LEE UPTON
On THE TAO OF HUMILIATION
"Readers will want to live inside this wonderful book — not just in its parties and wrecked gatherings and sophisticated conversations
but in the sentences themselves, which are genuine shelters: long, erudite, warmhearted and capable, brimming with scholarship and knowledge.
In its own way, each sentence is a container filled with something revelatory."—The New York Times Book Review
“Masterful stories by a writer of great lyrical gifts." —Kirkus starred review,
THE TAO OF HUMILIATION named one of the "Best Books of 2014" by Kirkus
“Poet, essayist, and fiction writer Upton’s (The Guide to the Flying Island) stories are playful, full of clever allusions that are deftly presented.
Often these references seem to be the inspirations for the stories themselves, or for entertaining riffs within them. … This is a smart and
highly entertaining book.”—Publishers Weekly
On VISITATIONS
"Poignant, exquisite, and endlessly witty."
--Kirkus, starred review
“Best of the Indies 2017” by Kirkus; “Best Indie Books for December” by Kirkus; finalist, short story collections category, American Book Fest Best Book Awards
"The stories in Lee Upton’s Visitations remind me of those by the great Edith Pearlman: swift, rueful, erudite, moving, and full of wisdom. And very, very funny. I laughed, hard, while reading these stories, often at things that can’t be printed on the cover of a book. Which is just one of the many reasons why you should look inside.”
—Brock Clarke, author of The Happiest People in the World
“In these gorgeous stories Lee Upton writes with wicked wit and wild imagination. Her work is full of beautiful sentences and the best kind of
surprises: unexpected swerves, uneasy alliances, wives who leave their husbands on their wedding night. Visitations is a wonderful collection.”
—Margot Livesey, author of Mercury and The Flight of Gemma Hardy
"In Visitations, the inimitable Lee Upton spins myth and legend into enchanting and terrifying stories all her own. Hilarious and tragic...these stories
grab you by the throat and don’t let go. Here, a mother fights a groundhog for her daughter’s flowers; a Magwitchian figure washes onto a beach and solicits a child’s help; two women suffer the existential abuse of experimental community theater. In one fine story, a character finds herself marked by her history 'like getting a tattoo visible only to herself.' Reader, I implore you, let this magic book tattoo itself on you."
—David James Poissant, author of The Heaven of Animals
The Day Every Day Is
forthcoming March 2023, available for preorder
Winner of the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize
"Lee Upton’s language is limpid and shimmering. Her voice is transparent and entirely her own. Her mind is clear and focused and profoundly informed. Her tone is casual, intimate, inviting. And all these elements conspire together in her work to create utterly convincing yet unexpected and unanticipated lyrical presentiments and precisions of awareness and insight. Her poems startle by what they show us of the world, and astonish us by the way they take root and live in our minds."—Vijay Seshadri