Prelude to Bruise is a 2014 poetry collection by American author Saeed Jones, published by Coffee House Press on September 9, 2014.
Contents # Title Anthracite1 Insomniac Closet of Red The Blue Dress Isaac, after Mount Moriah Pretending to Drown Boy in a Stolen Evening Gown Boy at Edge of Woods Terrible Boy Daedalus, after Icarus Boy in a Whalebone Corset Boy Found inside a Wolf Boy at Threshold After the First Shot Last Call2 "Don't Let the Sun Set on You" Prelude to a Bruise Coyote Cry Jasper, 1998 Lower Ninth Drag Kudzu Beheaded Kingdom Thralldom Cruel Body Thallium He Thinks He Can Leave Me3 Secondhand (Smoke) Body & Kentucky Bourbon Eclipse of My Third Life Guilt Sleeping Arrangement Apologia Ketamine & Company Thralldom II Skin Like Brick Dust Kingdom of Trick, Kingdom of Drug Blue Prelude In Nashville4 Highway 407 Meridian Mercy Mississippi Drowning Casket Sharp Dominion The Fabulist Room without a Ghost Dirge After Last Light Hour between Dog & Wolf Postapocalyptic Heartbeat 5 History, according to Boy 6 Last Portrait as Boy
Reception Publishers Weekly praised the collection, writing, "Solid from start to finish, possessing amazing energy and focus, a bold new voice in poetry has announced itself."
Writing for NPR, poet Amal El-Mohtar said, "There are too many exceptional poems here to single out, and not a single one that didn't at least impress me."
Awards and nominations It won the 2015 Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Literature Award and the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. It was a finalist for the 2015 Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry, the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry.
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