Winner of the Georgia Author of the Year Award in Poetry

Alice Friman's latest collection, Vinculum, roots for deep connections between people, nature, retrospection, and the inevitable biological destiny of the body. Friman's work branches out from the core poem, "The Mythological Cod," to form a trellis of revelations on religion, sex, humor, science, and history.Her poems embrace the painful uncertainty of existence and relationships with clear-cut precision. The defiance and directness of Vinculum is matched by its musicality, creating a rich but fragile weave of human attachment.

Alice Friman, born in New York City, is professor emerita of English and creative writing at the University of Indianapolis. Published in fourteen countries and anthologized widely, her past work includes four chapbooks and five full-length collections of poetry. She is currently poet-in-residence at Georgia College.

Praise for Vinculum

“Never sentimental, though often deeply emotional, Friman uses her wit and her facility for striking metaphor to fend off all easy tears. If tears come, they are hard-earned and weighty. . . . With sexy jokes and joking allusions, Friman’s poems remind us of all that threatens us in life and of how important it is to brush aside the threats—not mindlessly or carelessly, but with the courage and confidence that life still offers rewards and solace.”—Pleiades

“A sharp humor undercuts Friman’s erudition. Bawdy, self-mocking, startling, these poems surge with the poet’s capacious appetite for building associations—which give the book energy and verve, even as many pieces concern life’s inevitable losses. . . . Friman distinguishes herself from other contemporary poets by bringing a confident feminism and humor to her meditations.”—Women’s Review of Books

“Reading Alice Friman’s Vinculum feels like sitting on the porch with a beloved aunt who recounts her adventures without skipping the sexy parts. . . . Go ahead and revel. Read to yourself under your shady tree.”—New Letters

“I want to be changed by the event of a poem. The best poets do this consistently. Alice Friman is such a poet. . . . There is not a single poem in the collection that doesn’t move me—not one ‘eh’ moment in the entire book. Not one. Remarkable.”—The Chattahoochee Review

“In Vinculum . . . [Friman] has remembered and honored the dead by being intensely alive. She has deftly combined serious frivolity with fervent solemnity. Indeed, she has translated what has been into what could be.”—The Georgia Review