The Incentive Of The Maggot

In his prize-winning collection, Ron Slate seeks out the intersections of art, technology, and humanity with intelligence, wit, and fervor. His unique voice is informed by his world travels as a business executive. As Robert Pinsky writes in his introduction, Slate “brings together the personal and the global in a way that is distinctive, subtle, defying expectations about what is political and what is personal.” In Slate's words, "Is this the end of the world? / No just the end / of the language that describes it." Recently published in The New Yorker, Slate has been praised by James Longenbach for his ability to “make the known world seem wickedly strange — a poetry that is utterly of the moment, our moment, because it sounds like nobody else.”

• Political Poetry: From the economic collapse in Argentina to the fall of the Peacock Throne in Iran, these poems navigate the fault lines of international power and history with a muscular, ironic eye.
• Poems of World Travel: Written from the unique perspective of a business executive, Slate transforms experiences in Munich and Tokyo into stages for profound reflection on culture and conflict.
• Poems of an Adult: A mature and unflinching look at the world, grappling with everything from a mother’s Holocaust survival to the difficult ambiguities of witnessing atrocity and survival.
• Award-Winning Poetry: Winner of the prestigious Bakeless Prize, this collection is introduced by Robert Pinsky, who praises Slate for a voice that is "distinctive, subtle, defying expectations."