A poetic biography of Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), Rare Wondrous Things investigates the history of this German artist and naturalist who made groundbreaking discoveries in entomology. While Merian led an exceptional lifeāeven traveling to Suriname at fifty-two years old in the pursuit of knowledgeāher name has largely remained in obscurity, and her personal life is still shrouded in mystery. These poems recover her legacy by exploring the tensions between science and religion, professional aspirations and motherhood, wifehood and independence, and biographer and subject.
PRAISE
āAlyse Benselās Rare Wondrous Things is a marvel: a work of essential feminist revision, a portrait of the artist and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian, and a book of poems that deepens our understanding of history. Both meticulously researched and wonderfully inventive, Benselās collection brings together art and science in profoundly moving poems. Bensel writes, āI rearrange/these fragments into a legacy, /where I can breathe life/into so many blank pages.ā And the world she brings to life in Rare Wondrous Things is evocative and startling.ā
āNicole Cooley, author of Of Marriage
āTo grapple with a history that only flitters into viewāthe life of a 17th century woman scientist and artist–is a wondrous thing itself. How to āevolve into a new unified orderā? In addition to rendering details from the life of Maria Sibylla Merian, who among the first to observe and painted butterflies at home in Germany and then in Suriname, Alyse Benselās poems chart a way to understand a life obscured and cocooned by class and gender. These poems transform the details and the mysteries behind themāthrough artāinto wondrous flight.ā
āElizabeth Bradfield, author ofĀ Toward Antarctica
āIn the tradition of Adrienne Richās recuperative feminist poetics, Alyse Benselās Rare Wondrous Things celebrates both the skilled artistry and scientific acumen of naturalist and scientific illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian. Filled with musically-crafted language and sparkling imagery, Bensel deftly weaves together ekphrasis, docupoetics, entomological knowledge, and cultural poetics in this engagingly riveting and timely poetic biography. On an individual level, these poems are jewel-bright and powerful. Together, they accumulate and accrete into a book that is nothing short of stunning.ā
āLee Ann Roripaugh, author ofĀ tsunami vs. the fukushima 50
Alyse BenselĀ is the author of three chapbooks, including Lies to Tell the Body (Seven Kitchens Press, 2018). Her poems have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Blackbird, Poetry International, West Branch, and elsewhere. She teaches at Brevard College, where she directs the Looking Glass Rock Writersā Conference. Rare Wondrous Things is her first poetry collection.
SPECS
Poetry
Paperback Original
80 pages Ā I Ā 5.5 x 8.5 in.
Price: 14.95
ISBN: 9781732743403
Pub Date: July 2020
Distributor: IPGāIndependent Publishers Group; also available through Ingram, and other wholesalers.
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Rights & publicity contact Dede Cummings, publisher:Ā dede@greenwriterspress.com