Still Life with Judas & Lighting (Airlie Press) was selected as a finalist for the 2015 Oregon Book Award through Literary Arts.
Brenda Shaughnessy’s comments on Still Life with Judas & Lightning as part of the Oregon Book Award judging:
“Many of the poems in Still Life with Judas & Lightning takes place in the same intersection as that title: where betrayal and ordinary miracle meet. Where the high-flying belief of childhood (a boy’s rapture on a trapeze just before he knocks out a “big kid” tooth) meets that sordid, sullen moment of disillusionment (in “After the Strip Club” a man falls to his knees.) Diez Willis deeply understands the way the sacred and profane not only define but help constitute each other. The child—sometimes obedient, sometimes lost, full of longing, or hurt—may become the homeless teenager or the prayerful one; the same human may later morph into the widow, the inmate, Mom, Billy, Martha, Fidela, the one who chooses to live. The characters are unforgettable. This book is a marvel and Diez Willis is a truth-teller with a major talent for breathtaking last lines.”
Brenda Shaughnessy’s comments on Still Life with Judas & Lightning as part of the Oregon Book Award judging:
“Many of the poems in Still Life with Judas & Lightning takes place in the same intersection as that title: where betrayal and ordinary miracle meet. Where the high-flying belief of childhood (a boy’s rapture on a trapeze just before he knocks out a “big kid” tooth) meets that sordid, sullen moment of disillusionment (in “After the Strip Club” a man falls to his knees.) Diez Willis deeply understands the way the sacred and profane not only define but help constitute each other. The child—sometimes obedient, sometimes lost, full of longing, or hurt—may become the homeless teenager or the prayerful one; the same human may later morph into the widow, the inmate, Mom, Billy, Martha, Fidela, the one who chooses to live. The characters are unforgettable. This book is a marvel and Diez Willis is a truth-teller with a major talent for breathtaking last lines.”
