Publisher's Synopsis
Poetry. In her debut book, NO APOCALYPSE, selected by Bob Hicok for the 2012 Georgetown Review Poetry Contest, Monica Wendel creates a universe that exists somewhere between the real world and an imagined one. Dreams intersect with reality and the speaker in the poems gives equal credence to both worlds. The speaker imagines a 9/11 that never happened, guns in the sky, and an island that turns into a whale. It's a place where what we see and feel becomes real because we believe that it's real. Like a salt marsh after the tide has retreated, these poems are the wealth the tide leaves behind.
In this assured debut, Monica Wendel mines the pleasures and discontents of city life in subtle, evocative lyrics that range in subject from the political, to love, desire and dreamlife, to the everyday mishaps and mysteries encountered on the streets of Brooklyn. Wendel is expert at precise observation, and her voice is immensely appealing--intimate, lively and shy. There's abundant wit, intelligence and humor here, too. A memorable collection from a promising young poet, NO APOCALYPSE sings with the immediacy of life as it is being lived right this minute in New York City.--Deborah Landau
