Friday, March 28, 2014

Corbett, "Credo for the Checkout Line in Winter"

Maryann Corbett, Credo for the Checkout Line in Winter
Able Muse Press, 102 pp.

Maryann Corbett’s second full-length collection, Credo for the Checkout Line in Winter, draws on profound experience of deep winter in the lived environment, while keeping alive faith that the thaw will come and bring with it the bloom of “uncountable rows of petals.” The themes of this finalist for the 2011 Able Muse Book Award range from the quotidian to the metaphysical. Corbett’s keen eye brings to focus uncommon detail. Her masterful technical repertoire spans received forms, metrical inventiveness, and free verse. This is poetry that amply rewards the reader with its boundless imagination, insight and visionary delight.

Poems from Credo for the Checkout Line in Winter have been featured on Verse Daily, American Life in Poetry, and at The Poetry Foundation website.

Praise for Credo for the Checkout Line in Winter:

“What makes Maryann Corbett such a rare, excellent writer must be her talent for weaving together various artistic impulses, so that her poems often sound both traditional and brand new, both humorous and serious, both worldly-wise and, as John Keats once put it, “capable of being in uncertainties.” [She] remains a poet of the first order, and her poems are cause for gratitude, and deep enjoyment.”
—Peter Campion (from the foreword)

“...full of real gems!”
—Gail White

“Corbett is as comfortable and affecting within the tight confines of the Old English alliterative meter (“Cold Case”) and the Sapphic stanza (“Paint Store”) as she is with her supple blank verse and terza rima. Yet never does her rigorous craft interfere with the thoughtful, insightful content of these poems. A stunning collection, from one of America’s most gifted contemporary poets.”
—Marilyn L. Taylor

“I am mightily impressed by the perfect imagery of the title poem, the just-right form of the moving “Ballade for the Last Move,” and much more.”
—Jean Kreiling

“Sharply visual, skillfully and cleverly crafted, her poems draw out essences, ‘concentrated’ and persisting. ‘Beauty changes us,/ calling up wonder from our deepest selves/ to its right place.’”
—Catharine Savage Brosman

“These masterful poems announce themselves as winter pieces, and indeed they are so full of sleet and snow that readers may wish to dress warmly. But Corbett’s winter, a season when “dull forms come in the mail” and we eat “tasteless, stone-hard, gassed tomatoes,” is always lushly haunted by the other seasons, the way a house in one of her poems is fronted by a “three-season porch.” Corbett is one of the best-kept secrets of American poetry, and this is one of the best new collections I’ve read in years.”
—Geoffrey Brock

“...a newborn Robert Frost, with a wicked eye for contemporary life. Each poem surprises.”
—Willis Barnstone


About the author:

Maryann Corbett grew up in McLean, Virginia, and now lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and works for the Minnesota Legislature. Trained as a medievalist and linguist, she holds a doctorate in English from the University of Minnesota.

Her poems, essays, and translations have appeared in Southwest Review, Barrow Street, Rattle, River StyxAtlanta Review, The Evansville Review, Measure, Literary Imagination, The Dark Horse, Mezzo Cammin, Linebreak, Subtropics, Verse Daily, American Life in Poetry, The Poetry Foundation, and many other venues in print and online, as well as the anthologies Hot Sonnets, The Able Muse Anthology, The Best of The Barefoot Muse, Forgetting Home: Poems About Alzheimer's, Ekphrastia Gone Wild, Imago Dei: Poems from Christianity and Literature, and Obsession: Sestinas in the Twenty-First Century.

Her books are Breath Control (David Robert Books), Credo for the Checkout Line in Winter, a finalist for the Able Muse Book Prize, and Mid Evil, winner of the Richard Wilbur Award for 2014, forthcoming from the Evansville Press.

Credo for the Checkout Line in Winter is available from the publisher or from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Credo-Checkout-Line-Winter-Poems/dp/1927409144

Bailey, new edition of "The Astrologer"

A new edition from MDA Books.

