The Baghdad Blues by Sinan Antoon
Published by Harbor Mountain Press
“Baghdad Blues shares with war poetry, especially that of World War I, the sense of underlying shock and horror at the human cruelty and waste. But, Antoon’s poetry is more nightmarish. It starts with enormous schizophrenic intimations of a self caught between repression, fear, and resignation under a dictatorial role, to end up amid scenes of horror that have become the legacy of the 2003 invasion and occupation. Sinan Antoon’s Blues snatches its images from among metal, armor, deserted places, explosions, to build up an identity for an Iraqi soul in a world which is drifting fast into horror which Joseph Conrad-Kurtz’ cry cannot fathom or reach. As befitting the title, sound summons its power from everything in Iraq: from the dictatorial decrees and their demand for appreciative applause, to the air, sea, and land bombardments and explosions. The agonized soul has to cope up with these by its music, its beats of the heart as it perceives all from a hole somewhere, a hole that might offer a glimpse, perhaps of hope, that the poet calls Baghdad Blues.”
—Muhsin al-Musawi
Professor of Arabic Literature at Columbia University and Author of Arabic Poetry: Trajectories of Modernity and Tradition and Reading Iraq: Culture and Power in Conflict
Books :: Senior Citizens Writing
Senior Citizens Writing
A Workshop and Anthology, with an Introduction and Guide for Workshop Leaders
By W. Ross Winterowd
Published by Palor Press
From the publisher: “The number of seniors in our population is burgeoning and will continue to grow. Seniors are eager to tell their stories, explain their philosophies, create fictions, and vent their anger at the injustices they perceive in the nation and the world. In Senior Citizens Writing, renowned teacher and writer W. Ross Winterowd describes in his introduction how writing workshops for seniors not only provide an audience but also give them opportunities for the intellectual growth and engagement that everyone wants and needs.”
Books :: Steelforth For Beginners Series
“The For Beginners
Books :: Food Pets Die For
Description from the publisher: In this new and updated edition of Food Pets Die For, first published by NewSage Press in 1997, Ann Martin once again goes behind the scenes of the commercial pet food industry. She uncovers the unsavory ingredients that can legally be used by commercial pet food companies, including euthanized cats and dogs, diseased and contaminated meat, moldy grains, and rancid fat. She also documents the ongoing animal experimentation funded by many major pet food companies in the name of nutritious pet food.
Martin arms consumers with crucial information on how to read labels on pet food, and discern for themselves whether or not they want to feed their pets commercial food. Martin offers healthy alternatives for feeding animal companions with nutritious and easy-to-prepare recipes. For people who don’t have the time to cook, Martin provides information on several pet food companies that produce healthy, human-grade pet food. Martin builds a strong case for why our pets will live longer, healthier lives without commercial pet food.
Books :: Dafur Diaries
Darfur Diaries
Stories of Survival
Jen Marlowe, Aisha Bain and Adam Shapiro
Published by Nation Books
In November 2004, three independent filmmakers traveled to eastern Chad and crept across the border into Darfur. Improvising as they went, they spoke with dozens of Darfurians, learning about their history, hopes, and fears, and the resilience and tragedy of their everyday lives.
In February of 2003 following years of oppression, the Sudan Liberation Army in Darfur took up arms against the Sudanese government. The response to the rebellion was a brutal campaign by the government and allied militias of mass murder, rape and the wholesale destruction of villages and livelihood. Millions of people were displaced, and hundreds of thousands killed.
This book introduces us to those who remain: the refugees and displaced people, civilians and fighters resisting the Sudanese government, teachers, students, parents, children and community leaders, whose collective testimonies provide the heart of Darfur Diaries. Their stories, interwoven with the filmmakers’ own personal narratives and conveyed with political and historical context, provide a much-needed account to help understand the tragic situation in Darfur.
Submissions :: Maya Angelou Reference Book
Facts On File, a New York publisher of reference books for schools and libraries, is seeking a scholar to write a one-volume reference book on Maya Angelou, focusing on critical analysis of her works. The ideal author will have a Ph.D., broad knowledge of Angelou’s life and works, and an ability to write clearly and succinctly for students in both high school and college. This large project (250,000-300,000 words) must be completed within two years. Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines will be required. If interested please send letter and cv, preferably by e-mail, to Jeff Soloway, Executive Editor Facts on File, Inc., [email protected].
E-Books :: Snow Monkey
When the editors of Snow Monkey “feel a need to concentrate on a certain something, they produce an eBook”; in collaboration with Ravenna Press, the following are available via Adobe Reader download and are (as far as I can tell) chapbook-size collections of poetry: Music Volleys Through; Gustatory in Nature; To the Music of Mid-November Rain & Snow.
To download and view, visit Snow Monkey: An Eclectic Journal
Writers Revealed
Join host Felicia Sullivan (editor and publisher of Small Spiral Notebook) each week in a new kind of Sunday Book Review. Participate in live discussions, book giveaways, and opportunities to get between the sheets with some of today’s most buzzworthy writers. Writers Revealed is not about name-dropping obscure authors and talking about the “process” of writing – this show is all about the hilarious and heartbreaking stories you can relate to. Archives available on podcast.
