In honor of National Poetry Month, paperback editions of all our full-length poetry books are on sale for the price of $12.50 rather than the usual $13.95. The sale price will be applied when you visit the e-store, or any Amazon.com site. Titles included are: Thaliad 70 Faces: Torah Poems Angels & Beasts Ancient Lights Mercy Island. Brilliant Coroners. Take advantage of the excellent price, and support poetry and independent publishing at the same time! Author Rachel Barenblat will be presenting poems, answering questions, and signing books in the Boston area on March 12th and 13th:
* "Lunch and Learn" reading/discussion after services at Bnai Or, the Jewish Renewal congregation of Boston, March 12 (after services - noonish.) Some poems will be featured during the service as well. All are welcome to attend the service (which will be accessible & engaging) or just to come for the lunch-and-learn; if you can, please let me know if you're planning to come so I can let them know roughly how many visitors to expect! And bring a bag lunch.) Andover Newton Theological School, 210 Herrick Road, Newton Centre. * Reading/signing in the parlor of the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, sponsored by the Jewish Connections group, March 13, 2:30pm. 630 Mass Ave, Arlington Center. (Parking is on the other side of Mass Ave in municipal parking lots -- both directly across Mass Ave and diagonally across the Arlington Center intersection, with an entrance on Route 60/Mystic Street. Parking is free on Sundays.) For a closer view of our most recent book and the people behind it, you might like to listen to the podcast published last week by Dave Bonta at ViaNegativa. It's an interview/discussion with Rachel Barenblat (left) author of 70 Faces:Torah Poems, and me, Beth Adams, the book's editor and publisher (at right above). Dave is a great host, and the three of us had an excellent time talking about Rachel's new book, listening to and discussing some of her poems and the texts they respond to, and the often-difficult subjects they bring up and address.
We talked about the patriarchy and violence of the Bible and the problems modern people have relating to a God who supposedly ordered/allowed the wholesale destruction of groups of people, or the dispossession of their land, and how these scriptures relate to the current political situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories -- all subjects that Rachel takes on in her poetry, and are of great interest and concern to me because of my long-term marriage into an Arab-Armenian family. In fact, this sense of grappling with difficult issues and trying to build bridges is a big part of my purpose here at Phoenicia, and one of many reasons why I wanted to publish this book of Rachel's. At the end of the interview, the conversation turns to publishing and we talk about Phoenicia's first year, what we've learned from it, and our plans for the future. We thank Dave for his generosity in hosting this interview, and hope you'll enjoy it. Note: if you don't want to download the whole podcast, there's a "pause" button on the audio player window, and you can listen in sections if you wish - it will start up where you left off. The Berkshire Eagle has just published an appreciative review of Rachel Barenblat's 70 Faces:Torah Poems by a writer of a different faith tradition, who says, in part:
"She has also taught me the depth and variety and compassion in the way she practices her faith. It is not the one I grew up with, but she and I think about faith in very much the same way, and reading Rachel's prayers and poems and open letters has shown me a faith that opens continually, that shuts no one out, and that insists on honesty, effort and care. " We were happy to receive word recently that two of Phoenicia's books have been ordered as texts by professors for their college poetry classes. Clayton Michaels' "Watermark," will be taught and discussed in a poetry/creative writing class, and soon-to-be-published "70 faces: Torah Poems" by Rachel Barenblat, will be used in a class on Feminist Methodologies.
One of our goals at Phoenicia Publishing is to encourage greater use of contemporary, edge-pushing texts in poetry and writing education - students respond positively to these texts, they have few of the biases of older readers against unconventional publication methods - quite the contrary - and they are encouraged by works such as Clayton's and Rachel's toward greater freedom and experimentation in their own work and thinking. We've asked the teachers to share their experiences with us after the classes have read and discussed these books, and also to allow us to publish some of the student's work -- so there will be more on this topic here in the spring! |
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