Blending diverse cultural elements, the book explores the intersections of poetic rhythms with influences from hip-hop, opera, and ballet. It captures the vibrant energy of MCing and breakdancing, showcasing how these art forms relate to high academic concepts. The narrative celebrates the richness of contemporary expression, inviting readers to appreciate the fusion of traditional and modern artistic practices.
With a blend of experimental style and gritty realism, this collection delves into themes of loss and redemption. Each story presents evocative and unforgettable narratives that capture the complexities of life on the streets, offering readers a profound exploration of human experiences.
Through a series of heartfelt responses to rejection letters, Sean Thomas Dougherty explores themes of identity, struggle, and resilience in working-class America. His epistolary essays reflect on his life, family, and the challenges faced by those in his community along Lake Erie. Dougherty shares vivid stories from his experiences as a medical technician and caregiver, touching on disability rights and personal loss. The book serves as a powerful retort to societal rejection, emphasizing shared human experiences and the importance of voice in the face of adversity.
In his twentieth book, most of which was first composed on the backs of medical forms while on break as a third-shift medical technician, Sean Thomas Dougherty brings us a memoir-like prose sequence reflecting on disability, chronic illness, addiction, survival, love, and parenthood. In Death Prefers the Minor Keys, Dougherty offers the reader collaged prose poems, stories and essays full of dreams, metaphors, aphorisms, parables and narratives of his work as a caregiver. Moving portraits of Dougherty's residents, a series of letters to Death, invocations of Jewish ancestry through the photography of Roman Vishniac, imaginary treatments for brain injuries, and half translated short stories of lives both real and imagined populate this collection. Through these, Dougherty engages issues of labor, the ontology of disability, and the mysticism of life. Death Prefers the Minor Keys is most of all a kind of love letter to Dougherty's wife, and her courage and complicity in the face of long-term illness and addiction. Ultimately, we see how the antidote to despair can reside in daily acts of caring for other human beings.