Unsinkable

“What is Titanic? A ship? A colossal disaster? An example of human hubris? A deep-sea habitat? An ephemeral space that held musicians, pets, travelers, dreamers, crew, tableware, pianos, and t-strap shoes? More than all of that. This anthology brings together a diverse array of poets who have found the Titanic and all its ephemera sailing into their work—from Etheridge Knight (‘And, yeah brothers / while white America sings about the unsinkable molly brown’) to Elizabeth Bishop (‘We’d rather have the iceberg than the ship’) to Anna M. Evans’s abecedarian (‘Animals of the Titanic’). The ‘Notes’ alone in this anthology are a map of resonance, of how fascination is an alchemical thing, of how history keeps speaking to us into the present and future.†Elizabeth Bradfield, author of SOFAR: Poems and Toward Antarctica“The story of the Titanic is one we think we all know—one of hubris, of ‘human conceit brought down by nature.’ Its wreckage lies in darkness, 2100 fathoms deep. And after more than a century, it still exercises a potent pull on the collective imagination. In the remarkable anthology that is Unsinkable, we have poems that explore industrial and maritime history; contemporary reportage and oral accounts; and a world undergoing seismic political change. But these poems transcend their source material to bring the reader into realms of elegy, fairy tale, myth and pure lyricism. Often, the doomed liner is a ghostly presence in the background of deeply moving stories of familial love and loss taking place in the present day. Unsinkable is truly titanic and full of surprises in its celebration of poetry’s ability to unfold myriad individual stories within the tragic story of the Titanic. More than anything else, we are brought on a thrilling poetic voyage across what Cynthia Atkins calls the ‘vast sea of the psyche’s.’ It is an essential book.†Liam Carson, author of Belfast Twilight“Unsinkable gathers an international chorus of poets, both emerging and renowned, in a luminous act of remembrance. The poems in this anthology bring back to the surface long-submerged voices and instruments, terror and love. Some portray the Titanic as both relic and metaphor, moving beyond tragedy into symbol. The best poems tread lightly and with grace between past and present, deeply alert to the way catastrophe can, for generations, shape our inner and collective lives. This is a moving, timely anthology, reminding us of the fragility of life, the power of nature, and the importance of community.†Afric McGlinchey, author of á la belle étoile: The odyssey of Jeanne Baré