Oblations

Nick Ripatrazone's Oblations marks the debut of a prose stylist whose muscular, compressed language defines praise anew. Ripatrazone's fisted, graceful words remind us that work, worship, games, and generational heritage form the heart of the American vernacular. Oblations is beautifully new, and Ripatrazone is enormously gifted. - JAYNE ANNE PHILLIPS The 61 beautifully achieved pieces of Nick Ripatrazone's Oblations amount to nothing less than an act of praise, the kind of work that both J. F. Powers and Flannery O'Connor would be glad to know. An outstanding debut. - PAUL LISICKY Rather than being lyrical, Nick Ripatrazone's prose poems, like all good narratives, are driven by the finely honed detail of character and place and situation. He writes short stories that are minimal in length, but wonderfully complete and rich and, above all, memorable. - GARY FINCKE