From Recto y Verso Editions, Inc.: Klepsch's poems are wild, experiential, but stick with the themes that wriggle and writhe through all the chambers of the human heart -- loss, God, fear, death -- on their way to slamming against the good, the bad and the stupid of technology and modernity in forms that will keep you delighted for the whole ride.Gratitude, gut gratitude. Poet Nancy Klepsch knows it because grief still scrapes the/ soft palate [her] mouth / sews raw skin onto [her] teeth. From injury arises a poetic voice full of zing and verve. Klepsch's rants are a rush of full generosity: I am stir-frying joy / How much pleasure can a mouth/ bring to someone ordinary as a dinner. Her humor pokes fun at personal pronouns and big data: I am still incomplete a recovery agent's small scale discovery that this machine my poor body is a prototype a meme more beautiful and alive than I ever was. But her gut is just. Her blues damn racial violence; her musicality offers an equality: all of us can stretch arc / kowtow to the catechism / of this river-scape / bob in its tidal / name waves / call the clouds cousin / round light snatch sunset. In a Collar City within the Rust Belt of this Queer Nation, Klepsch creates bright glimpses of how We fight for everyone. Experimental page-poets and spoken word bards will agree: god must be a boogie man is an invigorating read that demands a stage. -- Lori Anderson MosemanRead these poems when you're hungry, starving, famished - Nancy Klepsch's kitchen is always warm and noisy, always full of fresh basil, pita, sweet potatoes, and spices. Read these poems when you think all might be lost, or you might be going crazy - these poems are full of tender rage and wild sanity. Shaman, musician, passionate warrior, a brave hard mount/in a hard brave world, the voice in this collection of poems will not be contained, speaks in chants and charts and recipes, documents the history of her city and our times, and the depth and urgency of these revelations, their searing humor and bite, are matters of survival and healing. Bending conventions and wielding typography like a dangerous paring knife, god must be a boogie man will feed you, heal you, and fight for your life. Tell me a story, Klepsch begs us, Talk forever. - Jil Hanifan, professor, University of Albany Writing Center Director and author of whethergirl: the wind rose, (TA'Wil Books and Documents, 1999)
About the Author: Nancy Klepsch decided to go to college after watching her mother type envelopes for a penny a piece in the late 60s. Her poems have been published in The Altar Collective, Sinister Wisdom, Oberon, 13th Moon, and Chronogram among others, and online on Barzakh and Albany Poets. She has a bachelor's degree in English and a master's degree in education. She is the co-host of the Second Sunday @ 2 open mic for poetry and prose in Troy, NY, and is the co-founder of Riverside Community Press. Klepsch's first public installation and art-in-public places piece was called Words in Transit and was installed from 2001 through 2008 at Albany International Airport. Words in Transit was a site-specific installation of spoken words by a diverse group of regional poets. Imprinted directly on the baggage carousels, Klepsch's poem, Circle was meant to be read in its entirety, in couplets, or in a single line, as passengers waited for their bags to arrive. In 2002, Klepsch created about this building. Her poem about this building/all buildings are equal was printed on 12, 2' X 3' vinyl posters and mounted and installed on the exterior facade of an abandoned building on the corners of Sixth Avenue and Jay Streets (Troy, NY), near the entrance to 787N, reaching approximately 575 cars daily. The project was made possible through an Arts Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. In 2003, her poem Letter to a prison guard from a teacher was installed on an 8' X 10' teacher's blackboard at The Arts Center of the Capital Region in its exhibition called Day Job. The poem was handwritten in chalk. Said Metroland's David Brickman (Jan. 15- 21, 2004), Her tender poem to a girl in trouble, handwritten in chalk on a large blackboard, has an emotional resonance and a physical presence that transcends the confines of the medium. From 2004 through 2008, Best Wishes was a site-specific poetry installation designed to convey an international travel diary, a blessing and a glimpse at a glorious weekend. It was installed on the rubber parts of three separate baggage carousels in the baggage claim area of Albany International Airport. These poems could be read in parts or whole as travelers waited for their bags. Klepsch's Breathing These Words was also the lead project funded by Breathing Lights. She led a group of neighbors and another local poet, and offered poetry workshops about vacant buildings and the importance of community and neighborhoods to youth and senior citizens. god must be a boogie man is Klepsch's first book of poems. She lives in Troy, NY with her wife, Lauren Pinsley, and her dogs, Eli and Stella.