American Galactic
Cover Art by Christopher Coffey
American Galactic explores the sci-fi realm of Martians, crop circles, abductions, and how humans face an extraterrestrial invasion: "I don't know/ what I'd do if Martians arrived at my door." From pop culture films like Planet of the __________, to comic book icons like Poison Ivy, to the larger literary imaginary of the red planet's inhabitants, American Galactic charts the intergalactic tale right here at home. Find out about "The Left Boob of Largeness." Learn "What do Martians Want." Understand "Why not to Buy Martians Sundaes Topped with Cherries." And ultimately enjoy these "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" in this bold new book of sci-fi poetry.
The Martians serve as a lens through which American, or broader human, culture is critiqued and explored…But underneath the Martian trappings and Martian tourists and Martians in the hedgerows, Wiseman’s collection is underscored by an intense yearning for the red planet just beyond our own, a planet whose nearness has captured the imagination of humanity for centuries. – Star*Line
Praise for American Galactic
Galactic Wendel
Warning: south of the train tracks, a Martian dream. Stranger still, habitable worlds abound. Wander through them, the lunar greenhouse full of NASA-planted lettuce, the fields of genetically modified soybeans, the tips to save your life. Like a Martian, ‘ooh and ahh at crescent moons, the meteor showers.’ Absorb this motion, before it vanishes. What’s staged and what’s real? What mechanism clears away panic and fear from a landscape, until it awaits pilgrims? The answers, or not-answers, are within the galaxies of American Galactic. – Monica Wendel
Galactic Lockie
Look out, the Martians have landed! And they’re having a poetic romp with Laura Madeline Wiseman. Her narrator opens the door ‘with a bowl of chocolate, suckers and quarters,’ and the little green creatures move right into her house, her garden, her outings, her community… even her mind. By the end of this quirky, imaginative, and well-researched collection, you’ll wonder whether we all indeed carry around our own Martians. – Ellaraine Lockie
Galactic Sloat
American Galactic is a reminder that good astronomers and great poets are driven by imagination. These interplanetary poems are rich with it, taking the reader on a trip to new, unexplored landscapes with heart and humor. Playfulness, curiosity and surprise infuse the poems, in which Laura Madeline Wiseman puts the reader right up front in the face of ‘the other,’ to confront a stranger, strangely familiar. – Sarah J. Sloat
Galactic Kane
The Martians have landed in American Galactic, and the more Wiseman reveals about those little green aliens and their odd habits, the more we learn about our own human nature. This collection is more fun than a Cold War sci-fi flick plus a bag of buttered popcorn. – Julie Kane
Galactic Case
Playfulness and creativity abound in this well-rendered visitation…The cleverness in Wiseman’s collection is in the essential humanness of these exotic creatures, which leads the reader to wonder: which of us is stranger? They, too, go to museums (for the amphibian and mammoth exhibits) and watch movies, shaking at death scenes and crash landings. They, too, slurp hot chocolate and get tattoos. They, too, play dress-up with boots, hats, and scarves. Even Martians are willing to walk the dog around the block. They, too, miss home. – Weave
Related Links
- Review in Star*Line
- Interview Mid-American Review
- Review in Weave
- Interview Up the Staircase
- Interview Wild Woman Rising
- Review in Morphemic Morphology
- Review in Mckenzie Tozan’s Blog
- Interview Terpischore’s Atrium
- Interview Broad!
Sample Poems
- Strange Horizons
- Silver Blade
- Every River on Earth (Ohio University Press )
- Rose Red Review
- Prime Number
- Martian Lit