Fault Tree

Overview

A long poem of interrupted narrative and a deceptively simple diction

The emotional concerns of family and culture are brought under scrutiny using the language of science and the form of poetry in this captivating long poem. Examining the impact of WWII upon her father, the poet uses his life as a lens to examine time and experience. The book is divided into three connected “effects” stemming from one undesired state: time. The poem poses time as a governing body overthrown by a simple mental repositioning—showing that time is inescapable only because so few have tried to escape. Meeting the reader halfway with a universal discussion on a sociopolitical climate that is relatable and real, the poet brings forth a tangle of emotion and events that the narrator wrangles with to prove his own sanity as well as time’s true nature.

Reviews

"The language is beautiful in its plainness. . . . This is a wondrous, unnerving book." —C. D. Wright, author, One with Others

"Revisiting the terrain of traumatized unconscious à la Artaud, Plath, and Kommunyaka, Kathryn L. Pringle's Fault Tree explores, in a series of fragments . . . the failure of sensation to resolve itself into perception." —Tyrone Williams, author, Howell

"Kathryn L. Pringle's Right New Biology knows exactly what the central point of all political and social difficulty is: human (and other) bodies. Pringle's book shows many and often conflicting large global forces coming to bear on that most intimate physical context. Psychology, theology, war, culture, nation states; these are only some of the pressures that human bodies encounter daily." —Mark Wallace, author, Felonies of Illusion, on Right New Biology

Author Biography

Kathryn L. Pringle is a poet whose writing has appeared in her collection Right New Biology, a couple chapbooks, and the anthology Conversations at the Wartime Cafe. She is a lead editor and copywriter for an educational measurement and research organization. She lives in Oakland, California.