MIRRORS FOR PRINCES by Sam Riviere
145 x 203mm, 148 pages, Black & white printing, Perfect bound, Softcover, 2025
MIRRORS FOR PRINCES gathers poems that have, until now, only appeared in magazines, as limited-edition chapbooks, or as commissions for artists—not quite “B-sides and rarities,” but “other writings,” which represent a more outward-looking, varied, collaborative approach to poetry, and a mode that owes little to the processes and conceptual forms that characterize Riviere’s previous collections.
These poems playfully and provocatively take their cue from a mediaeval genre of handbooks for minor rulers (“mirrors for princes”), with Riviere offering “advice” for the young poet or artist, on a range of topics such as masculinity, the fine arts, poetry prizes, identity politics, academia, long distance relationships, technology, drugs, internships, international cuisine, fan mail, interview etiquette, festivals, depression, sports, mindfulness, monarchy, sexting, divorce, and death.
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