I wrote a few weeks back that Ceiling of Sticks by Shane Book is the first ever pick for The Rumpus Poetry Book Club (yay!) I’m sure that poetry-loving readers of this blog have already joined the club, but if not, this post, which appeared on The Rumpus last week, explaining why Ceiling of Sticks was chosen, ought to convince you.  Truly pan-national in its focus, these poems draw on a broader array of experiences than an ESL classroom near a meat packing plant.  As are several of the collection’s poems, the book’s title is inspired by a gorgeous and evocative … Continue reading The poetry post

The story of the battle for empire between two European powers during the mid-eighteenth century will soon be told in two languages.  Endgame 1758: The Promise, the Glory, and the Despair of Louisbourg's Last Decade by A. J. B. Johnston will be released in French in August, 2010.  The Canadian town of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, located near the Gulf of St. Lawrence, became both a strategic military fortress and a symbol of power for the French and the British between 1749 and 1758.  It is at Louisbourg that the British experienced their first major victory of the Seven Years’ … Continue reading Book to be Released in French

Online culture magazine The Rumpus has started a new poetry book club, and the very first book club pick is University of Nebraska Press title Ceiling of Sticks, by Shane Book. Ceiling of Sticks, which is this year’s winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry, is a collection of 20 poems set in Uganda, Ghana, Mali, Trinidad, Canada and elsewhere. They describe both the intimate and mundane (the author helping his ailing grandfather shave) and the shocking and (to most readers) foreign (an animal sacrifice in Mexico). You can learn more about (or join) the Rumpus Poetry Book … Continue reading Ceiling of Sticks is first Rumpus Poetry Book Club pick

Read the beginning of The Sacred White Turkey by Frances Washburn:

"On easter Sunday in 1963, a white turkey appeared on Hazel Latour’s doorstep, pecking at the door as if demanding entrance. That turkey set in motion a series of events that would rock the community from end to end, upset the established order, and make some of the most traditional among us question our beliefs. Had I not been there, I would not have believed what was to come, and even after all these years, I still doubt my own senses, wonder about where the turkey came from, why it came to my grandmother, of all people, and where it went. That white turkey was wakan, and you know, some of our people say that word means holy, and some say, no, it just means something unexplainable, and a lot of things can be unexplainable without being holy. Some people make jokes and say that the BIA is wakan because nothing that bureaucracy does is explainable, and that makes the people who think the word means holy and sacred pretty mad. Disrespectful. Sacrilegious even, if you can apply that word to a belief system that isn’t Christian. I believe the turkey was both holy and unexplainable. I’ve tried a thousand explanations over more than forty years for all the things that happened, and none of them make sense. I can’t prove anything. I only know what I saw, me, with my own two eyes. Once you’ve heard the story, you can believe it or not.

Continue reading “Off the Shelf: The Sacred White Turkey by Frances Washburn”

A recent article in Sampsonia Way Magazine recognizes the work of Sherrie Flick, author of Reconsidering Happiness, and poet Nancy Krygowski to keep literature alive in Pittsburgh.  The Gist Street Reading Series attracts large crowds and young writers to a comfortable, friendly environment.  Although she has been working to break the trend of declining readership since 2001, Flick still makes time for her own work.  Published last year, Reconsidering Happiness is the story of two very different women trying to avoid the beaten path.  A young Vivette answers the beckoning call of the Midwest and leaves her familiar life in … Continue reading Authors in the News

Ted Kooser, University of Nebraska Press author, Pulitzer prize-winner, and former U.S. poet laureate, has won the Hall-Kenyon Prize in American Poetry.  A recent article from Poets & Writers Magazine discusses why Kooser was chosen.  The award is named after poet Donald Hall, and the late poet Jane Kenyon.  The honor is awarded by the New Hampshire Writers’ Project and daily newspaper the Concord Monitor.  Kooser is the first recipient and will accept the award in October at the Concord City Auditorium.  Kooser’s most recent book of poetry is Valentines.  Beginning in 1986, Kooser wrote a poem for Valentine’s Day and … Continue reading Author Wins National Poetry Award