The Packing House Cantata

Winner of the First Annual Camber Press Poetry Chapbook Award as chosen by Thomas Lux, The Packing House Cantata by William Trowbridge, takes readers inside Midwest meat packing plant, circa 1958. Not only are the obvious brutalities and realities exposed here, but the emotions of a merciless and fascinating social order among the employees is portrayed by Trowbridge's spare, yet poetically on-the-mark language.

"The Packing House Cantata poems have the sledge-hammer-against-a-steer's-skull ring of truth—the fist-in-the-eye sight of it, the slippery-slick feel of it, the blood-and-bowels stink of it, the aw-hell-it's-a-living human necessity of it, the whole stew seasoned with more than enough of Trowbridge's trademark wit, grace, and artistry to make it very, very good."
      —Charles Harper Webb

"There are all kinds of slaughterhouses, and the literal in these poems is not always so literal. The Packing House Cantata shows us a world of grit, and the language—intense and touching—never shirks from moving straight to readers' hearts. There are no poems about fountains in Italy in this book. William Trowbridge's poems are like a left hook followed by a straight overhand right directly between the eyes."
      —Thomas Lux, Final Judge

Leigh Allison Wilson writes in her Foreword, "Abattoir. A word full of horror, a beautiful word. Read the poems of The Packing House Cantata as though your life depended upon it, for ultimately, and for goodness' sake, it does."

A sample poem from this title is available here.

The Packing House Cantata, by William Trowbridge

Chapbook, poetry.
Foreword by Leigh Allison Wilson.
Chosen by Thomas Lux as winner of the First Annual Camber Press Poetry Chapbook Award.
20 pages, 13 poems.
Saddle stitch binding.
Four-color cover, acid-free paper throughout.
ISBN 0-9727455-4-8

Price: $8.00
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