The lure of the Red King

Art by Kim Vanderheiden.

Here is just one of twelve works
made by artist Kim Vanderheiden
in response to a single poem from The Book of the Red King. 
Am I astonished? Yes, I am astonished.
Where possible, readings
will be accompanied by images of art-in-response 
by Kim, Clive Hicks-Jenkins (my longtime book-illuminator),
and Mary Boxley Bullington.
What a deeply touching thing to have serious artists 
surprise me with wonderful pictures
before the book even appears
from Phoenicia Publishing of Montreal,
under the guidance of Elizabeth Adams,
publisher of beautiful books.
What a marvelous
and joyful 
and entirely unexpected
gift.

The Red King approaches.
The Fool is singing on his journey.
And Precious Wentletrap is wandering the moon path.

Pub date comes near! 
TBA

Red King has a Heffalump, it seems...

Pub date TBA soon... 

HEFFALUMP! 

Here's one of the interior images for my The Book of the Red King poetry collection, one recently shared in The Rollipoke along with a cockatrice (!) and some poems about the Fool and the Red King... Interior and exterior art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Phoenicia Publishing

CC: twitter, facebook

The Buddha, wondering...

Order by March 20 for a discounted price--
one for yourself, some for friends!
http://www.phoeniciapublishing.com/the-buddha-wonders.html

92 pgs, 6" x 9", paperback, 

publication date March 18, 2018

 Preorder price $13.50 US (reg $14.95)

Phoenicia Publishing (Montreal) has announced the forthcoming publication of Luisa Igloria's next book. I'm glad the news is out and, as I feel warmly toward both the publisher, Elizabeth Adams, and the poet herself, I am doing my little bit toward letting the world know.

Many of the 53 Buddha poems have appeared in initial form at Dave Bonta's Via Negativa site; the versions below are from that site. The book is her second with Phoenicia, and follows her 2014 publications, Night Willow (Phoenicia) and Ode to the Heart Smaller Than a Pencil Eraser, chosen by Mark Doty for the 2014 May Swenson Prize (Utah State University Press.)

While you're at Phoenicia (go!), sign up for the Phoenicia newsletter and take a look at the catalogue, the related art prints, and music. The publisher: "Please Sign Up  to receive news and exclusive special offers, 4-6  times per year, via email. In March, two subscribers will win a free copy of "The Buddha Wonders..." in a random drawing among our mailing list members."

The Buddha fills in job applications

Luisa A. Igloria March 28, 2014 

Almond the shape of my eyes; lotus

the width of my hips or the soft

inscrutability of a half-smile.

Virtue the act of sitting still,

going nowhere, being a stick-in-

the-mud. Or being pliable: sucking

the tummy in, filling it out with breath

or bread. Give me the bread, the bowl

of milk, honey from the hive, water

from the well, wine from the skin

that loosens all tongues and turns

every fool into a resident sage.

The Buddha listens

Luisa A. Igloria March 24, 2014

in the kitchen to a classical program

on the radio, one evening while cold rain pelts

the window before turning into pellets of ice—

And he thinks Mendelssohn’s Octet in E flat

Major, Op. 20 is the perfect soundtrack for this

moment— the violins and their upbow so quickly

spanning and gathering a range of feeling

he did not know still simmered under his skin.

Where did they come from: that flare of resentment,

that thorn of anger, the ache of loneliness

from a love he yearned for but could not have?

How is it possible to cultivate detachment

at the same time that one practices compassion?

He rinses his cup and saucer and sets them

on the rack to dry, his fingers lingering

in midair as if to trace the notes

that exit in the scherzo.

Dear Naga Buddha,

Luisa A. Igloria November 10, 2012 

how still, how still you sit

beneath the ticking of the seven-

headed tree; it’s hard to understand,

but just like ours, those tongues

have foraged along the ground

for leftovers, for milky drops

of immortality. O careless and

forgetful gods, you’ve crowned us

with accidents, spiked our appetites,

littered the way with detours

and false starts. No warnings issued

about sharp blades of grass that split

the ligaments in the mouth: and thus,

in dreams, the restless body turns

and hisses, even in brief repose.

Part for the whole

Luisa A. Igloria September 24, 2016 

For my birthday, my friend gave me

the stone head of a Buddha

brought back from her travels

to Nepal and India. My first,

she said, wrapping it in yards

of bubble wrap then hefting all

25 pounds of it into a box.

At home, I found a place for it

in one corner of the deck, next to

the patio set and green canvas umbrella.

