Apocalypse on the Linoleum

Praise for Apocalypse on the Linoleum

Josette Akresh-Gonzales’s debut collection, Apocalypse on the Linoleum, is a portrait of the beauty found in tension. Throughout the book, she weaves several strands of wariness and concern that are both natural and absurd: the question of whether to give your child a cell phone, the delicacy of ending screen time, or losing a loved one are juxtaposed with the surreal loss of white rhinos, Jewish homelands, and life in the Anthropocene. These anxieties and sorrows are fraught with a fatalism “a slate wiping is due” but also perseverance: “We Jews don’t fuck around with death.” Each caesura aches, a fissure to fall into; each hash mark becomes a wall to be breached or one to accept prayers. This is not a hopeless collection; instead its stark, unflinching look at the world for what it is and was for the faithful, for mothers and their children, reminds us that we must become comfortable while encompassing so much: here we are learning to hold our losses “quietly apocalyptic” and without regret. — Jared Beloff, author of Who Will Cradle Your Head

About the Author

Josette Akresh-Gonzales is the author of Apocalypse on the Linoleum (Lily Poetry Review Press). Her work has been published in The Southern Review, The Indianapolis Review, JAMA, The Pinch, The Journal, Breakwater Review, PANK, and many other journals. A recent poem has been included in the anthology Choice Words (Haymarket). She co-founded the journal Clarion and was its editor for two years. Josette lives in the Boston area with her husband and two boys and rides her bike to work at a nonprofit medical publisher. Website: josettepoet.com. Tweets @Vivakresh.

author photo: Ken Marcou