Boston Globe Praises New Book of Poetry and Drawings by Bowdoin Faculty
By BowdoinCast, a new book of poetry and drawings by Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Mary Hart and Maine writer Flynn O'Brien, is available at The Bowdoin Store, at Longfellow Books in Portland, and on Amazon.
In a recent review, the Boston Globe's Nina MacLaughlin wrote, "A palpable grief saturates Maine poet Flynn O’Brien’s new poetry collection, Cast, and that the poems "reckon with the unbelievability of death."
"How can a person exist, then not? And what can we do but continue our conversations with those gone, even when they don’t answer, even when we no longer know what to ask?"
Hart's images, in watercolor, ink, and gouache, "compliment and augment O’Brien’s words, whispering of an ocean atmosphere, the pull and retreat of tides, here and gone, of what goes and what remains."
Hart explained that when they started on the project, "[O'Brien] had a manuscript of poems and I had a portfolio of drawings (ink and gouache). As we put them together, we found connections and resonance between our visions, and a creative space that defied the isolation of the pandemic," Hart said.
Hart is a painter and printmaker from Portland, Maine. Her work can be found in the collections of the Portland Museum of Art, the University of New England, and Simmons College, among others.
O'Brien lives in Portland, Maine, and has had poems published in The Adobe Anthology, The Cafe Review, Full of Crow, Criminal Class Review, Deuce Coupe, and elsewhere.
The book was printed by Walch Publishing, in Portland, Maine.
