{"product_id":"a-short-history-of-monsters-poems","title":"A Short History of Monsters Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner, 2019 Miller Williams Poetry Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“We are the happy riders on the stream of Padua’s consciousness . . . a smart, sympathetic mind at work.”\u003cbr\u003e —Billy Collins\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDrawing on the spirit of New York City in decades past, \u003ci\u003eA Short History of Monsters\u003c\/i\u003e presents the sins and obsessions of a poet nimble in beat and slam traditions. In his first full-length collection, Jose Padua wrestles with an American dream interrupted by failure, excess, and other nightmares. Often brash and unruly, these poems range from recollections of lost, drunken days to unadorned manifestations of hope. Throughout, the speaker redefines his relationship to pop culture, praising it, skewering it, and mourning it by turns.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe poems that make up \u003ci\u003eA Short History of Monsters\u003c\/i\u003e tend toward both dark humor and epiphany, diving deeply into their own despair and rising up again with existential absurdity. This is a poetry that gets down into the grit and grime of the real world, digging out a space to experience being alive as miraculous in and of itself.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"OUATB","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48667456635135,"sku":"*R0124963*","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0487\/5550\/7364\/files\/26398503482786.jpg?v=1781292259","url":"https:\/\/shop.onceuponatimebooks.com\/products\/a-short-history-of-monsters-poems","provider":"Once Upon a Time Books AR","version":"1.0","type":"link"}