| Author | Message | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 28019 Registered: 11-1998 |
Dear Membership – As many of you know or will soon find out, this week’s Creativity Challenge should prove to be engaging and enlightening. It is based on a book I stumbled over and am thoroughly enjoying. And so this week, my featured selection is Night Out: Poems about Hotels, Motels, Restaurants, and Bars edited by Kurt Brown and Laure-Anne Bosselaar. Though I am only about a quarter of the way through reading it, the poems that I have encountered so far have been extraordinary and inspiring. The anthology includes some of the best contemporary American poets, names you should recognize including James Wright, Stephen Dunn, Richard Hugo, W. S. Merwin, Raymond Carver, Lewis Hyde, Susan Mitchell, Karen Swenson, Galway Kinnell, Charles Simic, Stanley Kunitz, Kim Addonizio, Billy Collins, Edward Hirsch, Ted Kooser, Dorianne Laux, Philip Levine, Gregory Orr, and Marvin Bell. And the list goes on and on. Poets I know and love and poets that were unfamiliar to me, but are fast becoming some of my favorites. Although it was published way back in 1997, the poetry included in this volume is timeless. And definitely worth its cover price. And considering you most likely will have to buy it used, this is an exceptional deal since the lowest price listed at Amazon for it is $2.94. So, if you are searching around for a poetry volume that includes many different styles and voices, a book about place and who we are or become in those unguarded moments, this book will provide you with many hours and layers of depth and illumination. I’ve been taking it to bed with me every night. The only complaint I have is that instead of putting me to sleep, it’s keeping me awake far, far into the early morning hours. Night Out: Poems about Hotels, Motels, Restaurants, and Bars edited by Kurt Brown and Laure-Anne Bosselaar is available in the WPF BookShop under “Admin’s Featured Five-Star Book Picks." Love, M (Administrator) ______________________________________________________________________________________ Night Out: Poems about Hotels, Motels, Restaurants, and Bars edited by Kurt Brown and Laure-Anne Bosselaar ______________________________________________________________________________________ BOOK DESCRIPTION Excerpt from the Preface by Gerald Stern “This is a superb collection of poems that encapsulates, in its way, the entire range of American feeling – our particular metaphysics, our transitoriness, our love of weeds and waste places, our desperation for the past, our regret and melancholy, our ridiculous bravery, our sexual yearnings, our pride and shame, our ambiguity. I think our restaurants, motels, and watering places represent a kind of charged field where ordinary events – ordering a meal, spilling a little wine, remembering a certain bird – take on a significance that can only be called mythical, and that our writers, when they enter that field, know instinctively by now, that they are in such a significant place. There is sometimes in American poetry a straining after effect, often in cosmic, vegetal, and Olympian matters, almost the inverse of Auden, but in these poems there is no such straining. If anything is “natural” for an American poet it is the manner and matter, indeed the manna, of these poems, written – sometimes even literally – in hopelessly ugly and uncomfortable chairs, at small tables, in front of makeshift stages, in the middle of boring corridors, facing merciless clerks, hands over dead telephones or under lumpy pillows, fingers desperately pressing noisy air conditioners, eyes staring at ugly cracks and painted wires.” Excerpt from Back Cover Blurb by Tom Bodett, author of “As Far as You Can Go Without a Passport”: “Motel rooms are distant and impersonal and deliciously private all at once. A night in a motel is like a night alone with your soul. It’s best either to go to sleep, or write some poetry. Here’s to all the sleepless souls in Night Out. It is comforting to know there are others out there staring at the spackling on the ceilings who see more than a place where the paint doesn’t match.” EDITORIAL REVIEWS From Amazon.com “Get ready to hang out! This unique anthology of poems takes you to the hot and not-so-hot spots of American nightlife, and what a night out it is! The collection showcases 125 notable contemporary poets, including Raymond Carver, Galway Kinnell, Susan Mitchell, Joy Harjo, and many more. From hamburger hells to heavenly hotels, weary waitresses to