Coal Mountain Elementary is poet and activist Mark Nowak's third book of poetry. The collection presents a collage that aims to elucidate the experiences of American and Chinese coal miners. To do so, it uses three main sources-- testimonies from miners, school curriculum from the American Coal Foundation's, and Chinese newspaper accounts. It also utilizes color photography (courtesy of Ian Teh and Nowak himself).
It should be noted that the collection contains none of Nowak's own language; it is "three strands of found text... selected and braided".
It should be noted that the collection contains none of Nowak's own language; it is "three strands of found text... selected and braided".
The collections presents 'poems' in three sections which Nowak labels as 'Lessons'. "First Lesson" is "Coal Flowers: A Historic Craft;" "Second Lesson" is "Cookie Mining;" and "Third Lesson" is "Coal Camps and Mining Towns."
Nowak concludes the collection with a "Coda," a final account that gives body and summary to the poetry within.
Nowak uses italics for the newspaper accounts, bold font for the testimonies, and colored headers for the curriculum to denote the separate types quotations. He also lists works cited at the end of the collection.
Buy the book here:
https://coffeehousepress.org/products/coal-mountain-elementary
https://www.amazon.com/Coal-Mountain-Elementary-Mark-Nowak/dp/1566892287
Mark Nowak's Website:
https://twitter.com/coalmtn?lang=en
No comments:
Post a Comment