Father Elegies

FATHER ELEGIES

Stella Fridman Hayes’s sophomore poetry collection, Father
Elegies, draws from an impressive range of literary forms, from
familiar couplets and tercets to erasure, blackout poems, and
hybrid prose. While stylistically dexterous and technically
agile, Hayes’ work is unifed by its deep and moving
engagement with the poetics of alterity. What does it mean to
be othered by and through language? How does one reconcile
a self and a sociocultural landscape that are at odds? And a self
and a genealogy that are to some extent opposed? As the book
unfolds, Hayes considers the role of legacy—from familial
history to the inheritances of literature, art, and culture—in
shaping the self, offering a fraught origin story that ultimately
transcends the personal. Indeed, Hayes effortlessly situates
this narrative within the context of war, necessary social
justice movements, and global upheaval, in poems that are as
gorgeously rendered as they are timely.
_________________________

Praise for Father Elegies

Haunted by an iridescent sense of memory, personal, yet also universal, these poems constitute the deepest tribute possible—to a father, yes, but also to an entire life and a way of life that had to be abandoned. Stella Hayes’ wonderfully sculpted pieces, formally and adventurously diverse, remind us that we must all, sooner or later, leave the things we love
—and they give us a tool for addressing that loss. It’s a beautiful gift and a solace to the heart.
—Cole Swensen

Proving that grief never leaves us but is only transformed, Stella Hayes transforms it into lyricism. This book is one long elegy— for the father, for childhood, for Ukraine. The care and detail with which she returns to scenes with her father are heartbreaking, and in uncovering and dealing with childhood trauma the poems are brave and lit with a harsh and
cleansing light.
—Matthew Rohrer