blurry bar hounds, Night Out contains the dreams and nightmares of those who find themselves in a very real twilight zone.” From The Boston Review "Seedy motels, greasy diners, and bars that provide "forgettably pleasing" nights are among the quintessentially American hangouts celebrated here by 125 poets. In Jorie Graham's "In the Hotel," the speaker lies awake and alone in her rented room listening in on "[a] moaning now--a human moan--and then / another cry--but small" which leads her to ask, "How heavy can the singleness become? / Who will hear us? What shall we do?" Campbell McGrath breezily eulogizes downtown Manhattan, with its "hipsters and bikers and crazy Ukrainians," and "all the black-clad chicks lined up like vodka bottles on Avenue B," while Liam Rector copes with the aftermath of a friend's suicide: "We did right by your death and went out, / Right away, to a public place to drink, / To be with each other, to face it." From start to finish, this vivid and diverse collection is a well-deserved tribute to insomniacs, misfits, and the ordinary comforts we seek in the dead of night." TABLE OF CONTENTS A Hotel by Any Other Name "We have all been in rooms We cannot die in, . . ." ~ James Dickey ..........By the Eastern Sea ..........Transients Welcome ..........Rented Pleasures ..........Way Out West ..........In the Hotel of the Mind ..........Europe and Beyond Motel Seedy "The room wants to be rid of me . . ." ~ Denis Johnson Dining Late "Around us a promiscuity of setting . . ." ~ Heather McHugh Hamburger Heaven "To be among these quiet strangers . . ." ~ Jon Lavieri Elysian Fields "I can recreate This paradise anytime I choose . . ." ~ Laura Mullen Report from Nirvana "Home. Home. I knew it entering . . ." ~ Richard Hugo ..........A Place in the Past ..........That's Jazz ..........All Over the Map ..........Real Characters ..........On the Strip ..........Some Enchanted Evening ..........Drinking and Dancing Last Call "None of us will rest enough . . ." ~William Matthews . | ||
| Christopher T George
Senior Member Username: chrisgeorge Post Number: 6051 Registered: 12-2004 |
Hi, M This book sounds great. Many thanks, M. Chris Editor, Desert Moon Review http://www.desertmoonreview.com Co-Editor, Loch Raven Review http://www.lochravenreview.net http://chrisgeorge.netpublish.net/ | ||
| MV
Senior Member Username: michaelv Post Number: 684 Registered: 11-2003 |
Hi MJM, What a poetic coincidence: I have met Laure-Anne Bosselaar at a writer's conference circa 4-5 years ago. She loves & is devoted to Poetry. During her presentation she was very enthusiastic. I believe she could have spoken on Poetry for hours more. And I for one would have loved to have continued to listen & learn. Here's a Link to her homepage: http://www.laureannebosselaar.com/ ^^ Of note from that site: LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR won a Pushcart Prize for the poem “Man at the Museum of Modern Art” in A New Hunger.(http://www.ausablepress.org/b_events.html) MJM, Thanks for featuring this anthology. Have a good week,  Michael (MV) | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 28022 Registered: 11-1998 |
Thanks, Chris. If you choose to buy the book, I think you will enthralled. The poetry in it really is sublime. And thanks to you, MV, for the additional information about Ms. Bosselaar. I was so taken with the book itself, I failed to do any research on the editors. There are poems by her in the anthology too. I'm not at all surprised at her credits. The anthology is a masterpiece that's actually fun in addition to being emotionally resonant. She did her work as an editor very well. I've been carrying the book with me to doctors' offices and on the streetcar. People have been stopping me to ask about it (I think because the title and the cover are so catchy), and saying they are going to purchase it. I think even people who never read poetry would find it captivating. Love, M | ||
| Laura Ring
Intermediate Member Username: laura Post Number: 618 Registered: 05-2007 |
M, this looks terrific. Thanks for the recommendation! Best, Laura | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 28026 Registered: 11-1998 |
You're most welcome, Laura. I'm hoping there's a real run on buying the book. I must admit it's making me chuckle to think about the editors/publisher/book sellers wondering why there's all sorts of demand all of a sudden for an eleven-year-old poetry anthology. And they say poetry doesn't sell. *LOL* I hope it proves to be a valuable purchase for you. Love, M |
