"Wright has found a way to wed fragments of an iconic America to a luminously strange idiom, eerie as a tin whistle, which she uses to evoke the haunted quality of our carnal existence."-<em>The New Yorker</em></p>

Inspired by numerous visits inside Louisiana state prisons-where MacArthur Fellow C.D. Wright served as a "factotum" for a portrait photographer-<em>One Big Self</em> bears witness to incarcerated men and women and speaks to the psychic toll of protracted time passed in constricted space. It is a riveting mosaic of distinct voices, epistolary pieces, elements from a moralistic board game, road signage, prison data, inmate correspondence, and "counts" of things-from baby's teeth to chigger bites: </p>

<em>Count your folding money</em>

<em>Count the times you said you wouldn't go back</em>

<em>Count your debts</em>

<em>Count the roaches when the light comes on</em>

<em>Count your kids after the housefire</em> </p>

<em>One Big Self</em>-originally published as a large-format limited edition that featured photographs and text-was selected by <em>The New York Times</em> and <em>The Village Voice</em> as a notable book of the year. This edition features the poem exclusively. </p>

<strong>C.D. Wright</strong> is the author of ten books of poetry, including several collaborations with photographer Deborah Luster. She is a professor at Brown University.</p>