Setting shallow terracotta pots of herbs

around it, I wondered where it once held

court: if it sat in a bamboo grove or nameless

village temple, its carved fingers curled,

touching. Its eyes don’t give anything away.

It doesn’t say what blasted the rest

of its anatomy, what saved it from complete

ruin in order for the soft bloom of green

to spread like the shadow of a milkweed

butterfly across the high cheekbones.

Luisa Igloria

bethadams.ca

Whelk by Elizabeth Adams. 12" x 10", $150

Elizabeth Adams has a newish art site with portfolio of drawings, watercolors, pastels, oils, acrylics, prints, and drawings. Still life, landscape (Iceland, Vermont, Quebec, New Zealand), and figurative work... Much of the work is for sale, and at reasonable prices. You can also check out her small, lovely publishing company, Phoenicia, and her blog journal, The Cassandra Pages.

Skorradalur, Iceland. Pastel, 63 x 21 cm, 2014.
(Private Collection, Iceland.)

Green Almonds. Watercolor, 4" x 4", 2017. $100.

Phoenicia Publishing holiday newsletter and sale

Beautiful December newsletter--take a look and think about supporting a fine small press founded by Beth Adams. Small publishers need your love, your encouragement, and your financial support (that's a vote in favor of continued life for a small press) to do what they are doing. One-week holiday sale. I've pilfered a copy for anyone who might not be lucky enough to find one in their email or see a share on facebook or twitter. You can also see the original via MailChimp.

GIFTS FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST! Here are a few suggestions of special books for holiday gift-giving -- or for yourself! Several are on sale for just one week, direct orders only. We also hope you'll visit our full catalogue this season, and give a gift that supports writers, artists, and independent publishing. Thank you so much for your interest and your purchases during past years! "A nature poet in the great American tradition...and more than that."  -- Ama Bolton Need a perfect Christmas present, for just $12.00? Dave Bonta's Ice Mountain: An Elegy, was one of three fiction/poetry finalists for the 2017 Banff Mountain Book Awards, and it's receiving glowing reviews from a wide variety of readers. On sale for the coming week, it's also a beautiful book, with illustrations any nature and art lover will enjoy -- some of which are available as original linocut prints, for a very affordable price. Last December, I gave a copy of Thaliad to a friend. She ended up buying twelve more copies as gifts, and exclaimed over what an extraordinary work it is; she loved the overall design, the artwork by Clive Hicks-Jenkins, and most especially the story Marly Youmans tells in the form of an epic poem-novel for our time. Beautiful books with carefully wrought words and a timeless message are still sought out, because they are books that will last. Thaliad, a consistent Phoenicia bestseller, is available in both hardcover (on sale now) and paperback editions. "Women rabbis have created poems that see God in a whole series of bold new images that we were not accustomed to seeing before." -- Rabbi Jack Riemer "She is as young as our century and as old as Judaism." -- Gordon Atkinson Jewish and Christian readers alike will appreciate the fresh insights and female perspective on the first five books of the Bible in acclaimed writer and rabbi Rachel Barenblat's 70 Faces: Torah Poems, Phoenicia's all-time bestselling book. Limited Quantity! We're down to our last few copies of Annunciation, so please order early at a special sale price! This book of poetic responses by 16 interfaith and secular poets to the story of Mary has received wide acclaim for its broadly envisioned, thought-provoking words; beautiful design; and many linocut illustrations. It's a lovely and appropriate Christmas gift, and comes in an 8" x 10" softcover format. Several of the illustrations are also available as original linocut prints in our art shop. View Full Catalogue We'll be back in early 2018 with exciting news about Phoenicia's upcoming titles. But right now, we wish you a peaceful and joyful holiday season, and thank you once again for your support of independent publishing and the authors, artists and musicians we publish. Elizabeth Adams, publisher

Postscript to "Precipitous slippage"

Illumination by Clive Hicks-Jenkins
 for Thaliad

I've really enjoyed the comments here and on Facebook about my "Precipitous slippage" post--the fun including meeting a poet I like and learning a lot more about other writer friends as well. And now look at this fine news about Thaliad, along with a wonderful, hopeful message about poetry from Phoenicia Publishing editor Beth Adams. Breaking the 400-mark was an initial dream goal for me, though it's often impossible for a poetry book. Truth to tell, I wasn't sure anyone would buy a wild, post-apocalyptic, book-length adventure in blank verse! So now I'm dreaming about 500, 600, more....

