What Brings You to Del Amo (Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize)

Virginia Chase Sutton's What Brings You to Del Amo is, by turns, both terrifying and comic. This collection of poems presents a vigilantly examined life, wringing wry and knowing but never smug composure from private and institutional experiences of mental illness, while also reminding us that the gap between extreme and ordinary states is often an illusion. Introducing the volume, Charles Harper Webb writes, "Sutton's poems . . . delight with their fresh imagery, vivid perceptions, unusual perspectives, and general liveliness, even when their subject is suffering."

Sutton welcomes her readers with bright imagery and high energy so that they will eagerly tag along, very glad for the wild ride. Webb states that this book,"in other words, is--to use a term not often applied to poetry--a good read." The poems,"also explore less frequently chronicled aspects of mental illness, including the comedy, sexual highs/lows, manic elation--'this glory'-- of their bipolar narrator's life."Webb concludes, "I applaud the courage and craft required to write this extraordinary collection. I recommend it to you heartily."