Susan Maurer's "Perfect Dark" Reviewed by George Wallace on BigCityLit

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Susan Maurer's "Perfect Dark" Reviewed by George Wallace on BigCityLit

Peering Through Perfect Dark: New Poems by Susan Maurer

Reviewed by George Wallace on BigCityLit Spring 2010

http://www.bigcitylit.com/bigcitylit.php?inc=spring_2010/reviews/wallace

ungovernable press; e-book, 2009; 57 pages  Free download at:  http://www.ungovernablepress.weebly.com

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Spring 2024 Releases

Bright-Eyed
by Sarah Sarai
Poets Wear Prada: March 1, 2024
ISBN-13: 978-1946116284
Paperback: 60 pages
List Price: $18.00 (unsigned)

Thirty-two poems recall this native New Yorker’s childhood relocation with her family to sunny California (The San Fernando Valley); growing up on the West Coast in the 1960s — as a preteen, teen, and young adult; and her responses to her new surroundings and the times. Several poems explore interracial tension and coexistence from the viewpoint of a young person whose older sister created an interracial family. The poet explores her relationships with her nephew, niece, and brother-in-law from the perspectives of both family and race. If you like the work of Diane Wakoski or James Broughton, you will enjoy the whim and wit of this book.

With Sarah Sarai’s Bright-Eyed, I’m reminded of the Miles Davis idea that music’s not the notes but the attitude of s/he who blows the notes, and this book of poems is filled with attitude. It’s a joyride through the old neighborhood informed by a vital wit that ranges from Sun Ra to Nietzsche and drops aphorisms the way Hansel and Gretel dropped crumbs — “My past doesn’t haunt me. / I haunt my past.”; “youth is a superpower”; “To have a self / That’s an art”; and on and on — reminding us, if we need reminding, that you can’t go home again, but you do anyway. — TIM TOMLINSON, author of This Is Not Happening to You; co-founder, New York Writers Workshop

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Good Housekeeping
by Bruce E. Whitacre
Poets Wear Prada: April 1, 2024
ISBN-13: 978-1-946116-27-7
Paperback: 56 pages
Price: $18 (unsigned); $20 (signed)

The contradictions of privilege and want, the dynamics of gay marriage, the joy of a good cocktail — all enter the mix as these 24 poems explore home, marriage, travel, war, sensuality, tea, and, yes, housekeeping. Selected as an Editor’s Pick by BookLife Reviews, Good Housekeeping includes “The Fold Out Couch,” which was nominated for a 2024 Pushcart Prize. Some poems have appeared in The Journal of American Poetry, The Mandarin Magazine, and World Literature Today, among other places. Mainstream audiences, LGBTQA+, and readers interested in social justice or climate issues will enjoy this book. Comparative titles include Carolyn Forché’s In the Lateness of the World and Mark Wunderlich’s God of Nothingness.

“A joyful and precise exploration of the queer domestic, a long love explored in four decades of devotion and routine. By turns playful, erotic, and nostalgic, these poems map out a fully lived life, punctuated by dishes to serve and dishes to wash. Whitacre's dazzling formalism and gorgeous soundwork carry this book forward with a gentle power, like the wind in a sail.” — JASON SCHNEIDERMAN, author of Hold Me Tight

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Preorder your signed copy of the paperback edition from the author today:
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Fall 2021 Releases: Present Imperfect by Ona Gritz

Present Imperfect
by Ona Gritz
Poets Wear Prada: Fall 2021
ISBN-13: 978-1-946116-23-9
Paperback: 104 pages
List Price: $15.00

This debut essay collection by Ona Gritz, NY Times-published writer and longtime columnist for Literary Mama, reads like a blockbuster movie. There is a heroine with cerebral palsy, likeable and indefatigable. There is family conflict, romance, and true crime. Ona writes on disability, family dynamics, and the murder of her sister's family with candor and passion. A critically acclaimed essayist, two Notable mentions by Robert Atwan, The Best American Essays, a Best Life Story in Salon, among the recent accolades, Ms. Gritz has gathered some of the best of her work from the NY Times Disability series, The Rumpus, Brevity, and more for this fine and most riveting read.

