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Two good folks who I've been fortunate to meet have newly released books. Writers and people I admire. Looking forward to both of these:
Originally written in 2000 as his Master’s thesis, Raymond P. Hammond’s Poetic Amusement has been passed around underground as a digital file for ten years among those associated with The New York Quarterly. As provocative today as it was when it was written, what began as Hammond’s observations of the influence of “po’ biz” and writing programs on contemporary American poetry became a timeless treatise on poetry itself.
"Vestments" is generating national buzz. It earned a starred review and Pick of the Week from Publishers Weekly, the first book to receive that honor in Minneapolis-based Milkweed Edition's 30-plus years of publishing. Patricia Hampl, whose memoirs "The Florist's Daughter" and "A Romantic Education" are also paeans to St. Paul, gave Reimringer's book an enthusiastic jacket blurb.
Well-deserved on both counts.
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My book has a web page and a library of congress number. Holy whoa. There's also a book description and the blurbs at the NYQ Site. The release date probably isn't accurate as we're still working that bit out (it's looking like late December to early January, right now). This is all starting to seem tangible. We've been through about four rounds of galleys on the poems and I'm really thrilled with the way things are looking on the page. New Baskerville is in the house and representin'. We're just listing the magazines that originally published the poems in the acknowledgments, rather than including the titles of the poems they published. I know I always like to look at those, but it's an issue of page space, really. How about a preference, blogosphere? What do we want out of an acknowledgments page? (Too much to include a note to family, friends, and teachers? Who and how to thank? Casual, intimate, formal, or straight-foward?)
Still working on cover art stuff, and still hoping to use something from a friend rather than a photo from stock (though, I have found one I like should we need to go that way), so if you've got artwork and think it might work for a cover--send it on over. I'm lucky and thankful to have lots of talented folks around, so I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with...
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The guy has pipes.
2 comments:
I go back and forth on the acknowledgement styles. I often like to know which poems where published where because it gives me an even greater sense of what kind of work magazines publish when I can't read every issue of every mag out there. Other times they seem tedious and I don't mind the journal name alone. As for the personal stuff, that seems up to the individual....who do you feel compelled to thank, and how?
Can't wait to hold that baby in my hands.
My thesis acknowledgment had one semi-personal line for every close member of my family followed by a blanket apology/thanks for enabling me throughout the process.
I agree with Matthew. Give in to your compulsion(s).
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