The Tortoise of History

In this posthumous collection from an avant-garde great, Hollo’s spare, sly, lyrical greatness is on display a final time.

"Someone comes along
gives that tedious old thing
a new twist or
breaks its neck

the old questions
don't change:

what do you want me to say?
what do you want me to do?"

Publication date: August 2, 2016

Format: Trade Paper

Dimensions: 6 x 9

Page count: 112 pages

ISBN: 9781566894449

Thanks to a 2013 ADA Access Improvement Grant administered by VSA Minnesota for the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, this title is also formatted for screen readers which make text accessible to the blind and visually impaired. To purchase this title for use with a screen reader please email us at info@coffeehousepress.org.

Anselm Hollo (1934–2013) authored more than forty books and was an award-winning translator. Born in Helsinki, Finland, he was fluent in German, Swedish, Finnish, and English by age ten. Hollo eventually settled in the United States in 1966, where he taught at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.

“In this posthumous trove of brief, zestful poems, Hollo . . . relates the ‘incredible ONSLAUGHT of being,’ seemingly dashing off each of these frenetic, fragmented vignettes in a fit of wild gusto.” 

—Publishers Weekly

“Hollo’s poetry feels remarkably fresh and spontaneous. There is absolutely no artifice, no structural formality, no evident prosody.” 

—Heavy Feather Review