The Inflated Surround

Drawing from the 1960s counter-culture publishing phenomenon of The Whole Earth Catalog, as well as archival documents and cultural ephemera, The Inflated Surround is a bold, playful, and deeply curious work of contemporary hybrid poetics. Andrew K. Peterson blends poetry, image, and experimental design into a constantly shifting landscape, letting tools, diagrams, and discarded language speak in unexpected rhythms. From the author’s afterword: “The Whole Earth Catalog was equal parts almanac and dreamscape. A back-to-the-land sense of survival that took your hands, eyes, and whole body to discover. My process began as an experiment in listening to voices embedded in tools, product blurbs, and margins. This book is an echo and a remix. A conversational tool for poetic living.” A hybrid work of poetry and visual art, The Inflated Surround celebrates the strange beauty hidden in everyday materials – a “catalog of forms” – remixing the practical and the mystical. Andrew K. Peterson is the author of seven poetry books and several chapbooks, most recently Young Stars of the Bubble, Erasure for Holy Ghost, and Road of Birds. In 2017 Peterson served as a co-organizer of the Boston Poetry Marathon, a three-day literary event featuring over 100 readers. With poet Jared Hayes, Peterson was a co-founding editor of the online literary journal summer stock. He earned an MFA from Naropa University’s Kerouac School, and lives outside Boston.