Black Achilles

Poetry March 2015 ISBN 978-1-936628-32-2 40 pages Softcover, 5½" x 8½"

"Such a small wound, such a huge nuisance, death. In Black Achilles, Curtis L. Crisler takes the very human suffering of a torn tendon and uses it to explore our love affair with convenience, our ever-growing cloak of invulnerability, our pining for youth, immortality—how we unhinge at its loss. It is b-ball and score, the opposite of frustration/fragility … weakness. It is crutches and numbness, swagger and 'what tender means.' All this with a deft rim shot, a language of swerves and dunks, rebounds and alley-oops."—Leslie Anne Mcilroy, Managing & Poetry Editor, HEArt (Human Equity through Art), and author of Slag

grief love

About the Author

Curtis L. Crisler

Curtis L. Crisler's forthcoming poetry book, "This" Ameri-can-ah, will be released in 2015 (Cherry Castle Publishing). His books are Pulling Scabs (nominated for a Pushcart), Tough Boy Sonatas (YA), and Dreamist: a mixed-genre novel (YA), and his poetry chapbooks are Wonderkind, Soundtrack to Latchkey Boy, and Spill. He's been published in many magazines, journals, and anthologies. He is Associate Professor of English at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, and a Cave Canem Fellow.