FOMITE

Is Hell the same place in 2005 that it was in 1300? To Join the Lost, the first of a three part transformation of the Divine Comedy, revisits the territory of Dante's Inferno. The contemporary torments of contemporary sinners case vivid light on the changing character and eternal nature of evil.

Among the Lost, set in the modern American rust belt, is a meditation drawn from Dante’s Purgatorio. To Dante, Purgatory was the mountain where souls not damned went after death to cleanse themselves of sin in preparation for entering Paradise. What, Steinzor asks, are we preparing ourselves for, having lost the fear of hell and the hope of heaven, in the course of our daily urban existence? And whatever that is, how do we go about preparing for it?

Once Was Lost reflects Dante's Paradiso in finding the terminus of a journey through the moral universe. It is set on a North Atlantic Beach at sunrise, eating a breakfast of fried clams among the many spirits, living and dead, famous and obscure, human and other, animate and inanimate, who have blessed our lives.

Praise

“What a magnificent ascension Seth Steinzor is achieving. Having embarked on a latter-day retelling of the Divine Comedy, he has already descended into the Inferno and has now risen to the peak of Mount Purgatory, regaling us along the way with apt parallels to Dante's infernal and purgatorial people, places, and purposes. We are indeed fortunate to have Steinzor following Dante's footsteps.”

—Rennie McQuilkin, Connecticut Poet Laureate

Review in Seven Days

Seth reads from Once Was Lost

Reviews on Necromancy Never Pays

Once Was Lost

Among the Lost

To Join the Lost

About the Author

Seth Steinzor protested the Vietnam War during his high school years near Buffalo, New York, and his years at Middlebury College, advocated Native American causes after law school, and has made a career as a civil rights attorney, criminal prosecutor, and welfare attorney for the State of Vermont. Throughout he has written poetry. In early 1980s Boston he edited a small literary journal. His first, highly praised book, To Join the Lost, was published in 2010.

Seth’s website

Opinion piece on vtdigger

‘Grow, Build, Grow’ is an old, old song that has led us to the brink of destruction