[New-Poetry] Fwd: SPD RECOMMENDS: NEW TITLES for Apr30-May21

Wed May 21 17:30:03 EDT 2008


**SPD RECOMMENDS: NEW TITLES for April 30-May 21, 2008
ORDERS: 1-800-869-7553
ORDERS at SPDBOOKS.ORG
FAX: 1-510-524-0852
WWW.SPDBOOKS.ORG
Try Electronic Ordering! SPD is on PUBNET (SAN #106-6617)
Questions? Contact Neil Alger at neil at spdbooks.org
**New Poetry from Silverfish Review**
COME THE HARVEST
Hunter, Paul
$14.95 / PA / 96pp.
Silverfish Review 2008
ISBN: 978-1-878851-54-3
Poetry. From John Greenleaf Whittier and James Russell Lowell to
obert Frost and Wendell Berry, every generation or two it seems a
oet has to redefine our shifting relationship to the land. "Over the
iver and through the woods," Americans retain their comfortable myths
bout farming, and their agrarian roots, though for better or worse
ost are now several generations removed from the rural life. Paul
unter reaches back to 19th century practices and values, and by the
nd leaps ahead to the agribusiness and suburban sprawl of the 21st
entury. We are all in there somewhere, in how we value versatility
nd hearken to the mystery of growth, how we both shun and are drawn
o the backbreaking labor and long contemplative silences of working
n the land--how we stand apart, tilling our thoughts.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9781878851543
**New Poetry from Flood Editions**
NIGHT SCENES
Jarnot, Lisa
$13.95 / PA / 88pp.
Flood Editions 2008
ISBN: 978-0-9787467-6-6
Poetry. In NIGHT SCENES, the fourth book from best-selling poet Lisa
arnot, we are returned to the "first melody" through mock archaisms,
eologisms, rollicking rhymes, and childlike delight. Her circling
yrics sing the pleasure of naming itself, with pastoral dreams
ccasionally giving way to waking life in Brooklyn. Like William
lake's songs, NIGHT SCENES privileges wonder over reason in a triumph
f the imagination: "Be jumpy / or unhinged / with joy / enlightened /
ry cakes / Staten hoy." Be sure to check out Jarnot’s previous
itles available at SPD, including the bestselling BLACK DOG SONGS and
OME OTHER KIND OF MISSION.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9780978746766
**New Poetry from Ugly Duckling Presse**
RED SHIFTING
Skidan, Aleksander
$14 / PA / 120pp.
Ugly Duckling Presse 2007
ISBN: 978-1-933254-33-3
Poetry. Cultural Writing. Essays. Translated from the Russian by
enya Turovskaya and Eugene Ostashevsky. Aleksander Skidan is one of
ussia's most important contemporary poets. With language that is at
nce literary, cinematic, philosophical, journalistic, his innovative
riting calls into question the distinction between poetry and
hilosophy. In RED SHIFTING, Skidan blurs and shifts the boundaries
etween the two as literary genres and as modes of discourse. His work
s both lyrical and disjointed, addressing unflinchingly the literary
nd historical condition of post-Soviet Russia, engaging in continuous
iscourse with what Walter Benjaminwould call “the origins of the
resent crisis.” He lives in St. Petersburg where he is also a
iterary and cultural critic, journalist, and translator, as well as
ne of the founding members of the collaborative art and politics
ublication What Is To Be Done. In 2006 he won the Andrey Bely prize
or Non-Fiction.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9781933254333
**New Poetry from Fence Books**
19 NAMES FOR OUR BAND
Huffman, Jibade-Khalil
$15 / PA / 88pp.
