Publisher: Coach House Books
There are no lost women, only women who've forgotten their scripts.' RM Vaughan's play about Hollywood director Dorothy Arzner comes off the stage and onto the page in this handsome edition from Coach House Books. An insightful look at the gender politics behind the cameras and studios of the golden age of cinema.
'Rocksong is a shamelessly baroque ride through the all nadirs and summits of the contemporary queer. It's a decadent book, where decadence isn't a cipher for self-indulgence, but a fierce and fugitive resistance. As Audre Lorde writes 'We survived and survival breeds desire for more self'. Or, in the glowing neon precincts of Rocksong, more selves, plural. These poems flirt and confront in turns, they seduce and attack, they are tender and grotesque. They create a strangely exultant burlesque on identity, sexuality, desire and language. I love them for that.' Fran LockShow book
LibriVox volunteers bring you 9 different recordings of Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight by Vachel Lindsay. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of February 18th, 2007.Show book
In these rich and witty poems, we encounter a gallery of characters, voices and situations in various stages of emotional undress and bewilderment, fretting at just the wrong distance from reality in railway stations, ferries, restaurants, war zones and watery dystopias. They are filmic pieces that announce the arrival of an unusually gifted poet, in a short collection much bigger than its size – entertaining, disturbing and despite the odds curiously life-affirming. Here, the poet makes the seemingly mundane scenes and interactions extraordinary, with stunning language and unforgettable images. Whether the poet talks about 'My cousin with the sensitive ears / winces as he unbuckles his memory / listens to wallpaper peeling' or a Nativity play where 'Straw lies about as if someone has detonated a scarecrow', the poet showcases remarkable skills in exploring deep, human relationships. – Romalyn Ante, co-judge of the International Book & Pamphlet CompetitionShow book
The Damon Runyon Theatre Hour. Damon Runyon is acknowledged as one of the great writers to come out of twentieth century America. Runyon's short stories are almost always told in the first person by a narrator who is never named, and whose role is unclear; he knows many gangsters and has no job that can be gleaned from his musings, nor does he admit to any criminal involvement; He’s a bystander, an observer, an average street-corner Joe. Runyon described himself as "being known to one and all as a guy who is just around". That line seems to say a lot about Runyon and his life. It was like you were with him on some street corner hustle or some shady dive and he was filling you in on all the angles, all the gossip, all of life. He was who so many people wanted to be with……or so many people wanted to be. Of course, the cliché about newspapermen and writers is that they are heavy drinkers, chain-smokers, gamblers and obsessively chase women with a sideline in the gathering of stories and facts and actually getting something written just before the deadline hits. That seems like Damon Runyon and his life summed up in one sentence. His stories became legendary ways of looking that bit differently at America, of soaking up the atmosphere of a glamorous and rip-roaring age and distilling it into black and white type or, in our case, The Damon Runyon Theatre Hour.Show book
Ivor Bertie Gurney was born in Gloucester on 28th August 1890. A chorister at Gloucester cathedral Ivor began to compose music at 14 before winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in 1911. Noted for his enormous potential he was equally thought by many to be un-teachable. His studies were interrupted by World War I and his enlistment with the Gloucestershire Regiment. He was wounded in April 1917. He returned to duty but was gassed a few months later. After his release from hospital he was posted to Seaton Delaval, a mining village in Northumberland, where he wrote poems including 'Lying Awake In The Ward'. His first volume of poetry, Severn and Somme, was published in November 1917, followed by War's Embers in 1919. Unfortunately his life was blighted by bi-polar disorder which had developed from his mid-teens and culminated in his first major breakdown whilst still in uniform in 1918. The trigger was a failed relationship with Annie Drummond. After the war he seemed to thrive for a while but the bi-polar return with increasing severity in 1922 to the point where we was declared insane. Although he continued to write poems and a few pieces of music he was to spend the next fifteen years of his life until his death in various mental hospitals. Ivor Gurney died on 26th December 1937. This volume comes to you from Portable Poetry, a specialized imprint from Deadtree Publishing. Our range is large and growing and covers single poets, themes, and many compilations.Show book
James Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets. These poets usually used conventional forms and meters in their poetry, making them suitable for families entertaining at their fireside."Lowell's poem "The Present Crisis," an early work that addressed the national crisis over slavery leading up to the Civil War, has had an impact in the modern civil rights movement. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People named its newsletter The Crisis after the poem, and Martin Luther King, Jr. frequently quoted the poem in his speeches and sermons. The poem was also the source of the hymn Once to Every Man and Nation." - Summary by WikipediaShow book
