A Sand Book

A Sand Book is comprised of a series of lyrical essays and poems situated in the American southwest. Surrounded by outdoor gods, powerful natural forces, and political upheaval, Ariana Reine’s lyric forms emerge as shockingly as flora in the desert. Her gaze pierces the thin layer of malaise that coats the everyday. As she puts it: "I say what I see / This is my power."

Like Lena Dunham reading Reines by candlelight on Instagram, you will be affected by how well these poems describe life in 2016: "Smoking crack after yoga / Swallowing vitamins with wine." A Sand Book utilizes the journal form to invent a persona more drastic and authentic than any Facebook profile. Amongst all the comings and goings, people and places, Reines pieces together a poetic account of our geopolitical moment: both bleak and fertile, like snakes entangled in the noon sun.

An accomplished playwright, Reines has also translated critical texts for Semiotext(e)’s intervention series, including Tiqqun’s Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl. Throughout her work, she advances an explicit language, one capable of breaking through glass like a rock. This is revolutionary art. Here is the writing on the wall, written down in a book.

Ariana Reines is the author of The Cow (2006), Coeur de Lion (2007), Mercury (2011), Thursday (2012), and The Origin of the World(2014), written for Semiotext(e)’s contribution to the Whitney Biennial. TELEPHONE (2009), her Obie-winning play, was commissioned and produced by The Foundry Theatre.