Break Every Rule: Essays on Language, Longing, and Moments of Desire First edition

Ecstatic essays from the new standard bearer for experimental belles lettres

"The future is women, for real this time. I'm sorry, but it's time you got used to it."

"'Well, we've been kept from ourselves too long, don't you think?' an old woman says to a friend / two women in the park at dusk."
-From Break Every Rule

In this groundbreaking work of ecstatic criticism, Carole Maso shows why she has risen, over the past fifteen years, as one of the brightest stars in the literary firmament. Ever refusing to be marginalized or categorized by genre, Maso is an incisive, compassionate writer who deems herself "daughter" of William Carlos Williams, a pioneer in combining poetry and fiction with criticism, journalism, and the visual arts. She is "daughter," too, of Allen Ginsberg, who also came from Paterson, New Jersey. Known for her audacity, whether exploring language and memory or the development of the artistic soul, Maso here gives us a form-challenging collection, intelligent, and persuasive.