Bücher von Eric Nelson

Horse Not Zebra, we learn in the title poem of this collection, refers to advice given to medical students-to look first to "the common, not the exotic" when diagnosing patients. Eric Nelson embraces that advice in his poems, exploring the common rituals of daily life-family interactions, gardening, long walks with or without dogs, even the clomp of a neighbor's boots can be, for him, a call to attention. He acknowledges the darker moments of history he has lived through and faces intimations of his own mortality, yet persists in doing the hard work of learning how to laugh. His poems invite us to find joy in the quotidian and a way to "sing ourselves beyond ourselves." -Grace Bauer

THE SILK CITY SERIES pulls readers into the everyday lives of working-class residents of Paterson, New Jersey. Originally published serially in Nelson's acclaimed zine-Silk City Series-this collection presents a diverse cross-section of characters based on the author's own childhood neighbors. The stories capture a post-industrial city in a state usually not known for its beauty. In the heart of a city, where wealth lies in the surrounding suburbs, neighbors live on top of each other. Families struggle to stick together. Most find solace in each other. And the city, a character in itself, changes all who reside in its boundaries.