Beth Adams
Just for the record, sales of Thaliad are well over 400 copies - 425, in fact - and it continues to sell; it was the best seller at Phoenicia among our pre-2016 titles last year. This says to me that formalist poetry has lasting power in our time, and also it is well worthwhile to produce such books as the most beautifully designed and illustrated editions we can while making them affordable for ordinary readers.

Just before Christmas, I gave a copy to a friend who I thought might appreciate it. She ended up buying twelve copies to give to her own friends, and exclaimed over what an extraordinary work it is; she loved the edition and the artwork by Clive Hicks-Jenkins, but what struck her the most was the story Marly Youmans has told in the form of an epic poem for our time.

In other words, beautiful books with carefully wrought words and a timeless message are still sought out by certain readers, and we need to encourage their writing and making, because they will last.

Precipitous slippage

Once upon a time I was a new-made Associate Professor with tenure; my answer to that lovely promotion was to quit academia entirely because I wanted to be a poet and novelist, not an academic poet and novelist. I felt that I would be a stronger, better writer outside the land of ivory towers. What I did not grasp at the time was how completely the academy would take over the world of writing, particularly the realm of poetry, and make it into a near-monolithic enterprise. (Simultaneously, both poetry and literary fiction began to move toward being minor arts--well, poetry was already on the way.) This change has meant that academic writers support one another and give one another various helpful privileges.

Those of us outside the academy are somewhat in the cold, particularly if--as I do--the writer believes that the diminishing returns of Modernism are upon us, and that the way forward is back through tradition and form. Free verse and an obsession with originality (I don't see how that works, given that we're more than a century past modernism's birth--Modernism hasn't been modern for a long time) have become a kind of ideology in our university system. A large number of journals are associated with colleges or are founded by MFA graduates. Most of these are primarily interested in free verse. Meanwhile, I am not primarily interested in free verse, although I do have a recently-finished collection containing poems that derive from a foreign chant tradition that looks free but contains many rhetorical flourishes allied to that tradition.

Do I regret my decision about leaving the academy? No, I don't. I am a better writer because of that choice, and I also had the luxury of having three children, which I probably could not have managed if I had stayed in college settings as a writer and teacher. I find that it is hard to do three major things well, but two--well, you can give up a lot of things that are enjoyable but not essential and so make two big callings work.

I still have a few writer friends who are in the academy and make their living there; I think it's fine that they made the choice to stay in. Most people who gain a perch there do, after all. I just think that I made the right choice for me. What else can we do but try to make right choices? I admire people like poet-professor-mother Luisa Igloria who grasp after mastery in three realms. The late Doris Betts (professor, dean, writer, mother) comes to mind among novelists.

We live in a time when very few poetry books sell in reasonable numbers. I've talked to various editors about sales and found that some poetry books don't break the 50-mark. That's pretty sad, isn't it? I hear that Copper Canyon books sometimes make it to 600; those are the sorts of little numbers a poetry press depends on. (The funny thing about a poetry book is that it can become the sort of book that you return to again and again. So in that way it's a better bargain than most books.)

My picture of how my own poetry books are doing is a bit fuzzy. I know that Thaliad continues to trickle (or seep, maybe!) along in sales for Beth Adams's Phoenicia Publishing and is heading toward the 400-mark in combined paperback/hardcover. [Update: I was pleasantly wrong! 425 copies so far, as of January 19th.] The Foliate Head has sold out its first and second hardcover printings at UK's Stanza Press, though there are still a few copies available on line. I'm don't know the paperback or hardcover numbers at Mercer for The Throne of Psyche. Those are my three books that can be called "in print," though The Foliate Head is technically out of print.

Interior illustration by Clive Hicks-Jenkins
for The Foliate Head

If you care about poetry, please consider buying books. While I would like you to support mine, I tend to be pleased when I see anybody buy a good poetry book. And I always remember the quote taped up on the poetry shelves at the Bull's Head Bookshop (UNC-Chapel Hill shop, now defunct) run by novelist Erica Eisdorfer: People who say they love poetry and never buy any are cheap sons of bitches. --Kenneth Rexroth. It's not polite, but it gets at something. I just looked it up online and found a different version that says, I’ve had it with these cheap sons of bitches who claim they love poetry but never buy a book. Maybe both are right, as Rexroth didn't hold back and may have been muttering variations on the theme for years!

Yes, poetry is rapidly losing its status. Yes, what was once an important art is now a minor one and in danger of going the way of lacemaking. Times change. Television and internet make inroads; well, that's just how it is, we say. What we add to culture changes culture.