[These] essays and their attentive questions contain rich textures, with many moments of humor in the midst of hope, pain, and insight. ... Gritz's approaches to storytelling are subtle and detailed, while always attentive to large-scale issues and patterns. .... As readers, we are asked to join with Gritz in her descriptions of her disability experiences: her hemispheres, in myriad aspects. I was reminded of how the well-worn question, "why can't I be like everyone else?" becomes "why should I?" Gritz's striking, relatable essays affected me deeply.
-- LAURA ANNE SPENCER, Wordgathering

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Purchase your copy of the $15 paperback edition today:
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or Go Green with a Kindle Edition for only $9.99 ($5.01 off the $15 paperback price, over a 30% savings!):
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Long-awaited reissue of David Elsasser's 2009 classic chapbook, Last Call

Last Call
by David Elsasser
Poets Wear Prada: 2009, 2020
ISBN-13: 978-0981767-88-8
Paperback: 33 pages
List Price: $12.00

David Elsasser celebrates a generation’s moment of deliberation. Born during the post–World War II baby boom, a period of economic prosperity from 1946 to 1964, his generation, known for breaking with tradition and redefining values, is now reaching retirement age. One of approximately 76 million contributing to the Graying of America, the shift in population from forever young to Immitigably gray panther, Elsasser muses on the coming of old age in his debut poetry collection, a chapbook classic, first released in 2009, yet pertinent and still most entertaining today.

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POETRY HOT OFF THE PRESS: Manhattan Moments by Rosalie Calabrese

Manhattan Moments
by Rosalie Calabrese
Poets Wear Prada: 2020
ISBN-13: 978-0997981-14-8
Paperback: 52 pages
List Price: $12.00

Management Consultant for the Arts, native New Yorker, and a frequently anthologized Poet — counting the New York Times and Cosmopolitan Magazine among her nearly 100 publication credits — Rosalie Calabrese shares her love affair with Manhattan in twenty-nine memorable vignettes.

A smorgasbord of memories and images for addicts of New York City ... [by] a wry, experienced, quizzical, compassionate, knowing woman who staunchly maintains the innocent eye.
— CAROL JOCHNOWITZ, former Production Editor of Jewish Currents

Sassy yet introspective observations of an anything but jaded New York native ... this is a joyous, lyrical diary of urban life.
— IRIS LEE, Author of Urban Bird Life

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HOT OFF THE PRESS! New Anthology of Women's Voices from Editor/Activist Daniela Gioseffi

#Me Too, Anch'io
Edited by Daniela Gioseffi
Poets Wear Prada: 2020
ISBN-13: 978-1946116-08-6
Paperback: 112 pages
List Price: $12.00

Twenty-three Italian American women writers respond to #MeToo, sharing their thoughts and experiences through poetry and personal essays. Edited with a foreword by Daniela Gioseffi.

Here you’ll find antidotes to apathy and calls for the compassion that just might help us rid humanity of the evils of accepting gender injustice.
— FRED L GARDAPHÉ

In telling their stories, this anthology affords these Italian women the ability to free themselves from the agony of a story untold!
— ANTHONY JULIAN TAMBURRI

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New Chapbook from a Favorite Poet

MEOWKU
by Patricia Carragon
Poets Wear Prada: 2019
ISBN-13: 978-1-946116-21-5
Paperback: 46 pages
List Price: $12.00

Patricia Carragon, author of Urban Haiku and More, and probably close to a thousand published Haiku, Senryū, Hay(Na)Ku, and other very short poetic forms, returns with a collection of meditations and observations, often poignant, often humorous, all deftly penned, and all inspired by her favorite muse, our sphinx-like companion, the CAT. Not only will you find her Meowku engaging but she has also included superb examples of her photo- graphy to futher enhance the reader’s experience.

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New Poetry from New Voices: Emerging Poet Robert Anthony Gibbons

FLIGHT
by Robert Anthony Gibbons
Poets Wear Prada: 2019
ISBN-13: 978-1-946116-07-9
Paperback: 36 pages
List Price: $12.00

New York-based performance poet, native Floridian, recent MFA graduate and Cave Canem Fellow Robert Anthony Gibbons takes us on a transcontinental and transformative voyage, sweeping and spectacular, across the United States in search of America and self. Seventeen poems log his observations and meditations on the national psyche and his own as Gibbons quits the confines of urban life for spacious and sunny skies, Lincoln's logs, Georgia O’Keefe's cow skulls, the Wishram man's papoose -- only to lose nativism, rediscovering Walt Whitman's passage to India, while establishing his own unique voice and prominent place in literary America.

