This first full-length collection of work marks the emergence of a strong new voice in American poetry.

"Watching Cartoons Before Attending a Funeral enacts an intimate and familiar accord between personal and communal perception--'the etiquette failure teaches, the quiet an owl inspires'--the sweet sting of living. He 'lowers a lens' and we see what has been there all along, so self-evident yet willfully avoided. The poet endows our thousand and one indiscretions with a human face and the words to admit them. Watching Cartoons is a risk and a beckoning."--C.D. Wright

John Surowiecki, born and raised in Meridan, Connecticut, received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Connecticut. He lives in Amston, Connecticut, where he is a freelance writer.