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Book Reviews
WINTER BOOK PICKS
Necessary Myths
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by Grant Clauser
“So what if Romulus/put down the stone/and embraced his brother?/ Would our paths be/so different than now?” So goes a passage of the title poem of Grant Clauser’s eloquent but often, and perhaps understandably so, pessimistic book of poetry, Necessary Myths (Broadkill Press, 2013). In the aforementioned stanza, Clauser seems tobeaskingwhethermythology,orany similar artifice created by the gods or man could assuage the grim fate that maynowbefacingtheworldinthisthe early years of the 21st century. Necessary Myths, which is the winner of the prestigious 2013 Dogfish Head Poetry Prize, makes an elaborate, and very articulate, case for falleness, loss, entropy, and, yes, perhaps even doom ofakind.
Clauserisamasterofwordcraft.There is a kind of late afternoon buzz quality tohisdescriptionsofnature—evenin its impermanence. I can definitely see the sun setting on so much of what he describes where we can find such things as “a gossiping spring between rocks... ” (“The Children Discover a SpringBetweenRocks”).Andalsoperhaps, ever so vaguely, there is a yearning for a terribly remote and tenuous unfallenpast.Agardenthatwasprobably already beginning to petrify momentsafteritscreation.
— Peter Baroth
The Bright Field of Everything
by Deborah Fries
Deborah Fries’ poem “Marie in America” was selected by Dorothea Lasky as Philadelphia Stories’ 2013 winner of the Sandy Crimmins National Prize in Poetry. Reading the poemagain—itisthefirstpoeminthe collection—Iamstruckbytheelegant coexistence of science and humanity it presents.Thehumanbodyhere,thatof MarieCurie,isultimatelyvulnerableto radiation — and so many other “invasive” elements. Fries catalogs bones, legs,skin,marrowinthefirstfewlines of the poem, but almost immediately pointstotheirweakness.
Throughout the collection, Fries considers the human body in medical and mythical terms. It is a home from which one might be uprooted or transplanted. Poems such as “Man with a Hat” or “Balls” explore the animal aspects of our human bodies — how our bodies (and the bodies of others) delight, deceive, and disappoint. The poems in the section “Sketching the Invasives” suggest the impermanence of geographical homes. Overall, the collectionbalancesthecerebralandthe corporeal, examining the author’s experiencethroughscientificandspirituallenses.
ThescopeofDeborahFriespoetryhere ismassive—herfocusfindsspecksof dustintheuniverseandtheuniversein a speck of dust. Her humor is pronouncedbutunderstated;herartistryis similarlyvisiblewithoutbeingostentatious.Eachpoemisanaxismundilinking earthly, animal physicality to the magical,spiritual,orcerebral.Areader may need a medical dictionary to understandsomeofthelanguageinthe poems, but such attention is rewarded byDeborahFries’expansive,butpiercingvoice.
— Courtney Bambrick
The Blessings
by Elise Juska
Realisticyetintimateatthesametime, EliseJuskatakesreaderstotheheartof Philadelphia in The Blessings and peoples it with a family readers will come to know as if they were our own. We are immediately drawn into the large, extended Blessing family, and the separate,butunitedlivesthattheylive. Juska brings alive the characters, both individually and as a family unit. The book begins with the story of Abby Blessing, just starting college in the 1990s,where“ …shehasbeguntoperceiveherownuniqueness,torecognize her family as something apart from otherfamilies,withitsownrhythmand code. ” The book then quickly moves into the deep emotional territory of the shaping of the Blessing family and the momentsoftheirlivesinthecity. The Blessings is the kind of book that will make readers stop and think, in a goodway.Forexample,neartheendof the book, we are introduced to Elena,
one of the youngest Blessings and she says that living with the Blessings is ‘”having this identity as part of a big family but also this part of yourself that’s separate, dealing with your own private stuff, that they never really know… ”’
Juskamanagestodevelopthoughtfully allthecharactersinherbook.Ifeellike I’ ve been to a party where I didn’t know anybody, and then spent a lifetime with them. Readers will ride with their triumphs and sorrows, and carry them in their hearts, as if they were a Blessingthemselves.
