| Prelude to Bruise | |
| Author: | Saeed Jones |
| Cover Artist: | Syreeta McFadden (photo)[1] Linda Koutsky (design) |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Poetry |
| Publisher: | Coffee House Press |
| Pub Date: | September 9, 2014 |
| Media Type: | Print (paperback) |
| Pages: | 124 |
| Awards: | 2015 Barbara Gittings Literature Award 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry |
| Isbn: | 978-1-56689-374-9 |
| Dewey: | 811/.6 |
| Congress: | PS3610.O6279 P74 2014 |
Prelude to Bruise is a 2014 poetry collection by American author Saeed Jones, published by Coffee House Press on September 9, 2014.[2] [3] [4]
| Title | |
|---|---|
| Anthracite | |
| 1 | Insomniac |
| Closet of Red | |
| The Blue Dress | |
| Isaac, after Mount Moriah | |
| Pretending to Drown | |
| Boy in a Stolen Evening Gown | |
| Boy at Edge of Woods | |
| Terrible Boy | |
| Daedalus, after Icarus | |
| Boy in a Whalebone Corset | |
| Boy Found inside a Wolf | |
| Boy at Threshold | |
| After the First Shot | |
| Last Call | |
| 2 | "Don't Let the Sun Set on You" |
| Prelude to a Bruise | |
| Coyote Cry | |
| Jasper, 1998 | |
| Lower Ninth | |
| Drag | |
| Kudzu | |
| Beheaded Kingdom | |
| Thralldom | |
| Cruel Body | |
| Thallium | |
| He Thinks He Can Leave Me | |
| 3 | Secondhand (Smoke) |
| Body & Kentucky Bourbon | |
| Eclipse of My Third Life | |
| Guilt | |
| Sleeping Arrangement | |
| Apologia | |
| Ketamine & Company | |
| Thralldom II | |
| Skin Like Brick Dust | |
| Kingdom of Trick, Kingdom of Drug | |
| Blue Prelude | |
| In Nashville | |
| 4 | Highway 407 |
| Meridian | |
| Mercy | |
| Mississippi Drowning | |
| Casket Sharp | |
| Dominion | |
| The Fabulist | |
| Room without a Ghost | |
| Dirge | |
| After Last Light | |
| Hour between Dog & Wolf | |
| Postapocalyptic Heartbeat | |
| 5 | History, according to Boy |
| 6 | Last Portrait as Boy |
Publishers Weekly praised the collection, writing, "Solid from start to finish, possessing amazing energy and focus, a bold new voice in poetry has announced itself."[5]
Writing for NPR, poet Amal El-Mohtar said, "There are too many exceptional poems here to single out, and not a single one that didn't at least impress me."[6]
It won the 2015 Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Literature Award[7] and the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry.[8] It was a finalist for the 2015 Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry,[9] the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry,[10] and the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry.[11]