Eunoia: The Upgraded Edition

Eunoia: The Upgraded Edition

<div><p>The word ‘eunoia,’ which literally means ‘beautiful thinking,’ is the shortest word in English that contains all five vowels. Directly inspired by the Oulipo (l’Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle), a French writers’ group interested in experimenting with different forms of literary constraint, <I>Eunoia</I> is a five-chapter book in which each chapter is a univocal lipogram – the first chapter has A as its only vowel, the second chapter E, etc. Each vowel takes on a distinct personality: the I is egotistical and romantic, the O jocular and obscene, the E elegiac and epic (including a retelling of the Iliad!).</p><p>Stunning in its implications and masterful in its execution, <I>Eunoia</I> has developed a cult following, garnering extensive praise and winning the Griffin Poetry Prize. The original edition was never released in the U.S., but it has already been a bestseller in Canada and the U.K. (published by Canongate Books), where it was listed as one of the <I>Times’</I> top ten books of 2008.</p><p>This edition features several new but related poems by Christian Bök and an expanded afterword.</p></div>