Burn Lake

by Fountain, Carrie (Author)

• ISBN13: 9780143117711
• ISBN10: 0143117718
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-05-25
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)

Summary

Selected for the 2009 National Poetry Series by Natasha Trethewey Set in southern New Mexico, where her family's multi­cultural history is deeply rooted, the poems in Carrie Fountain's first collection explore issues of progress, history, violence, sexuality, and the self. Burn Lakeweaves together the experience of life in the rapidly changing American Southwest with the peculiar journey of Don Juan de Oñate, who was dispatched from Mexico City in the late sixteenth- century by Spanish royalty to settle the so-called New Mexico Province, of which little was known. A letter that was sent to Oñate by the Viceroy of New Spain, asking that should he come upon the North Sea in New Mexico, he should give a detailed report of "the configuration of the coast and the capacity of each harbor" becomes the inspiration for many of the poems in this artfully composed debut.

Author Biography

Carrie Fountain was born and raised in Mesilla, New Mexico. She was a fellow at the University of Texas' Michener Center for Writers. Her poems have appeared in Crazyhorse, Cimarron Review, and other publications. She lives in Austin, Texas and teaches at St. Edward's University.