AMERICAN DREAMLAND, by Kirby Michael Wright

Poetry, chapbook, 32 pages, from Bottlecap Features. The poet takes a battle ax to the standard American Dream perception that living in the suburbs is nirvana, or at least a safe zone inhabited by dwellers sharing their color, class, and political leanings. Wright rebels against the status quo of middle-class neighborhoods, especially the dull patterns of existence that spin suburbanites toward homogenization. He sees a link between the day-to-day acceptance of routine and living in communities of lookalike homes. Wright is also concerned about women relying on traditional roles to define their duties in society and in their relationships. He seeks to level the playing field by calling attention to the traps women often encounter, including fears of divorce, estrangement from neighbors, upsetting children, and going through life alone. If anything, he wants to shake up his readers through dark humor and blunt observations to reveal aspects of their lives they wouldn’t ordinarily be aware of or have placed on back burners. KIRBY MICHAEL WRIGHT was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a graduate of Punahou School in Honolulu and the University of California at San Diego. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Wright has been nominated for five Pushcart Prizes and is a past recipient of the Honolulu Weekly Nonfiction Award, the Jodi Stutz Memorial Prize in Poetry, the Ann Fields Poetry Prize, the Academy of American Poets Award, the Robert Browning Award for Dramatic Monologue, Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellowships in Poetry and The Novel, and the Redwood Empire Mensa Award for Creative Nonfiction.