What Happened to the Inca Doves?
Green Linden Press, 2027
What Happened to the Inca Doves? reveals a life through a mosaic of literary forms: prose poems, diary entries, epistles, fragments of dreams. Its seven sections work in concert toward a portrait, from childhood memories to the death of a lover to the desires of a man in his eighth decade. What remains consistent throughout is a steady, welcoming voice, trustworthy and brave in its eagerness to understand.
I have long been awed by Boyer Rickel’s art. In his magnificent new collection, he creates an alchemical mix of lyrically-charged prose, perfect musical pitch, and judicious narratives of love and loss. His poems brim with the largesse of his being. As after great pain, Rickel arrives at this inscrutable question: “If emotions embody judgments…, / what does a lack of feeling say? Or fury?” What Happened to the Inca Doves? is a stunning work by a poet commanding the full force of his talent.
— Cynthia Hogue
author of instead, it is dark
Boyer Rickel’s What Happened to the Inca Doves? is a fascinating, moving account of how someone very alive experiences, freshly, life’s currents and rapids. Unguarded, consistently authentic, and deeply considered, Rickel’s lyrics range in form, defying and challenging genre; it is difficult to summarize how much he achieves. This is a stunning and memorable book that I will return to again and again.
— John Levy
Shelley Memorial Award recipient
(publication date: January 12, 2027)
What Happened to the Inca Doves?
is available for preorder at:
Green Linden Press
