From Phoenicia Publishing:In honor of National Poetry Month, we've put ALL our poetry titles on sale at 20% off. The sale applies only to orders placed directly through our online store (no Amazon orders, sorry); at check-out, please enter code Q6C5Z6HY and the discount will be applied. Thanks for your support of poetry, poets, and independent publishing!
Phoenicia catalogue here, including poetry by Rachel Barenblat, Dave Bonta, Dick Jones, Ren Powell, etc.
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Thaliad in Favorite Books of 2012, Books and Culture
In THALIAD, Marly Youmans has written a powerful and beautiful saga of seven children who escape a fiery apocalypse----though "written" is hardly the word to use, as this extraordinary account seems rather "channeled" or dreamed or imparted in a vision, told in heroic poetry of the highest calibre. Amazing, mesmerizing, filled with pithy wisdom, THALIAD is a work of genius which also seems particularly relevant to our own time. --novelist Lee Smith
For more comments, review clips, etc., go here.
Feel free to answer R. T.'s questions in the comments while I go to fetch-and-ferry a child... Back later with thoughts!
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ReplyDeleteCORRECTED COPY:
ReplyDeleteI do not mean to sound foolish -- though that is often what happens when I offer comments -- but I wonder about the audience for poetry versus the creators of poetry. In other words, engaging in a bit of hyperbole, I ask the question this way: Are there now more poets than readers? And here is another question: How do poets deal with that possible reality? And, finally, here is a third question: What are the best ways to reach new readers of poetry (if that is even possible in our 140-character Twitter world)?
I never think you are foolish, Tim! Shall answer this later--must run pick up a child, like any other mother...
DeleteYou know, those are such big questions... maybe I'll do a blog post for your answer!
DeleteRT: those are good questions, not foolish at all! As a poetry publisher, editor, and sometime-writer, but most of all "reader," I can tell you that I became a poetry-lover because people in my family loved poetry, and teachers I respected loved poetry, and they made me see what poets are doing when they write. Without that, I think it's terribly hard to make new readers of poetry. Passion tends to be infectious, but in today's anti-intellectual climate, this is a harder task than ever for many of the fine and expressive arts.
DeleteAnd yes, there are a lot of poets, and many of them are ambitious for their own work but less supportive of their fellow poets - unlike Marly! We're all in this together, and need to support one another, because frankly the Audience is Mainly Us.
" . . . frankly the Audience is Mainly Us."
DeleteThat answer does not surprise me.
In academia, by comparison, writers of articles in academic journals are read only by other writers of articles in academic journals. That strange variety of incest is both troublesome and funny. Perhaps poets are not quite so "incestuous" . . . which means perhaps other audiences really do (and or will) exist.
And here is another provocative assertion: Poetry may have begun its removal into cultural irrelevance at the end of the Renaissance and at the beginning of the rise of prose fiction (novels and short stories).
ReplyDeleteDo I get to ignore that if it is not a question? More anon!
DeleteOh, yes, please ignore any of my comments that have earned that reaction. I will not feel at all diminished. As I said at the outset, I may sound foolish in my comments. And you know what you should feel free to do about fools . . . "suffer fools gladly" . . .
ReplyDeleteR. T., stop! I'm trying to decide whether you are tongue in cheek or have the blues... (Either way, be of good cheer.)
DeleteEither way, thank you.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am of good cheer! I am calculating end-of-term grades for my students today, so I can "enjoy" that process. Oh, happy, happy soon-to-be-retired cheerful me! (Ouch! I think I just bit my tongue.)
ReplyDeleteWell, I grieve for that, and for adjuncts everywhere! Good cheer despite all is a tough proposition.
DeleteAnd I shall start answering your questions soon!
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