The Complete Book of Kong
Finalist for the 2004 William Rockhill Nelson Award in poetry
Publication: 2003
Pages: 64
The Complete Book of Kong, by William Trowbridge, gathers the poetic wit, woe, and wisdom of both new and favorite Kong poems from Trowbridge’s books as well as numerous literary magazines and anthologies into a collection that will rattle your cage. Kong is hip and horrendous, always terribly in love with a small screaming blonde, and still bearing the biggest, brightest heart that Hollywood has ever broken. Kong treads fortissimo where mortals fear to go and holds forth in these poems with the fresh, no-nonsense voice that makes Trowbridge one of poetry’s most cutting edge bards.
William Trowbridge has published three previous poetry collections—Enter Dark Stranger, O Paradise, and Flickers—and three poetry chapbooks—The Four Seasons, The Book of Kong, and The Slaughterhouse Cantatas. His poems have also appeared in such periodicals as Poetry, The Georgia Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, The Iowa Review, New Letters, and Boulevard. He lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, where he continues to write and edit.
“The Complete Book of Kong is a unique and highly recommended collection of poetry celebrating that famous giant ape of the silver screen, King Kong. Trowbridge presents a varied and lyrical depiction of this fearsome beast and the forces he symbolizes, in a reader engaging and refreshingly adventurous series of imaginative verse.” Midwest Review, Library Bookwatch
“The jokes are there (many riffing on Kong’s size and strength), but Trowbridge takes the conceit to surprisingly serious and sad places. Altogether Trowbridge puts the big oaf of an ape in perspective and paints a picture of a melancholy titan just as vulnerable as the rest of us.” R. Narvaez, Asinine Poetry
Paper, $14.00
ISBN: 978-0-9724304-5-6
Cloth, $24.00
ISBN: 978-0-9724304-4-9