No Witnesses: Poems

Paul Monette

mar 2014 · Open Road Media

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An enthralling collection of poetry from National Book Award winner Paul Monette

“Come, / what can the body do but go on, when / the best of us are eaten from within?” writes Paul Monette in the titular poem. This mixture of doom and determinedness is played out with humor and warmth in Monette’s poetry. In this quicksilver collection, his words are in perpetual motion, traveling from the Parthenon to Ohio and everywhere in between. Meditating frequently on sex, nostalgia, and love, these poems are serious without ever becoming humorless. They include charming and funny monologues from Isadora Duncan and Noël Coward. Accompanied by original artwork by David Schorr, No Witnesses is an absorbing book of poetry from an acclaimed author.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Paul Monette including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the Paul Monette papers of the UCLA Library Special Collections.

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Paul Monette (1945–1995) was an author, poet, and gay rights activist. Born in Massachusetts and educated at Yale University, he moved with his partner Roger Horwitz to Los Angeles in 1978 and became involved in the gay rights movement. Monette’s writing captures the sense of heartbreak and loss at the center of the AIDS crisis. His first novel, Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll, was published in 1978, and he went on to write several more works of fiction, poetry, and memoir. Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir, the tender account of his partner’s battle with the disease, earned him both PEN Center West and Lambda Literary Awards. In 1992, Monette won the National Book Award in Nonfiction for Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, an autobiography detailing his early life and his struggle with his sexuality. Written as a classic coming-of-age story, Becoming a Man became a seminal coming-out story. In 1995, Monette founded the Monette-Horwitz Trust, which honors individuals and organizations working to combat homophobia. Monette died in his home in West Hollywood in 1995 of complications from AIDS.