So Tough

Overview

So Tough cuts a loose and spaced-out path through the interpenetrated dreams of public, doomsday time and private, organic time. Written in a season of wildfire smoke punctuated by gunfire, grieving, and a child’s questioning spirit, the book moves to the countervailing rhythms of household, eros, pleasure and charm, casting a wayward grin at the catastrophic comedy of our days. Though he’s not really that tough, Jared Stanley rides elemental tones through “the desert roses, semi-wilted, wonderful, yellowed, well, you know / suffering to cover the suffering.”

Author Biography

Jared Stanley is a poet and writer who often collaborates with visual artists. He is the author of four collections of poetry, So Tough, EARS, The Weeds, and Book Made of Forest, as well as many chapbooks and pamphlets, most recently The Blurry Hole (with Sameer Farooq, Artspeak, 2022), and SHALL, (Black Rock Press, 2019). His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Bennington Review, Harvard Review, VOLT, Folder Magazine, and many others. He teaches in the MFA Program at the University of Nevada, Reno and lives in Reno, Nevada with an historian and their daughter.