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Beautiful flesh: a body of essays

Date

2017

Authors

Stephanie G'Schwind, editor
The Center for Literary Publishing, Colorado State University, publisher

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Abstract

Selected from among the country's leading literary publications--Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, Creative Nonfiction, the Georgia Review, the Normal School, Prairie Schooner, and others--Beautiful Flesh gathers nineteen works of creative nonfiction to build a multi-gender, multi-ethnic body out of essays, each concerning a different part of the body: belly, blood, bones, brain, ears, eyes, feet, hair, hands, heart, knees, lungs, nose, ovaries, pancreas, sinuses, skin, spine, teeth, and vas deferens. The title is drawn from Wendy Call's contribution, "Beautiful Flesh," a meditation on the pancreas: "gorgeously ugly, hideously beautiful: crimson globes embedded in a pinkish-tan oval, all nestled on a bed of cabbage-olive green, spun through with gossamer gold." Other essays include Dinty W. Moore's "The Aquatic Ape," an exploration of the curious design and necessity of sinuses; Katherine E. Standefer's "Shock to the Heart, Or: A Primer on the Practical Applications of Electricity," a modular essay on the author's internal cardiac defibrillator and the nature of electricity; Matt Roberts's "Vasectomy Instruction No. 7," which considers the various reasons for and implications of surgically severing and sealing the vas deferens; Lupe Linares's "A Living Structure," concerning teeth and the "small mistakes that accumulate over time and add up to a loss that we can never forget"; and Peggy Shinner's "Elective," which examines the author's own experience with rhinoplasty and cultural considerations of the "Jewish nose." Echoing the myriad shapes, sizes, abilities, and types of the human body, these essays showcase the many forms of the genre--provided by publisher.

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Rights Access

Access is limited to the Adams State University, Colorado State University, Colorado State University Pueblo, Community College of Denver, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University Denver, Regis University, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, University of Denver, University of Northern Colorado, University of Wyoming, Utah State University and Western Colorado University communities only.

Subject

American essays -- 21st century
Human body in literature

Citation

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