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Hot Off the Press: A New Expanded Edition of Doctor Cone from Bob Heman!

Hot of the Press: Poet and Artist Collaborate! New Illustrated Poem for Young Adults (of All Ages)

The Little Entomologist
a poem by Roxanne Hoffman
with illustrations by Edward Odwitt
Poets Wear Prada: 2018
ISBN-13: 978-1-946116-03-1
Paperback: 24 pages
List Price: $12.00

Poet Roxanne Hoffman and Artist Edward Odwitt (aka Shawn Christopher Martin) team up, once again, for their long-awaited second book of poetry. Cathy Buburuz, Editor of Champagne Shivers calls “The Little Entomologist”: “a fascinating little poem.” B. R. Lyon, author of You Are White Inside, curator of Hydrogen Jukebox, says: “It’s a keeper! I mean, 'keepsie'!” For Young Adults (of all ages) — and the little monster in all of us.

Look Inside / Buy on Amazon:
https://amzn.to/2N9cRR4

April Reads: More Short Fiction by Iris N. Schwartz; SHAME: And Other Stories

Shame: And Other Stories
by Iris N. Schwartz
Poets Wear Prada: 2019
ISBN-13: 978-1-946116-01-7
Paperback: 72 pages
List Price: $12.00

Iris N. Schwartz uses her razor-sharp prose to write about what no one wants to talk about. Here are 15 unforgettable, fiercely honest, sometimes darkly comic, more often unnerving stories about the human struggle to conceal, circumvent, and transcend shame. Successively Iris's pen goes in and twists -- till you say uncle and confess your shames. Cathartic!

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https://amzn.to/2UGshQp

Autumn Reads: More Poetry by George Held: Second Sight, Available September 2019.

Second Signt: Poems
by George Held
Poets Wear Prada: 2019
ISBN: 978-1-946116-02-4
Paperback: 40 pages
List Price: $12.00

In his 22nd poetry collection, Held explores, with candor and craft, the psychology of perceptual blindness: how, blinded by faith, love, innocence, ego, tradition, prejudice, self-preservation, etc., we blunder through our lives — even as we seek enlightenment; and how such inattention can sometimes work in our favor.

Get your brain fuel from Amazon.com:
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Get Your Brain Fuel: TEN ... more by John Edward Cooper

TEN ... more
by John Edward Cooper
Poets Wear Prada: October 29, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-0997981124
Paperback: 32 pages
List Price: $12.00
Look Inside / Buy on Amazon
http://amzn.to/2yKYMyF
In France:
https://amzn.to/2kKbnwF

Blogger Jack Cooper joins the ranks of Dorothy Parker, John Donne and Confucius with his haiku-esque witticisms: “ROMEO AND JULIET, EXPLAINED / You cannot live for love” [Monday, February 11, 2013]; “WORDS FROM A STONE / Both terrible and vain / to have sought love // at a time one felt so little” [Wednesday, March 6, 2013]. No candy-coated sugar pills served here! It seems Cooper’s systematic and objective distillation of his truth serves as an inoculation from fullblown despair. At the pinnacle of disaster, even its perilous aftermath, like a magician he produces the “aha” moment for spiritual uplift and buoyant rebound.

New Fiction From Poets Wear Prada!

Top Cupcake Chronicles
by Patricia Carragon
Poets Wear Prada: October 13, 2017
ISBN-10: 0997981172
ISBN-13: 978-0997981179
Paperback: 42 pages
List Price: $12.00
Look Inside / Buy on Amazon
http://amzn.to/2yAYc9o

For her debut fiction collection, Carragon serves up a wickedly delicious baker’s dozen -- thirteen mini-cupcake-size contemporary fables presented as the selected diary entries of a women possessed by her favorite dessert. As she chronicles over a decade of biting into clouds of buttercream, she pokes fun at all we humans hold sacred -- marriage, work, the government, God, and the glorification of our species above all other -- offering us more than sweet confections to sink our teeth into when we enter the alternative universe of her Sweet Dreams Bakeshop.

