An unconventional collection from a National Poetry Series award-winning poet, author of Spiritual Exercises
Mark Yakich 's acclaimed debut collection, Unrelated Individuals Forming a Group Waiting to Cross, examined the blessing and curse of romantic love in its multiplicities. The poems in his new collection approach questions of suffering and atrocity (e.g., war, genocide, fallen soufflés) with discerning humor and unconventional comedy. These poems show how humor can be taken as seriously as straight-ahead solemnity and how we can re-envision solemnity in terms other than lamentation, protest, and memorial.

Mark Yakich has worked in the European Parliament in Brussels and has degrees in political science, West European studies, and poetry.