Crime of the Extraordinary appeals to readers, who appreciate poetry that is objective and brief, yet deliberately imprecise – Jhilam Chattaraj introduces Dustin Pickering’s latest collection of poetry
Poet in Focus: Dustin Pickering
Book: Crime of the Extraordinary, Hawakal Publishers, 2024
About the Poet – Dustin Pickering
Dustin Pickering has established himself as a significant figure in contemporary literature, balancing creative output with a commitment to fostering global literary dialogue. As the founder of Transcendent Zero Press, Pickering has created a platform dedicated to publishing innovative and diverse voices.
His writing has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Huffington Post, Los Angeles Review, The Statesman (India), Journal of Liberty and International Affairs, The Colorado Review, World Literature Today, and Asymptote Journal. He is the author of several poetry collections, notably Salt and Sorrow, which showcases his emotional and lyrical depth.
Pickering’s work has earned considerable recognition. He placed in the top 100 for the Erbacce Prize in both 2021 and 2023, was a finalist in Adelaide Literary Journal’s first short fiction contest, and was longlisted for the Rahim Karim World Prize in 2022. That same year, he was honored as a Knight of World Peace by the World Institute for Peace, recognizing his contributions to literature and peacebuilding.
Beyond his writing, Pickering hosts the World Inkers Network, a popular YouTube interview series that highlights international literary voices. He also co-founded World Inkers Printing and Publishing, further extending his influence within the independent publishing sector.
Through his multifaceted work as a writer, publisher, and interviewer, Dustin Pickering continues to shape conversations around literature and culture on a global scale.
About the Book – Crime of the Extraordinary:
American poet, editor, and publisher Dustin Pickering has had a longstanding relationship with poetry. Widely known for his essays, reviews, and articles on literary criticism, Pickering’s latest collection of poems, Crime of the Extraordinary, appeals to readers who appreciate poetry that is objective and brief, yet deliberately imprecise. The poems are terse, sprinkled with lyrical syntax, offering reflections on how our ordinary lives transform into the extraordinary. Critics and readers alike have praised the collection for its stylistic and linguistic advances, highlighting Pickering’s ability to maintain a detached yet deeply reflective perspective. Described as an entire microcosm of thought and imagination, this fourteenth and perhaps most refined collection showcases minimalist expression’s power to build vivid worlds through language. The work resonates as a polished and introspective portrayal of contemporary life.
Eminent poet Sanjeev Sethi writes, “Pickering makes stylistic and linguistic advances that will please his readers. His poems look at him and his landscape with a detached sense of being. It is a book with a big heart.”
Internationally acclaimed poet, editor, translator, artist, Sudeep Sen writes, “Dustin Pickering’s new book of short poems, Crime of the Extraordinary, in many ways, is summed up by the poem, ‘Polyamory’: “I love many books, / many times, / many lives. // I live.” These verses are often wistful and epigrammatic — and the dialectics between ideas of crime and punishment act as a springboard behind the birth of this volume. Love and loss, politics and ideology, allusion and delusion, articulation and silence, and much more — punctuate the texts. I suspect, rather ironically, Pickering hyperbolically sums up the book’s intention in ‘The Arachniad’ saying that “each [micropoem] is an epic essay unwritten.” The readers will do well to delve into this book to explore and exfoliate what remains unpeeled, but are indeed hinted at within parentheses. “The extraordinary” is almost always hidden.”
You can find Crime of the Extraordinary on Amazon India.
Poems by Dustin Pickering
I Am Chaos
I become what I was,
in flex, tonality, the bee’s knees
minding the pollen.
We eat the sounds from the sky.
Only the daring kiss our eyes.
Koh-i-noor
The Queen poses marvelously with the Koh-i-noor crown.
How do beautiful jewels cross so soundly the land?
Encased in the rapturous tower,
the diamond now smiles like a religion at its victims.
Many do not know whether she is real:
Queen, or costume? Perhaps both.
The Arachniad
Catch a tooth in the jaw
and let it hang,
the devil will not pass the time away.
Spiders closet crassly the efficient path,
seeking delirium in the flesh of the dead.
Each is an epic essay unwritten.
Empty
What is fullness if not forlornness?
For fools know the arrogance of trash talk
and tepid tunnels of lingering light.
Who is the beacon at the opposite lwhere death casually pardons?
January 14th
Birth me gentle dog, life:
abandon my heart to painted horizons
and playful pretense—
a pestilence of power, my verses
hang on the dread
of my mother’s milk
You can find Crime of the Extraordinary on Amazon India
About poet, writer and curator Jhilam
Jhilam Chattaraj is an academic, critic and poet. She teaches at the Department of English and Foreign languages, RBVRR Women’s College, Hyderabad. She has authored the books: Sudeep Sen: Reading, Writing, Teaching, Noise Cancellation (2021), Corporate Fiction: Popular Culture and the New Writers (2018), and When Lovers Leave and Poetry Stays (2018). Her works have been published in Michigan Quarterly Review, Mekong Review, Ecocene, New Contrast Magazine, One Art Poetry Journal,Calyx, Ariel, Room, Porridge, Queen Mob’s Tea House, Colorado Review,World Literature Today and Asian Cha among others. She received the CTI Excellence Award in ‘Literature and Soft Skills Development’ (2019), from the Council for Transforming India and the Department of Language and Culture, Government of Telangana, India. Her poem, ‘Sari’ was nominated for the Nina Riggs Poetry Award (2023).
