Apostle of Desire

The poet will be joined in conversation with BOA Editions Executive Director Peter Conners.

One of America’s most revered military veteran writers, Bruce Weigl brings readers face to face with our country’s legacy of violence, the suffering of combat PTSD, and what it means to be truly haunted. The poems in Apostle of Desire juxtapose the peace and comfort offered by the natural world with the bruising intensity of manmade violence, leading readers to question their roles as bystanders and consumers of violent media. 

“Bruce Weigl’s 15th collection of poetry reminds me [of] what people were feeling in 1968: blood in our streets and in the streets of Vietnam, where your brother, father, son—or you—faced deadly combat. . . Weigl’s poems are—make no mistake—tough, unflinching, and demanding in his quest for self-reclamation. That’s what our country trained him to be.” —Dave Smith

Bruce Weigl is the author of over twenty books of poetry, translations, and essays. His Apostle among the Abundance of Nothing (Northwestern University Press, 2012) was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. He is the translator of Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s The Secret of Hoa Sen (BOA, 2014). His work has appeared widely, including in The Nation, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Harvard Review, and Harpers. His poetry has been translated into Romanian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Bulgarian, Japanese, Korean, and Serbian.

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