Circles Where Heads Should Be

Winner of the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry, 2010 The poems in Circles Where the Head Should Be are full of objects and oddities, bits of news, epic catalogues, and a cast of characters hoping to make sense of it all. Underneath the often whimsical surface, however, lies a search for those connections we long for but so often miss, and a wish for art to bridge the gaps. "Playful and soulful, buoyant and mordant, snazzy and savvy-Caki Wilkinson's poems pull out all the stops, and revel in making the old mother tongue sound like a bright young thing. Lend her your ears and you'll hear American lyric moxie in all its abounding gusto and lapidary glory, making itself new all over again."-David Barber, Poetry Editor, The Atlantic "Circles Where the Head Should Be has its own distinctive voice, a lively intelligence, insatiable curiosity, and a decided command of form. These qualities play off one another in ways that instruct and delight. An irresistible book."-J. D. McClatchy, author of Mercury Dressing: Poems, judge "Caki Wilkinson's marvelous and marvelously titled Circles Where the Head Should Be contains poetry as dexterously written as any today. And beneath its intricate surface pleasures lie a fierce intelligence and a relentless imagination constantly discovering connections where none had been seen before. This is a stunning debut."-John Koethe, author of Ninety-fifth Street, winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize "Like Frost, Wilkinson believes in poem as performance, showing off her verve and virtuosity. She is the 'Lady on a Unicycle, ' negotiating her difficult vehicle through the pedestrian crowd with 'the easy lean achieved/ by holding on to nothing'-a joy to witness." -A. E. Stallings, author of Archaic Smile and Hapax CAKI WILKINSON graduated from Rhodes College and Johns Hopkins University. She received a 2008 Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. Her poems have appeared in The Atlantic, Poetry, Yale Review, and other journals. She lives in Sewanee, Tennessee.