Word Palace Press

12/11/2019

The Mystery of False Attachments by Jerome Rothenberg now available from Word Palace Press and Amazon

09/09/2019

Jerome Rothenberg's remarkable new book, "The Mystery of False Attachments", now available from Word Palace Press and Amazon

04/19/2019

Jerome Rothenberg's new book "The Mystery of False Attachments" out next month from Word Palace Press.

03/16/2019

Jerome Rothenberg's
The
Mystery
of
False
Attachments

coming soon from Word Place Press

02/23/2019

Michael Lally: I Want To Call It Poems is a feature documentary film directed by Rachel E. Diken. Logline: From an Irish working-class family of cops and priests…

01/04/2019

Un Libro de Voces (an extended interview with poems and essays), edited and translated into Spanish by Javier Taboada and Ricardo Cáceres, Mangos de Hacha, Mexico

11/17/2018

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zHJOyWqu6fgM8KAw1D9RoobP6FOtfQhJ/view

11/15/2018

"You can't teach poetry." It's a controversial stance that local poet Michael Hannon holds firm on. It's a lesson he stumbled onto quickly in his...

11/16/2017

New from Word Palace Press, The Human Field (in English and Vietnamese), poetry by Tran Quang Quy (available from Amazon).

11/11/2017

Glenna Luschei will join Michael Hannon as featured readers at Coalesce Chapel in Morro Bay, at 2pm on Sunday November 12. This reading is part of the 34th Annual Language of the Soul Poetry Festival.

10/13/2017

New from Word Palace Press, "The Human Field" by Tran Quang Quy translated by Nguyen Phan Que Mai and Jennifer Fossenbell

07/21/2017

Michael C. Ford has been publishing steadily, since 1970 and credited with over 28 volumes of print documents. He’s been featured on approx. 65 spoken word tracks, since 1985, including National episodes from California Artists Radio Theatre productions plus four solo recordings. His debut vinyl {La...

06/23/2017

On Sunday July 2, 3:00, at the Steynberg Gallery, in San Luis Obispo, Michael Hannon will read from his new book, The Muse Turns Her Back

06/22/2017

A literary event presented by
Susan Hayden & Alexis Rhone Fancher
for their Window productions at
A.G. GEIGER FINE ART BOOKS
502 Chung King Court / LA / CA 90012
phone # 213) 505-6957

Book-signing: Sunday / July 23 / 4:pm

A celebration introducing a Word Palace Press
publication WOMEN UNDER THE INFLUENCE
by Michael C Ford (2016) into the world.
Celebrity literary guests join the author reading
from a volume of work International Review Of Music
magazine praised as being “A magnificent fusion of poetic
reflections on music, girl singers, motion picture femmes fatale and a
reservoir of clear-eyed, uncompromising emotion”

Official MapQuest website, find driving directions, maps, live traffic updates and road conditions. Find nearby businesses, restaurants and hotels. Explore!

06/17/2017

"The Queen of Inglewood" by Teka Lark due our from Word Palace press this july.

04/24/2017

WOMEN UNDER THE INFLUENCE –a Book Review
April issue 2017
By Roger Crane
Wait! Why is a book of poetry being reviewed on the International Review of Music site?
After all, that “M” might just stand for music right? Well, writer Michael C Ford is a most enthusiastic jazz fan staying up too late in many jazz venues and, since you also like jazz, I feel very confident that you will like the poetry from a writer who many have dubbed “jazz poet.” His text is both accessible and understandable. But why do I call him the “jazz poet?” Jazz and poetry are linked by their intrinsic nature of both being ever-changing, improvisational art forms of expression Ford’s rhythms, his accents, his subject matter and his dramatic readings – both live and on innumerable recordings continued, here, weaving new melodic lines and sweeping through the “changes” with the assurance of a horn player - are drenched in jazz.
Many of us write “poetry” but Ford is not a dilettante. He is an accomplished and published poet with over twenty-eight volumes of written works. He received a Grammy nomination in 1986 for his spoken-word Language Commando and a Pulitzer Prize nomination for his 1998 book titled Emergency Exits. Poetry, of course, should not be simply read. Like music it should be heard and dramatic reading is one of Ford’s many strengths. He has a resonant baritone voice and has appeared in spoken-word concerts across the nation, often working with jazz artists. But, interestingly, it was the famous rock singer-composer, Jim Morrison (of the seminal band “The Doors”) who encouraged Ford to give his first public recital back in 1969 at a benefit performance designed to raise money for Norman Mailer’s run for the mayor of New York City.
Similarly to jazz, Ford’s poetry is unexpected, full of depth and full of surprise and there is nothing esoteric or difficult about his imagery. But, happily, he does not focus on childhood, Christmas, the changing seasons, or his favorite puppy. What makes Ford’s imagery distinctive is that he examines the woebegone days of Hollywood and the vanishing jazz scene. The primary motif of his works is that he resurrects iconic figures ranging from actresses Dorothy McGuire, Ann Sothern and Gena Rowlands to legendary jazz artists such as Billie Holiday. His chosen subjects also include forgotten films, discarded music and the silence of a lonely Edward Hopper painting (“empty open rooms full of sunlight.”) and, of course, given the title, Ford’s meditations on women, some classic leading ladies and some not (e.g., an lovely eulogy to a grandmother). But, well known or not, Ford’s women leave us entranced. Just to cite a few examples, he limned an intriguing tableau on Carroll Baker “a post-pubescent baby doll who gave us / cribs full of Coca-Cola bottles and lingerie.” Ford loves female jazz singers and, while praising Carmen McRae, he addresses a problem that she and all us jazz fans have to deal with, ”jive turkeys too drunk to half-way comprehend the difference between an augmented ninth and a flattened fifth.”
The noted poet Ezra Pound once said “poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music." Well, since music embraces his every syllable, there is little chance of Michel C Ford’s poetry atrophying and I highly recommend “this poet” to you. His poems are clear-eyed and uncompromising and full of sparkling imagery just like an improvised jazz solo. This collection is a magnificent fusion of poetry and reflections on midnight jazz, femmes fatale and other women “under the influence.” Miles Davis’ 1959 melancholy Kind of Blue recording nicely complements this collection as a sort of soundtrack. Like Ford with his text, Davis pared his music down, got rid of what he did not need, implying a vast reservoir of emotion and meaning just beneath the surface.
For information regarding the ordering of copies and other details, check the Word Palace Press site, http://wordpalacepress.com

Word Palace Press is a publisher for short fiction and poetry, located in San Luis Obispo, CA.

04/12/2017

Michael C Ford's new book, "Women," now available from Word Palace Press, Amazon, et al.