Ecstasy

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Brought to you by Penguin.

At the end of ecstasy / only the memory of ecstasy. / The tongue. The chorus. / The streets of flesh.

In Ecstasy, Alex Dimitrov embraces a life on the edge in New York and the finely wrought poetry that can come out of it. He explores sex, drugs, parties, pleasure, and God in the 2020s, and looks back to a coming-of-age in the 1990s that still informs who his generation is and will be. His unabashed and drivingly musical poems are a call against repression, a rebuke of cultural norms and shame, and a celebration of human authenticity – even if to live under such philosophies is dangerous.

In ‘Today I Love Being Alive’, we find the poet naked in his kitchen, eating a banana and obsessed with a new lover, declaring ‘I don't care about being remembered. / I care about . . . Strong men. Beautiful sentences. Italian leather’; in ‘Poppers’, he stands lightheaded in the bathroom at a bar, ‘thinking of what to do / with the rest of my life’, and issuing a warning to himself and us: ‘Poetry / is not a self-help book.’

Dimitrov is an iconographer of contemporary life, able to pin profound and timeless meaning to a fleeting encounter in the street. Ecstasy also engages with the poet’s Christian upbringing, interrogating faith as both an enemy and valve of catharsis, and a bedfellow of what this book celebrates and courts: profound human ecstasy.

© Alex Dimitrov 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

Ecstasy stands out for its brutal examination of the transience of Eros... Dimitrov’s nostalgic lyrics are campy and fun... There is wit and candour both on and beneath the surface
Guardian
A rollicking paean to pleasure, an ode to realness and resilience. These poems are raw and honest and deeply personal, and vibrate with the intimacy and electricity typically reserved for late-night conversations between old friends or new lovers after the third round. Hilarious in places and heartbreaking in others, they emerge from a place of inner turmoil and inner knowing, and do not apologize for anything.
New York Times
Dimitrov is that rarest of creatures, a true poet and a truly contemporary poet. Thank god he’s here
Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours
I'm singing badly and a little frazzled from all the dancing, or maybe the boy whose eyes didn't meet mine. I'm stomping down a rain-soaked street in the middle of the night. I'm supposed to be going home but I'm fired up now. Ready to f*ck or to love, to shine and to commiserate. This is the feeling of reading the poems in Ecstasy. Alex is wholly responsible for this cacophony of emotions and bodily experiences. Thank you, Alex. You remind me why I live
Adam Zmith
Honest depictions of hookups, partying, and drug use, plus undertones of heartbreak….[We] are transported through the streets and local haunts of New York, Miami and Paris…. Dimitrov’s collection is fast paced, in-the-moment, and reflective… sure to make connections with readers.
Library Journal

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