But if you care about poetry, do more. In fact, all of us need to support what we love in a time when what is seen and praised and supported is heavily-marketed, commercially-validated books, film, visual arts, etc. And we need to remind ourselves over and over again that we can choose. We can choose roads less taken. It will make all the difference.

Elizabeth Adams on printmaking and more

Pulling a print for the Annunciation anthology

Elizabeth Adams, artist, writer, designer, singer, publisher at Phoenicia Publishing in Montreal: what an interesting woman she is! Here's an interesting, down-to-earth interview with her on the subject of printmaking and making art over time:

  Part 1 

  Part 2 

and

  Beth's Etsy shop with prints and more 

and

Phoenicia Publishing, including an art prints page

She is not yet old enough to include in the posts on "elder artists," but here's a great quote from her that applies to the topic of making art and growing older:

Printmaking always carries technical challenges, and I continue to improve my skills and experiment with new materials and techniques. There's no substitute for experience. In all of the arts, we face the challenge of not becoming discouraged, and the risk of "failure," whatever that means to each of us. We need to continually push ourselves in new directions, and not get stuck in repetition. I'm happiest when I am learning new things and pushing myself, so I try to remember that. I'm over 60 now so I've been at this a pretty long time, and hope to be a creative person until my last breath!

Beth is a great publisher / designer (my book with her press is the gorgeously-produced Thaliad with art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins) who is very particular about projects she takes on--that they "fit" her sensibility and vision for Phoenicia. She is also just a wonderful person to know.

Another one from Annunciation

Phoenicia, April sale, and Elizabeth Adams

Bookplates by Elizabeth Adams

Here's a little bit about Phoenicia Publishing and the current poetry-month sale, text drawn from The Cassandra Pages, the blog site of Elizabeth Adams.

All the full-length books are on sale, including Annunciation and How Many Roads?

Bookplates and prints are also for sale in the new Store on the website. Hope you'll take a look.

You know, I feel so fortunate to be able to work with the authors and artists whose work we have published. I wish I could bring out more books each year but it's just too difficult - this is basically a one person operation, with some generous help in certain areas from my partner, and it's time-consuming and costly, while being extremely rewarding from all other points of view. I know a lot of you have supported this endeavor over the years and this is a chance to say, again, thank you - both from me and from the authors themselves.

I love what Dave Bonta wrote on Facebook when he shared the announcement: "These are all good. Some are down-right great. (I know because I have read all of them.)" That's about the most straight-forward recommendation I can imagine!

Beth Adams is a stellar publisher with many talents, including wonderful design work, a thing often missing in new books. She works hard, and I'm hoping that word of mouth is kind to her press--if you're an admirer of Phoenicia, why not write some Amazon reviews, post about the press (feel free to copy anything in this post) and its books, or simply tell people you know? And of course, the purchase of a book sends a message to the publisher that says you support the kind of work she is doing and hope she will keep adding to the sum of what's worth cherishing in the world. Being a small-scale publisher is not easy, and I am glad that Beth continues to make beautiful books.

The new Phoenicia store has the book plates above, as well as some lovely prints from the Annunciation anthology. Take a look!

Why not sign up for the newsletter?

*

And see the complete catalogue of books and music here.

April sale. Books shown are the Annunciation anthology,
poetry by Rachel Barenblat, Claudia Serea, Luisa Igloria,
Magda Kapa, and me, and Jonathan Sa'adah's
photographs from the 60's and early 70's.

You may also visit Studio Cassandra at Etsy
to find Beth's watercolors, prints, pastels, and more.

Spring sale at Phoenicia

Now through April 15, with a special gift for the first five who order.
Phoenicia Publishing (Montreal)

"Mystery is in the morning, and mystery in the night,
and the beauty of mystery is everywhere." 

–Melville's The Confidence-Man, published today in 1857

Last weekend for pre-orders, Annunciation

Annunciation
Sixteen Contemporary Poets Consider Mary

Poetry by
Ivy Alvarez,  Rachel Barenblat, Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Kristin Berkey-Abbott, Chana Bloch, Leila Chatti, Luisa A. Igloria, Mohja Kahf, Vivian Lewin, Vinicius de Moraes (Natalie d'Arbeloff, trans.), Roderick Robinson, Nic Sebastian, Claudia Serea, Purvi Shah, Rosemary Starace, and Marly Youmans

Illustrated and Edited by 
Elizabeth Adams

"A beautiful book, gift, and gesture: with 64 pgs of poems by 16 accomplished poets of different cultural / religious / secular backgrounds, and 10% of your purchase going to refugee relief!" with http://www.phoeniciapublishing.com/annunciation.html

In-print roundup

Novel inspired by the life and times of pulp writer Robert E. Howard.
Jacket and interior art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins.
Design by Mary-Frances Glover Burt.
Mercer University Press, just out!
More here.
Amazon book info. Find an Indie.
...

