Writer-in-Residence for Roosevelt’s MFA program, poet, and
essayist, Kathleen Rooney is proud to announce the release of her latest novel
in poems, Robinson Alone, out now from Gold Wake Press! The project is based on
the life and work of Weldon Kees, and has been ten years in the making. Join me
in congratulating Kathleen Rooney!
About the book:
The Nebraska-born poet, painter, critic, and musician Weldon Kees
traced a brief, bright path through midcentury America before vanishing in
1955, an apparent suicide. Among the poems he left behind are a particularly
unsettling four that feature the mysterious Robinson: both a prototypical
member of the smart set—masking his desperation with urbane savoir-faire—and an
alter ego for the troubled Kees himself.
In Robinson Alone,
Kathleen Rooney performs a bold act of literary mediumship,
conjuring Kees through his borrowed character to sketch his restless journey
across locales and milieus—New York, San Francisco, the highways between—and to
evoke his ambitions, his frustrations, and his skewed humor. The product of a
decade-long engagement with Kees and his work, this novel in poems is not only
a portrait of an under-appreciated genius and his era, but also a beam flashed
into haunted boiler-rooms that still fire the American spirit, rooms where
energy and optimism are burnt down to ash.
Kathleen will be giving several readings throughout the
Chicagoland area. The launch reading (with Hannah Gamble) will be held at
Women&Children First on Friday, November 2 at 7:30pm, and/or at Frugal Muse
(my favorite bookstore in the suburbs) on Friday, November 9 at 7pm. For a
complete list of readings, click here.
Congrats to Kathleen on her success!
