ampamp34Madnessampamp160pays homage to all poets whose work goes underappreciated.ampamp34The New York TimesFINALIST for the 2023 Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and GenderVariant Literatureampamp160FINALIST for the 2023 Four Quartets Prize from the Poetry Society of AmericaSet in a speculative present Madness alternates between poetry and editorial commentary to investigate how language spans a life.Madness is a selected poems for a fictional poet Luis MontesTorres a gay Cuban exile who makes a minor name for himself in the world of poetry before the contours of his ordinary life become overwhelming stilted and impossible. This is a story of the unpredictable wavering between anxiety and attachment between the political and the personal that accompanies any American life marked by difference. Madness is a study in how pleasure crisis wonder disappointment love and fantasy are written into our forms for living.