New Poetry Book Launch Event 8 Voices, Contemporary Poetry

Nov. 5, 2012 - PRLog -- On Tuesday, November 13, 8 Voices, contemporary poetry from the American Southwest will have its Oklahoma launch at MAINSITE Contemporary Gallery, 122 East Main Street, Norman, Oklahoma 73069.  The book is a collection of eight widely published poets from Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.  The reading and signing will begin at 7:00p.m.  Admission is free and seating is limited.  Nathan Brown, award winning Oklahoma poet, will be joined by Tony Mares of Albuquerque and Karla K. Morton, poet laureate of Texas.

Baskerville Publishers is pleased to announce the November release of 8 Voices, contemporary poetry of the American Southwest.  During late November, the book will received simultaneous launches in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Norman, Oklahoma, Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas.

Eight poets were selected whose work clearly demonstrates that poetry of the southwest is not “regional,” but deals with the universal themes of all good poetry, while not losing a sense of place.  Tom Sleigh writes of the book, …”these poems are wonderfully idiosyncratic voices as cosmopolitan as they are rooted in what Seamus Heaney once called ‘the music of what happens’…  The region that unites them is the republic of memorable speech.”

Dan Williams, Director of the TCU Press, who was the editor of 8 Voices, concludes his introduction, “I have gained much becoming acquainted with the poems included in this volume, and I feel privileged to have read and selected them.  I believe anyone who picks up this volume will feel the same.”

Price:   $21.95          ISBN: 978-1880909-79-9

Available Through:  Amazon.com, all bookstores, Baskerville Publishers website

Gary Swaim, widely-published poet, produced playwright, published fiction writer, and digital painter, received his A.B. in English from the University of California, Riverside and his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Philosophy from the University of Redlands and Claremont Graduate University. Currently, a faculty member in the Master of Liberal Studies program at Southern Methodist University, he has taught broadly across the United States, and is the founding Executive Editor of Pony Express(ions), an online literary journal for S.M.U.  Dr. Swaim is a Minnie-Stevens Piper Professor of Excellence for the state of Texas.

Nathan Brown, is a musician, photographer and award-winning poet from Norman, Oklahoma. He holds a PhD from the University of Oklahoma, but mostly travels now, performing readings and concerts, as well as leading workshops and speaking on creativity and the need for readers to not give up on poetry. He’s published eight books. Karma Crisis: New and Selected Poems came out this spring. And a previous book, Two Tables Over, won the 2009 Oklahoma Book Award.

Karla K. Morton, the 2010 Texas Poet Laureate, is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and graduate of Texas A&M University.  Described as “one of the most adventurous voices in American poetry,” she is a Betsy Colquitt Award Winner, twice an Indie National Book Award Winner, and the author of seven books of poetry.

Jeffrey DeLotto, Professor of English at Texas Wesleyan University, teaches writing and British literature. He  has also taught writing and literature at Texas Tech University, at Yarmouk University (in Jordan), and as a Fulbright Lecturer in Bulgaria. His books include Voices at the Door , Days of  a Chameleon: Collected Poems,  and Voices Writ in Sand: Dramatic Monologues and Other Poems. His poems, essays and stories have appeared in numerous magazines, journals and anthologies.

Tony Mares, was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, educated in local schools, went on to university courses and completed a doctorate in European history.  However, beginning in his early to mid-twenties, poetry became the real focus of his attention.  Over the years, he  published several books of poetry and his poems have appeared in numerous venues.  He also has one book of translations of the poems of the Asturian poet, Ángel González.

Alan Birkelbach, the 2005 Texas Poet Laureate, is the author of nine books of poetry. He is a winner of the 2010 North Texas Book Festival Award, two-time presenter at the Texas Book Festival, a Spur, Wrangler, Pushcart, and TIL Children’s Book award nominee, and a finalist in the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.  He is a native Texan.

Elizabeth Raby, is the author of three full-length poetry collections and four chapbooks.  

Her poems have been translated into Romanian and she is co-author of a Romanian/English chapbook, Oase, Carne, & Blana  (Bone, Flesh & Fur.)  Winner of the 2010 Elmer Kelton Award, Angelo State University,she has been nominated several times for the Pushcart. A graduate of Vassar College (B.A.) and Temple University (M.A., Creative Writing), Ms. Raby has lived in Santa Fe, NM since 2000.  

Ronald Moore, was a health care executive for thirty years. He has a BA in Philosophy and an MBA in Finance from TCU. He is a composer, adventurer (103 countries) human rights activist, with a strong interest in Tibetan freedom. He has one book of poetry, Alterity (Current Press) and has been published in descant and other venues. He has two sons and lives in Fort Worth, Texas.