Prof. Alexander Motyl of Rutgers University has just published his first collection of poetry, “Vanishing Points,” with Aldrich Press. The 114-page book takes readers on a unique journey, to various locales as well as various periods of time.
According to Ukrainian poet Vasyl Makhno, the recipient of the BBC’s Book of the Year Prize in 2015, “If Alexander Motyl’s poems are metaphysical, it’s primarily because they deal with the quivering sensation of things passing. At the same time, the poet’s language is suffused with names and places and is, thus, inextricably connected to real life. It’s as if experience and memory were playing tennis, forcing us, the readers, to pay close attention to the players and divine the rules of the game. Cityscapes resound with the living voices of people, family histories focus on loss, and the falling of leaves ‘makes my heart soar with boundless levity.’ ”
Ukrainian American poet Dzvinia Orlowsky, winner of the prestigious Pushcart Prize in 2007, writes that “Alexander Motyl takes the reader on a journey from Vienna to New York through history with a literary vision and poetic rhythm. The speaker of these lively poems embraces cities and venues with trepidation and lustful abandon as if they were capricious lovers; contemplates composers, historical characters and saints with the ease of a long lost neighborhood friend. Poem to poem, wry humor and a sense of loss converge, taking to task that which stays and that which changes.”
American poet Gloria Mindock notes that “‘Nowhere can be somewhere/and somewhere can be nowhere’ writes Alexander Motyl in his new collection ‘Vanishing Points.’ He shows us loss in country after country. Changing landscapes in life until it fades, but doesn’t vanish. These poems would make a beautiful film, threads of life that never end. Beautiful images of yearning that stays with the eyes.”
Motyl is the author of seven novels, “Whiskey Priest,” “Who Killed Andrei Warhol,” “Flippancy,” “The Jew Who Was Ukrainian,” “My Orchidia,” “Sweet Snow,” “Fall River” and “Vovochka.” His artwork has been shown in solo and group shows in New York City, Philadelphia, and Toronto and is part of the permanent collection of The Ukrainian Museum in New York and the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Winnipeg. He teaches at Rutgers University-Newark and is the author of six academic books, numerous articles and a blog on “Ukraine’s Orange Blues” on www.worldaffairsjournal.org.
“Vanishing Points” is available on Amazon (amazon.com) and from the author ([email protected]).