Creve Coeur

Author: Robert Fitterman

Publisher: Winter Editions (2024)

Mirroring Paterson’s structure page-for-page, Fitterman translates Williams’s patchwork of local news stories, personal letters, and found historical documents into the landscapes and mythologies of his hometown, revisiting many of the horrific events of St. Louis and its environs on the way—the East St. Louis massacre, the demolition of social housing projects, military chemical testing in the inner city during the Cold War, and more. Through a weave of verse, archival documents, and found language, Creve Coeur entangles suburban sprawl with the racial violence at the root of American urbanization.