Bøger udgivet af SONG CAVE

Poetry. In her first collection of poetry, Emily Hunt inverts the ordinary: How to bring a new figure close / was like taking a globe, turning it once / and placing it back on its pedestal. Using spare diction and imagery, Hunt imagines a new world "so close to what the world is like" that the reader might feel like a humble visitor to our planet Earth. Though often elegiac, DARK GREEN is alive, inviting its readers to deeply sense this poet's tender and singular investigations. "With incantatory wit, Emily Hunt writes poems that could be stories, or stories that might be poems. DARK GREEN starts with a farewell, but grows in power, depth and range from page to page; like snowflakes or violins, no two poems are the same, but each displays visual acuity married to a gift from a different fairy, the power to reveal under the reader's skin vast pools of hitherto untapped emotion. Reading Emily Hunt's DARK GREEN one feels things one couldn't have before imagined possible."--Kevin Killian "Like Auden's, Emily Hunt's precision and bold intelligence discover what ought to be discovered on a daily basis; her poems say what suffering is and what it does; they say we are all of us in all we do. From DARK GREEN we get a hint at how to register the almost invisible nuances that fuel our spirits, minds and heart."--Dara Wier "Emily Hunt is an accomplished lyricist, quiet ethnographer, and kooky observer of inner turbulences. She's also a remarkable poet who has written a stunning first book. Her poems are spiky, wheeling, and fierce; a voice continuously evolving, speaking directly from her own haunted yet intimate, 2000-now. DARK GREEN is a wonder and a gift."--Peter Gizzi

Acclaimed Poet Emily Hunt's Highly Anticipated Second Collection of PoemsSTRANGER, Emily Hunt's long-awaited follow-up to her acclaimed debut collection of poems, intimately chronicles the effects of love, labor, and grief on the life and sensibility of an artist. These poems shed a shifting light on the peculiar textures of our era. Hunt treads with concision, vigor, and excitement, addressing directly lived experiences--from the mundane to the profound. Whether it's her curious interactions with dating apps, 19th century political speeches, dizzying corporate communication, or emails from her schizophrenic brother, the exact details and use of language in these poems become almost elemental, making an urgent record of the present. STRANGER blurs the boundary between life and art--"The things that happened / bled into the language we exchanged."--with the crystalline touch and nuance of a truly gifted writer."In STRANGER, the gorgeous follow-up to her first collection DARK GREEN, Emily Hunt betrays a Schuyleresque commitment to dailiness. To all of it: to memory and the great infinite void of the present moment, to that which wounds us and that which nurtures us, to worry and agony and boredom and sweetness, equally to the blooming life of flowers and the 'bad bloom' of waged work. These poems are electric with pleasure."--Sara NicholsonPoetry. Family & Relationships.

Poetry. In his debut collection, RIDDLES, ETC., Geoffrey Hilsabeck proves himself adept at paradox, a poet who reaches toward the largeness of the cosmos in order to bring its essence closer to us. Approaching his subjects with the difficult task of describing their spirit without naming it directly, this collection is also a love letter—Dear citizen stargazer—to the known and unknown. A singular imagination is at work here, writing toward the unique and peculiar qualities of things and beings, displaying the relative similarities of all phenomena. Reader, let me ask you a riddle: What holds its breath in another's mouth? What hides wind in leaves? What takes apart the Delphic know yourself and admits I don't know? I don't know. His riddles, etc., recognize that basic bewilderment which knowledge cannot rescue us from, and then he makes for us the world again, not by defining it, but by singing the wild, innocent song.—Dan Beachy-Quick These riddles are poems 'fearfully, and wonderfully made, ' unabashedly lyrical—they've been hanging on, like psalms and rivers, 'strange and unnecessary' as the poet's life. They ask the comfortably urgent questions that, back in the day, John Ashbery asked (with echoes of David Schubert): the kind that need no answer but are open to any. When you get past the making, perhaps all poems worth the name are really riddles, as only the tongue may turn back the clock so we may reconsider of what it is made.—Matvei Yankelevic

