Theodore Archer Pope
Beaufort, SC – Last month, when his editor drove up bearing proofs of his forthcoming book, Morganton, NC-based poet Theodore Archer Pope met her at the curb, serenading her with an impromptu song while playing an antique accordion. This type of greeting won’t surprise followers of Pope’s work. In 2022, fans watched as he first crawled across the floor of Asheville, North Carolina’s Tracey Morgan Gallery, and then rowed an imaginary boat through imaginary waves. That reading was the genesis for “The Lazarus Taxa,” a two-volume collection that includes “Someday You’ll Meet Poetry” and “I Almost Quit Writing.”
“The Lazarus Taxa,” which released on October 10, 2024, with WayWord Books, is a heartfelt and, at times, heartsick look at the innermost thoughts of a creative soul. As Pope explains, a Lazarus taxon is a grouping that disappears from the record, only to appear again later. In this sense, his work in these two volumes has been gleaned from scribblings, slams, and slatherings of paint from days past, work that at times has been crumpled and thrown at his audiences, and at other times forgotten in his studio, buried under the ever-multiplying art he creates daily.
While Pope’s live performance readings are, as poet Thomas Rain Crowe says, a “hybrid combination of wise old sage and someone teetering on the edge,” on the page, his work also bridges the gap between ancient wisdom and the otherworldly. A review for Pope’s “rEdlipsticK” (New Native Press, 2005) says his “writing is imbued with an extra-terrestrial grounding that, for the reader, brings on vertigo while being in love with flight. And fly he does!”
“The Lazarus Taxa” will be available in a specially bound case that includes: Someday You’ll Meet Poetry, an illustrated booklet, and I Almost Quit Writing, realized as a series of oversized cards. Subscribers who opt for WayWord Books’ total experience also receive a custom “I Met Poetry” ball cap and a vessel with a Schröedinger’s cat-type message that begs the question: Is Poetry alive or dead?
To learn more about Pope’s book and to get additional information on WayWord Book’s subscription series use this link: www.waywordbooks.com
About Theodore Archer Pope: Theodore Archer Pope, of Morganton, NC is often cited as embodying both the avant-garde and Appalachian, the disruptive and down-to-earth. His previous work includes Black Mountain College celebration installation, “The Black Mountains of Mars; Varve, a seasonal deposit” (Lorimer Press, 2013); “rEdlipsticK” (New Native Press, 2005) and “Jousting from the Back of a Mule” (Redhawk Publications, 2021).
About WayWord Books: Based in Beaufort, SC, WayWord Books is revolutionizing the publishing industry with a subscription-based model that delights readers with quarterly subscription boxes featuring exclusive, limited-edition books and items curated to enhance the reading experience.
