A fierce debut collection from NEA and Stegner fellow Edgar Kunz―spare and intimate narrative poems that sprawl between oxys and Bitcoin, crossing the country restlessly as they struggle to reconcile a troubled young adulthood with the working poor New England of his youth

Approach these poems as short stories, plainspoken lyric essays, controlled arcs of a bildungsroman, then again as narrative verse. Tap Out, Edgar Kunz’s debut collection, reckons with his working‑poor heritage. Within are poignant, troubling portraits of blue‑collar lives, mental health in contemporary America, and what is conveyed and passed on through touch and words―violent, or simply absent.
 
Yet Kunz’s verses are unsentimental, visceral, sprawling between oxys and Bitcoin, crossing the country restlessly. They grapple with the shame and guilt of choosing to leave the culture Kunz was born and raised in, the identity crises caused by class mobility. They pull the reader close, alternating fierce whispers and proud shouts about what working hands are capable of and the different ways a mind and body can leave a life they can no longer endure. This hungry new voice asks: after you make the choice to leave, what is left behind, what can you make of it, and at what cost?

Author: Edgar Kunz
Publisher: Mariner Books
Page Count: 112pp
Size: 5.25 x 7
Notes: paperback
Date of Publication: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1328518125