Join us for the Big Texas Author Talk on Wednesday, Oct 16th, 2024 via Zoom @ 7PM CST

Up Next: Joshua Robbins, author of Eschatology in Crayon Wax.

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Joshua Robbins’s highly anticipated and thought-provoking second book, Eschatology in Crayon Wax, evokes a sense of being torn between a fragile longing for transformation and a whirlwind of flawed divinity. Robbins firmly asserts, “Paradise doesn’t care how you get there. Only that you try,” and is met with divine contempt and a commandment to “shape ashes into ashes” because “besides, I can’t tell you what on earth I’m doing.” In the world of these poems, all one can do is survive the contradictions and cruel mysteries embedded in a contemporary life of empty homes, RFID, mall shooting bullet casings, drone targets, miscarriages, divorce, and suicide. These poems engage deeply with the theodicies of the Book of Job, evangelicalism, class theory, and even the manic crises of Berryman’s “Dream Songs.” At times elegiac, always fearlessly confessional, and even tragicomic, Robbins does not resist hope. With intelligence and style to spare, Robbins displays a fierce concern for this world of things, caught as we are between what is and what should be.

Joshua Robbins was born in Berkeley, California, and grew up in the East Bay. After earning an MFA in Poetry at the University of Oregon and a PhD in English from the University of Tennessee, he joined the English Department at the University of the Incarnate Word, where he is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing. His primary teaching areas are poetry writing, trauma writing, and creative nonfiction. His first book, Praise Nothing, was published by the University of Arkansas Press in 2013 as part of the prestigious Miller Williams Series in Poetry. Eschatology in Crayon Wax was published in 2024 by Texas Review Press. His recognitions include, the James Wright Poetry Award, the New South Prize, Best New Poets, and a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship in poetry from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, among others. He currently lives in San Antonio. Visit Joshua at http://www.joshuarobbins.net/