Lucian Mattison

Peregrine Nation Lucian Mattison

Lucian Mattison's debut book of poetry, Peregrine Nation, won the 2014 Dogfish Head Poetry Prize. Set in Argentina and Chile, the collection centers around the exploration of identity in a multicultural family, and within shifting political and generational landscapes.

[ Poetry / Travel / Awesome ]

$15 5 x 7 100 Pages Perfect Bound Paperback

Available in November 2017

More about Lucian over at his website here.

Pre-order coming soon...



"Lucian Mattison, who has lived in Brazil and Chile, takes on the role of a 'New World Vulture, ' observing the turbulent life around him. Knives, guns, riot police, and even earthquakes are common in the Santiago of his debut collection, but there is a sweetness and sensuality to be found there as well. If 'English is a way out / tongue in which we celebrate what we leave, ' Mattison's poems give us a way into the "culture of silence" he so skillfully describes and disturbs. Not since the publication of Carolyn Forche's The Country Between Us more than thirty years ago has a poet written more compellingly about events that most Americans would prefer to ignore."

-Sue Ellen Thompson, editor, The Autumn House Anthology of American Poetry



"In semi-documentary dramatic scenes, Lucian Mattison tells stories about a specific locale, a peregrine nation that I can think my way into, or sink into - an outlier's view of Argentina. His scenes remain in the mind because of each line of poetry, as Ezra Pound recommended, is written 'at least as well as prose.' Mattison's poetry masquerading as prose is generally straightforward but delivers sudden flips that transpose the reader to another level. He is a scrupulous poet who will engage readers with his bright, spontaneous, clear, never-strained, uncluttered, new voice."

-Larry Woiwode, Poet Laureate of North Dakota and author of Even Tide