Logorrhea

Finalist, 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry

In a torrent of rage, love, and irony, Adrian C. Louis explodes all the myths and hypocrisy of Middle America in the twenty-first century. This is how Walt Whitman or Allen Ginsburg might have written about our post-9/11 world--where the realities of poverty on Indian reservations and the plight of Hurricane Katrina victims come in second place to the vagaries of Homeland Security. For Louis, both he and our nation face an uncertain future. Like many of us he is trapped in a surreal void of the present, where he is faced with middle age and isolation, the death of loved ones, an unsatisfying job, and the battle against loneliness and self-destruction. He writes as if he has nothing left to lose but then fills the page with bittersweet sorrow for everything that has been lost. Armed with unforgettable images, relentless rhythms, and a dark and scathing humor, Louis takes aim at this American life.

Adrian C. Louis was born and raised in Nevada and is an enrolled member of the Lovelock Paiute Tribe. Louis has written ten books of poems, mostly recentlyEvil Corn (Ellis Press, 2004) and Bone & Juice (Northwestern, 2001). He is also is the author of the novelSkins (Ellis Press, 2002), which was made into a major motion picture in 2002, and a collection of short storiesWild Indians & Other Creatures (Nevada, 1997). Louis has won various writing awards, among them a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the Bush Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. In 1999, he was elected to the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. He currently resides in Minnesota and teaches at Minnesota State University in Marshall.