Alphabet

ALPHABET consists of twenty-six poems concerning the vagaries of failure, the underrated opposite of success. But in this case, the context of failure necessarily includes the genre of contemporary poetry, that most disabused yet over-abundant mode of expression. Why would anyone choose to express themselves in a manner that automatically narrows the readership, even after dispensing with avant-garde ambitions? – Precisely because its condition might lend itself to the aimless, useless or extra-economic moments when success can be turned on its head. And though the poet might be prone to the audience’s neglect, history itself is rife with countless examples of spectacular literary failures (as addressed in Alphabet), whether these traumas are eventually redeemed or forever lost. These examples include: misplaced manuscripts, writer’s block, articulate illiterates, libraries that were burned to the ground, posthumous fame for the previously poverty-stricken, botched yet endlessly repeated translations, along with the obvious shortcomings of the dilettante, the over-inflated ego, and the perennial loser. 

“Andrew Guthrie is a poet’s poet, and his collection Alphabet views life through the lens of the written world…He explores the impermanence and the irresistibility of the written word: a topic that both troubles and delights him. These poems portray writing as a cave, ventured into by the naked poet.”

–Viki Holmes, author of miss moon’s class.

“There is a metaphysical grittiness and vibrant wordplay to these twenty-six poems about the actualities of poetics and history which make Alphabet a page-turner.”

–John King, director of the Drunken Odyssey literary podcast.

“Alphabet reminds us of what it is like to both drown and float in the spaces language and literature create.”

–Daniel Zomparelli, editor of the print magazine Poetry Is Dead.