Fence Books 2008
ISBN: 978-1-934200-10-0
Poetry. African American Studies. This is a young book, as its title
mplies, inasmuch as rock n' roll belongs yet to the young. Its debut
oncerns are those of the youth culture inasmuch as when we are young
e are closer to home, to origin, to the primal disjunctions supplied
y our gaps/leaps in understanding. "This is called angled feet this
s called/ separate parts of faces/ this is about body parts it's
alled/ wide-eyed radio hour" Huffman's poems enact a sweet mojo on
he youthful territory of the hometown, of the high school, of the
V-watching-music-listening experience, and we find ourselves in the
Diamond Zones," where "Rehabilitation of/ the burned parent// in a
owboat/ a knock-kneed// the mind tries/ to find speaking" A series
f sporadically appearing poems with the title "Very Early in the Life
f Jerome" acts as a placeholder in the reading mind for these
erritories, enacted as they are in the comfortable vernacular of
mmediate, casual speech: "When I am fourteen on the diving board,
lease start by saying I am fifteen and deny you were ever there."
ther poems allow for a steeper climb on the merry-go-round of
ssociative logic, by which we are given to understand this poet's
ffortless commitment to literary surfaces. "What intimate, white
enter// of competing flames, starling/ who was afraid that day// for
hat life, what has only// meant a drum contained/ whole order
escribed in titles// third in order, as was tardy again// when in,
ithout ending." Jibade-Khalil Huffman was born in Detroit and grew up
n Florida. His awards include the Grolier Poetry Prize. A graduate of
ard College and Brown University, he lives in New York.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9781934200100
**New Fiction from TSAR Publications**
THE CHINESE KNOT AND OTHER STORIES
Chao, Lien
$18.95 / PA / 176pp.
TSAR Publications 2008
ISBN: 978-1-894770-43-9
Fiction. Asian American Studies. In this new collection,
ward-winning author Lien Chao weaves together ten emotionally charged
hort stories focusing on Chinese immigrants in Toronto's multiracial
eighbourhoods. In Chinatown and mixed neighborhoods, in condos and
enements, in public parks and in college, the protagonists of these
tories find love, face loneliness, confront generational crises, and
vercome racial stereotypes as they evolve and grow in this exciting,
ver-changing multicultural society. Lien Chao has observed Chinese
ife through her work in the community as well as her interactions
ith Chinese immigrants in ESL classrooms. She came to Canada in 1984.
er first book, Beyond Silence: Chinese Canadian Literature in
nglish, was published in 1997 and won the Gabrielle Roy Award for
anadian Criticism. Her works include Maples and the Stream and More
han Skin Deep (poetry), Tiger Girl (Hu Nu) (memoir), and STRIKE THE
OK: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY CHINESE CANADIAN FICTION
anthology).
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9781894770439
**New Poetry from New Issues**
THE HEADLESS SAINTS
Hardy, Myronn
$14 / PA / 85pp.
New Issues Poetry & Prose 2008
ISBN: 978-1-930974-76-0
Poetry. African American Studies. "Myronn Hardy's THE HEADLESS
AINTS is a book comprised of lyrical epiphanies that embrace the
veryday and the mythical, and there is no way to escape the full
hrust of these marvelous poems. The tropical feel in THE HEADLESS
AINTS, in the pace and space of the crafted imagery, is tangible and
elievable"--Yusef Komunyakaa. "These spare, clear-eyed verses are
emarkable for the ease with which they reveal a poet of ambitious
ntelligence and well-honed craft. Myronn Hardy has written a
ollection of quietly combustible poems that remind us of just what a
ifted poet's deftly judicious craft can produce in music and
motion"--Kwame Dawes.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9781930974760
**New Poetry from Four Way Books**
DEGREES OF LATITUDE
Blossom, Laurel
$14.95 / PA / 70pp.
Four Way Books 2007
ISBN: 978-1-884800-80-1
Poetry. Laurel Blossom's DEGREES OF LATITUDE is a book-length poem,
eally, divided by section breaks to give air. These are short
ections, for the most part, and breezy. This is a book-length
arrative that covers family and personal history and moves seamlessly
hrough time and space. Writes Carolyn Forche, " almost a
yric novel, so sweepingly re-imagined is the life it illuminates, but
t is as well an expedition into territory seldom explored in lyric
ode. Blossom begins her journey on an ice-breaker during the white
ights of a polar north--cold as childhood--and then turns her gaze
pon the uncharted regions of family history, secrecy and illusion,
ravely and with uncommon self-knowledge, in deft and beautifully
adenced language that belies the arduousness of her task. This work
rosses, formally and insightfully, the traditional borders of
onfession and memoir, and moves into the unknown, mapping what is
isible as well as what has, until now, been hidden. I have been
aiting a long time to read this book, and it is very much worth the
ait.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9781884800801
**New Poetry from Hanging Loose Press**
OPENING DAY
Corbett, William
$16 / PA / 132pp.
