A Field Guide to Human Emotions by Mimi Herman

Mimi Herman’s handling, shifting, and anchoring of sculpted syntax and a contemporary economy of language delivers a collection of poetry that is multilayered and striking. The rich imagery churns life experiences that run the gamut of public, personal, and political.

A Field Guide to Human Emotions is a rare articulation on the interior of the human spirit that is delivered with elegant wit and calm wisdom. These poems are memorable, funny, and sobering for a time when our collective humanity is insistent like “a steady beat on a thinning drumhead,” demanding the poet’s heart to guide.

–Jaki Shelton Green, North Carolina Poet Laureate

“Fear sits in my stomach like swamp for days / after the flood has receded.”  That’s an example of the truths Mimi Herman writes in A Field Guide to Human Emotions. The entries for the letter “F” are “Fault,” “Fear,” “Free Time.”  The letter “P” numbers five; “S” offers four in this alphabetized, soberingly humorous book. These poems are true and accurate presentations of emotions, which guide you to their sounds. Savor, relax, wonder.

–Shelby Stephenson, North Carolina Poet Laureate, 2015-2018

This collection provides the reader with smart, new definitions of common terms: from anxiety to jealousy to longing, the poems are often comic, often metaphysical analyses of how we navigate the world through language. It is guaranteed to delight and to instruct with its vivid images and quirky pragmatism.

–Maxine Chernoff, author of 23 books of poetry and fiction, including Under the Music: Collected Prose Poems, Camera, and Here