{"product_id":"opening-ceremony-paperback-1","title":"Opening Ceremony - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eLaura Marie Marciano\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOpening Ceremony\u003c\/em\u003e is the second collection of poetry from author Laura Marie Marciano. The book follows the speaker of her first book \u003cem\u003eMall Brat \u003c\/em\u003efrom the 2008 recession to the current hellscape of downward mobility for many aging millennials. Finding absurdity in the Fourth of July, backyard pools, surveillance mirrors, and Sol De Janeiro, the poems navigate the pain and promise of letting go of expectations as one seeks motherhood. Wet landscapes, missed fertile windows, Botox routines, quiet quitting rituals, political centrists, and text message banter are navigated by the author's perfect balance of tenderness, pastiche, camp, and wit. Ultimately, the poems in this book reveal the glimmer that still exists in leaning from a collective state of drowning, into the birth of a child, breaking open our hearts to a soft landing and a queer future.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Laura Marie Marciano power-walks into my brain wearing the hottest and milfiest outfit. I imagine her smirking writing poems holding a puffy-pen. I imagine her tickling me with it. Her poems make me want to live. Laura Marie Marciano's poems have been in conversation with my brain for my entire life. She nails \"what is most personal is most universal\". Some of us need to buy ourselves a treat some days. Glitter for our eyelids, a coke, or thrift bric-a-brac. I bought perfume before reading \u003cem\u003eOpening Ceremony\u003c\/em\u003e. I read \u003cem\u003eOpening Ceremony\u003c\/em\u003e at the laundromat and realized I didn't need perfume anymore. I drove back to return and exchanged. Days later, I returned and didn't get anything. Marciano's poetry made me realize I didn't need scent on my body. I needed community. Marciano makes me want to stay alive so I can keep reading her poems for the rest of my life. A true genius. Go read all of her poems right now. Feed your brain. Feel less alone.\"\u003cbr\u003e -- \u003cstrong\u003eAna Carrete\u003c\/strong\u003e, author of \u003cem\u003eBlush and Blink\u003c\/em\u003e (Lang Books) and \u003cem\u003eBaby Babe\u003c\/em\u003e (CCM Press).\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"These poems are birth pangs. They can't be described as painful exactly. They're overwhelming and can only be comprehended with our animal instincts. In \u003cem\u003eOpening Ceremony\u003c\/em\u003e Laura Marie Marciano takes us on an amoral journey through class in all its artifice and reality, reflecting inequality and its symptoms with clinical surveillance technology, and at the same time, we're invited to dip in an out of the aquamarine waters of suburban, subterranean comfort with our naked bodies. How do we expand to make room for adulthood and parenthood? How do we contract to hold onto sacred youth and mystery? All the wild, fragrant, flamboyant material of these poems create a jungle in which to explore these questions, with pleasure.\"\u003cbr\u003e -- \u003cstrong\u003eMonica McClure\u003c\/strong\u003e, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Gone Thing\u003c\/em\u003e (Winter Editions) and \u003cem\u003eTender Data\u003c\/em\u003e (Birds LLC)\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Thank god our Queen of the Mall Brats is back to guide us through our sad economy, our forever adjunct professoring, our the-Juvederm-isn't-working with her shimmering, funny, beautiful, alive poems that make me want to cry and to live, too.\"\u003cbr\u003e -- \u003cstrong\u003eKate Durbin\u003c\/strong\u003e, author of \u003cem\u003eE! Entertainment\u003c\/em\u003e (Wonder) and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eLaura Marie Marciano is an author, educator, and media artist. She received her MFA from Brooklyn College in Performance and Interactive Media Arts, and her PhD in English and Creative Writing from the University of Rhode Island. Laura's first book of poetry, \u003cem\u003eMall Brat, \u003c\/em\u003e was released in 2016, from Civil Coping Mechanism Press. She has curated works of poetry and performance at MoMA PS1, Brooklyn Museum, and RISD Museum, and has given readings at many venues across the nation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 64\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.2 x 7.9 x 7.3 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 20, 2024\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47353565249785,"sku":"9781988355603","price":16.2,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/SnhB_-vgP79781988355603_fc60cb98-34cd-4411-98dd-cb8dd1bc5bb9.webp?v=1769825209","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/opening-ceremony-paperback-1","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}