Endgames

Readers familiar with the kind of literary experimentation Samuel Beckett used in his play, Endgame, where people become suddenly aware of being both spectators and players in their own lives, will connect with Stubbs poetry immediately. Others will discover this phenomenon from his characters who reach out from their experiences to try to find meaning for how what has passed in their lives now locks them into their present and must somehow bring purpose to their future. Such is the opening suite of poems, Heloise/Abelard, based on the true 12th-century story of Pierre Abelard and Heloisethe epitome of star-crossed lovers. Another template for Stubbs collection is a slate of poems that explore Daniel Paul Schreber, the 19th-century German judge who recorded his mental illness in the book Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, one of the most influential books on psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Other poems explore our contemporary worldwhich through its media interprets reality while it displaces it. Underpinning Stubbs work are the relentless questions of his familyhis emotional archives, and the intersections with other peoples lives that complicate relationships.