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  • Issue 22 Fall 2021
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      • Bonnie Severien Fall 2021
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  • Issue 23 Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Art Spring 2022 >
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Book Review: Kiss/Hierarchy by Alexandra van de Kamp

Alexandra van de Kamp
Kiss/Hierarchy
Rain Mountain Press, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-996-83849-8
$16.00 paperback


Alexandra van de Kamp was born in Rye, NY and grew up in NY and CT. She received her B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Washington. She recently moved to San Antonio, TX with her husband and is the Creative Writing Classes Program Director for Gemini Ink, a nonprofit literary organization based in San Antonio. She teaches in The Writing Program at University of Texas/San Antonio and is also a teaching artist for the online poetry cooperative, The Poetry Barn, where she conducts online intensive poetry workshops.  For six years she lived in Madrid Spain, where she co-founded Terra Incognita, a bilingual literary/cultural journal published in Spain and the United States.
​
Her first full-length collection of poems, The Park of Upside-Down Chairs, was published by CW Books (WordTech Press) in the Spring of 2010 and her chapbook of poems Dear Jean Seberg (2011) won the 2010 Burnside Review Chapbook contest, judged by Matthew Dickman. Her most recent chapbook is entitled A Liquid Bird Inside the Night (2015) and was published by Red Glass Books, out of Brooklyn, NY.


Her second full-length collection of poems, Rain/Hierarchy, is published by Rain Mountain Press, 2016.
​


Review

​A Review of Alexandra Van de Kamp’s Kiss/Hierarchy by R. E. Steele
 
Alexandra van de Kamp’s poetry is an elegant canvassing of romance, lost love, and the methodical way time weaves its way between these moments. She uses nuances of noir from Agatha Christie, as well as glamour from film stars such as Josephine Baker, and artists like Marc Chagall, to construct a vibrant scene. Meanwhile, her use of landscape sets her readers in the heart of each alluring poem. The excitement she pulls from these predominantly European influences is grounded with poems that are more self-aware of the entire collection’s themes.
 
Her pieces speak from experience as the narrator, almost voraciously, describes the way that loss ceaselessly slips into life:​
I want each day to pour like an hourglass−
svelte and methodical; loss encased
​in a seasoned decanter and divvied out like a wine.
In this, loss is given in slow, easy pours. The feeling is bitter sweet, much like the taste of the wine spilling out. Van de Kamp’s poetry stresses the desire to enjoy living by trying to extend the amount of time we have, while also slowing down the pain we receive over the course of that time. She does a seamless job at bringing her readers to this place by setting the tone with a look into the past.
Can I have a sip of espresso, please? But, waiter, it must
be from a café in Milan in 1985 − the January rain
pooling in my shoes, the beige sleep from a cheap
hotel folded into the cup like wasp’s wing.
Reminiscing about an earlier time, she takes us back to a day presumably better than the present. Van de Kamp’s use of unfortunate circumstances such as having a night of “beige sleep” romanticizes the past she desperately wants us to return to. Readers are reminded that even days that may have brought on frustration or sorrow, there are some worth remembering. She returns to the idea that we can laugh at what once was our misery.
 
She discusses this excellently with her first section of poems Bonjour Tristesse, which pays homage to the Otto Preminger film. Her work intertwines the blissful optimism and decadence of new love with a dose of realism. “Play the crap tables, heroine, /roll the dice…The body/a champagne glass time twists…a nimble, shattering thing…”. Although this glamorized effect is on rare occasion weakened by sentimentality, such as in Dear Jean Seburg, “When regret watermarks the heart, tattoos us/permanently to ourselves,” overall, she has skillfully curated a collection of sophisticated romanticism.
 
Van de Kamp sets up each poem as a stage, spotlighting her work with glitz and mystery. Her pieces are dressed for a stroll in the Rivera, as well as a nightcap in a smoky lounge. This collection is a European time-capsule that we wander through, as we experience this effervescent and sometimes mournful life with her.
 


Picture
R.E. Steele is a Lewis University graduate, who majored in English with a focus in Creative and Professional Writing, alongside a minor in Chinese. She currently serves as the Book Reviews Editor for Jet Fuel Review. Some of her own writing has been published in the spring 2015 issue of the Windows Fine Arts Magazine. When she has a few moments to herself, she kicks back with a craft beer and has a Netflix binging marathon. Some of her favorites include X-Files, Doctor Who, Orange is the New Black, Californication, and American Horror Story.

