Zirconia……. Bad Bad by Chelsey Minnis

“Juvenile mockery of poetry and the American poetry establishment, as well as excited reverence for both..."--Publishers Weekly

"Decadent! Childish! . . . indulgent and melancholy . . . moments of extreme morbidity and anger."--Arielle Greenberg

Collected in this volume are Chelsey Minnis's first two books: Zirconia (winner of the Alberta Prize) andBad Bad. Zirconia introduced a speaker described as "half-smirking, half-weeping" by the Village Voice. Minnis heralded the gurlesque, a term coined for the occasion and defined as "a feminine, feminist incorporating of the grotesque and cruel with the spangled and dreamy." This poet's rapt, driven affect and glazed wit heralded a new strategy in the mitigation of female self-hatred in poetry.

"Her poems take some getting used to."--Robert Strong

"Many won't find her . . . acceptable at all...--Cole Swensen