The Prague Winter
chapbook, Finishing Line Press, 2013

Available for purchase here.

In a series of persona poems, The Prague Winter tells the story of Jan Palach, a Czechoslovakian college student who immolated himself as an act of political protest in 1969, after the Soviet Union invaded his country and repealed its nascent democratic reforms.

Sample poems can be found here.

“Twenty-first century physics and philosophy teach us that our challenge is to understand the world from within, as observers who impinge on it, rather than to seek an abstract vantage point, a center which discloses a static truth. Elizabeth Onusko’s triumph in The Prague Winter is to conjure the voices that speak from inside a pivotal moment in history. In an era of atomization, Onusko’s poems are vital as daylight — her dazzling achievement is to reconcile intimacy and the locus of political change. This is poetry that humanizes the spectacle of our lives. And in poem after poem — ‘The Honeymoon’ for a quick example — the emotional charge will make your mind and pulse race.”

-D. Nurkse, author of A Night in Brooklyn, The Border Kingdom, and Burnt Island, among others

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“By looking unflinchingly at a single man’s act of protest, Onusko gives voice to an entire community. These polyvocal lyrics capture a besieged city with detailed precision — books burned to boil water, burnt shoes enshrined on a mantel, burning mattresses pushed from windows. The Prague Winter is filled with arresting images and a profound humanity. Through the tragic to the redemptive, loved ones bear witness to their country’s occupation and the way one man’s death inspired horror and hope.”
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-Traci Brimhall, author of Our Lady of the Ruins and Rookery