The Intangibles

A witty, inventive, and wry exploration of life—above and beyond the algorithm.

Equi’s poems insist that despite the fact that most of our everyday reality has been rendered accountable and computable, there is still a region of experience that escapes our GPS-mapped consciousness—an intangible realm where poetry is still possible.

Publication date: November 12, 2019 

Format: Trade Paper

Dimensions: 6 x 9

Page count: 112 pages 

ISBN: 9781566895644

Elaine Equi's witty, aphoristic, and innovative work has become nationally and internationally known. Her book, Ripple Effect: New & Selected Poems, was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Award and shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. Among her other titles are Sentences and Rain, Surface Tension, Decoy, Voice-Over, which won the San Francisco State University Poetry Award, and The Cloud of Knowable Things. She teaches at New York University and in the MFA Program at The New School.

Finalist for the 2019 Big Other Book Award in Poetry

A Hyperallergic Favorite Poetry Collection of 2019

“[E]nchanting…These poems suggest people should enjoy the fun of language while it lasts”

—Publishers Weekly

“Always count on Elaine Equi’s nimble gymnastics to flip the ordinary around and create something rich and strange . . . These poems do not wear their brooding hearts on their sleeves but rather flirt and banter, drawing us close before revealing their ruminative complexities.” 

—Albert Mobilio, Hyperallergic

“This is a book for now and for the future, a panacea and antidote to the fear of the inane unknown. Equi’s elegant control of line, image, percolating observation is always a taut surprise. I feel better already. Inside these subtle poems, complete little universes, there’s never a dull moment.” 

—Anne Waldman 

“Reality, in Equi’s eyes, is pleasantly disrupted by words—her words, which are regular citizens of their sentences but also strangers to all normative modes of behavior. Read The Intangibles for the tangible joy these generous epistles give.”

—Wayne Koestenbaum

“If Emily Dickinson were alive today, her name would be Elaine Equi. Each of these poem gems is a secret; to know them, simply read them.”

—Bob Holman