Mothman Apologia

“Mothman Apologia . . . hits a lilting, Larry Levis-esque register, both elegiac and witty.”—Elisa Gabbert, New York Times, “The Best Poetry of 2022”

Winner of the 2023 Norma Farber First Book Award, sponsored by the Poetry Society of America

Winner of the 2023 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, sponsored by Claremont Graduate University

“Robert Wood Lynn has written about tragedy without either grand-standing or giving in to self-pity. Here the Mothman begins to doubt his own existence as soon as he scans the internet (much as anyone deep in a ‘flyover’ state might do). As a reader, I was often surprised, even engrossed, and never once bored!”—Rae Armantrout, judge

“There is something distinctly American about Robert Wood Lynn’s poems. Their sadness and honesty leave an impression.”—Alex Dimitrov, author of Love and Other Poems

“Lynn’s innovative elegies transcend praise and lamentation to register the devastating impact of the opioid crisis. More tour de force than debut, this extraordinarily powerful collection smolders, a slow burn.”—Deborah Landau, author of Soft Targets

“With grace and a grave, meditative intensity, Robert Wood Lynn’s poems bloom with elegies and omens. This is a daring, compassionate debut.”—R. A. Villanueva, author of Reliquaria

“These poems name the hurt wrought upon the meek that makes the elegy, here, as much an exaltation of the living as a mournful dirge for the land.”—Major Jackson, Vanderbilt University