Hanging Loose Press 2008
ISBN: 978-1-931236-86-7
Poetry. William Corbett is a poet who lives in Boston's South End
nd is Director of Student Writing Activities in MIT's Program in
riting and Humanistic Studies. He writes frequently on art, directs
he small press Pressed Wafer and is on the advisory board of
anhattan's CUE Art Foundation. Among his books are the memoirs
urthering My Education and Philip Guston's Late Work: A Memoir. He
dited JUST THE THING: SELECTED LETTERS OF JAMES SCHUYLER and THE
ETTERS OF JAMES SCHUYLER TO FRANK O'HARA. He is currently at work on
 book about the painter Albert York.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9781931236867
**New Poetry from Ahadada Press**
AGE OF THE DEMON TOOLS
Spitzer, Mark
$12.95 / PA / 60pp.
Ahadada Books 2008
ISBN: 978-0-9808873-1-0
Poetry. "You have to slow down, and absorb calmly, the procession of
ritty, pointillist gnarls of poesy that Mark Spitzer wittily weaves
nto his book. Just the title, AGE OF THE DEMON TOOLS, is so
ppropriate in this horrid age of inappropriate technology--you know,
orruptly programmed voting machines, drones with missiles hovering
bove huts, and mind reading machines looming just a few years into
he demon-tool future. When you do slow down, and tarry within
pitzer's neologism-packed litanies, you will find the footprints of
ards such as Allen Ginsberg, whose tradition of embedding current
vents into the flow of poesy is one of the great beacons of the new
entury"--Ed Sanders. "Only dumbfucks will not read this book and
xult. Spitzer's furious epic is a supremely satisfying blasphemous
orgeous cantankerous yowl for a generation of hep-infected-cats
eutered by American supremidiocy. He has managed--quite un-nicely,
hank you!--to tweeze every bloody splinter from our polluted and
olluting culture"--Debra Di Blasi.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9780980887310
**New Poetry from Harbor Mountain Press**
CLOSING TIME
Susko, Mario
$14 / PA / 120pp.
Harbor Mountain Press 2008
ISBN: 978-0-9815560-0-0
Poetry. If you don't yet know Mario Susko's poetry, let this be the
ook you come to treasure. An international reader, Susko's popular
ouTube video (by poetryvlog.com), indeed shows Mario's distinctive
ragged down humanity--a tendency to survive by the absurd rather than
o be torn apart by the tragic (Library Journal)--still lifting itself
o the page, as if at least out of witness. What is surreal is
xistential. If Bukowski had endured Croatia in war, this might be a
indred result. Only, the cynic is beauty. Susko's poetry is the
riend you're glad found a way to bring himself to water.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9780981556000
**New Poetry from Pressed Wafer**
BOSSTON
Barrett, Ed
$10 / PA / 94pp.
Pressed Wafer 2008
ISBN: 978-0-9785156-4-5
Poetry. Red Sox pitcher Dice-K Masukaza, an MBTA Transit copy from
elfast, the Irish mob in Southie, Fan Pier development, the Institute
f Contemporary Art, fallen politician and radio talk-show host Tom
inneran, the poet John Wieners, Ralph Waldo "The Rifleman" Emerson
nd Deborah Hussey Thoreau, Boston School Committee member and
nti-busing advocate Louise Day Hicks, State Senator Diane Wilkerson,
he ever present (and ever absent) mobster and FBI informant Whitey
ulger: BOSSTON completes Ed Barrett's trilogy of Boston-based prose
oem novels that includes RUB OUT and KEVIN WHITE.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9780978515645
**New Essays from Hedgerow Press**
LOVING THE DIFFICULT
Rule, Jane
$21.95 / PA / 205pp.
