Abridged

Abridged is a whimsical walk through the alphabet as well as the dictionary-or, at least, what is left of it. Hunley's poems offer a mix of familiar and unfamiliar words along with familiar and unfamiliar snippets of their definitions, with each new line offering a new word and snippet. Much of the pleasure is found in how a definition cuts off and then maps to the word beginning the next line. Simultaneous to seeing the fragments here, a reader will find connection in the disconnection or will work to invent connection in order to provide the continuity any mind desires. For the fun of it, I recommend walking with Hunley.

-Nathan Spoon, author of The Importance of Being Feeble-Minded



Just as all poetry is a resistance to the dictionary's controlling reduction of speech, in Abridged Hunley swerves & pecks at the English language, building bridges out of zigzags, freeing words to echo & eddy their definition's stark rhythms, recovering the I that breathes inside the X.

-Mathias Svalina, author of Destruction Myth



What a strange and wonderful collection Abridged is. It reinvigorates language while maintaining beautiful accessibility. Hunley has found a striking balance between sonics, imagery and narrative, so that in our reading of his work we forget ourselves. It's a struggle to think of these poems in excerpt, considering how well they work in their wholeness. Readers find themselves reacting not to a single line or phrase but to the poems in their entirety-I can't think of a much rarer occurrence in poetry. The poems are like miniature paintings, and yet we are taken in by just how full and lush they are.

-Adam Day, author of Illuminated Edges