Back in November, I reported on the forthcoming release of a new book of essays by Lucia Perillo. Back then, the book was to be called Ground Truth: On Disability, Poetry, Nature, though now it would seem the book's title has been changed, probably for the better, to the very catchy I've Heard the Vultures Singing: Field Notes on Poetry, Illness, and Nature.Perillo is one my favourite contemporary poets, and I'm eagerly awaiting this collection of her essays. Here's a snippet of the book's description from the publisher:
During her days as a park ranger, Lucia Perillo loved nothing more than to brave the Cascade Mountains alone, taking special pride in her daring solo skis down the raw, unpatrolled slopes of Mount Rainier. Then, in her thirties, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In I've Heard the Vultures Singing, Perillo confronts, in stark but funny terms, the ironies of being someone with her history and gusto for life being suddenly unable to walk.... These essays explore what it’s like to experience desire as a sick person, how to lower one’s expectations just enough for a wilderness experience, and how to navigate the vagaries of a disease that has no predictable trajectory. I've Heard the Vultures Singing records in unflinching, honest prose one woman’s struggle to find her place in a difficult new world.
I've Heard the Vultures Singing: Field Notes on Poetry, Illness, and Nature is scheduled to published in May, but it can be pre-ordered in both the USA and Canada. Until then, Perillo's latest book of poems is still Luck is Luck, and I still recommend it, and her other collections, extremely highly.
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