And the Whale
Sonya Vatomsky
This poetry chapbook was the winner of Paper Nautilus' 2019 Vella Chapbook contest. It is available for purchase from Paper Nautilus.
“A lyrical, haunted shipwreck of a book you won’t soon forget.” — Amanda Lovelace, bestselling author of The Princess Saves Herself In This One
“Vatomsky is a poet with history, which is to say a poet with a Russian soul that never rests. Here, the soul is haunted and haunting, is pouring tea into your cup until the whole thing spills over and burns. The soul in these poems isn’t interested in pain but the shadow of pain, the mark of it; the edges of a burn and the dregs of tea leaves, what each one confirms about time. If it’s true that what’s hysterical is historical, then what Vatomsky offers us is a universe where madness is fleshed out and relieved of flesh. Here, the body is a palimpsest and gender is a veil, the kind you wear in mourning, the kind that hangs between this life and everything else.” — Gala Mukomolova, author of Without Protection
