Sunday, June 12, 2011

Hello all you lovers of fine prose!

Looks like we are half way through the month that is also the half way mark of the year.

Hot and steamy, June is the month with the longest daylight hours of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The perfect time for grabbing a tall frosty glass of lemonade, sitting in a hammock and reading away the long twilight hours. What to read you say? Boy have you come to the right spot.

Today I am going to introduce you to a book that you will not be able to put down. A book that you will tell all your friends about and they will thank you. A book that is currently a finalist for the Foreword Book of the Year Prize in Poetry: http://www.bookoftheyearawards.com/finalists/2010/category/poetry/

The title is: Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room by Kelli Russell Agodon


REVIEW-

From the very beginning it is clear that this unique book is like no other. Its author writes with an intricate sense of precision about topics that range from chic to droll. She takes a capricious look at things vastly (on the surface at least) unrelated to each other.
From bras to coffins, romantic relationships to outer space, conversation with God to baklava, the reader is taken along on a soul searching journey full of heart and whimsy, melancholy and drama.
Kelli Russell Agodon is an intuitive writer whose every word is imbued with a subtle knowing of what it means to experience the full range of being alive. Perceptively told, her poems make this book a sumptuous feast of emotion, thought and dare one say it, hope.

Here is a small excerpt for your reading pleasure

"Other Words"


We say dishrag and ribtaker instead of homemaker. Use whiplash and lackluster instead of breadwinner . . .
There are days when sippy cups become purgatory and family vacation suggests space mission . . .
I don't want to say fishhook when I mean marriage, or not-tonight when what I meant to say is: I can't explain my sadness or the night has stolen the sky.
~
Emily Dickinson, who herself wrote a lot about earthly affairs, God and death, once said:

"Is "my Verse ... alive?"

Well it most certainly was, as we all know.

That wonderful concept known as "verse" (poetry) is still alive and well and currently being served up with an obvious relish for all the things that make a life well lived. It can be found in this wonderful book and in the careful hands of a master wordsmith, Kelli Russell Agodon.

Kelli makes herself very accessible and can be easily reached. Here is her Bio and contact info:

Kelli Russell Agodon is the author of Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room, winner of the White Pine Press Poetry Prize, which is currently a finalist for the Foreword Book of the Year Award in Poetry. She is also the author of Small Knots (2004) and the chapbook, Geography. Kelli lives in Washington State with her family where she is an avid mountain biker as well as the co-editor of Seattle’s 28-year-old print literary journal, Crab Creek Review, and the co-founder of Two Sylvias Press.

You can find her blogging at Book of Kells, where she writes about living and writing creatively: http://www.ofkells.blogspot.com/

or visit her website at: http://www.agodon.com/

you can write her here:

Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room can be purchased at the authors website.

It may also be purchased from "the cyclopean south American river.com"
or, as it is more commonly known, Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Letters-Emily-Dickinson-White-Poetry/dp/1935210157

this review brought to you by Indie. You can find me at http://onegirlonepen.blogspot.com/

2 comments:

Linda Bob Grifins Korbetis Hall said...

Indie,

it seems like you know poetry world super well.

it is certainly interesting to know letters from the Emily Dickinson room.

Kelli Russell is awesome, well deserved award.

Angela Cohan said...

Great work