Coming up:
Sunday, July 8 – I Love You, Let’s Meet
@7PM EST / 4PM PST
Virginia Vitzthum
Sunday, July 15 – Ace of Spades
@7PM EST / 4PM PST
David Matthews
Oh poop…
Poop Culture
How America Is Shaped by Its Grossest National Product
By Dave Praeger
Foreword by Paul Provenza, director of The Aristocrats
Published by Feral House “This book is not a history of poop, but a study of today. Its goal is to understand how poop affects us, how we view it, and why; to appreciate its impact from the moment it slides out of our anal sphincters to the moment it enters the sewage treatment plant; to explore how we’ve arrived at this strange discomfort and confusion about a natural product of our bodies; to see how this contradiction-the natural as unnatural-shapes our minds, relationships, environment, culture, economics, media, and art.”
Adopt a Tibetan Book
Dharma Publishing sponsors “Adopt a Tibetan Book program to fund the restoration of sacred Tibetan Buddhist texts and art. Annually, at the World Peace Ceremony in Bodh Gaya, India, the books and art are freely distributed to over eight thousand lamas, monks, nuns and lay people and also to over 3300 monasteries and educational institutions. The primary purpose is to rebuild libraries of the educational institutions of the Tibetan refugees in exile in India, Nepal, Bhutan.” The goal is to help reestablish these libraries in Tibet. [more information]
Books :: Jia by Hyejin Kim
Jia
by Hyejin Kim
“Based on true events, Jia is the first novel about present-day North Korea to appear in English. All but closed to outside visitors, North Korea is among the most opaque nations on earth. While most readers know only the bleak outlines of its politics and history, Hyejin Kim illuminates Korea from within.”
From MIDNIGHT EDITIONS, an imprint of CLEIS PRESS.
Special Poetry Offer
From April 1 until June 30, 2007, a list of Godine and Black Sparrow poetry titles will be available at up to 75% off the retail price. Great deal for poetry addicts. Visit Black Sparrow Press.
New & Forthcoming from Anhinga Press
My Last Door by Wendy Bishop (2007)
Yellow Jackets by Patti White (2007)
The View from Zero Bridge by Lynn Aarti Chandhok, winner of the Levine Prize in Poetry (2007)
All you have to do is ask by Meredith Walters, winner of the Anhinga Prize for Poetry (2006)
Visit Anhinga Press for more on their publications.
What the LitBlog crew will be reading…
The LitBlog Co-op announces Spring 2007 Read This! selection.
Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead is a collection of short stories that combines the fantastic with the prosaic. A woman walks into a Quik-Mart and winds up on a hillside, surrounded by swords and scimitars. A tedious post-college job isn’t quite as boring as it seems. And girls and boys flirt and touch and fly off buildings and escape Byzantine soldiers and pirouette and fall. Each time I thought I had these stories figured, they came around a corner to surprise me anew.
Bookstores :: Bookmarks Bookshop
I guess the struggle of independent bookstores is very much the same no matter which side of the pond they are on.
Bookmarks bookshop battles the giants with solidarity appeal.
“Independent bookstores in central London are being hit by two things – the property boom that is driving up rents, and developments in the book trade aimed at chasing profits,” says Mark Thomas, manager of Bookmarks.
This situation was highlighted last week by the announcement that Gay’s The Word, Britain’s last surviving specialist lesbian and gay bookshop, faces closure unless it raises enough cash to pay its soaring rent bill.
High streets across Britain are becoming more homogenous, says Mark, with ever larger retail chains dominating the market and driving out smaller independent competitors.”
Publishing
Holy Cow! It’s 30 years old! “If you had to name the home of the oldest literary presses in Minnesota, you’d probably say the Twin Cities. But to be correct, you’d also have to mention Duluth. It’s home to Holy Cow! Press, which is celebrating its third decade.”
Books :: LibriVox
LibriVox free audio books from LibrarianActivist.org: “LibriVox is a volunteer project with the goal of making pubilc domain works available as audio books. There’s a plethora of goodies here for bibliophiles. Not only is the available of classic works a beautiful thing, but access to audio books is a boon to those who benefit from having access to books through alternative mediums … coming to mind: people who self-identify as LD, ADHD, or visually impaired…”
Book Review
Poets in full bloom. Leslie Adrienne Miller, Deborah Keenan and Diane Glancy — longtime Minnesota English professors — are at the height of their poetic powers in these three new collections. Reviews by Andrea Hoag, Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Poetry
The Spring 2007 Book Sense Picks Poetry Top Ten. “The list features a notable selection, including titles from a former U.S. poet laureate, a Nobel Prize winner, a Yale Series of Younger Poets winner, and comprehensive collections of two contemporary masters. The Poetry Top Ten is the result of strong support from booksellers, reflecting a deep level of knowledge and commitment.”
Two Lines Journal Crosses the Line
Two Lines: World Writing in Translation, part of the Center for the Art of Translation in San Francisco, CA, has published English translations of fiction and poetry from more than 50 languages for over a decade. Now, thanks to partnership with the University of Washington Press, this former journal has shed its ISSN to become a full-fledged ISBN’d book. “Better for distribution and sales,” says Promita Chatterji, Two Lines Marketing Administrator, and better as well as for the continued excessive content that burst the seams of the lit journal boundaries. (“Really, it’s a journal,” they would say, hefting it two-handed off the table at AWP to suspicious readers.) Our best to Two Lines on their new venture; we’ll miss them on the NewPages lit mag list.