Miles (27 page)
Authors: Adam Henry Carriere
Râwâhi
poetry from
Oceania
Benjamin Blake ~ Michelle Gaddes ~ Leanne Hanson ~
John Holland ~
Vaughan
Rapatahana ~ Mercedes Webb-Pullman
RAWAHI features selected works by poets from
Australia
and
New Zealand
whose collections have been published by Hammer
& Anvil Books. Each writer exemplifies both their storied native lands and
their vivid contributions to the oceans of world poetry. Every lover of
international prose will delight in Râwâhi ~ Poetry from
Oceania
,
which also features illustrations inspired by the Orient by
Chicago
artist Jeffrey Littleton.
Quicksand
fiction
Arlene Greene
Arlene Greene’s debut novel QUICKSAND is a jewel of
resonant and memorable images: scenes that will echo for the reader forever.
The characters are those found in the most ubiquitous encounters - beleaguered
by economic pressure, and how that duress impacts love, loyalty, and,
especially, family and its ties. Yet Greene never reaches for the easy
palliatives of pathos or romance. Hers is a keen eye, but a determinedly
compassionate one. Readers will easily identify with each family member’s
struggle as they unfurl within their unique perspectives, providing a gripping
foretaste into their own psyches as well as our own. QUICKSAND is a vivid and
powerful unveiling that leaves readers with a no-holds-barred story that
ultimately fills the heart.
Nightmares
a collection of tales
J. Eric Castro
NIGHTMARES is a compilation of short tales spanning a
range of personal creative chaos. We live in a world of collective assaults on
the psyche; here, a nightmarish gallery of colorful muggings takes a variety of
story-telling shapes. From the apocalyptic to the tragic, the Biblical and
existential, the experimental to the demonic, mirrors of belief are held up to
the author’s many voices - and to the reader’s. Under the spells of Lovecraft
and Aesop, author J. Eric Castro returns to the streets where he grew up and
makes them yours. NIGHTMARES builds on the success of author Castro’s baseball
drama,
Rowdies
(Outskirts Press, 2011) and marks his imagining
as one to watch.
La liebre de marzo ~ The March Hare
fiction from
Uruguay
Marosa di Giorgio
, translated by
Kathryn A. Kopple
Marosa di Giorgio, a Uruguayan poet of considerable reputation,
authored over a dozen works, and won numerous awards in her career. Her hybrid
poetics—tone, sonics, puns, playfulness, enigmatic poetic prose—astound poets
and readers to this day. Her darkest pieces are often followed by poems that
cause pure delight, combining unusual phrasing with spectacular visual images.
It was said of her, perhaps more than any other Latin American writer, that at
its finest her poetry literally “glistened,” radiating with a lustrous sparkle.
Kathryn A. Kopple, author of the acclaimed
Little Velásquez
(Mirth
Press, 2012) brings her scholarship in Latin American studies and love of
language to bear in this bespoke translation of Marosa di Giorgio’s LA LIEBRE
DE
MARZ
O ~ The March Hare.
Kate Moss & Other Heroines
fiction from the
United Kingdom
Samantha Memi
British chef and author Samantha Memi takes lovers of
short fiction on a tour de force of the kind of dark humour unique to
Londoners. With titles such as Kate Moss Versus the Millipede, Lamborghinis
Don’t Cry, Rebellious Shoes, The Lizard’s Don Giovanni, and (ahem) The Virtuous
Qualities of a Used Tampax, readers know they are in for an E-Ticket wild ride
across the indie lit landscape. Fasten your lap straps!
PURCHASE KATE MOSS & OTHER HEROINES
A Feather of
Fujiyama
poetry from
Bulgaria
Bozhidar Pangelov
Bozhidar Pangelov has been present among contemporary
Bulgarian poets for some time. a long time. He is a poet who manages to
disorder the order of the usual in order to breach a material world for a more
human world of ideas and feelings. Using dramatic tensions within the poetic
and semantic, Pangelov’s spare yet verdant imagery evokes the sound of bamboo sticks
and Zen Buddhist monks, poem after poem. Writer and poet Palmi Ranchev says,
“Pangelov will enrich the palette of world poetry with new colors and nuances.”
With a light melancholy of something desired but not known to the end,
forgotten but endlessly close, no lover of international verse will go unmoved
by Bozhidar Pangelov’s A FEATHER OF FUJIYAMA.
{All proceeds from the sale of this
collection will go to the Bulgarian Integrated Education Foundation, working to
improve the lives of children and youth with special health and educational
needs (including mild Down syndrome, autism / autistic spectrum, cerebral
palsy, language-speech disorders, and hyperactivity) and their families.}
PURCHASE A FEATHER OF FUJIYAMA
Phantasizer
Tales of Dread and the Fantastic
Kyle Hemmings
PHANTASIZER collection of stories ranges from Sci-fi to
Horror to Alternate History to Fantasy to Bizzaro, with even a bit of humor
thrown in. From a young runaway who finds she can telepathically communicate
with wounded birds to an ill-fated desert expedition sent to search for a
missing archaeologist, to an autistic man's unwitting attempts in foiling a
terrorist's scheme, these pieces do not sacrifice character to plot or theme.
