Elizabeth Cooperman and Thomas Walton

Please join us on Clement street on Thursday, July 26th at 7:00 p.m. as we welcome Elizabeth Cooperman & Thomas Walton to celebrate the release of their new book (from Sagging Meniscus Press) The Last Mosaic!

“Most current discussion in American literary culture regarding fragmentation, collage, bricolage, braided narrative, etc. is blinkered by the illusion that these are uniquely contemporary gestures, but they go back to at least Heraclitus and probably to the first human who etched a list of words on stone and, for poetic effect, forgot to complete the list. To be human is to be broken. The Last Mosaic not only explains these ideas; it embodies them. It’s also extremely vivid, precise, smart, and galvanizing. ‘With great art there’s nothing that can prepare you for the thing you’re about to see.’ “

—David Shields, author of Other People: Takes and Mistakes

“In this tessellated text we encounter a fractal poetics: juxtaposing witticisms and vignettes that illuminate Roman art and culture, the authors reveal, ‘when you look close enough, there’s nothing that isn’t a cracked assemblage.’ Whether we’re peering at the strokes on a Caravaggio, excavating cobblestones, or looking more broadly at cities, travel, partnership, and time, we see that life is a series of shards that come together. A fragmented travelogue, The Last Mosaic musters art history, mythology, etymology, poetry, and humor, summoning the ghosts of Shelley, Keats, Giotto, Nero, and their kindred to a museum whose vivid lines resonate like the cicada’s song.”

—Amaranth Borsuk, author of Pomegranate Eater