"a strange and wonderful book" --editor John Wilson
...
"a haunting tale of dark obsessions and transcendent creative fire, 

rendered brilliantly in Youmans' richly poetic prose"  --Midori Snyder. Full review here. 

Dear friends and readers, I am taking a little break from the blog. I leave you with this list of my books in print. (Some of the earlier ones should be back in print soon.) Happy reading to you! Meet you here anon....

Novel. A failed painter chases her muse, and more.
ForeWord Indiefab finalist.
Jacket and interior art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins.
Design by Mary-Frances Glover Burt.
Mercer, 2014
More here.
Amazon. Find an Indie.
...

It’s brilliantly well-written, shockingly raw, and transportingly—sometimes confusingly (but not in a bad way)—weird.... It’s difficult to overstate the emotional effect that Glimmerglass has had on me. This is a beautiful, complex, moving book. Marly Youmans’s prose flows like clear water, and every image is, as Cynthia observes, “full of meaning” (p. 39). --Tom Atherton. Read the complete review here.
...
Nature, architecture, dread, thrill, sexual dilemma, and murder echo against Youmans’ gorgeous prose and terrifying romance, which glides like a serpent―without a single extraneous or boring word. Youmans is my favorite storyteller. I come back to her as if to a holy well. --poet Jeffery Beam

    

Novel. A Depression-era orphan, searching for light.
ForeWord BOTYA Silver Award & The Ferrol Sams Award.
Design by Mary-Frances Glover Burt.
Mercer, 2012.
More here.
Amazon. Find an Indie.
...
...Its themes and the power of its language, the forceful flow of its storyline and its characters have earned the right to a broad national audience. --John M. Formy-Duval About.com full review here.
...
Every page in this book resonates with beautifully crafted language, a "universal melody that sings of deep loss and conciliation," and a moving story of a young boy, who after the death of his beloved younger brother, takes to the rails in Depression-era America. I agree with one reviewer that said this is destined to be an American classic. --Nancy Olsen, Publishers Weekly Bookseller of the Year

Long post-apocalyptic poem with epic, adventure, and novelistic tendencies.
HC Jacket / pb cover and interior art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins.
Design by Elizabeth Adams.
Montreal: Phoenicia Publishing, 2012
Note: The hardcover is available via Phoenicia only.
Paperback via the usual suspects!
More here.
Amazon. Find an Indie.
...
...It's a high water-mark of what's possible... It's old school book-crafter perfect. With that book you leapt from being one of my favorite writers to a game-changer. The literary sphere will have to catch up to what I and others have already seen--but there is no doubt it is a remarkable achievement. --James Artimus Owen
...
This is a beautiful and powerful book--worth owning, worth reading and rereading. I am so glad that it exists in the world and that I can turn to it, time and again, glorying in the language and the hope. --Rachel Barenblat, "Marly Youmans' Thaliad," from Velveteen Rabbi

And a collection of poems, some very green!
Now in second printing.
Art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins.
Design by Andrew Wakelin.
UK: Stanza Press, 2012.
More here. 
Amazon. Find an Indie.
...
Ben Steelman, The Star News (Wilmington, NC) 9 November 2014
I have been meaning to write for years about “The Foliate Head,” her 2012 poem cycle 
about the Green Man, published in Britain by Stanza Press, which must rank as 
one of the most beautiful books of the 21st century. Notable are the illustrations 
and illuminations by the Welsh artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins.

Another collection of poems, The Throne of Psychewith hc jacket / pb cover art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins
and immaculate design work by Mary-Frances Glover Burt.
Mercer, 2011.
More here.
Amazon. Find an Indie.
...
...Youmans is a traditionalist in her use of forms, and her work will delight those who enjoy classical poetry with direction and structure, yet her strong and inventive metaphors and similes evoke an otherness that only Coleridge attained....wholly beautiful and brilliant. Youmans is a writer of rare ability whose works will one day be studied by serious students of poetry. Greg Langley, Books editor,The Baton Rouge Advocate, October 2, 2011