Please see the original post about Scott Bailey's The Astrologer here.

And there's a new review by critic David Myers here: "Despite its historical setting, The Astrologer is not really a historical novel at all. It is a self-concealing but ambitious attempt to resuscitate the revenge tragedy. The delight of reading it lies in the discovery and tracing of Bailey’s scheme." While you're there, take a look around the blog. D. G. Myers is well worth reading.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Gary Dietz, "Dads of Disability"


"I am humbled by the honesty, strength, love, and perseverance shared by these dads of disability. I believe this book will help new dads understand they are not alone and dads like me realize they never were."
       --Edwin L. Thompson
"If you were in the least inspired, as I was, by how the writer Christy Brown lived his life, then this book offers that inspiration to the nth. But read with a box of tissues handy and be prepared to have your socks blown off. Wow!"
       --Sam Smith
"Dads of Disability is direct and insightful and a valuable resource, not only for fathers, but for mothers, extended family, and health care professionals alike."
       --Patti Chadwick
* * * 
"I applaud Gary Dietz and the other contributors for telling it like it is, honestly and without apology... The essays and poems included in this book will allow you to see not only the children but also the parents with a clarity that defies expectations. 
       --from the introduction by MaryAnn Campion, founder and director of the M.S. program in Genetic Counseling at the Boston University School of Medicine
PRINT EDITION LAUNCH DAY: APRIL 15th 
Please hit the like button on facebook and see what Gary is doing 

Dads of Disability is a collection of 41 essays and poems rich in context and imagery that illustrate a father's perception of and reaction to being a father of a child that experiences disability. From before and through birth, to diagnosis, to the workplace, to serious medical or behavioral issues, to father's support circles, and much more, including aging and death are explored by the fathers themselves as well as the mothers and children in their lives. Each entry focuses on male and fatherhood themes.

This is not a 'how-to' book or a book of '5-ways to do this' or '10-ways to do that.' Rather, this collection uses a storytelling approach to illuminate the emotional lives of these fathers. Dads of Disability will begin or extend the conversation between and amongst fathers, mothers, extended families, care circles, and individuals with disabilities themselves. 

This book is for fathers and mothers. For friends and support circles. For care professionals. For teachers. For friends  trying to understand their neighbor's challenges. For anyone interested in the variety of the emotional lives of fathers whose children experience a disability.

Regardless of the age of the father, the child's challenge, or even the gender of the essayist (remember, they are not all men!), Dads of Disability strives to paint pictures of a variety of different men who have one thing in common--they deeply love a child who experiences a disability. 

Topics of essays and poems include:
- A woman who chooses to live with her ex-husband to enable her children's father to continue to be in their life on a regular basis.
- On his way back from an airplane lavatory, a man gets into an interesting discussion with a flight attendant about fatherhood.
- A husband's rising in the middle of the night is finally understood and accepted by his dedicated and supportive wife.


Paperback, just out:

Also special order at Indie bookstores
  ISBN-13: 978-0615971865 (garymdietz)
  ISBN-10: 0615971865




Saturday, March 8, 2014

Vandermeer's list

                                                           Dear readers,

Here's a list Jeff Vandermeer posted on Ecstatic Days; I've simplified it to fit any book, though you should go by and see his new books from FSG Originals as well. Jeff is one of those writers who is good at all the things writers have to do these days, including marketing.

         Love,
         Lady Word of Mouth
    
How You Can Help! 

—Buy the book now.
–Buy the book during release week. Barnes and Noble. Indiebound. Powell's Books. Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.uk. Indigo Chapters (Canada). Etc.
—Review the book. Blog, review site, or on social media. Any mention, especially noting whatever you really liked about the book, helps immensely.
—Review it on Amazon. Go to the Amazon sales page for the book and tell other readers what you liked about it. A quick and easy way to help get the word out and create interest.
—Make sure local booksellers carry it.
—Request it from your local library. 
—Spread the word through twitter and facebook. Tell people about the book through social media, using your favorite link about the book.