The Spinning Place - Paperback

by Chelsea Wagenaar (Author)

Winner of the 2018 Michael Waters Poetry Prize
Winner of the The Society of Midland Authors 2020 Poetry Award

The Spinning Place considers the body as the origin of ecstasy and agony, revealing how language--its possibilities and limits--bridges us to one another, but also shatters intimacy. The collection's three sections examine origin, exile, and the reconciliation of praise and sorrow with lyric precision and the heart of storytelling. The poems ask us to behold the ordinary astonishment of birth, motherhood, and faith: to witness the everyday as though it were sacred.

Author Biography

Chelsea Wagenaar is the author of Mercy Spurs the Bone, selected by Philip Levine as the 2013 winner of the Philip Levine Prize. She holds a BA from the University of Virginia and a PhD from the University of North Texas. Her work has appeared in The Southern Review, Gulf Coast, Crazyhorse, and many others. She teaches at Valparaiso University in Indiana, where she lives with her husband, Mark Wagenaar, and their two children.