Description
Hurricane Party is a collection of larger-than-life poems that capture the cadence of New Orleans speech, and the indomitable spirit of its speakers and its culture. It’s refreshing to hear an authentic Louisiana voice, gutsy and genuine, putting it out there in the midst of the mess of “Yankeefied” and “celestial” poems Pelegrin rails against in “Katrina Scribendi.” By turns prickly and heartrendingly comic, these poems perform, with the mastery of a fine poet who also understands the art of stand-up comedy, the surreal reality of being Louisiana.
—Sheryl St. Germain, author of Let it Be a Dark Roux
Alison Pelegrin is one of the sharpest wits to come out of the Bayou State in a long time. She can conjure Louisiana’s present-tense, unapologetic, tragicomic drama with authenticity. One almost believes that every bit of the River’s spoil headed toward that enormous big toe must pass through Pelegrin’s hands.
—Martha Serpas, author of The Dirty Side of the Storm
Hurricane Party is an original and rewarding work, a masterful follow-up to Big Muddy River of Stars, and a live wire, compelling contribution to American poetry. No other poet sounds like Pelegrin, and that’s the sure sign of a writer at the top of her game.
—Elton Glaser, author of Here and Hereafter
