Diana Goetsch

« 2017 Rattle Chapbook Prize Selection »

Diana Goetsch’s eighth collection of poems, her first since coming out as a trans woman, introduces us to another country, where an airport, a Starbucks, a family dinner are as confounding as the riddle of the Sphinx. Maybe the answers to how to navigate America are in plain sight, spelled out in a pop song or on a milk carton. Maybe we’re destined to be tumbleweed, “drifting from nowhere to nowhere” in no man’s land. Through it all, Goetsch remains who she’s always been—essentially a love poet, patrolling the shadowlands for what can be redeemed.

Sample Poems

•“The Fabric Factory, Circa 1987” in the American Scholar
•“Schneider” in Referential Magazine
•“The Waves” in Referential Magazine
•“In America” in Rattle (online)
•“Bowie” in Rattle (online)
•“Pride” in Rattle (online)

Other Poems

• “Writer In Residence, Central State” in Rattle #32
• “Nameless Boy” in Rattle #30
• “Recess” in Rattle #26
• Three more poems on her website

About the Author

Diana Goetsch is the author of three full-length books of poems and five chapbooks. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Best American Poetry, and The Pushcart Prize anthology. From 2015–16 she wrote Life in Transition, a series of 31 essays now archived at the American Scholar, chronicling her transition, alongside issues of gender in America. Goetsch is a recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Donald Murray Award from the National Council of Teachers of English. She has made her living as a teacher in New York City public schools and the prison system, and is the Grace Paley Teaching Fellow at The New School. (website)

Details

Cover art by Diana Goetsch

Author photo by Tom Wolf

ISBN: 978-1-931307-35-2
Cover price: $7.00
Chapbook: 36 pages
Size: 6″ x 9″