āA stunning collage. . . . Nowakās willingness to submerge his own voice beneath these other accounts, privileging other voicesāthose of survivors, widows, journalistsāabove his own. He is a legislator whose job is allowing others to be heard.āĀ āNew York Times Sunday Book Review
āMark Nowakās āCoal Mountain Elementaryā defies easy genre labels ā itās a documentary poem, a collage, a primal cry ā and makes me want to throw it against the wall in the best way.āĀ āLeslie Jamison,Ā New York Times Book Review
āMark Nowak is restoring the perspective of working class Americans to contemporary American poetry.ā āBuffalo News
āThe aim of making poetry to make change, to make history, is what makes Nowakās work most radical and most daring, moving into the realm where knowing is a kind of collective being and doing.ā āKenyon Review
āCoal Mountain ElementaryĀ is an imaginative and shocking reminder of what it means, in the most human and poignant terms, to be a miner, whether in this country or in China, or for that matter anywhere in the industrial world. It is also a tribute to miners and working people everywhere. It manages, in photos and in words, to portray an entire culture. And it is a stunning educational tool.ā āHoward Zinn
Coal Mountain Elementary
Poetry by Mark Nowak, with photographs by Ian Teh and Mark Nowak
April 1, 2009 ā¢ 6 x 9 ā¢ 170 pages ā¢ 978-1-56689-228-5
A singular, genre-defying treatise from one of Americaās most innovative political poets, Coal Mountain Elementary remixes verbatim testimony from the surviving Sago, West Virginia miners and rescue teams, the American Coal Foundationās curriculum for schoolchildren, newspaper accounts of mining disasters in China, and full-color photographs of Chinese miners by renowned photojournalist Ian Teh.
About the Author
A poet and labor activist heralded by Adrienne Rich for āregenerating the rich tradition of working-class literature,ā Mark Nowak regularly leads transnational poetry workshops between American and international trade unions. The author of Revenants and Shut Up Shut Down, he has also been a contributor to the Poetry Foundation's Harriet blog.
A Malaysian-born, British photojournalist, Ian Teh has been documenting working conditions in China for over a decade. His photographs have appeared in Newsweek, Time, Fortune,Ā the New Yorker, and the UK Independent Magazine and have been widely exhibited, most recently in Beijing.
Reviews
āA stunning collage. . . . Nowakās willingness to submerge his own voice beneath these other accounts, privileging other voicesāthose of survivors, widows, journalistsāabove his own. He is a legislator whose job is allowing others to be heard.āĀ āNew York Times Sunday Book Review
āMark Nowakās āCoal Mountain Elementaryā defies easy genre labels ā itās a documentary poem, a collage, a primal cry ā and makes me want to throw it against the wall in the best way.āĀ āLeslie Jamison,Ā New York Times Book Review
āMark Nowak is restoring the perspective of working class Americans to contemporary American poetry.ā āBuffalo News
āThe aim of making poetry to make change, to make history, is what makes Nowakās work most radical and most daring, moving into the realm where knowing is a kind of collective being and doing.ā āKenyon Review
āCoal Mountain ElementaryĀ is an imaginative and shocking reminder of what it means, in the most human and poignant terms, to be a miner, whether in this country or in China, or for that matter anywhere in the industrial world. It is also a tribute to miners and working people everywhere. It manages, in photos and in words, to portray an entire culture. And it is a stunning educational tool.ā āHoward Zinn
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Description
Poetry by Mark Nowak, with photographs by Ian Teh and Mark Nowak
April 1, 2009 ā¢ 6 x 9 ā¢ 170 pages ā¢ 978-1-56689-228-5
A singular, genre-defying treatise from one of Americaās most innovative political poets, Coal Mountain Elementary remixes verbatim testimony from the surviving Sago, West Virginia miners and rescue teams, the American Coal Foundationās curriculum for schoolchildren, newspaper accounts of mining disasters in China, and full-color photographs of Chinese miners by renowned photojournalist Ian Teh.
About the Author
A poet and labor activist heralded by Adrienne Rich for āregenerating the rich tradition of working-class literature,ā Mark Nowak regularly leads transnational poetry workshops between American and international trade unions. The author of Revenants and Shut Up Shut Down, he has also been a contributor to the Poetry Foundation's Harriet blog.
A Malaysian-born, British photojournalist, Ian Teh has been documenting working conditions in China for over a decade. His photographs have appeared in Newsweek, Time, Fortune,Ā the New Yorker, and the UK Independent Magazine and have been widely exhibited, most recently in Beijing.
Reviews
āA stunning collage. . . . Nowakās willingness to submerge his own voice beneath these other accounts, privileging other voicesāthose of survivors, widows, journalistsāabove his own. He is a legislator whose job is allowing others to be heard.āĀ āNew York Times Sunday Book Review
āMark Nowakās āCoal Mountain Elementaryā defies easy genre labels ā itās a documentary poem, a collage, a primal cry ā and makes me want to throw it against the wall in the best way.āĀ āLeslie Jamison,Ā New York Times Book Review
āMark Nowak is restoring the perspective of working class Americans to contemporary American poetry.ā āBuffalo News
āThe aim of making poetry to make change, to make history, is what makes Nowakās work most radical and most daring, moving into the realm where knowing is a kind of collective being and doing.ā āKenyon Review
āCoal Mountain ElementaryĀ is an imaginative and shocking reminder of what it means, in the most human and poignant terms, to be a miner, whether in this country or in China, or for that matter anywhere in the industrial world. It is also a tribute to miners and working people everywhere. It manages, in photos and in words, to portray an entire culture. And it is a stunning educational tool.ā āHoward Zinn
