Bluest Nude: Poems

Ama Codjoes debut collection, Bluest Nude, explores the inner dialogues of women and challenges the archetype of the artist. It is marked by an acute rendering of highly charged emotional spaces and offers vulnerability as a medium to be immersed in and shared as a kind of power.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 88 pages
Publication date: 03 November 2022
Publisher: Milkweed Editions

Ama Codjoes highly anticipated debut collection, Bluest Nude, delves into the profound inner dialogues of women, exploring their experiences in bathing, creating art, forming and navigating love. Each poem emerges with the urgency of a fully awakened sensual life, resonating with the urgency of a fully awakened sensual existence.

Codjoes poems delve into the intricate complexities of the artist archetype, challenging the traditional expectations imposed on women. They question the notion of being gazed upon, expected to be silent, selfless, and solely focused on reproduction. Through the dialogue with and through art, Bluest Nude explores alternative ways of constructing and holding the self. The collection features a diverse range of contemporary and ancestral artists, creating a choreography of Codjoes artistic process.

The poems in Bluest Nude are precise and halting, rendering the highly charged emotional spaces with acute clarity. Codjoes purposefully shifts between the roles of artist and subject, seer and seen, exploring the profound impact of looking on a person. She questions the public and private realms of observation, as well as the intimate spectacle of looking at oneself. The collection offers vulnerability as a medium to be immersed in and shared as a form of power, emphasizing the tension between the possibilities of openness and the impediments that exist.

In the masterful titular poem, Codjoe writes, "There are as many walls inside me / as there are bones at the bottom of the sea. / I want to be seen clearly or not at all." The speaker in the collection announces the end of the world, yet their desire remains unwavering. Bluest Nude is a startling and seductive collection that represents a powerful and luminous beginning. It invites readers to delve into the depths of women's experiences, challenging societal norms and offering a fresh perspective on the complexities of the human condition.

Weight: 182g
Dimension: 153 x 215 x 11 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781571315427