Sightseer
Cynthia Marie Hoffman

Winner of the 2010 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry

The poems in this enchanting debut capture the dubious nature of even the most reverent tourism. From Provincetown to Prague, in cemeteries and abbeys, they address with tongue in cheek the artifacts and denizens of the sacrosanct places they visit, exploring what it means to appreciate the foreign and sacred.

“Sightseer is that rarity: a first book so mature, so intelligent, so wittily and deftly written that it seems not to be a first book at all, but the offering of a poet who has found her stride...”
—Carolyn Forché

“Hoffman is a seer whose words re-imagine the sights and sites on which she focuses this wondrous travelogue.” —Sandra M. Gilbert

“Sightseer is an unforgettable, revelatory experience.”
—Erika Meitner

“Sightseer is a powerful collection of poems that makes a subtle and profound argument about the nature of travel, dislocation, and belonging.”
—Ryan Teitman

Cynthia Marie Hoffman received her BA and MFA from George Mason University. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin. She is the author of Paper Doll Fetus and Call Me When You Want to Talk About the Tombstones

Paperback / $15.00 (Can $18.50) / ISBN 978-0-89255-368-6 / 72 pages / Poetry