SUBWOOFER

“In Subwoofer, Wesley Rothman commands a wider range of voices than any contemporary poet I can think of, and yet each of these voices is entirely his, and guided by his particular sensibility. Throughout the book, Rothman unflinchingly examines American Whiteness. But the almost violent variety of the poems itself is a poem on Whiteness as true as any being written today. As Rothman, following Wallace Stevens but remaining himself, writes: ‘Every figment fantasies himself the white emperor of smoke.’” —Shane McCrae