The Future Has a Reputation, Poems by Susanna Kittredge

With idiosyncratic wit, keen observation, and occasional sojourns into the absurd, The Future Has a Reputation explores the everyday world around us, expressing affection and awe for people, places, and objects in all their relatable imperfection.

Sample Poems by Susanna Kittredge

"'Wash my mouth with astrophysics. I'm tired and I can't afford another drink.' The Future Has a Reputation is a venturesome, bold, and visceral collection, one that invites us to displace our selves, to 'imagine you are an ant crawling through the labyrinth / of your French horn / encountering corrosion, saliva, / alkaline scent.' Yet this collection rotates the prism, also unafraid to survey the human self-bodied self, aging self, literary self, a self away for the weekend and loaning out her apartment to friends, reminding them to 'Stroke [the stove's] smooth white corners and grasp its dials tenderly[.]' Susanna Kittredge is a poet of considerable talent, and I delighted in reading these celebrations of possibility." -Sandra Beasley

"In her debut book, The Future Has A Reputation, Susanna Kittredge fully engages the world around her with a razor sharp eye, a lucid mind, a very sly wit, and dynamic imagery. She engages us in the process. You'll find no ivory-towered isolated and isolating poetry here, no distant, obscure verse. These poems are full of life and full of lives, a poetic landscape peopled with poets, saints, lovers, neighbors, and friends. 'You scribble about your friends because you love them,' writes the poet and these 'scribblings' provide the lyrical evidence. Poetic instructions, reminders on how to stay engaged, are offered up-'Be always self-like, full of smarts and love and outings,' and suggest how to go below the surface of daily encounters and find the common heartbeat. After reading this book you'll find that yes, the future has a reputation but so too does this poet, a growing reputation as a fine new poetic voice on the rise, a voice with a future." -Toni Mirosevich

"With the very first lines of her new book, Susanna Kittredge invites us to a place which is both familiar and more than a little mysterious. Everything in this place, each object, is fully alive with its own quirky personality. The poet's bed is 'soft, loving,' and 'generous;' her shower is pleased to provide its 'charming, modest water.' Whether she is writing about her students, her life, or the promise of a new year, the poems are not only funny but deeply poignant. I guarantee you will not forget your visit to this fresh new world where 'The Future Has a Reputation.' -Dorothy Derifield

ISBN: 978-1625493361, 102 pages

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