— Pam Pastorino
Women’s Poetry: Poems and Advice
by Daisy Fried
Daisy Fried is an admired, establishedpoetwhohasreceivednumerous well-deserved national awards and much praise from her colleagues, like Tony Hoagland, Ange Mlinko, and Susan Wheeler, just to name a few. However, despite her presence as an important contemporary voice in Americanpoetry,she’salsoactiveona local level, and we were lucky at Philadelphia Stories to have her as a judge for our recent Sandy Crimmins nationalprizeforpoetry.
Fried’s latest collection Women
’ s Poetry: Poems and Advice begins with the poem “Torment. ” When I first readthepoemin Poetry in2011,Iwas blown away. I shared the poem with friends, co-workers; there was something about it that really resonated for me, especially as a teacher of young adults. Itwaslikeshehadputwordsto the complicated feelings that come up inanalltoooftenromanticizedprofession. EverytimeIreturntothispoem, I feel the same sense of wonder as to how beautifully the layers of connection, misunderstanding, uncertainty, indifference and concern are woven together.
The entire collection is filled with the same kinds of insight, humor, feminism and creativity displayed above. If you feel yourself drawn to any of these elements, you ’re sure to loveit.
— Aimee Penna
Philadelphia Stories is pleased to announce the 2015 Seventh Annual Marguerite McGlinn Prize for Fiction
Deadline: June 15, 2015
PRIZES: • $2,000 cash award • $500 2nd place prize • $250 3rd place prize • Invitation to an awards dinner in October
Requirements:
1. Previously unpublished works of fiction up to 8,000 words. 2. $12 reading fee (all entrants receive a 1-year subscription to Philadelphia Stories). 3. To be eligible, the authors must reside in the United States.
The Marguerite McGlinn Prize for Fiction is made possible by the generous support of the McGlinn and Hansma Families.
For more information, www.philadelphiastories.org For more information, www.philadelphiastories.org
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($25 - $40)
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Marie Davis-Williams Josephine A. Graham Judy Heller Karen McLaughlin Kathleen Kopp Kristin Henry & Joy McKeown Linda Wisniewski Lisa Reed Liz Dolan Lois Rudnick Lori Widner Lynette & John Byrnes Maria Keane Marilyn Carrier Mary Erpel Mary & Owen Gilman Mo Ganey & Don Kates Nancy duPont Nancy Sakaduski Nancy Lubow Nicole & John Monaghan Pamela Fox Patricia Coyle Patti Peet Ramona Long Richard Dennis Roy Eisenhandler Ruth Littner Sheila Sherwin Susan Nelson Teresa Donnelly Terry Mergenthal Therese Halscheid Thomas Deitman Vernita Hall Virginia Dillon
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Potok Level
($500- $999)
Carol Oberholtzer Kerri & Marc Schuster Mitchell Sommers Polia Tzvetanova Thomas & Meriam Rush William Weldon In Memory of Dennis Oberholtzer
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($1000+)
Heather McGlinn Hansma &
Scott Hansma Joseph A. Sullivan Michael Ritter & Christine Furtek Thomas McGlinn
Sustainer Members
Charles McGroaty (Whitman Level) Courtney & Peter Bambrick (Buck Level) Erin Cormier (Buck Level) Julie Odell (Whitman Level) Lyndon Back (Whitman Level) Nancy A. Jackson (Whitman) Robert Vincent Mallouk (Whitman Level) Stephan Kolter (Buck Level) Tara & Andrew Smith (Buck Level)
Donations Made in Memory of Jerry Smith
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Merck Partnership for Giving Robert Wood Foundation The Philadelphia Foundation Bergan County United Way
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Philadelphia Stories has been serving the writing community of the Greater Delaware Valley since 2004 in the following ways:
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