Ultraviolet of the Genuine

The fourth collection from a rising star of contemporary American poetry

Hannah Brooks-Motl's fourth collection of poems is an expansive record of time and thought, weaving together philosophy, science, theology, dreams, grief, literary theory, criticism, history and ideas of utopia--making for a book that continuously surprises and is nearly impossible to categorize. Engaging with centuries of poetic tradition, Ultraviolet of the Genuine leaves room for the development of everything, abstract and alive, even giving ants the spotlight in one long poem. These poems propose a new metaphysics, weighing everyday moments wherein the elusive and ultraviolet radiate. Again, Brooks-Motl challenges the ways we read poetry, not by opting for either the head or the heart, but by choosing both. Hannah Brooks-Motl is the author of the poetry collections The New Years (2014), M (2015) and Earth (2019). In a review of Earth in Adroit Journal, Jonathan Suhr writes that in this collection, "The self becomes a referential object defined by its relations to definitions that are also always changing: society, home, family, poetry, memory." Brooks-Motl's poems and essays have appeared in Best American Experimental Writing, Cambridge Literary Review, Chicago Review, Modernism/modernity and Tupelo Quarterly.