Literary Nonfiction. Latino/Latina Studies. Essays. Politics. Afterword by Gabriela Jauregui. PROFESSIONALS OF HOPE: THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF SUBCOMANDANTE MARCOS is an anthology by the prolific and brilliant former spokesperson and strategist for the Zapatistas, who countered the Mexican government's bloody attacks on indigenous people by staging an uprising in the name of democracy, justice, and liberty for all. And by all, Marcos really means everyone, including identities that resist ready-made categories. These poetic letters, speeches, and folktales counter oppression by challenging governments that plunder their own people, and declare the basic desire to bestow dignity upon the indigenous people of Chiapas through grass-roots revolution. By no means exhaustive, this book is meant to introduce readers to a sliver of Marcos's output and provide context for a struggle that still exists in Mexico, and whose existence is mirrored wherever tyranny flourishes. Yes, Marcos is gay. Marcos is gay in San Francisco, black in South Africa, an Asian in Europe, a Chicano in San Ysidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a Gypsy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the subway at 10pm, a peasant without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains. Marcos is all the exploited, marginalised, oppressed minorities resisting and saying 'Enough.' He is every minority who is now beginning to speak, and every majority that must shut up and listen. He is every untolerated group searching for a way to speak. Everything that makes power and the good consciences of those in power uncomfortable--this is Marcos.--Subcomandante Marcos, from Social Justice E- Zine #27

Marcy O'Brien writes with an eye for detail and a gift for putting you right there in the scene with her. Her deeply personal voice speaks with both wisdom and irreverent wit - the blessings of a well-lived life - evoking frequent smiles and even an occasional tear. >She is more than just funny. She's fun. Spending time with Marcy always leaves you with the lasting warmth of a visit from an old friend.

If 50 is the new 30, then why does January Ornellas need duct tape for a DIY neck lift? Why is she being mistaken for a volunteer at her first triathlon? And why is the gym sending her hate mail? Ornellas shares her unique brand of humor in this debut collection of short stories. Whether she's being held hostage at a timeshare presentation, eating an excessive amount of cookie batter, or stalking the neighborhood kid who stole her exercise ball, Ornellas' sharp wit and raw vulnerability will have you laughing out loud as she takes you on a hilarious and relatable ride through her midlife adventures.

The 'first passion' of T. S. Eliot and a major influence on Pound, the poet, translator, essayist, and travel writer Jules Laforgue has nonetheless broken through only fitfully into the Anglophone literary consciousness. If there is any justice in the world, this astute selection, in Mark Ford's deft, inventive, reader-friendly versions, will finally give the man his due.

"Telling the Truth as It Comes Up is a landmark collection of talks and essays by one of our greatest poets, Alice Notely, covering almost three decades (1991-2018)"--

In the late 19th century, an estimated 11 million Americans believed in something called Spiritualism. They believed in it so ardently that it came to be thought of as a religion, and it became the seventh most popular religion in the United States. It's fundamental tenet-virtually its only tenet-was that it was possible for the living to communicate with the dead. America's philosopher king William James believed in it. Thomas Edison believed. Mark Twain believed. Countless number of scholars and scientists-although always a minority-also believed. Or, at the least, they believed that the belief should be tested, not scoffed at; that it might deserve to be part of university curricula, not the raw material of derisive humor. The same was true across the Atlantic, where Spiritualism attracted Marie Curie, Queen Victoria, two British Prime Ministers, Pope Pius IX and Russia's Czar Alexander II, among numerous others. Hundreds of the smartest minds in the world-geniuses all-formed societies in New York and London to investigate the notion of conversation with the deceased. They conducted scores of experiments under the most rigid, secure and sometimes even punishing of conditions, and some of what they discovered startled them. As When the Dead Talked . . . and the Smartest Minds in the World Listened, attests, it is still startling today. "Readers fascinated by how scientists in the last half of the 19th century thought about psychic phenomena will appreciate Burns's exploration of this fascinating history." - Publishers Weekly "Eric Burns has a gift for exploring the nooks and crannies and shadows of history that seldom get illuminated. When the Dead Talked . . . and the Smartest Minds in the World Listened [is] a vastly informative and entertaining book that can't help but leave a reader wondering where reality leaves off the magic begins." - Neal Gabler, author of Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity (Time magazine best non-fiction book of the year)