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  • Home
  • About
    • Our Story
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  • Features
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  • Issue 22 Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Art Fall 2021 >
      • Bonnie Severien Fall 2021
      • Camilla Taylor Fall 2021
      • Guilherme Bergamini Fall 2021
      • Emanuela Iorga Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Poetry Fall 2021 >
      • Maureen Alsop Fall 2021
      • Annah Browning Fall 2021
      • Romana Iorga Fall 2021
      • Natalie Hampton Fall 2021
      • Sherine Gilmour Fall 2021
      • Adam Day Fall 2021
      • Amanda Auchter Fall 2021
      • Adam Tavel Fall 2021
      • Sara Moore Fall 2021
      • Karen Rigby Fall 2021
      • Daniel Zhang Fall 2021
      • Erika Lutzner Fall 2021
      • Kindall Fredricks Fall 2021
      • Cin Salach Fall 2021
      • Andrew Zawacki Fall 2021
      • Micah Ruelle Fall 2021
      • Rachel Stempel Fall 2021
      • Haley Wooning Fall 2021
      • Rikki Santer Fall 2021
      • Evy Shen Fall 2021
      • Suzanne Frischkorn Fall 2021
      • Danielle Rose Fall 2021
      • Eric Burgoyne Fall 2021
      • John Cullen Fall 2021
      • Maureen Seaton Fall 2021
      • Hannah Stephens Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Nonfiction Fall 2021 >
      • Kevin Grauke Fall 2021
      • Courtney Justus Fall 2021
      • Amy Nicholson Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Fiction Fall 2021 >
      • Tina Jenkins Bell Fall 2021
      • David Obuchowski Fall 2021
      • Thomas Misuraca Fall 2021
      • Aiden Baker Fall 2021
      • Jenny Magnus Fall 2021
  • Issue 23 Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Art Spring 2022 >
      • Jonathan Kvassay Spring 2022
      • Karyna McGlynn Spring 2022
      • Andrea Kowch Spring 2022
      • Layla Garcia-Torres Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Poetry Spring 2022 >
      • Robin Gow Spring 2022
      • T.D. Walker Spring 2022
      • Jen Schalliol Huang Spring 2022
      • Yvonne Zipter Spring 2022
      • Carrie McGath Spring 2022
      • Lupita Eyde-Tucker Spring 2022
      • Susan L. Leary Spring 2022
      • Kate Sweeney Spring 2022
      • Rita Mookerjee Spring 2022
      • Erin Carlyle Spring 2022
      • Cori Bratty-Rudd Spring 2022
      • Jen Karetnick Spring 2022
      • Meghan Sterling Spring 2022
      • Lorelei Bacht Spring 2022
      • Michael Passafiume Spring 2022
      • Jeannine Hall Gailey Spring 2022
      • Phil Goldstein Spring 2022
      • Michael Mingo Spring 2022
      • Angie Macri Spring 2022
      • Martha Silano Spring 2022
      • Vismai Rao Spring 2022
      • Anna Laura Reeve Spring 2022
      • Jenny Irish Spring 2022
      • Marek Kulig Spring 2022
      • Jami Macarty Spring 2022
      • Sarah A. Rae Spring 2022
      • Brittney Corrigan Spring 2022
      • Callista Buchen Spring 2022
      • Issam Zineh Spring 2022
      • MICHAEL CHANG Spring 2022
      • henry 7. reneau, jr. Spring 2022
      • Leah Umansky Spring 2022
      • Cody Beck Spring 2022
      • Danyal Kim Spring 2022
      • Rachel DeWoskin Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Fiction Spring 2022 >
      • Melissa Boberg Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Nonfiction Spring 2022 >
      • Srinaath Perangur Spring 2022
      • Audrey T. Carroll Spring 2022
  • Issue #24 Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Art Fall 2022 >
      • Marsha Solomon Fall 2022
      • Edward Lee Fall 2022
      • Harryette Mullen Fall 2022
      • Jezzelle Kellam Fall 2022
      • Irina Greciuhina Fall 2022
      • Natalie Christensen Fall 2022
      • Mark Yale Harris Fall 2022
      • Amy Nelder Fall 2022
      • Bette Ridgeway Fall 2022
      • Ursula Sokolowska Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Poetry Fall 2022 >
      • William Stobb Fall 2022
      • e Fall 2022
      • Stefanie Kirby Fall 2022
      • Lisa Ampleman Fall 2022
      • Will Cordeiro Fall 2022
      • Jesica Davis Fall 2022
      • Peter O'Donovan Fall 2022
      • Mackenzie Carignan Fall 2022
      • Jason Fraley Fall 2022
      • Barbara Saunier Fall 2022
      • Chad Weeden Fall 2022
      • Nick Rattner Fall 2022
      • Cynthia Schwartzberg Edlow Fall 2022
      • Summer J. Hart Fall 2022
      • Daniel Suá​rez Fall 2022
      • Sara Kearns Fall 2022
      • Millicent Borges Accardi Fall 2022
      • Liz Robbins Fall 2022
      • john compton Fall 2022
      • Esther Sadoff Fall 2022
      • Whitney Koo Fall 2022
      • W. J. Lofton Fall 2022
      • Rachel Reynolds Fall 2022
      • Kimberly Ann Priest Fall 2022
      • Annie Przypyszny Fall 2022
      • Konstantin Kulakov Fall 2022
      • Nellie Cox Fall 2022
      • Jennifer Martelli Fall 2022
      • SM Stubbs Fall 2022
      • Joshua Bird Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Fiction Fall 2022 >
      • Otis Fuqua Fall 2022
      • Hannah Harlow Fall 2022
      • Natalia Nebel Fall 2022
      • Kate Maxwell Fall 2022
      • Helena Pantsis Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Nonfiction Fall 2022 >
      • Courtney Ludwick Fall 2022
      • Anna Oberg Fall 2022
      • Acadia Currah Fall 2022