Nor does the author shy away from shedding some light on the human condition.
There is something for all and sundry in this eclectic mix, where everyone has
at least one skeleton in his or her closet...and some bones scattered under the
bed as well. PHANTASIZER is a must for lovers of the macabre, the dark, the
mystical, the unknown, and the unpredictable. Lisa J. Cihlar, author of
The
Insomniac's House
, remarks, “I was up late reading PHANTASIZER, and then
afraid to go to bed. In the end, I dare you to look away.”
The Water-Lily Bloom
A domestic tragedy in one act
J.C. Frampton
A ghostly visit from a dead father harboring venomous
resentments begins a searing rearrangement of personal identity for Angela
Windom, the sophisticated, urban-professional heroine of THE WATER-LILY BLOOM,
a young woman for whom the tragic Lady of Shalott is a lifelong alter ego.
Visiting unannounced the mother she and her police-officer father abandoned two
decades earlier, expecting to find solace over his shocking death, she is
instead cast into a maelstrom of conflicting emotions and the slowly emerging
reality surrounding this Janus-faced man suspiciously central to her life. This
deeper truth, about herself, the mother she once harshly condemned, the man she
only believed to be her father, and the small-town roué detestably her true
father, thrusts Angela into an agony of spiritual confusion, challenging every
foundation of a once-confident and assertive selfhood. In the naturalist
tradition of August Strindberg, this tightly strung one-act play by an
accomplished writer of fiction and drama is a fitting tour de force for Hammer
& Anvil Books' first venture into drama.
Into the Blue on New Year's Eve
flash fiction from
Russia
Valery V. Petrovskiy
Petrovskiy is an acclaimed author from the Chuvashia
region of
Russia
. His work has appeared in journals from around the
world, and he is a Pushcart Prize nominee and a finalist to the 2012 Open
Russia Literary Contest. From his remote village near the
Volga
River
,
Petrovskiy crafts a multihued album of short fictions in the grand traditions
of Turgenev and Gogol. These stories exude the warmth of family, the wonder of
youth, and the love of language. INTO THE BLUE ON NEW YEAR’S EVE will delight
lovers of Russian fiction and fans of flash fiction alike.
PURCHASE INTO THE BLUE ON NEW YEAR'S EVE
Under the Dog Star
poetry from
Australia
John Holland
In this new collection of poetry from the pen of
Australian writer John Holland, we see a further development of the ideas and
concepts explored in his first book,
Dry Bones
.
“UNDER THE DOG STAR is a powerful collection that takes us here and there,
inside and out the mind of the poet, observing the struggle, pain and doubts no
human escapes, watching the intelligence dancing in a circle of stones around
an inner drain. This collection feels made in the nighttime where the poet has
dared to face the demons for us, finding his way back via the Dog Star's bright
beam with packages tucked under his arm of truths he discovered and gives to us
to open in the comfort of daylight, after our peaceful sleep.” ~ Nia Simone,
author.
Dry Bones
, which was published first as an e-book by Hammer & Anvil
Books in 2012, has been widely acclaimed, reaching #1 on the Poetry /
Australia
and
Oceania
best-seller list on Amazon Kindle. UNDER THE DOG
STAR builds on this success while creating a new space within both Australian
and world poetry.
Dry Bones
poetry from Australia
John Holland
In DRY BONES, readers travel into the outback from
page one, ready or not, into unknown territory where they can dance in the dirt
and walk with horses. John Holland is a warm blooded writer with a true
appreciation for the beauty of his country and the big expanse of nature. And,
while he is sparse with his words and metaphors, his poems travel like
song-lines over the land he loves, giving voice to the heartland of the
tropical north. Here we see something different to what we have come to
expect from current poets. The beat and rhythm of Australian poetry are there,
but there is also a far deeper questioning of why and how we are here and our
connection to an uncertain universe. DRY BONES will not leave you
untouched.
Death of a Lottery Foe
A Harry Krisman Mystery
Tom Sheehan
Introduced to readers in
Murder at the Forum
(Hammer & Anvil Books, 2012, “A story with elegance and grace” - Tricia
Crisafuli,
Faith-Hope-and Fiction
) Harry Krisman, failed hockey pro
turned detective, returns, hot on the trail of mismanaged lottery funds. In a
colorful ocean of avarice and general incompetence, murder comes on the scene -
as well as an array of silent enemies of freedom. Their shadowy machinations
light a fire under both Harry and a lively corps of faithful citizens who call
upon experience in their own wars to combat these villains.
Midwest
Book Review
calls author Tom Sheehan “...the sort of writer who comes
along once in a reader’s lifetime.” DEATH OF A LOTTERY FOE, the second Harry
Krisman mystery, bears out this praise.