Hedgerow Press 2008
ISBN: 978-0-9736882-6-9
Cultural Writing. Essays. Memoir. Gay and Lesbian Studies. Political
cience. Internationally acclaimed author of seven novels, prolific
hort story writer and social commentator, Jane Rule compiled this
inal book of essays in the months before she died in late 2007. As in
er fiction and three previously published essay collections, we find
ere an absorbing story-teller, a wise observer of character and a
earless spokesperson for lesbian and gay rights. In some of the
ssays Rule considers episodes of her own life, from infancy almost to
ts end. She intersperses thoughtful commentary on political themes
hat have long engaged her, such as censorship, pornography, misguided
ax laws and same-sex marriage, and on literary issues such as the
ature of story-telling and the role of the woman writer. There is
oth laughter and grief in these essays, barely-contained anger at
njustice, and a clear-eyed acceptance of what can't be changed.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9780973688269
**New Poetry from Time Being Books**
WHAT'S SO FUNNY ABOUT THE GOLDEN YEARS
Milder, Ben
$15.95 / PA / 96pp.
Time Being Books 2008
ISBN: 978-1-56809-118-1
Poetry. "The themes Ben Milder addresses in his latest compilation
f light verse, WHAT'S SO FUNNY ABOUT THE GOLDEN YEARS, allow him to
issect inconvenient truths about the aging experience. But he does so
ently and with humor. The tendency to believe that, somehow, we are
ounger than our chronological age, the unwelcome intrusions of
senior moments' into our thoughts and conversations, the need to
dapt to the physical limitations imposed by our aging bodies, and
any other topics are examined with wit and wisdom. All in all, this
ook enhances our understanding of the process of growing old as a
atural outcome of a life well-lived and emphasizes that this process
ncompasses continued enjoyment, productivity, and deeply personal
xperiences"--John C. Morris.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9781568091181
**New Poetry Anthology from Bottom Dog Press**
CLEVELAND POETRY SCENES: A PANORAMA & ANTHOLOGY
Gibans, N./Weems, M./Smith, L., Eds
$19.95 / PA / 303pp.
Bottom Dog Press 2008
ISBN: 978-1-933964-17-1
Poetry. This anthology includes a detailed cultural chronology and
wenty articles on various topics including Performance Poetry: Slam
eams, Black Poetic Society, University Writing Programs, Presses &
agazines, Poetry Web Presence, and Poetry Organizations. "Poetry has
 long and living history in Cleveland, Ohio, and this examination of
ts past through the lens of its vibrant present is a treasure in and
f itself"--Ron Antonucci.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9781933964171
**New Poetry from Miami University Press**
THE PRINTER'S ERROR
Fogel, Aaron
$11.95 / PA / 95pp.
Miami University Press 2001
ISBN: 978-1-881163-36-7
Poetry. Both funny and serious, this second poetry collection by
aron Fogel matches stories with joltingly non-narrative poems. It
ixes traditional forms like the villanelle with counter-forms like
ouble alliteration, nine-syllable lines, words with all the
owel-letters crushed into them ("unsynchromadice"), and words with
umbers interrupting the letters ("we5re"). Fogel's poems amount to
hat used to be called pasquinade or menippean satire, a lower-middle
lass art that refuses to buy into the easy caricatures of that class.
he book includes a poem about a young man named Brat who breaks a
culptural portrait of himself done by his father; a prose-poem about
iddish; and a set of comic sketches about the mock-sorrows of
cademic life, family aging, and the place of low jokes in poetry.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=1881163369
**New Poetry from Luna Publications**
CEASEFIRE IN PURGATORY
Carberry, Colin
$15 / PA / 60pp.
Luna Publications 2007
ISBN: 978-0-9781471-2-9
Poetry. "'History is the nightmare from which I am struggling to
wake,' James Joyce wrote, and the years since he died have been even
ore nightmarish, especially in his native Ireland. In a later
eneration Colin Carberry wrestles with similar demons, not only at
ome in Ireland but in the wide world. His poetry with its dark and
right imagery expresses a vision of that struggle in a distinctive
oice, Irish in its eloquent music, yet with echoes of Canada, Mexico,
nd Rastafari Babylon. The settings may be purgatorial yet they're
edeemed by the energy and order of the verse. The imaginative force
s heightened by its containment within metrical verse, including
onnets and terza rima. Redemption, the longed-for ceasefire, is
chieved by hope and love. These poems are profound and moving, the
eal thing, poetry such as we seldom find, both lucid and mysterious"
- Kildare Dobbs.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9780978147129
**New Fiction from Quale Press**
THEY SAY
Torra, Joseph
$15 / PA / 172pp.
