Phoenicia is delighted to announce the forthcoming publication (January 2017) of Dave Bonta's Ice Mountain: An Elegy. After several weeks of daily walks in the Pennsylvania mountains with a temporary canine visitor, Dave began a new series of poems: "I decided to see how much I could discover on my own, walking at a much slower pace but without the aid of a dog's nose to show me where a coyote had paused or which hollow logs might harbor rabbits or porcupines. The exploration continued when I sat down at the laptop, and I often ended up writing about things I'd remembered or thought about as I walked." But there was a darker side, too. The Ice Mountain of the title is a nearby peak that was desecrated by a large wind farm, after a six-year struggle to fight it by local environmental groups who knew the turbines would have a huge impact on bats, songbirds, migrating hawks, and other species. Written as winter gives way to spring, the resulting short, daily poems are an elegy for an endangered ecosystem, as well as a celebration of its diversity and determination. Ice Mountain will also have original linocut illustrations by Elizabeth Adams. Sales will benefit the environmental non-profit organization SOAR, Save Our Allegheny Ridges. Dave Bonta is well-known for his own poetry, his longstanding blog Via Negativa, his Moving Poems website where he showcases the best work being done in video poetry, his short-form poems and commentaries at The Morning Porch, his former work as founder and co-managing editor of the literary journal qarrtsiluni, and as a tireless and enthusiastic supporter of other poets and writers. We at Phoenicia were proud to publish his chapbook Odes to Tools, in 2010, and we hope you'll join with us now in enthusiastic support of this new book and its author, who gives so generously of his time and heart in support of poetry, poets, and the appreciation and preservation of our natural world.
There will be a special pre-order price for Phoenicia newsletter subscribers, and we'll also be giving away a free copy of the book and an original print. To receive these announcements and be eligible for the giveaway, please sign up for our email list! Author photos: R. Rawlins, Illustration: E. Adams Comments are closed.
|
NewsThe latest news and commentary about our plans, events, authors, and titles! |