"There are some poets we admire for a mastery that allows them to tell a story, express an epiphany, form a conclusion, all gracefully and even memorably- yet language in some way remains external to them. But there are other poets in whom language seems to arise spontaneously, fulfilling a design in which the poet's intention feels secondary. Books by these poets we read with a gathering sense of excitement and recognition at the linguistic web being drawn deliberately tighter around a nucleus of human experience that is both familiar and completely new, until at last it seems no phrase is misplaced and no word lacks its resonance with what has come before. Such a book is Austin Segrest's Door to Remain."- Karl Kirchwey, author of Poems of Rome and judge "Segrest's formal ingenuity holds out the hope of order amidst the increasingly illegible chaoses of human love."-Kimberly Johnson, author of Uncommon Prayer ". . . a life study for the new century."-Amy Newman, author of On This Day in Poetry History
AUSTIN SEGREST is a poet and critic originally from Alabama. His poems appear in Poetry, The Yale Review, Threepenny Review, Ecotone, New England Review, and others. He teaches at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.
"For many of us, to dance with our children is one the simplest, most fundamental joys. We danced through pandemic mornings, through deaths far and near. We dance through political uncertainty, environmental degradation. To move our bodies to something that pleases us affirms. We are yet defiant. In a similar way, Door to Remain is defiant. The waiter is always backing into the shadows. But never for long. Segrest's craft demands an inner absence or illusion as he works with incredible vibrancy, tenderness, and longing."--Birmingham Poetry Review "There is real epiphany at work in this poem [Bjoerklunden] and it requires the preceding poems to set it free. . . . It is a fine first book by Austin Segrest."--Parhelion Literary Magazine "The love child of Elizabeth Bishop and John Donne, Austin Segrest rejuvenates sensation and feeling for our time...Segrest's book is a life study for the new century."--Amy Newman, author of Howl "This is one of those rare books of elegy in which mourning for the dead turns into mourning for an entire era...Segrest is always pitch-perfect...a master of rendering subtle emotion in a subtly apt way."--Tom Sleigh, author of The King's Touch "...poems with urgency equal to their artistry...It's a book you can inhabit, and that likely will inhabit you."--Adrienne Su, author of Peach State
