A Tupelo Press Lineage Series publication
Intimate is a hybrid memoir and “photo album” that blends personal essay, historical documentary, and poetry to examine the tense relationship between self, society, and familial legacy in contemporary America. Typographically innovative, Intimatecreates parallel streams, narrating the stories of Rekdal’s Norwegian-American father and his mixed-race marriage, the photographer Edward S. Curtis, and Curtis’s murdered Apsaroke guide, Alexander Upshaw. The result is panoramic, a completely original literary encounter with intimacy, identity, family relations, and race.
Praise for Paisley Rekdal’s previous books:
“Rekdal … cleverly dissects what it means to be biracial in America and overseas in this artful collection…. The narrative structure is inventive and draws from her sharply honed skills as a poet…. Rekdal has a lot to say.”—Booklist
“Dazzling. Just as a kaleidoscope refracts and changes the object viewed, Rekdal’s subjects and protagonists are often unable to tell themselves from the stories they’ve been told.”—Publishers Weekly