New Poetry from Poets Wear Prada: What to deflect when you're deflecting by Jason Morphew

What to deflect when you're deflecting
by Jason Morphew
Poets Wear Prada: Sept. 15, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-0997981186
ISBN-10: 0997981180
Paperback: 44 pages
List Price: 12.00
Look Inside / Buy on Amazon
http://amzn.to/2zeVsjH

A poet / song-writer on fatherhood — the good, the bad, and the scary — up close in the thick of it and then the birds-eye view. Smart, candid, often wickedly funny. The quirky title, strangely familiar, is a parody of Heidi Murkoff’s best-selling pregnancy guide, What to Expect when You’re Expecting.

Phased II by George Held

Phased II
poems by George Held
Poets Wear Prada: Oct. 18, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-0997981100
Paperback: 38 pages
List Price: $12.00
Look Inside / Buy on Amazon:
http://amzn.to/2Afvlt9

“Phased II is a kind of love letter written in compressed forms of observation and meditation.” — Michael T. Young, American Book Review, January – April, 2018

The greatest strengths of Phased II are its continuity and its focus. It never strays far from the grip of the moon, and is therefore able to hold a grip on a reader. . . . I suggest reading it, pouring yourself a glass of wine, and then gazing at the moon encouraged by the knowledge that somewhere George Held is probably watching it too. — Benjamin Schmitt, At the Inkwell, January 27, 2017

2014 RELEASES: CULLING by George Held

Culling:
New & Selected Nature Poems
by George Held
Poets Wear Prada: October 07, 2014
ISBN-13: 978-0615910079
Paperback: 88 pages
List Price: $15.00
Available on Amazon:
http://amzn.to/2yZUBPR

"Held’s concern for our natural world is felt throughout this contemplative and inspiring collection." -- Daniela Gioseffi, Rain Taxi Review of Books, Winter 2014

"[Held's] work is strong and strikes a fine balance between meditative appreciation and concern, capturing nature’s splendor while noting its impermanence." -- Kirkus Review, Oct. 7th, 2014

MOST LIKELY TO DIE by Hilary Sideris

Most Likely to Die
Poems by Hilary Sideris
Poets Wear Prada: Sept. 5, 2014
ISBN-13: 978-0692227695
Paperback: 68 pages
List Price: $12.00
Available on Amazon:
http://amzn.to/2iwxF4A

"[You] can almost hear the first guitar string vibrate, images so sharp you feel as if you could pick out each note played as you listen to his [Keith Richard's] gravelly voice .... What Hilary Sideris has accomplished is an amazing feat; she doesn’t so much as write about Keith Richards as inhabit his very being." -- Linda Lerner, SPR, Jan- Feb 2015

2010 Titles

THRUM
Poems by Joel Allegretti
(5.5 x 8.5 inches, matt finish)
Poets Wear Prada: 2010, 2014
ISBN-13: 978-1497380455
Paperback: 42 pages
List Price $12.00
Look Inside / Buy on Amazon
http://amzn.to/2zRZmy0

Joel Allegretti draws creatively and knowledgeably from the musical lexicon in Thrum, a work which paints the outline of its subject suggestively, acknowledging and circumventing the shortcomings of language for articulating a total musical experience .... Thrum acknowledges and pays homage to music theory, and illustrates the capacity of poetry for capturing more than just words. -- Daniel Crouch, Liebamour, Issue 3: The Music Issue, Sept. 25, 2011

PHASED by George Held

Phased: Poems, etc.
by George Held
Saddle-Stitched Chapbook:
August 1, 2008
Mass Market Edition: 2010
ISBN: 978-0-9817678-0-2
Paperback: 34 pages
List Price: $12.00
Available on Amazon:
http://amzn.to/2B3rfl6

"A delightful, entertaining, and attractively presented collection celebrating our sidereal companion, the moon." — Phil Wagner, ICONOCLAST #100, 2008

“These poems work a sort of magic as the pages turn. By the end of the book, one can almost see the pages glow with gentle lunar light. The words remind me to look for the Moon at night, like the face of an old friend.” — John Berbrich, BARBARIC YAWP, Vol. 12, No. 4, October 2008

Poets Wear Prada | PWP Books

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Tuesday, July 6, 2010