Dougherty, Sean Thomas

Broken Hallelujahs: Poems

Rochester, NY: BOA Editions, 2007. First Edition, First Printing. . Dated, inscribed & signed by Sean Thomas Dougherty to Dan Rzicznek. “Sean Thomas Dougherty was raised in an interracial family with an African-American step-father, and a mother whose grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Budapest and the Ukraine. Issues of identity and the complexities of history are central in his work. In Broken Hallelujahs, Dougherty uses a variety of experimental and traditional forms including canzone, prose poem, metered, and elliptical poems. These aesthetic devices structure his themes of personal and historical fissure and the reconnection of such fissures. American and African-American musical poems push against a narrative describing Dougherty's journey to Budapest to walk the streets of his great grandmother. As his multiple ancestries are interwoven across time and space, Dougherty's family, the power of memory, and the need to not forget in the face of historical atrocity, provide a safe passageway, to “Sing across time and space the names of our living, and our dead.’” (From BOA) Number 104 of the American Poets Consortium Series published by BOA, this collection includes 35 poems by Sean Thomas Dougherty (b. 1965), who teaches creative writing at Penn State University – Erie. On the half-title page Dougherty has signed and inscribed in blue ink: "For Daniel- | & your lyric poems | that sing the air | into beautiful hallelujahs | from the far shore | of Lake Erie - | with friendship + BIG | admiration - | (signed) Sean Thomas Dougherty." From the collection of Dan Rzicznek (b. 1979), recipient of author's inscription and an esteemed Ohio poet who is also an academician at Bowling Green State University. On the top right corner of half-title page, Rzicznek has hand-written his ownership signature in black ink, "F. Daniel Rzicznek". Trade-format softcover original. First edition as stated at copyright page, first printing as indicated by number sequence thereon. In fine condition with very minor rubbing and faint scratching to front, back covers & spine; minor markings along top and side edges of textblock. Interior fine with tiny bumps, fold-creases to the bottom of several leaves. Fine. [Item #7974]

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