Quale Press 2007
ISBN: 978-0-9792999-0-2
Fiction. THEY SAY is a novel about a working-class, first-generation
talian family living in the Boston area in the first half of the 20th
entury, centering on the family's struggles over oldest brother
ouie, whose early artistic genius and political passions deteriorate
nto delusion and severe mental illness. Narrated by various siblings
n this sprawling family, their stories have the intimacy and drama of
 conversation told around the kitchen table--and like any living,
reathing family tale, the brothers' and sisters' stories intersect,
un parallel, contradict each other, fill in each other's gaps. Theirs
re stories of love and luck, as well as poverty, death, illness, and
omestic abuse.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9780979299902
**New Fiction from Ghost Road Press**
SEAL WOMAN
Eggerz, Solveig
$17.95 / PA / 170pp.
Ghost Road Press 2007
ISBN: 978-0-9796255-3-4
Fiction. In the rubble of 1947 Berlin, artist Charlotte flees her
ast and everything she has lost by responding to an ad calling for
strong women who can cook and do farm work' in Iceland. But painful
emories and ghosts follow Charlotte as she struggles to make a new
ife in a raw and rugged landscape. This powerful debut novel
elebrates the power of storytelling as a way of reassembling the
ragments of Charlotte's broken self and move her--and everyone she
oves--toward peace.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9780979625534
**New Poetry from Ashland Poetry Press**
UNDERWATER LENGTHS IN A SINGLE BREATH
Grossberg, Benjamin S.
$14.95 / PA / 79pp.
Ashland Poetry Press 2007
ISBN: 978-0-912592-58-9
Poetry. Benjamin S. Grossberg's "is a united sensibility, the kind
e usually attribute to 'The Time of Myths,' as the poet calls it.
his extraordinarily rich and entertaining first book is unique...for
ts eager and outrageous connections with the masters who enjoyed such
ythical thinking--Shakespeare, Whitman--as well as for its daring
epartures from what those same masters, so lovingly ransacked, might
ver have undertaken"--Richard Howard.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9780912592589
**New Fiction from Pleasure Boat Studios**
THE WOMAN WHO WROTE 'KING LEAR' AND OTHER STORIES
Phillips, Louis
$16 / PA / 195pp.
Pleasure Boat Studio 2008
ISBN: 978-1-929355-39-6
Fiction. This wildly imaginative collection of fourteen short
tories won't move you to tears, but will very likely move you to
aughter. Phillips writes about a "committee of grief," about termites
n Africa, about Lee Harvey Oswald's can opener. He tells of how an
ngry consumer shows his disdain for the telephone company by sending
ut false bills which, ultimately, leads to the withdrawal of the
tate of Iowa from the union. In one crazy piece, Phillips describes
he chaos that occurs when a cat finds Thomas Hardy's heart, and,
ell, devours it, disrupting plans to put the heart on display. And he
rites that amazing title story: Yes, it's true. "King Lear" was
enned by Radcliffe Graduate Muriel B. Hopkins, not by the esteemed
illiam Shakespeare. What is the theme connecting these stories?
adness, perhaps, but not only the madness of single characters--
hese stories are also about the "madness of crowds." Read these
tories, but be prepared to confront new realities, some of which you
ay never entirely escape.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=9781929355396
**New Poetry from Bordighera Press**
LOOKING FOR COVER
Fama, Maria
$15 / PA / 128pp.
Bordighera Press 2008
ISBN: 978-1-884419-85-0
Poetry. "LOOKING FOR COVER is Maria Fama at her best. Her poetry is
 lyrical invitation to a world that is richly and sensuously
etailed, where everything is honored-most notably the timelessness of
he ancestors and our own lives as we revisit ourselves"-Janet Mason.
 graduate of Temple University, Maria Fama is the author of four
ther books and has been published in numerous literary journals and
nthologies. Maria Fama is the recipient of numerous awards, including
he Aniello Lauri Award for Creative Writing (2002 and 2005), the 1994
ream Images Poetry Award, and the Amy Tritsch Needle Award for
oetry, in 2006.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Details.asp?BookID=1884419852
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