Venice author Sarah Suzor released her second full-length collection of poetry “After the Fox” (published by Black Lawrence Press) on Sept. 27 at Focus Studio in Venice.
The book is co-authored by Travis Cebula of Golden, CO.
The fall/winter book tour for “After the Fox” will begin with the reading in Suzor’s hometown of 10 years, Venice, from which the two authors are scheduled to travel to Denver, CO, Philadelphia, PA, New York, NY, Boston, MA and more destinations.
As the book is a collaborative endeavor, the two authors wrote, edited and constructed the entire book via email, and social-media correspondence. “After the Fox” was picked up by Black Lawrence Press in 2012.
Inheriting its title from the British hunting term “Tally Ho,” the book propelled and inspired by the notion of perpetual chase.
As collaborative authors, Suzor and Cebula adopt the personas of Morning and Nocturnal.
These two voices engage in and with every aspect that unites the binaries, as well as those that distinguish them as separate entities.
“After the Fox” begins in Manhattan where Morning pries at Nocturnal questioning, “Have you / forgotten me?” What ensues is an epistolary conversation between the two characters that involves their history and their experiences in the city.
The book shifts mid-way as Nocturnal prompts Morning to leave New York for Los Angeles, writing “I want to get burned / by the sky. Just once, // I want to drive all the way west / into the ocean and drown— / watch the sun dip like Icarus / spit into a vat of melted wax.”
Morning agrees to the call, but under only under specific circumstances that continue the chase, stating: “I’ll go conditionally. / I’ll go crazy. / But I won’t go committed.” And Morning leaves for the West Coast alone.
Morning and Nocturnal continue to remind each other of their meetings, or potential meetings, be it in shadows, in memories, at dawn and at dusk, but the narrative behind “After the Fox” only enhances a specific framework.
Here, through their poetry, Suzor and Cebula entice their readers into examining the curious nature of opposition: lovers and strangers, east and west, day and night, fire and water, and whatever falls between the dark and the light.
Suzor’s first book “The Principle Agent” won the 2010 Hudson Prize and was published by Black Lawrence Press in 2011. She also teaches Creative Writing nationally and in Paris at the Left Bank Writers Retreat.
Cebula has published four full-length collections of poetry, including “Ithaca” and “One Year in a Paper Cinema” (BlazeVox Books). He is the founder of Shadow Mountain Press, and also teaches in Paris at the Left Bank Writers Retreat.
You can learn more about the “After the Fox” by visiting www.blacklawrence.com/after-the-fox.
