Escapement
by Rebecca G. Biber
35 Poems ~ 88 pages
Price: $18.00
Publisher: NFSPS Press
ISBN: 979-8-9929766-1-8
To Order: rebeccagbiberpoet.com
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Escapement by Rebecca G. Biber is the winner of the 2025 Barbara Stevens Poetry Book Award for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. This prestigious honor reveals the talent of Ms. Biber as musician, teacher, and poet. Her poems about music resonate as notes played without fingered melodies; poems about her Polish-Jewish heritage echo with “tones” of truth about the times and the people which have formed and shaped her life. Is this book about music? Yes. Is this book about suffering and truth? Yes. Is this book about sublimating suffering with joy? Yes.
ADVANCE PRAISE:
At times thoughtful, moving and even thrilling, Escapement is a joy to read. With persuasive and elegant lines these poems unfold, at once experimental and yet grounded in the familiar, flowing with a captivating and memorable lyricism, into an accomplished, revelatory, and magnificent collection. A beautiful book.
–Chris Abani, author of Smoking the Bible
There are moments throughout Escapement when I could swear the poet is writing my own life. I especially admire Biber’s use of humor and conversational language woven masterfully throughout this stunning collection–moments that work almost as a kind of comic relief amidst highly intellectual, often devastating, subject matter. It is an understatement to say this book is truly an evocative and inspiring literary accomplishment.
–Cathy Smith Bowers, Former Poet Laureate of North Carolina
In Escapement, we encounter a variety of forms and strategies structured around the abiding metaphor of music. The book demonstrates both an ear for traditional techniques and a delightful formal inventiveness, particularly in a nonce sequence whose stanzas (and title) slowly attenuate poem by poem, stripping the theme–the search for love–down to bare wood and subjecting it to an agonizing reappraisal. Showcasing a unique wit and intelligence supported by strong undercurrents of emotion, Escapement is a book to relish and reread. This is an impressive collection.
–Morri Creech, 2025 Rattle Poetry Prize winner
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Rebecca G. Biber is a music educator, collaborative pianist, and poet. After earning BM and MM from the University of Michigan School of Music, she completed her MFA in creative writing at Queens University of Charlotte. Her first book of poems, Technical Solace, was published by Fifth Avenue Press in 2017. She lives in Ann Arbor, MI.
Author’s website: www.rebeccagbiberpoet.com
Follow on Instagram: Rebecca_g_biber_poet
FROM THE BOOK:
What Wrecks Houses
by Rebecca G. Biber
Still surprised by snow and ice despite
being born a Michigander. Hemmed in
with my own mishegoss, nowhere to go.
Maybe enough cold wind can mend the mind,
making me look past the sleety glass.
I sit in the day-long storm as if before
a date or a new student, chest open,
what questions? I wait to feel my absent
strength again, as though resilience
were a process of liquid seeping in.
How is it that what wrecks houses builds us?
I’m taut for a message that might not come.
I don’t want life to change, I don’t want
the way it is, meanwhile the weather says,
play, the weather says, ask anything.
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