‹‹ Colorado Matters

Poetry about bodies, death, and Dolly Parton

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16min 54sec
Courtesy Nicky Beer
Denver poet Nicky Beer.

The new poetry collection from Denver’s Nicky Beer is both profound and campy. “Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes” is like a literary cabinet of curiosities. She explores her own mental health and imagines a troop of drag queens at an amusement park. Beer, a collector of things and ideas, is an assistant English professor at CU-Denver.