In Petty Theft, Nicholas Friedman cultivates the strangeness of daily
life and turns an unsentimental eye to joy, catastrophe, and the myriad
stations in between. The poems often set us wandering: to the busked
streets of Assisi; to a burning circus tent in Hartford, Connecticut; to
a stone circle in England; to the poet's native Upstate New York; and to
his adoptive California, where a wealthy neighbor "lives behind a
massive hedge, four-square/ like a curtain wall/ that keeps us here, him
there."
The "theft" of this collection's title lurks on every page, luring faith
to doubt, love to loss, and appearance to illusion. Yet these poems
never lapse into hopelessness. Even where failure and tragedy precede
human understanding, Petty Theft suggests the possibility of
sustenance and recompense. Both confident and questioning, this debut
collection announces Friedman as an important new voice in American
poetry.
Petty Theft is the eighteenth winner of the annual New Criterion
Poetry Prize. The New Criterion is recognized as one of the foremost
contemporary venues for poetry that pays close attention to form.
Building upon its commitment to serious poetry, The New Criterion
established this annual prize in 2000.
