American Radiance

Luisa Muradyan is a PhD candidate in poetry at the University of Houston and editor in chief of Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts. Her poems have been published in Poetry International, Paris-American, Blackbird, Ninth Letter, West Branch, and the Los Angeles Review, among other publications.

• AcknowledgmentsPart 1. Psalm for OdessaIf You Were Wondering about the Couple Who Owns the Funeral HomeSchwarzenegger in PrayerPurple RainClamsBruce Willis, in the LightMacho Man Randy Savage7:40Prodigal SonLiliesMaria RasputinThe Red Forest, Рыжий лесCraneResurrectionThe Seduction of Masha by RasputinDovesWe Were CosmonautsBorisMarriageAnecdoteMessage from a Peeping TomOrnithologyWhat Is True for BirdsPsalm for OdessaPart 2. American RadianceNew EdenAdorationRaptorTranslating AshesCrane Fly Rasputin and Alexei Moscow 1972Deaf Sonnet, Глухой СонетFireflyBootTrawlerSpicer’s Promise to LorcaSpud LoveIn the MoonlightSpillingBreastsInto the BlackberryRecords of Failed Weapons of World War IIRumi in the Mouth of the Snake Poem for the Man Playing Piano in Front of the Wall of PoliceCremationThis Was His Garden American Radiance

"Through generous associative leaps, Muradyan turns a narrative of assimilation into a debut collection that is as playful as it is wrenching. . . . Muradyan reveals herself to be a savvy and thoroughly modern poet, observing her subjects with a dispassionate, often droll eye."-Publishers Weekly "Luisa Muradyan's moving, wonderfully funny first volume of poetry merges an immigrant's passionate study of her adopted culture with Gen-X media obsession. . . . Muradyan is an enormously talented poet."-Annette Lapointe, New York Journal of Books "Luisa Muradyan's American Radiance reflects the complexities of the immigrant experience, and, through humor, pop culture allusions, and lyrical playfulness, highlights the exodus from one's homeland and what it means to assimilate in America."-Pank Mag “Luisa Muradyan’s playful, fresh, and tender debut collection shows how a brand-new poetry can be made from many different existing sources. . . . Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Talmud, Madame Bovary, Jalāl ad-Dīn Rūmī, and the lives of her Russian Ukrainian ancestors. . . . And we feel included too, as she constructs her innovative highways between inner and outer worlds. This is the real stuff of poetry: spontaneous, original, compassionate, and provocative-who knows, maybe the glow of her poems does testify to the stubborn persistence of an American radiance!”-Tony Hoagland, author of Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God “At once historical, personal, tender, enraged, and aroused, Luisa Muradyan has arrived precisely on time in American poetry. These poems are alive, ecstatic in the earthiest divine sense, lucid where humor blurs with grief, precise when weeping breaks into song. Her force is the force of love, and her voice is unforgettable.”-Kathleen Peirce, author of Vault “In her vibrant debut, the Odessa of Luisa Muradyan’s childhood is magically wedded to an America, brash and colorful as a crazy quilt. These poems, brimming with wild, fanciful juxtapositions, with juicy pop allusions and joyous praise for the overlooked or the mundane, bring the wizardry of Chagall to mind, but the specters of exile, memory, and holocaust also emerge as dark threads woven into the writer’s alert and wondrous world vision. I salute this intrepid new poet’s up-to-the-minute friskiness, unfettered eroticism (“My breasts are like Aristotle and Plato / They never see eye to eye”), and quick-witted candor which make American Radiance, in all its gorgeous irreverence and reach, such an exhilarating read.”-Cyrus Cassells, author of The Gospel according to Wild Indigo“Odessa, lost city of a lost childhood. America, lost country of the now (as promised by Bruce Willis). American Radiance is about searching, and Luisa Muradyan realizes that this is what it is to pray, to allow the search to reveal an invisible world.”-Nick Flynn, author of My Feelings