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In the bone-dry land of mesquites and drought, Janice Whittington has found images that allow her to explore woman's place in West Texas and the world from the perspectives of daughter, wife, friend, and mother. Filled with fear and fire, joy and sorrow, dust and water; the poems risk stepping into air, striving to glide like hawks on thermals. "Into a Thousand Mouths is the account of Eve after the fall, after she follows her husband out of the garden and of tilling yield.... It is the account of one woman, of all women--'that female secret of wombs, / the ache that folds into the chest / and stays, a wound / nursed into a jewel ('Daughters'). . . . "The connections between women and a need...
Harrison Michaels is the president of a large internation bank. Success and power came quickly to Harrison and he thrives on both. Married to the perfect wife, Harrison seems to have it all. Harrison's only concern is an investigation by the F.B.I. for alleged illegal money transfers of millions of dollars of corporate funds held by the bank. Even this does not bother Harrison much as he consider the F.B.I. only a mild irritant. Nor is Harrion bothered by the fact the corporate funds are owned by the mob. Harrison is in control and no one can touch him. Harrison's live takes a dramatic turn during a "business" trip to the Cayman Islands when he is notified that his wife has died. Her death, ...
Texas Poet Laureate Walt McDonald has published more than eighteen volumes of poetry. A poet of the landscape, of war and flying, of people just working hard, McDonald is master of the vital image and sound. And his work invites others to define the elements that delight and fascinate. Each contributor herein has made his own trek to McDonald's harsh landscapes of arroyos and hardscrabble, his skies filled with joy and terrors, those night sweats of pilots. Here, in the territory Walt McDonald has claimed, these writers have found gold. Book jacket.
Dave Oliphant is widely considered the finest poetry critic ever produced by Texas. This volume brings together some 40 years of essays, articles, and reviews on the topic of Texas poetry -- its history as well as addressing individual poets and their books. Only one other book in the last two decades addressed the topic, and GENERATIONS OF TEXAS POETS is larger, more comprehensive, and of superior literary quality. In 1971, Larry McMurtry famously descried the lack of good Texas poetry; Oliphant has spent a lifetime nurturing it, publishing it, and has become its best critic.
This acclaimed study of Donne's secular and religious poetry places it in the context of 17th century theories of representation and reception, and sheds new light on the poetics of the period.
Haven't we all been told how beauty is thin as truth? And don't we believe and disbelieve this "lie we'd carve and starve for. / We'd suck it till the juice ran down our arms"? Skin compels us, repels us. Beauty may be only skin deep, a fine covering--sensuous, at times translucent, almost transparent, and yet so obdurate. Skin insulates, guarding its vital organs just beneath this surface that teases us to peek, to try to penetrate. We call this desire by many names, the best of which is love. April Lindner's sensuously orchestrated collection of poems conveys the beauty and truth of love, how we know it to be paradoxical, obsessive, fearful, rapacious, holy.--Robert FinkFontanelHere's the ...
The twelfth volume of poems in the Walt McDonald First-Book Series, Gregory Fraser's Strange Pietà is a compelling exploration of illness and family life, memory and desire, friendship and loss. A major focus of the collection is the poet's relationship to his brother Jonathan, who was born with spina bifida, a disease that rendered him both physically and mentally disabled. In rich and often wrenching detail, Fraser describes the emotional turmoil, familiar dysfunction, and complex social responses arising from the birth of a handicapped child.The book examines cultural standards of normalcy, and uncovers those aspects of the self and others that are often considered freakish, unnatural, o...
"Focusing on transformations of love and self over time and in bereavement. White's subjects are autobiographical--love, marriage, the deaths of his father, mother, and, more centrally, his first wife. Questioning memory and self-deception, the poems employ language and metaphors drawn from ordinary life. Winner, Walt McDonald First-Book Competition 2007"--Provided by publisher.
The first major autobiography by a Texas poet, this noteworthy account traces the life and times of a poet, publisher, critic, and teacher from his childhood to the present day. This remarkable life is examined through the works it produced--25 books in the fields of poetry, fiction, translation, jazz history, and book reviewing. Proving that the literary and intellectual life in Texas far surpasses the state's stereotypes, this record shows how the poet was instrumental in connecting Texas with many Latin American writers as well as with a wide world of music.
National Book Award finalist Andrew Hudgins offers a meditation on humor, ruminating on the consolations and terrors, delights and discomforts of laughter.