From the Editor: Adrienne Novy's Crowd Surfing With God: 5 Year Anniversary Special Edition
“I have yet to forgive the ache I once created,” writes Adrienne Novy in the five year anniversary edition of her debut poetry collection Crowd Surfing With God. That ache may never leave us, but we’re at least coming closer to a place of forgiveness. In its revised edition, Crowd Surfing With God surges back to life with updated work, new & unreleased poems, & a foreword by National Book Award-nominated bestseller Hanif Abdurraqib. This coming-of-age-journey through poems tells a story of self-acceptance that discusses growing up with a rare genetic disorder & mental illness, family & being in a multifaith household, pop culture, & the acts of playing & listening to music bringing you closer to yourself & to healing. Crowd Surfing is out today.
Thank you to the bloggers, reviewers, & journalists who shared their online spaces with Adrienne to celebrate Crowd Surfing With God: 5 Year Anniversary Special Edition over the past two weeks! A few of our favourite excerpts from interviews, reviews, & guest essays:
“Crowd Surfing With God reads like a wild act of bravery. Touching on mental illness, suicide, loneliness, and the importance of friendship, these poems arrived to me as a bird call at first light, ‘I made it, did you make it?’; a reach out into the world to say, ‘you’re not alone’.” An interview with Adrienne Novy for Kith Books
“Andrienne Novy takes those coming-of-age awkward years and turns them into a journey through a lyrical wonderland. This entire epitaph of poetry was fully of feeling and growth, a young person finding therapy in music much like we all do now. This evocative collection of poems is an incandescent journey through transcendent beauty, bravery, and overcoming.” A review by Nic Taggart
“That intensity is impossible to replicate as an adult, I think, because it reverts to nostalgia for us.” An essay by Adrienne Novy for the Half Mystic blog
“look, kid, i get it: i listen to a lot of pop punk & each / band's sadness begins to sound the same. then again, so does / my grief. or the way i grieve it. my head is full of tiny / moving parts. my throat is cold. it's gonna snow tonight.” Excerpts from Crowd Surfing With God, shared by Liz
“In Crowd Surfing with God you notice that so many others have been touched by lyrics and music notes that help them in their day to day survival. The range of poems in this collection is like someone’s curated playlist.” A review by Natalia
“These poems spoke to me on such a deep level that I ended up reading a few of them several times … All of the music references to my favorite bands that I depended on made me feel seen and heard by someone who understood me. It’s a beautiful collection of poetry that combines music and religion to speak to that troubled self some of us still fight.” A review by Glen Damprado
“I don’t know if I’m reaching backward in the anniversary edition so much as listening to my younger self reach forward.” An interview with Adrienne Novy for the Half Mystic blog
Crowd Surfing With God: 5 Year Anniversary Special Edition is available for purchase in paperback ($15) & PDF ($7) editions now. Reimagining this collection that we published both worlds & moments ago has been the honour of a lifetime for the Half Mystic team. To those coming to Crowd Surfing for the first time & to those revisiting her like an echo of a past self, may she keep you warm on winter nights ahead. May this book teach you, when the ache looms loud & large in your peripheral vision, to invite it inside & ask for its forgiveness.