HANDCUFFING THE VENUS DE MILO (paperback)

Jesse Hilson is a freelance newspaper reporter and cartoonist living in the western Catskills in New York State. His writing has appeared in AZURE, Maudlin House, Déraciné Literary Magazine, Pink Plastic House, The Daily Drunk Mag, Punk Noir, Misery Tourism, ExPat Press, Opt West, and Heavy Feather Review, among other publications. His novel “BLOOD TRIP” was published by Close to the Bone in 2022. He can be reached both at Twitter and Instagram at @platelet60 and via email at platelet60@gmail.com.

“A hallmark of a great poet is the ability to turn words into recognition, then identification and emotion, and Jesse Hilson does this like nobody else. Coming from a place where Bukowski only occasionally got it right, Hilson proves with every line that it’s only the brave, beautiful souls that are capable of yielding so eloquently on the page. Those who seek reflection on the often-horrific path toward death and redemption finally have their messiah.”

— Cody Sexton, EIC at Anxiety Press 

“This collection is everything: magic, empty theaters, haunted antiques, religion, superstition, velvet, skeletons in the closet. Hilson’s poetics are a gift, wrapped between the covers of this book.”

— Adrian Sanders, author of “This Side of the Dirt” and “Lynchian”

“Handcuffing the Venus de Milo is a rare and precious thing—a treasure box of witty, wise, playful, melancholy, literate, learned poems.”

— Miss Unity, author of “Who Killed Mabel Frost?"

“These poems betray so much of the human saga that it is impossible not to feel. Without pose, Jesse Hilson has created a beautiful survey of our fallen world, accelerated by moments of hilarity and despair, and an a priori rejection of the crowd mind. ‘Handcuffing the Venus de Milo’ is a concourse of naturalism shot through with mystical inquiry. Hilson ranks with Raymond Carver in his achievement of telling love like it is.” 

— Adam Johnson, author of “Cialis, Verdi, Gin, Jag”