Fiction
City of Slaughter
A Novel
by Cynthia Drew
ISBN 978-1-56474-514-9
310 pages, paperback, $15.95
Publication Date: March 2012
“This richly textured, meticulously researched novel is as expansive as it is exhilarating.… With elegant language and immense energy, Drew creates a world in which hope is never entirely lost.” —Judy Goldman, author of Early Leaving
Left with nothing after the death of their parents in a small Russian town at the turn of the twentieth century, Carsie and the younger Lilia make the journey to America despite dangerous obstacles. Finding relatives on New York's teeming, dangerous Lower East Side, they hope that they will be cared for in this new life. What they find instead are the shock and mayhem of scratching out a living in the most crowded square mile on earth. Like many Jewish immigrants of that time, the girls go to work in sweatshops, Lilia eventually taking a job at the ill-fated Triangle Waist Company, scene of the infamous 1911 industrial fire that claimed the lives of 146 garment workers. Set against Tammany Hall politics and gangland crime, City of Slaughter is a tale of a woman torn by family, faith, and her drive to rise from poverty, succeed in business, and claim her place in New York's world of fashion and society.
Cynthia Drew’s short stories have appeared in many literary journals, including Perigee, Middle English Review, and Taj Mahal. The winner of Rapid River’s Short Fiction Prize, and Mountainland’s Humor Prize, she teaches Creative Writing at UNC/Asheville's Reuter Ctr. She worked for several years in New York’s garment district, where she became keenly aware of the sweatshops that even today are peopled by immigrants.
Poetry
As if Words
Poems
by Jeanne L:ohmann
ISBN 978-1-56474-522-4
104 pages, paperback, $14.00
Publication Date: March 2012
With tender fidelity, the poems in Jeanne Lohmann’s new collection chronicle the years of her marriage. The book is a page-turning love story alive with humor, sensuality, and delight, as well as the inevitable tensions in the relationship. There is grief here, too, in the death of the beloved, and the survivor’s work of going on. What endures is the astounding strength of this marriage, evoked in the vivid language of love that, even as it speaks, knows the limits of words
Jeanne Lohmann's poems have appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies, most recently "Good Poems, American Places" edited by Garrison Keillor. She is a graduate of the creative writing program at San Francisco State University. This is her tenth published poetry collection.
Creatures Who Smell the Wind
Poems
by Linda Levitz
ISBN 978-1-56474-521-7
104 pages, paperback, $14.00
Publication Date: March 2012
These poems are full of danger (of knives, of boiling water) and attraction (to honey, to the insides of flowers). Food is important: oysters, mushrooms, roots. Family is important, with dreamlike childhood recollections and collected lore, the presence of the past (parents, grandparents), and the recurring appearance of the poet’s lively granddaughter, Ella. The poet draws on culture, too: myths (selkies), Americana (Fiesta ware), Native American lore, not to mention painters (Hopper, Cross, Hiroshige, Hokusai) and a number of poets and writers. Especially effective are the narrative poems, including stories inspired by paintings, by the Garden of Eden, by the assassination of Julius Caesar.
Linda Levitz lives and writes in Ardsley, New York, where she also works in the Special Education department of the local elementary school. She has worked for the French Embassy Cultural Services and was the New York editor of "French News" magazine. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals. She is the author of three previous poetry collections, including Directions to My House.
Hello, House
Poems
by Phyllis Hoge
Illustrations by Maxine Hong Kingston
ISBN 978-1-56474-524-8
80 pages, paperback, $14.00
Publication Date: March 2012
The poems in Hello, House describe in small, significant detail what goes into daily chores, like making beds, doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, straightening. Phyllis Hoge lavishes attention on favorite things around the house and home, and in the process she examines her self, and learns that living in a house involves compromise: with pets, with clutter, with imperfection, and with loss. Many of these poems are written in formal verse, with rhyme and meter, but the poet works well in free verse as well. All the poems are strong, honest, and friendly.
Each poem is illustrated with a black and white line drawing by Maxine Hong Kingston.
Phyllis Hoge is a retired Professor of English at the University of Hawaii. She was awarded the Hawai'i Award for Literature from the Hawai'i Literary Arts Council. Hoge's poetry has been widely published in periodicals, including Hudson Review, New Yorker, and Prairie Schooner. She is the author of eight previous poetry collections.
Triage
Poems
by Jane Elkington Wohl
ISBN 978-1-56474-520-0
80 pages, paperback, $14.00
Publication Date: March 2012
The poems in Triage are inspired by the Iraq war, a war that targeted civilians, even women and children. It is a war fueled by the false notions that winning is what matters and that winning is even possible. All the warriors can accomplish is to make sure there are losers all over and under the rubble.
Meanwhile, the poet remains at home waiting for news. She seeks beauty where she can find it, in the call of owls, the colors of poppies, and her students’ eagerness to understand.
Jane Elkington Wohl is an English and Creative Writing Instructor at Sheridan College in Sheridan WY. She has been the director of the Sheridan Young Writers camp for thirteen years. She has won two Wyoming Arts Council Literary Fellowships. Her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals including Tap Joe and Women's Review of Books among others.
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