 The Lost Country of Sight
(Ahinga Press 2008)
by Neil Aitken
Released November 1, 2008
90 pages/$15.00
Fueled by motion and emotion, Neil Aitken s The Lost Country of Sight is literally and figuratively a moving collection. His winding roads and ghost cars move us over the landscapes of identity and personal history with stirring meditative grace. There is a song at the beginning of every journey, Aitken tells us in one poem even as he says in another, these are journeys we never take. This poet is both our wise, wide-eyed tour guide and our dazed, day-dreaming companion in this rich, mature debut. --Terrance Hayes, Professor of English, Carnegie Mellon University
It's difficult to believe that Neil Aitken s The Lost Country of Sight is a first book, since there is mastery throughout the collection. His ear is finely tuned, and his capacity for lyricism seems almost boundless. What stands out everywhere in the poems is his imagery, which is not only visually precise but is also possessed of a pure depth. The poems never veer off into the sensational; they are built from pensiveness and quietude and an affection for the world. Traveling Through the Prairies, I Think of My Father's Voice strikes me as a perfectly made poem, but poems of similar grace and power are to be found throughout the book. This is a debut to celebrate. --C.G. Hanzlicek, Judge, 2007 Philip Levine Prize Prize for Poetry
The voice in these poems is that of a sighted, awake heart discovering its home in language and its homelessness in the world. Steeped in longing, the imagination here is concrete, vivid, sensuous, and ultimately erotic, even as it perceives that meaning and beauty are evanescent. This book is a full helping from the world s infinite fund of tears. --Li-Young Lee
About the Author
Neil Aitken was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and grew up in Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and various parts of western Canada and the United States. He worked for a number of years as a computer games programmer before leaving the industry in 2004 to complete an MFA from the University of California, Riverside. He is currently pursuing a PhD in literature and creative writing at the University of Southern California. His poems have appeared in Barn Owl Review, Crab Orchard Review,The Drunken Boat, Poetry Southeast, RHINO, Sou'wester, and Washington Square, as well as in the anthologies Blue Arc West: An Anthology of California Poets and Homage to Vallejo. He is the founding editor of Boxcar Poetry Review, a Kundiman fellow, and three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. The Lost Country of Sight is his first book.
For more info, go to www.neil-aitken.com
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