New Book

Cervena Barva Press Announces a New Book "After Shakespeare: Selected Sonnets" by George Held George Held is a teacher, translator, writer, and poet whose work has appeared in such places as The Philadelphia Inquirer, Confrontation, Notre Dame Review, New York Quarterly, and Rattle, as well as on NPR and in two dozen anthologies. A five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, he has published a book, ten chapbooks, and two e-books of poetry and edited Touched by Eros, an anthology of erotic verse. He holds a B.A. from Brown, an M.A. from University of Hawaii, and a Ph.D. from Rutgers, taught at Queens College for 37 years, was a Fulbright lecturer in Czechoslovakia (1973-76), and serves on the executive board of The South Fork Natural History Museum, Bridgehampton, NY. He lives in Greenwich Village, with his wife, Cheryl. George Held's new collection of sonnets, After Shakespeare, is, at every turn, funny, surprising, and sharply observed. In poem after poem, Held follows Ezra Pound's injunction and "makes it new." Whether they are about Edmund Spenser on the E-train, painter Alice Neel or the Kennedy family, Held's poems delight with their music, and at the same time offer a deep wisdom. I love the way Held reinvents poetic tradition here and the way these poems, as he writes in "Discord," bring "joy beyond harmonic motion." —Nicole Cooley Beginning with his cheeky title (a chronological placement rather than a stylistic description) there is much to enjoy and admire in this new collection of sonnets from George Held. It is as though the awareness of his own belatedness is liberating to the poet, allowing him to explore all manner of interesting topics in a variety of sonnet forms and styles. Anyone interested in the vitality and accomplishment of the contemporary sonnet will want George Held's After Shakespeare. —Charles Martin To Hope You're the thing with feathers, flying skyward To inspire us when we lack the divine Afflatus, lifting our spirits, like prime Vintage or even swill like Thunderbird. You're what springs eternal in the human Breast, though eternity remains unproved, Just hyperbole to cheer an unloved One or fodder for some preacher's sermon. But skeptical as we may be, inured To loss of jobs and sinking stock prices, Unfaithful friends and false mistresses, Past the point where pride can still be injured, Ears still prick up to your springtime twitter, Unhibernating souls long in winter. $15.00 | ISBN: 978-0-9831041-9-3 | 71 Pages Order online at http://www.thelostbookshelf.com/cervenabooks.html After Shakespeare: Selected Sonnets $15.00 Shipping $3.00 Total $18.00 Send check or money order payable to: Cervena Barva Press P.O. Box 440357, W. Somerville, MA 02144-3222 e-mail: editor@cervenabarvapress.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send me______copies of "After Shakespeare: Selected Sonnets " Total enclosed: $________ Name____________________________________________________________________ Street____________________________________________________________________ City___________________________State________________Zip____________________ e-mail_________________________________Phone_____________________________

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