Underdays

A former U.S. Army interrogator, Martin Ott is the author of six books of poetry and fiction. He lives in Los Angeles.

"The poems in Martin Ott's Underdays are in-between—the war and its aftermath, the love affair and its despair. In dense, often hauntingly musical verse, Ott interrogates our wide broken world, from Afghanistan to Los Angeles, with the unity of a singular, relentless voice." —Dan O'Brien, author of War Reporter and Scarsdale"I so admire the spirit in Underdays that clearly wants to—and does!—make beautiful poems, both in the midst of trouble and OUT of it. Turn the pages, and be met by beguiling surprises: madlibs, the heartfelt voice, jazzy soliloquies as bullets fly, lyric reveries in landscapes of dream. These poems feel pressured into being by all that's fleeting, and reading them, we may feel that toughest of dichotomies dig deeper in: 'the dangers of living, of forgetting.'" —Nance Van Winckel, author of Pacific Walkers "In Martin Ott's new book of poems, Underdays, there's nature, children, desire, war, and Los Angeles, but everything is shrouded with the speaker's experiences as an interrogator in the military—an institution that leaves nothing untouched, even Ott's haunting and dark poetry. But more importantly, Ott's poetry is sonically beautiful and written with such a skilled hand—a hand that was meant to write the poetry of a gifted and haunted soul." —Victoria Chang, author of The Boss