Christakos a 'Linguisic Trailblazer'

Margaret Christakos' Sooner compresses, collapses, and commingles a multi-narrative thread as a paean to and reflection of urban dystopia from an outsider's close observation. Through onomatopoeic prose poems, run-on couplets, columns, cadences, and concrete/typographical poetry, Christakos alchemizes a new genre perfectly honed for capturing the post-modern cityscape in all its diversity. As linguistic trailblazer, Christakos catalyzes the reader to consider poetic language beyond the traditional metaphor, cadence, and so on. Thus, we are inspired to question words' synonymous associations, spatial relationships, and potential for concealment/obfuscation. Christakos furthers John Ashbury's and Christian Bok's explorations while retaining her widely compassionate eye.