Brooklyn Antediluvian by Patrick Rosal

Winner of the 2017 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize

Ignited by the frictions of our American moment, this brilliant fourth collection by Patrick Rosal examines race in America and explores the possibilities and limitations of untapped multi-racial histories. Brooklyn Antediluvian attempts to fill a tragic absence in the current poetic landscape, addressing questions not just about the position of Filipinos in America, but of many kinds of Americans in relation to one another. Rosal holds brutality up to the light, though he doesn’t simply unreel a litany of suffering—natural calamity, state violence, personal heartbreak. Rather, the poet maps a way for the imagination to survive, honor, and love.

“Brooklyn Antediluvian is a tour-de-force love song to New York City's most boisterous borough. These poems, restless and unnerving, do difficult, necessary work.”
—Patricia Smith

“Rosal’s lines bob and weave with an effortless unpredictability. . .show[ing] off his extraordinary ear for poetry’s sonic qualities, in particular rhythm and consonance. . . .The title poem [is] title poem an earth-shattering performance; Rosal seamlessly stitches together history, mythology, etymology, and autobiography.”
—Publishers Weekly