Ben Lerner Books

"Barbara Bloom and Ben Lerner share a fascination with intricate dramas of framing and reframing: what happens to an image or a phrase when it is re-encountered, recontextualized, recombined -- when a particular frame of reference is established or collapses? How is meaning accrued or eroded through repetition, across pages or generations? How are images or sentences enlisted in -- or suddenly freed from -- the construction of our personal and collective mythologies? In this collaborative book, bringing together Bloom's artworks and Lerner's prose poems, these questions are rendered beautiful as they are sensitively felt, veering between the promises of abstraction -- 'the showroom of grammar, its glitter and ghosts,' collective nouns, songs without lyrics that everyone can sing -- and verbal and visual languages of extreme privacy. Other topics include: false fathers, lice, stone fruit, Casper Rappaport, color words, alephs, forever stamps, and Goethe's corridor"--Publisher's website.

Learn how to live a well-balanced life through practical articles and devotions from Dr. Ben Lerner and members of the Global Pastors Network such as Dr. Jack Hayford and Dr. Gary Smalley, plus leaders such as Bill McCartney, Dr. Gary Chapman, and Darlene Zschech. As you read through this Bible, you will see that God's plan for our lives is that we be well physically, emotionally, financially, and spiritually - and without unmanageable stress! This unique Bible will enrich your daily lifestyle while equipping you to be a healthier you.

The novelist and poet Ben Lerner argues that our hatred of poetry is ultimately a sign of its nagging relevance.

In Madrid on a fellowship, a young American poet examines his ambivalence about authenticity

In the past year, the narrator of 10:04 has enjoyed unexpected literary success, been diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart condition, and been asked by his best friend to help her conceive a child. Now, in a New York of increasingly frequent superstorms and political unrest, he must reckon with his biological mortality, the possibility of a literary afterlife, and the prospect of (unconventional) fatherhood in a city that might soon be under water. In prose that Jonathan Franzen has called 'hilarious...cracklingly intelligent...and original in every sentence', Lerner's new novel charts an exhilarating course through the contemporary landscape of sex, friendship, memory, art and politics, and captures what it is like to be alive right now.

Adam Gordon is a senior at Topeka High School, class of '97. His mother, Jane, is a famous feminist author; his father, Jonathan, is an expert at getting "lost boys" to open up. They both work at a psychiatric clinic that has attracted staff and patients from around the world. Adam is a renowned debater, expected to win a national championship before he heads to college. He is one of the cool kids, ready to fight or, better, freestyle about fighting if it keeps his peers from thinking of him as weak. Adam is also one of the seniors who bring the loner Darren Eberheart--who is, unbeknownst to Adam, his fathers' patient--into the social scene, to disastrous effect. Deftly shifting perspectives and time periods, The Topeka School is the story of one family's struggles and strengths: Jane's reckoning with the legacy of an abusive father, Jonathan's marital transgressions, the challenge of raising a good son in a culture of toxic masculinity. It is also a riveting prehistory of the present: the collapse of public speech, the trolls and tyrants of the New Right, and the ongoing crisis of identity among white men

Ben Lerner's "Die Lichtenbergfiguren" is an unconventional sonnet collection exploring the interplay between language and memory, structured form and unleashed violence. The title references Lichtenberg figures, aesthetic patterns formed by electrical discharges. The poems reflect contemporary culture's complexities through repetition and collage, blending academic vocabulary with slang and biblical language.

From the celebrated author of The Topeka School, a collection of poetry that is dazzlingly intelligent, moving and speaks directly to our complex times.

Ben Lerner ist einer der klügsten und innovativsten amerikanischen Dichter der Gegenwart. No Art zeigt das breite Spektrum lyrischer Formate, das Lerner beherrscht und fortwährend weiterentwickelt: das zerstörte Sonett, das poetische Denkbild, die gestisch verschobene Elegie, die Rekombination und Variation von Reden und sprachlichen Gesten über den einzelnen Text hinaus. Wiederkehrende Themenbereiche, Vertextungsverfahren und sprachliche Referenzsysteme werden sichtbar, an erster Stelle eine doppelte Auseinandersetzung: mit der kulturellen und politischen Gegenwart der Vereinigten Staaten und der Frage, wie sich denkend und sprechend darauf zugreifen lässt. Alexander Kluge bescheinigt Lerners Gedichten »einen völlig autonomen Duktus und Rhythmus« und schreibt in seinem Vorwort: »Zugleich finden sich in dieser Strömung von Worten blitzartig hochkonzentrierte Funken an Information, an Witz und inhaltlicher Präzision. So treffen hier Ideale der Kritischen Theorie (…) mit einer gediegenen New Yorker Modernität zusammen.«