Ballyhoo
Order a copy of Ballyhoo, my second full-length collection of poems, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, by clicking here.
"In his thoughtful examinations of plotline, script, the imperatives of fiction, and the architecture of jokes, Hastings Hensel artfully constructs intriguing possibilities in these masterful poems, whose sonic textures are breathtakingly beautiful and whose emotional power is palpable. These skillful and formally accomplished poems invoke the beauties of nature and language alike and celebrate, in the end, the joy, the 'comedy of snags,' and, yes, the humanity that is everywhere present and available to us if we take the time to look."
— Sidney Wade, author of Straits & Narrows
"Hastings Hensel's quickfire mind shines through the wise and wily poems of Ballyhoo. Hensel is a poet attuned to the twists and strains of English, and here he gives us 'new sounds / for the things we've missed.' Humor may be his central subject, but he is less interested in comedy than the forces driving it. He writes brilliantly about those moments when a joke goes sour or reveals its darker heart, but he knows, too, what laughter makes possible: 'forgiveness, / which is release.' This book is a knockout, and one I will read over and over."
— Caki Wilkinson, author of The Wynona Stone Poems
"Reading Hastings Hensel's Ballyhoo is like uncoiling a hank of yarn. Some threads connect backwards to his first, award-winning poetry collection, Winter Inlet—fraught family, coastal terrain, layered language, rural culture—but there is something new here asserting a strong poetic gravity. Call it topos, logos, mythos, maybe? Something 'deep as the mind's mysteriousness'? I will return to these finely spun poems many times."
— John Lane, author of Anthropocene Blues
"In his thoughtful examinations of plotline, script, the imperatives of fiction, and the architecture of jokes, Hastings Hensel artfully constructs intriguing possibilities in these masterful poems, whose sonic textures are breathtakingly beautiful and whose emotional power is palpable. These skillful and formally accomplished poems invoke the beauties of nature and language alike and celebrate, in the end, the joy, the 'comedy of snags,' and, yes, the humanity that is everywhere present and available to us if we take the time to look."
— Sidney Wade, author of Straits & Narrows
"Hastings Hensel's quickfire mind shines through the wise and wily poems of Ballyhoo. Hensel is a poet attuned to the twists and strains of English, and here he gives us 'new sounds / for the things we've missed.' Humor may be his central subject, but he is less interested in comedy than the forces driving it. He writes brilliantly about those moments when a joke goes sour or reveals its darker heart, but he knows, too, what laughter makes possible: 'forgiveness, / which is release.' This book is a knockout, and one I will read over and over."
— Caki Wilkinson, author of The Wynona Stone Poems
"Reading Hastings Hensel's Ballyhoo is like uncoiling a hank of yarn. Some threads connect backwards to his first, award-winning poetry collection, Winter Inlet—fraught family, coastal terrain, layered language, rural culture—but there is something new here asserting a strong poetic gravity. Call it topos, logos, mythos, maybe? Something 'deep as the mind's mysteriousness'? I will return to these finely spun poems many times."
— John Lane, author of Anthropocene Blues
Winter Inlet
Order a copy of Winter Inlet, my first full-length collection of poems, by clicking here
Available in special edition hardcover (signed), hardcover, and paper back.
"Hastings Hensel is one of the most accomplished young poets now writing in this country."
--Mary Jo Salter, co-editor of The Norton Anthology and author of Nothing By Design
"I did not know that the Carolina coast needed its defining poet until I read Hastings Hensel's Winter Inlet and realized it already has one..."
--Andrew Hudgins, author of The Joker and Clown at Midnight
"The poems in this books quietly come to terms with loss, meaning, and love..."
--Maurice Manning, author of The Gone and the Going Away
Available in special edition hardcover (signed), hardcover, and paper back.
"Hastings Hensel is one of the most accomplished young poets now writing in this country."
--Mary Jo Salter, co-editor of The Norton Anthology and author of Nothing By Design
"I did not know that the Carolina coast needed its defining poet until I read Hastings Hensel's Winter Inlet and realized it already has one..."
--Andrew Hudgins, author of The Joker and Clown at Midnight
"The poems in this books quietly come to terms with loss, meaning, and love..."
--Maurice Manning, author of The Gone and the Going Away
Control Burn
Out of Print.
"...true lyric-narrative poems that have such assuredness in their form and such a vivid sense of self as performance."
--Erin Belieu, author of Infanta and Black Box
"This is a terrific book. I don't at all mean to sell these poems short by saying that they might be called "good ol' boy romantic"-- poems about fishing and tough fathers and growing up in the South, but with tight formal control. Imagine if Padgett Powell wrote poetry. Yeah, that kind of poem."
--Juliana Gray, author of The Man Under My Skin and Roleplay
"...true lyric-narrative poems that have such assuredness in their form and such a vivid sense of self as performance."
--Erin Belieu, author of Infanta and Black Box
"This is a terrific book. I don't at all mean to sell these poems short by saying that they might be called "good ol' boy romantic"-- poems about fishing and tough fathers and growing up in the South, but with tight formal control. Imagine if Padgett Powell wrote poetry. Yeah, that kind of poem."
--Juliana Gray, author of The Man Under My Skin and Roleplay
Poems - online
"Winter Inlet Arrangement" 32 Poems
"Human Imprint" - storySouth
"Spigot" - storySouth
"Having Remembered an Ice Storm" and "Playing Cards with Mark Strand" and "Plot Summary" - Connotations Press: An Online Artifact
"Go-Devil" -- storySouth
"At the Grave of the Fabulous Moolah" -- storySouth
"Late Spring Inlet Arrangement" -- storySouth
"Winter Inlet Arrangement" 32 Poems
"Human Imprint" - storySouth
"Spigot" - storySouth
"Having Remembered an Ice Storm" and "Playing Cards with Mark Strand" and "Plot Summary" - Connotations Press: An Online Artifact
"Go-Devil" -- storySouth
"At the Grave of the Fabulous Moolah" -- storySouth
"Late Spring Inlet Arrangement" -- storySouth
Interviews
Inletting: An Interview with Hastings Hensel by Daniel Cross Turner for storySouth
Interviewed for the Speaking of Marvels blog
Interviewed for the Speaking of Marvels blog
Critical Reviews
Review of Andrew Hudgins' American Rendering
Review of Maurice Manning's The Gone and the Going Away
Bait: A review of a single poem by Matthew Thorbunn
Review of Maurice Manning's The Gone and the Going Away
Bait: A review of a single poem by Matthew Thorbunn
