Broadstone Books Announces how we hold on

 

What is extraordinary about the Broadstone Books announcement of how we hold on, Karren Alenier’s eighth collection of poetry, is the in-depth review. This publisher not only makes beautifully crafted books but promotes the work with full understanding of what is in it. Here is one example. Larry Moore writes:

 

In the poem “Homecoming” Alenier writes of the Greek word parea, for which there is no exact English equivalent, a term for a group of friends who delight in one another’s company, for the joy of sharing experiences:  “how / most importantly we can love / and help each other through /celebration / and sorrow.”  In a very real sense, this collection is her invitation for us to join her parea, and to share in her celebrations and her sorrows.

 

 how we hold on launches April 15, 2021. Query the author now about obtaining your copy.

 

Announcement of New Opera—What Price Paradise

Encompass New Opera Theatre and Nancy Rhodes celebrating Women's History month sent out the first publicity on the work-in-progress opera What Price Paradise with libretto by Karren LaLonde Alenier and music by Janet Peachey.

 

Encompass on the Home Front…
Celebrates Women Librettists
and Composers
       New Visions/New Composers

Our developmental program fostering new opera is featuring
 

WHAT PRICE PARADISE

 by librettist Karren LaLonde Alenier, composer Janet Peachey

A new chamber opera that unfolds the turbulent love story of Jane and Paul Bowles, ex-pat writers and composer living in Tangier, Morocco. Despite their pursuit of extramarital lovers and acting out of deep-seated conflicts, their creative lives made them devoted to each other. The music draws from international settings that range from the medina of Tangier to a brothel in Guatemala to a New York hotel, and an island off the coast of Ceylon.   

Karren Alenier is a poet, writer, and librettist. Through New York’s School of Visual Arts (1982), she studied with Paul Bowles in Morocco. They worked on her poems about Gertrude Stein, which became part of her opera with William Banfield, Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On. Encompass premiered the opera in 2005, directed by Nancy Rhodes. Her interview with Bowles was published in Gargoyle magazine and in conversations with Paul Bowles. Alenier is author of seven collections of poetry. Looking for Divine Transportation was the 2002 winner of the Towson University Prize for literature. The Anima of Paul Bowles was the 2016 top pick at Boston's Grolier Books. Her eighth collection How We Hold On launches Spring 2021.

 

Composer Janet Peachey has written music for opera, ballet, orchestral, chamber, piano, and vocal. She has received grants for composition from the National Endowment for the Arts, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and Meet the Composer.  As a Fulbright grantee in Vienna, she studied at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst, where she earned DIPLOMAS in composition and conducting.  As Artistic Director of Capital Composers Alliance, Peachey produced concerts of works by Washington-area composers: she was Vice President of Programs for American Women Composers. Her music has been published by Arsis Press. Peachey teaches at The Duke Ellington School of the Arts.

WHAT PRICE PARADISE  is the second opera Encompass has developed with librettist Karren LaLonde Alenier and we are looking forward to presenting scenes from the opera. Stay tuned!

Published in This Is What America Looks Like

This Is What America Looks Like, a newly launched Washington Writers’ Publishing House anthology of prose and poetry, has a provocative title. The title is what drew the Steiny Road Poet’s attention and she is pleased with the inclusion of her poem “the bell sonnet.” Among the poets appearing in this anthology are: Sandra Beasley, Teri Cross Davis, Don Illich, Rueben Jackson, Greg Luce, Jean Nordhaus, Linda Pastan, Kim Roberts, Myra Sklarew, and many other esteemed colleagues.

 

The form of my poem takes off from Sherman Alexie’s “Sonnet, Without Salmon.” This means there are 14 numbered parts. Here are the first three parts of “the bell sonnet”:

 

1. when the bell sounds the vibration heals

2. the man I called father hit a cowbell for comic relief and then blew smoke rings

3. in our twenties my friend whose name is pronounced bell but is spelled B e a l l said we must say boldly we are poets

 

Here’s one of the stanzas that speaks to the anthology’s title:

 

12. in 2045 Census projects the United States will become minority white at 49.8 percent with the Hispanic population at the next highest percent of 24.6

Date Set for New Collection of Poetry + Reading

 

My eighth collection of poetry how we hold on from Broadstone Books, will be in print in April! Cover art will be a magnificent time-suspended photo by Chris Hubble that was shot on the cliffs of Negril, Jamaica.  Check out his work at http://www.chrishubble.com/daytime-long-exposures

 

 

My first reading is May 19 at 7 pm in the Poets vs the Pandemic series. Use this link to register for upcoming programs for Café Muse and Poets vs the Pandemic: https://sites.google.com/view/cafe-muse-events/home 

Choosing a Book Cover

 

How does one pick an image for a book of poetry?

 

Keep in mind that poetry books are judged by their covers and often the purchase of a collection of poems is an impulse buy. What will make a buyer reach for your book of poetry?

 

These elements can help:

 

—Color or dramatic black and white contrast

 

—Novelty

 

—Something that speaks to a basic need or yearning

 

 

Next: what is the thematic core of this collection? How does your image speak to the title and overriding theme of this collection?

 

 

Don't forget to try out your image on trusted advisors.