Today’s GalleyCrush is Sarah J. Sloat’s Hotel Almighty, forthcoming from Sarabande Books on September 15, 2020.
Perfect pitch: Visually arresting and utterly one-of-a-kind, Sarah J. Sloat’s Hotel Almighty is a book-length erasure of pages from Misery by Stephen King, a reimagining of the novel’s themes of constraint and possibility in elliptical, enigmatic poems.
First lines: “A little voice / was caught / in / a / Well.”
Big blurb: “Sarah J. Sloat’s erasure-collages create intimate and intricate pairings that ricochet back and forth between text and image. In one, a picture of a giant hand tenderly touching a tiny telephone speaks to the page’s mournful question, ‘If I could be / A dim shape slumped over / and round / Would that be so bad?’ In another, the erased text (‘The sound of the wind filled the phone / squeezing into the line / like a nerve awake at night’) is translated into red stitches approaching, then encircling a tree. Hotel Almighty is a marvel.” —Matthea Harvey
Book notes: Paperback, poetry, 112 pages.
Author bio: Sarah J. Sloat splits her time between Frankfurt and Barcelona, where she works as a news editor. Her poetry, collage, and prose have appeared in the Offing, West Branch, Sixth Finch, DIAGRAM, and the Journal. Sarah is the author of five poetry chapbooks, including Heiress to a Small Ruin (Dancing Girl Press, 2016) and Excuse me while I wring this long swim out of my hair (Dancing Girl Press, 2011).