Fiction. Poetry. Jewish Studies. Admired by Donald Barthelme and Lydia Davis, Mitch Sisskind is a professional satirist whose stories and poems can finally be read in one new volume. DO NOT BE A GENTLEMAN WHEN YOU SAY GOODNIGHT, a selection from the last five decades, includes an introduction from poet Amy Gerstler, who calls Sisskind "a postmodern master of the anti-epiphany," and an afterword by David Lehman. Bestowed with outlandish names, Sisskind's characters make up a cast of failures for whom grace is absent. The hilarity and sadness of many of their surprising situations have the ability to startle readers until, as in his imagined filmography of Tokyo Liscomb, "all hell breaks loose." The divine is often called upon and sometimes shows up but never in expected ways, since Sisskind, gifted with originality, unsettles all we thought we knew about this world and the next. "Mitch Sisskind's DO NOT BE A GENTLEMAN... opens the door to a world of another time, in an unusual mix of stories and poems, of solid realism and weird fantasy and wit, combining steamy sex and nostalgia, the Mickey Mouse Club and Talmudic scholarship. Sisskind gives us an unapologetically and un-politically-correct male world, but a quirky and appealing one, a world of old guys with funny names like Steve Tomato and Hub Snell--maybe you knew them? My favorite is 'Twenty Questions': a dead father, sitting in a magic chair, speaks to his son for a while about his life, and in this story, speaking from beyond the grave seems as natural as breathing, and the voice, talking about how he used to dress or eat or conduct business, completely alive." --Lydia Davis "Donald Barthelme told me, early on, that Mitch Sisskind is the funniest living writer in America--and when I read "A Mean Teacher," I was

Fiction. LGBT Studies. Like the orchids that provide their leitmotif, these interwoven stories by Kenward Elmslie are exquisite, exotic, and oneiric, as if they had been written in another world. Although each of THE ORCHID STORIES stands alone, their characters and moods recur frequently, in a swirl of visual echoes and the bewildering clarity of a dream. Even the characters themselves--Phil, the little boy gigolo; Mummers and Mummy who "adopt" him; the alluring Diana Vienna; the eccen-tric Dr. Schmidlapp and his wives who plot to capture the "Native Innards" orchid at the stroke of midnight--have an illusive reality that enhances the pleasure of these tales. The Song Cave is honored to present this new edition of Kenward Elmslie's out-of-print masterpiece, first published by Paris Review Editions in 1973. With an introduction that provides a fresh sense of Elmslie's oeuvre by Michael Silverblatt, host of KCRW's "Bookworm," this spectacular and spectacularly overlooked book is at last available to a new generation of adventurous readers.

"This book describes and evaluates some 830 Public Acts out of the 1,671 added to the statute books during Richard Nixon's presidency. The Nixon-era Acts examined here deal with six major topics, including protection of (1) the environment, (2) workers, (3) minorities, (4) consumers, (5) veterans, and (6) the general public. This book's major premise is that significant valuable public policy was enacted during Nixon's sixty-six months in office, thanks, in part, to his finding bipartisan agreement with Democrat congressional majorities. And these momentous accomplishments should not be overlooked or forgotten within a cloud of less-favorable Nixon-era memories. Thus, the legislative study in this book provides a bit of positive substance on the scale for the tenure of President Nixon. For those who supported Nixon, this book might offer reassurance that they were not, after all, totally misguided in doing so. But regardless of where your politics or opinions stand, this fact-based book offers valuable and unique insight and lessons about the importance of "reaching across the aisle" to get things done. No matter your level of existing knowledge, if you read this book, you will learn something new about Richard Nixon and maybe even change your opinion of him"--

