The god of longing

In The God of Longing, Brent Calderwood weaves classical allusion and pop culture together as the speaker moves across the continent from New York to San Francisco, and through states of desire, loss, and nostalgia?longing in all its forms?to come to a sort of wry wisdom about relationships. By turns witty and earnest, erotic and heartbreaking, The God of Longing uses a clear narrative tone that is both plainspoken and sonically rich to ponder love affairs and childhood homophobia, and uses tight traditional forms to take on nontraditional topics--a sonnet about Kate Chopin's The Awakening, for example, or villanelles about online dating and Margaret Cho. Taken together, they announce the arrival of a gifted new voice in American poetry.