A Sybil Society: Poems

by Katherine Factor

Overview

With fearless and playful language, Katherine Factor’s debut collection reveals agony, humor, and the necessary voices of the female oracle through time. The oracle’s message is apparent—she is not dead. Her words are cryptic but contemporary, offering caution along with guidance to a society interested only in using prophecy for profit. 

In a time when only a select few are prosperous, A Sybil Society paints a portrait of the present moment and unveils a restless truth. The collection is fearless in the face of convention and gives readers a sense of devastating sorrow in a world gone mad.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647790400
Publisher:	University of Nevada Press
Publication date:	01/25/2022
Series:	Test Site Poetry Series
Pages:	63
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

Katherine Factor is an editor, book coach, and children’s book author. She received her MFA in poetry from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has held positions at the Idyllwild Arts Academy and Interlochen Arts Academy. Her poems and audio work have been published by Interim, The Conversant, Quarterly West, Poets for Living Waters, The Equalizer, DIAGRAM, and the Colorado Review, and on WFMU and TextSound.org.

Table of Contents

Aurora 3

@the Last Venue 4

When Medicine Comes for Us 5

White Goddess House 6

A Sybil Society 7

An Ariadne 8

Delphi Selfie 11

The Virus About Us 12

Tripod Lockdown 13

Antediluvian Floozy 14

The Pythia Proudly Has ADHD 15

When the General Arrives w/His Ask 16

Make Love Not Wall 17

Shhh @the Temple of Inscriptions 19

The Age of Nefarious 20

Queen of the Night 21

Mycenae, Founded by Fungi 22

Poly Colony 23

Pleasure Centaur 24

Vestals Hack the Passcode 25

The Feisty Disc Discovery 26

New Dating Technique 27

Mistress of Honey 28

How a Bill Originates in Vulvic Space 31

Animous Uni State 32

Lady with a Lamp 34

We All Need a Death Doula 36

Elegy for a Satyr 37

Fancy Necromancy 39

Dollar Goddess 40

Helmet Dressing Room 41

How to Haul a Parasol 42

Whistle Blow Her 45

Joan d'Arc 46

Soggy Augury 47

Labyrinth in Sync 48

HMU @Emerald Tablets 49

WTF @the Library of Alexandria 51

Duende Friending 53

Pythia LOL 54

W*i*T*C*h Please 55

Pentheus the Unelected 56

Aliens, Do Arrive Pronto 57

Rock on Parnassos 58

The Pythias Final Prophecy 59

Self-Love 60

Acknowledgments 61

About the Author 63

Editorial Reviews

Factor’s is a poetry that strikes with the speed and charge of lightning. Ping, sting, and tingle. Afterward, a “flush and flow.” Yo, goddesses, witches, and sisters—behold, Katherine Factor’s poetic effort to rematriate!”
—Jami Macarty, NewPages Blog

“In A Sybil Society, Katherine Factor has made a new prosody, using urban slang, internet shorthand, and all the variations of American English in the twenty-first century, a system of new sound that refuses easy epiphany, offering instead a twisting language, mad speaker, and always original address to try to reach us, here, on what’s left of our earth.”
—Ronaldo V. Wilson, member of the Test Site Poetry Advisory Board, author of several poetry collections, and winner of the Pushcart Prize
 
“Yes, I want to morph exploitive logics into deep fungal punster connectedness. Here comes A Sibyl Society. Rampaging, delicate, muscular, hilarious oracle, please tell us what to do!”
—Catherine Wagner, author of Of Course 
 
“Throughout this marvelously sparkly, quick-witted collection, sound leads the mind, mining rhyme, echo, pun, and any number of other verbal gymnastics. Tone leads, too; a rather sassy contemporaneity reigns—it’s delightful and incredibly smart. If you’re looking for the oracular, this Sybil is, per tradition, utterly cryptic, and yet her take on the future feels firm. And firmly rooted in the magic of language; as Factor says, “Best to let the alphabet / sail in.”
—Cole Swensen, author of Art in Time

From the Publisher