Slope Editions is excited to announce that ghost machines by Ben Mirov will be available for purchase at our table at the 2016 AWP Conference in Los Angeles, CA, as well as on our website starting on March 31st, 2016.
ghost machines, Ben Mirov's third full length book of poetry was chosen as the winner of our 14th Annual Book Prize by Douglas Kearney.
A descendant of Mirov’s previous collections, Collected Ghost (H_NGM_N Books, 2009), and Ghost Machine (Caketrain, 2010), ghost machines utilizes the tools of its predecessors, but in new ways—further blurring the line between poem & examination, poem & specter.
About the collection, Kearney writes, “Reading ghost machines, I am reminded of Brian Eno and David Byrne’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, J Dilla’s Donuts, or DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing.... In these sonic works, archives reanimate into loop driven compositions that stave off endings. Refrain riddles these poems, deepening echoes that re-orient and destabilize. “A frozen lung tree”—a persistently repeated phrase, is an anatomical metaphor, an abstracted image of networks, part of a grotesque arbor—but in all cases, unable to provide air, the tree’s vital fruit. Yet, these poems refuse stasis, the repetitions shuffle in interval, adding new fragments from Rilke, Pound, Borges, and a video gaming manual, gently accumulating new possibilities."
Mirov is the author of Hider Roser (Octopus Books, 2012), and Ghost Machine (Caketrain, 2010) which was selected for publication by Michael Burkard, and chosen as one of the best books of poetry in 2010 for Believer Magazine's Reader Survey. He is also the author of the chapbooks My Hologram Chamber is Surrounded by Miles of Snow (YESYES, 2011), Vortexts (SUPERMACHINE, 2011), I is to Vorticism (New Michigan Press, 2010), and Collected Ghost (H_NGM_N, 2010). He is a founding editor of PEN America's Poetry Series, and an editor-at-large for LIT Magazine. He grew up in Northern California and lives in Oakland.
We also want to remind you that submissions for our 15th Annual Book Prize, judged by Mary Ruefle, are still open until April 15th! For more information and to submit, see our submittable page.
We are so excited to be able to share this book with the world!