08/19/2024
Writers Gambit, part 02
Elizabeth Cunningham, Look to This Day, Poems for Doris McCarthy
“ Look to This Day: Poems for Doris McCarthy is a rich ekphrastic dialogue between poet Elizabeth Cunningham and painter Doris McCarthy, [1910-2010]. Poet Jenna Butler wrote about this book, " McCarthy’s paintings, and her cottage on Georgian Bay, became a refuge to Cunningham during the weary years of the pandemic; they also became profound connection points between two deeply creative women, important links between shared views of the more-than-human world and its exquisite beauty. Look to This Day is the most engaged sort of homage: it is an intimate and intelligent exploration of the very ways of seeing and holding space in the world that underpin McCarthy’s work.”
Kevin Spenst, A Bouquet Brought Back from Space, Anvil Press, 2024.
Kevin writes of this book: I live in a bachelor suite in a building named the Stanley Park Manor in Vancouver’s West End...A Bouquet Brought Back from Space contains a crown of sonnets dedicated to my friend Jeff Steudel, who also lived in this building decades ago, written immediately after I’d learned of Jeff’s passing. My book takes inspiration from Rilke in several ways, one of which is through Jeff’s fascination with Rilke and how he wove his words and ideas through his own poetry. Rilke became more and more important to some of the book’s overall themes of angels, isolation and love.
Susan Dambroff, A Chair Keeps the Floor Down, Finishing Line Press, 2021
These poems are dedicated to the children Susan had the privilege of teaching, and who taught her. Written after retiring from a rich career as a special education teacher in San Francisco, as a way to honor each heartbreak and celebration she encountered, and to move into the next more spacious journey of her life. As a teacher she would corral the children into loops of captivating play just as the poems do as they witness taking the journey out of the classroom into the lives of their families and communities.
Alison Goeller, Frozen in Love (A Will Sargent Mystery)
Alison Goeller, who lives in Provence, writes short stories and mystery novels. Frozen in Love is the second of a four part series featuring Will Sargent. "The idea to write a series of murder mysteries set in the fictional village of Wilburne, Vermont, and featuring a local locksmith (Will Sargent) and his bookish wife (Poppy) was inspired by my uncle Bill Deming--a real locksmith-- and his wife Phyllis, both long-time residents of the village of Shelburne, Vermont. In Frozen in Love a restaurant manager is found dead inside a meat freezer. When Poppy discovers an unusual smell emanating from her husband’s brand-new winter gloves, a dangerous journey to solve the murder ensues."
ORDER these fine books:
Elizabeth Cunningham, Look to This Day, Poems for Doris McCarthy was published by Elizabeth's business, Waterside Arts, in time for the twentieth anniversary celebration of the Doris McCarthy Museum at University of Toronto in May 2024.
ORDERS: Waterside Arts: 5-1106, 7th St, Nelson, BC, V1L 0A1, Canada
Kevin Spenst, A Bouquet Brought Back from Space, may be ordered from the publisher, Anvil Press, and is available through bookstores and online retailers.
Susan Dambroff, A Chair Keeps the Floor Down, may be ordered from the publisher, Finishing Line Press.
Alison Goeller: The Possessive Case and Frozen in Love, Will Sargent mysteries, may be ordered from Amazon.
Happy summer reading!
