House of McQueen (Four Way Books Intro Prize in Poetry)

This is haute couture of the written word. A collection that is utterly cohesive, studded with shocks of raw imagery that will empty your lungs. Let these fascinations rustle and clink their way past you on the runway. But do find your way backstage to admire the fine stitching, ribbons and lace, the fretwork and the fantasy. Like stepping into a bespoke gown, Valerie Wallace has wrapped herself in the persona of a master craftsman and found that its fits quite well.

Great book

An incredible book, I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

There’s nothing more satisfying than eidetic memory woven with research to create innovative poetry. Valerie Wallace weaves elegant tales comprised of the ghost of Alexander McQueen and future poems.House of McQueen has impeccable form, clean lines and innovative curves. VW’s debut volume is a runway with bright lights, flashing cameras and pulsating Dubstep. It is a biographical portrait fashioned with Alexander McQueen’s autobiographical fabric. All that’s missing is the designer in the flesh. Who needs flesh, blood and bones when readers are nourished with manna from VW’s sonnets, acrostics, cento and other poems. Readers feel AMQ from the immortal realm smiling, applauding, giving encores with each page turn.

This poetry collection is tightly focused on exploring fashion designer Alexander McQueen as a literary character. The poems are so cunningly lyrical that sometimes the images seem connected as artfully as an astonishing runway garment. McQueen’s theatricality, violence, and genius shape the fabric of the book. The dark spaces in the book are as difficult to explore as McQueen’s life and work were to behold. But the book dazzles with its brilliance.

Great read