Far from Algiers (Electronic book text)

Winner of the 2007 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize How honored I am how lucky to have been able to choose this superb first book by Djelloul Marbrook that honors a lifetime of hidden achievement. . . . Sometimes the poems seem utterly symbolic, surreal; they are philosophical, historical, psychological, political, and spiritual. The genius is in the many ways these poems can be read. I kept being rewarded by new awarenesses of the poet s intentions, by the breadth and scope of the manuscript. As I read, I felt more and more that it was impossible that this was a first book. It seemed the writer knew exactly what to say, and, more importantly, exactly what to leave out. Toi Derricotte, judge In a dizzying and divisive time, it s beautiful to see how Djelloul Marbrook s wise and flinty poems outfox the Furies of exile, prejudice, and longing. Succinct, aphoristic, rich with the poet s resilient clarity in the face of a knockabout world, Far from Algiers is a remarkable and distinctive debut. Cyrus Cassells Djelloul Marbrook, a highly skilled outsider, bursts into poetry with this splendid first book, which brings together the energy of a young poet with the wisdom of long experience.