{"product_id":"true-mistakes-by-lena-moses-schmitt","title":"True Mistakes by Lena Moses-Schmitt","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFinalist, 2025 Miller Williams Poetry Prize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn her debut collection\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTrue Mistakes\u003c\/em\u003e, the poet Lena Moses-Schmitt unleashes her powers of scrutiny on herself and on works of art to interrogate the essential nature of consciousness, identity, and time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs the poet goes about daily life—taking long walks, painting at her desk, going to work, grappling with the deaths of friends, struggling with anxiety and depression—she ruminates on the boundaries between art and reality, grief and joy, living and imagining. For Moses-Schmitt, thought, like painting, is relentlessly high-stakes: “I often think about things so hard \/ I kill them.” And: “Is it possible to paint myself so precisely \/ I disappear? Can I remember myself \/ so completely I’m erased?” In the context of such ruminations, the poet’s reflections on David Hockney’s seminal pool paintings shimmer with sublimity and insight.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWorking to turn “mistakes”—misperceptions, errors in life and in art—into sites of possibility and imagination instead of failure or confusion, Moses-Schmitt offers “a truth for every reader,” writes series editor Patricia Smith.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"text-uppercase\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLena Moses-Schmitt \u003c\/strong\u003eis a writer and artist. Her work has appeared in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Believer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eBest New Poets\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eNarrative\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Yale Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and elsewhere. She currently lives in New York.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTrue Mistakes\u003c\/em\u003e, Lena Moses-Schmitt’s fabulous debut, this superb poet and visual artist narrows the distance between faces and flowers, between death and children, thinking and living, making art and seeing the future. Moses-Schmitt teaches us to eye with suspicion the marks on any surface (whether page, painting, or pavement), and at the same time to practice making ourselves available to being moved. The poet holds these two impulses in expert, thrilling tension. I loved reading this book. It’s left me all stirred up!”\u003cbr\u003e—Heather Christle, author of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Crying Book\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eand\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eIn the Rhododendrons\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Who are we to ourselves? Alone or in the world, in the past or in the future? Can we change, or stop changing? Who is reflected in ‘the painting, which is actually the window’? True Mistakes is full of movement, and its poems are endlessly questing—that effort which suggests both a search and a question. They make living an act of asking.”\u003cbr\u003e—Elisa Gabbert, author of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eAny Person Is the Only Self\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brooklyn Poets","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50501531697334,"sku":null,"price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0201\/8796\/files\/tm-lms.gif?v=1790181876","url":"https:\/\/swag.brooklynpoets.org\/products\/true-mistakes-by-lena-moses-schmitt","provider":"Brooklyn Poets","version":"1.0","type":"link"}