new paths.”
Wendy Trevino also blurbed the book, and it certainly rings true at this moment here in Westport: “This is really a lovely collection. Zimmerman’s determination to be her own woman riding out the false springs is more than anything a reminder that spring is coming & you don’t want to miss it.” What spring is in question here?
You can listen to Amie discuss the book with Myriam Atkin on “Specific Objects: Talks on Art in the Catskills” (Spotify link). She reads several poems there and I’m struck by the line, which she repeats, “You should learn to love something more than yourself.” Then later she offers a meditation on self that includes lines like “let me be the lover of my dreams” and “let me unlock my own potential” and “it all comes down to me / let me give more to me // let me know my true nature / contractually obligated to me” — I love the interplay of meanings and look forward to spending more time with the actual book.
But first Amie will be reading at Snowfort next Thursday. We’ve got a few copies of False Spring in the store if you want to check it out beforehand, otherwise we’ll have plenty at the event, too.