Between the infinity of the universe and the futility of small matters, along with the prophet and the fatalist, Punchline travels. It's a tightrope performance Nick Courtright is embarking on here, knowing full well that these necessary turns to the large abstractions of "enlightenment" and the "apse of consciousness" are hanging threadbare above us, and at any moment all our understanding could be "revised by pamphlets fallen / from the sky, or by Adobe Photoshop." These are fundamental, open questions, and they anchor a wonderful book.
—John Gallaher, co-author of Your Father on the Train of Ghosts and editor at The Laurel Review
By turns elliptical and aphoristic, macrocosmic and microcosmic, timeless and contemporary, Punchline is not a book of poems for those who merely want to be diverted or amused; this work is for readers who consider poetry the natural sibling of philosophy. Nick Courtright’s finely-distilled poems mine the frustrating unknowableness of the world, and celebrate its exhilarating mystery with elegance, compassion, and imagination.
—Nicky Beer, author of The Diminishing House and editor at Copper Nickel
With its one-two of exuberant wit and vigorous philosophical inquiry, Nick Courtright’s Punchline is nothing short of a knockout.
—Timothy Donnelly, author of The Cloud Corporation and editor at Boston Review