Poetry. LGBTQIA Studies. SMUDGY AND LOSSY, the first collection of poetry by Idaho-based poet John Myers, offers us a map to a borderless and psychedelically rural landscape--poems begin and end without notice, and the titular characters, Smudgy and Lossy, fade in and out of the rustic settings, situations, and daily chores that Myers assigns to them, "look[ing] for delicate flowers that bloom through hard sand or clay." With an expansive and textured queerness covering each page, the flat horizons of these poems sit too far away to navigate their identity with any certainty. Building continuously toward the collection's final swirling 13 pages, a 127-line list poem leaves us with one of the most exciting and bewildering poetic finales in recent memory. "Both in the characters and the way the poems emote, I become 'wrapped in' John Myers's exquisite collection of poems SMUDGY AND LOSSY; their 'roaring and wandering' lyrics that might wear 'out a blue rectangle.' I am enamored with the style: poems that hold the lyric and its reproof, granting me more of their intensity. The poems scorn and celebrate--with equal gusto--feelings and attitudes that shift, deepen, and advise. The poems hold the imagination in front of the image, glossing-over or rusting the poem's sentiment. Take for example the poem 'Lossy, ' which opens with 'laugh gorgeous and laugh shy.' Does it instruct or describe? Both. And the other poems, too, are just as gorgeous and shy. In the end these poems reveal only what they intend: to loom 'beyond Eros and ferns.'"--Prageeta Sharma

"Michael Silverblatt, host of KCRW's Bookworm, the nation's premier literary radio program, has been bringing writers and readers together in close company for more than three decades. Audiences around the world tune in each week to discover new ways of thinking about books through Silverblatt's compassionate and enthusiastic conversations with contemporary writers, compelled by the surprising range of ideas and feelings that only his legendary close readings can evoke. Bookworm: Conversations with Michael Silverblatt gathers interviews with some of the most influential luminaries of our time: John Ashbery, John Berger, Octavia Butler, Joan Didion, Carlos Fuentes, William H. Gass, Toni Morrison, Grace Paley, W.G. Sebald, Stephen Sondheim, Susan Sontag, and David Foster Wallace (who notably said to Silverblatt in their first of several conversations, 'I feel like I wanna ask you to adopt me.'). Gathered together for the first time in print, these conversations span years, revealing not only the quality and character of the writers, but also the special relationship that Silverblatt developed with them during their lifetimes. This collection reveals why so many consider Silverblatt to be our greatest reader, as he allows us to see these writers at their most animated and understood."--Page 4 of cover.

The First English Translation of One of Norway's Best-Known PoetsFrom one of Norway's best-known poets, Helge Torvund's SERIOUSLY WELL is a book-length poem that explores the characteristics and limits of poetic incantation in relation to memory and illness. With spare lines and simple language, Torvund layers intimate recollections of nature, childhood, and ultimately a personal illness, and his deeply affecting acceptance of death. But Seriously Well is not a poem of mourning; rather it is one of expectation, experience, and of a confidence that told me / the very best thing to do for me / was to be where I am, / be alive / in that which is. Translated from Norwegian by its author, SERIOUSLY WELL is the first full-length book of Torvund's poetry to appear in English.This far-reaching and highly readable book-length sequence by the prize-winning Norwegian poet Helge Torvund begins as a poetic treatise on the power of poetry and the imagination, then shape-shifts to become a personal journey and philosophical search that ranges through memories, vivid passages of natural imagery, and stories within stories that sometimes read like real-life parables. The eventual crisis of the speaker's illness leads through a darkness which, once embraced, gives way to an expansive acceptance that feels both particular and, as in an ancient text, beyond time.--Jeffrey HarrisonIn this extraordinary poem, Helge Torvund, one of the finest living Norwegian poets, contemplating the magical role of poetry turns to a series of meditations on the mysteries of life and death, memory and place, love and homelife, illness and acceptance. We are given a vision of 'a connected whole / where we can / open our hearts / and be filled by / peace, confidence, / by light.'--Micheal O'SiadhailPoetry. Translation.

Meet Kip. A mischievous mouse who wears sunglasses, runs around with a knot in his tail, and carries with him the mystery of why he has part of his ear missing. Kip will wiggle his way into your funny bone with his antics, and have you pulling your hair out from the pranks he plays.

This story begins not long after Jack tossed out a flippant invitation to God. You will see that he got much more than expected in nightly dreams. In twenty-one dreams, with a few breaks along the way, God answered all of Jack's questions. Why is this life the way it is, and what would it be like living God's way rather than his my-way?