WINTER JOURNEY by Tony Towle
"His style bears the hallmark of total engagement. The exciting pacing builds on unexpected projections that are sly, wry and winsome. And comely."—Brooklyn Rail
For full review:
http://brooklynrail.org/2008/02/books/poetry-roundup-2
Tony Towle in poetrydaily.com
http://poetrydaily.org/poem.php?date=13929
In Bloomsbury Review written by Regan Upshaw:
"...striking...poignant...His [Towle's] feelings are amplified in this book by the underlying awareness that his own journey is now entering winter. Through it all, Towle maintains a jaunty bleakness, as befits the recipient of 'an enriching barrage of astonishing perceptions/with which to illuminate the abyss'."
THE SPLINTERED FACE: TSUNAMI POEMS by Indran Amirtanayagam
"...Amirthanayagam's poems achieve a devastating intimacy that necessarily dissolves the separation between countries and peoples."
For full review go to: http://www.bookslut.com/poetry/2008_02_012487.php
"In more ways than one...'The Splintered Face' is revelatory."—Island Newspaper, Sri Lanka
"The sheer enormity of the destruction and misery wrought by an event such as the 2004 tsunami has the potential to overwhelm art created about it. A writer could flounder in emotionalism and generalizations, ironically blunting the emotional impact of the work. But Amirthanayagam avoids these pitfalls, largely by adopting a reportorial approach, and his poems are all the more poignant for their specificity."
For full review go to: http://www.iexaminer.org/archives/?p=962
TRAPEZE DIARIES by Marie Carter
“Marie Carter…has real talent…I think we all need to keep our eyes on this imaginative, bold woman’s writing. I predict she may well have a bright literary future.”
www.curledup.com
For the full review go to:
http://curledup.com/trapezed.htm
“A young woman, quiet and overly cautious, with a literary bent, who finds herself newly transplanted from Scotland to the Naked City of New York, comes to terms with herself and the recent death of her father….Her fears and doubts have been and are very much my own, and may I dare say, perhaps yours?…A wonderful read. Highly recommended.”
—Doug Holder
For full review go to:
http://dougholder.blogspot.com/search/label/Holder%20on%20Trapeze
"The Trapeze Diaries...is filled with honesty on every page...."
SPECTACLE, Winter 2008
Selected for the Foreword Magazine Book Club in April. Go to forewordmagazine.com to make a comment.
THE VIRGIN FORMICA by Sharon Memser
"During a recent visit to New York City a kind friend asked me if I had read any exciting works of poetry lately. Oh yes, I enthused, naming quite a few written by the West Coast-based poets I know best. She was astounded to hear that Sharon Mesmer's THE VIRGIN FORMICA had not made its way into my hands yet, and she rose from the Bowery bench on which we were eating lunch, to find a bookstore and to buy me a copy of the Mesmer book.
Together we found the book and on my way home I had myself a quick lesson in "Mesmerism." Part of her appeal is her wry, suggestive tone, an extraordinarily intimate instrument she handles with the precision of a surgeon.
A surrealist or at any rate fantastic element imbues the whole...her enthusiasm and her skeptic eye just sweep you off your feet. Anyway all in all, it was a highly profitable trip to New York."
Kevin Killian, excerpted review on amazon.com
Andrei Codrescu in EXQUISITE CORPSE
Sharon Mesmer, The Virgin Formica, New York: Hanging Loose Press. Allen Ginsberg called Mesmer "vivaciously modern," which we misread as "viciously modern." She is, totally. For instance: "Okay, I was loose/foundering even,/a drifting archipelago of estrogen and cigarettes/in the glow of the southern eroticc gardens." If we had only known her then!
P.J. Gallo on coldfrontmag.com
"...Mesmer's voice plainly offers a raw and often refreshing sense of uncompromised subversion along with moments of sweet nostalgia."
Full review: http://reviews.coldfrontmag.com/the-virgin-formica.html
"Prolific, Veteran, and multi-lingual poet Sharon Mesmer returns with another fine anthology of poetry with "The Virgin Formica," a collection of surreal and vividly composed poetry. Both personal and witty, her poetry is gripping and will keep you asking for more."--The Midwest Book Review
THE EVOLUTION OF A SIGH by R. Zamora Linmark
See http://www.bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/ for an interview with R. Zamora Linmark
LOBSTER WITH OL' DIRTY BASTARD by Michael Cirelli
"The poems in Lobster with Ol' Dirty Bastard stand powerfully on their own as precise and complete pieces of writing. As a collection, they weave a complex and fascinating story that is equal parts witty and poignant, and at every moment compelling."—Erica Miriam Fabri in Coldfrontmag
For full review go to: http://reviews.coldfrontmag.com/emlobster-with-ol-dirty-b.html
"Cirelli is on a gangsta lean in a baby Benz blasting old school, riding the seemingly safe daytime streets of craft-poetry, then turning down those dark alleys where the tension and bravado are thick like '...machetes in the air waves.' Cirelli definitely makes it with the Hip-hop heads with his rap culture overtones.... Lobster is an all-night convenience store of lyrical goodies with no fluff in sight. Lobster is also a consignment shop of Hip-hop history."—Mike Amado
For full review go to: http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2008/05/lobster-with-ol-dirty-bastard-by_21.html
"...the use of modern street language, often edgy, always colorful, will appeal to the reader that most poetry never reaches...these pieces are built on strong images...the backbones of poetic language."--Kliatt
Yes! Sharon Nails the Fulbright Vault!
Congratulations to Sharon Mesmer (author of THE VIRGIN FORMICA) who just won a Fulbright and to her husband, David Borchart for publishing yet another hilarious cartoon in THE NEW YORKER!
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