Award for The Last Island

Deerbrook Editions is Pleased to Announce
The Last Island has received
The Jane Kenyon Award for Outstanding Book of Poetry

The Last Island
Poems by Mimi White
82 pages; 6 x 9 trade paper; price $14.00; ISBN 978-0-9712488-8-5
with cover photograph by Sharon Beals 



IN PRAISE OF THE LAST ISLAND

In these deft poems Mimi White traces with great sensitivity a landscape of intimacy. It is a place that is hazardous and rewarding, brimming with feeling that has been tried and retried.  One reads poetry to deepen one’s sense of what it is to be alive- these poems do that with admirable concision.
—Baron Wormser

Mimi White’s mesmerizing book, The Last Island, is a many-faceted love story and, like love, insists you look again in wonder at history, your own gardens, relationships, children, pets, your nearly unbearable losses, and your own mortality. Through the alchemy of these smart, strong poems, you come to realize just how lucky you are to be alive. In the book’s first poem, the narrator, while watching a house burn down, finds herself in a reverie concerning the gifts and grief that come from a passionate relationship. And it’s the burning house that stayed with me as I read this book. The body itself is a house, of sorts and living — a fire full of terror but also great beauty. Be prepared as you read for many unexpected transformations, for revelations that arise from the most common events: visiting an old poet in his garden, feeding your beloved dog although you know he will die soon, releasing a newly healed bird into the orchard.  And best of all, after you finish reading, these poems stay with you, their richness, their music, their sturdy love returning just when you need them most.
—Mekeel McBride

Praise for Mimi White- The Philbrick Poetry Award 2000
“These are poems of a deceptive quiet and simplicity, just that they make, together, a landscape of painful, almost surreal insistence.”
—Robert Creeley

Mimi White has been teaching creative writing for twenty-five years and is Co-Director of PicturePoets of AIR, a non-profit organization that provides enriching arts and cultural experiences to teenage girls. She has been a finalist and a recipient of a NH State Fellowship in Poetry. Her chapbook "The Singed Horizon" was selected by Robert Creeley as the recipient of the 2000 Philbrick Poetry Award. Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, New Hampshire 2005-2007, she is currently working to reduce the effects of global warming as a member of Rye, New Hampshire’s Energy Committee.

Published by Deerbrook Editions - P.O. Box 542 - Cumberland, ME 04021
Phone & FAX 207-829-5038

Available from; the publisher single title orders are $16.50 postage paid; Amazon.com; listed with Books In Print; Baker & Taylor . . .
Now distributed by Small Press Distribution http://www.spdbooks.org

Steingesser read on The Writer's Almanac

Martin Steingesser, author of the book "Brothers of Morning", had the poem, "This Longing", read on the air Augusy 18th. Congratulations Martin. This is the second poem from the book read on "The Writer's Almanac," if I am not mistaken. "Brothers of Morning" is the first book publihed by Deerbrook Editions, soon to go into a second printing.











This Longing

... awoke to rain
around 2:30 this morning
thinking of you, because I'd said
only a few days before, this

is what I wanted, to lie with you in the dark
listening how rain sounds
in the tree beside my window,
on the sill, against the glass, damp

cool air on my face. I am loving
fresh smells, light flashes in the
black window, love how you are here
when you're not, knowing we will

lie close, nothing between us; and maybe
it will be still, as now, the longing
that carries us
into each other's arms

asleep, neither speaking
least it all too soon turn to morning, which
it does. Rain softens, low thunder, a car
sloshes past.


Look up the show for Aug 18 2009 here

Thank you Garrison Keillor.

Thoughts from a Designer

In ordinary places you can find extraordinary things.

This sentence came to me one day while thinking about what to write about Deerbrook Editions. Then, a brook running through the woods, and then a deer drinking on the bank. The brook sound is a song. The deer is a spirit. I happen to live next to a brook called Deer Brook.

A friend of mine sent off a children's story through the brother of a friend that happened to work in the publishing business in New York. The brother liked the story, as did another editor friend of a friend. But the brother said that the publishing company probably wouldn't find interest in it because it wasn't commercial enough.

In opening the latest Consortium catalog for poetry and literature, consortiumacademic.com, I found a statement of dedication to the power of ideas, making independent thoughts available, and a promise that I would find stimulating books. The statement alone was inspiring. If I could write a paragraph like that . . .

Ideas are powerful. After viewing a recently aired show about the life and work of Garrison Keillor, which left me with a pleasing sense that there are remarkable folks out there creating beautiful music and literature, doing extraordinary things in ordinary places. It seems apparent to me that it is the people that make ideas powerful.

I believe that there are many more deserving writers and artists in the world than ever find a publisher or gallery that will present their work.
So far my catchy phrase that makes an introduction sound bite for Deerbook Editions is:

DESERVING AUTHORS • GOOD BOOKS

I think I might add:
In ordinary places you can find extraordinary things.

Deerbrook Editions books are beautiful books, well designed and in handsome covers. Though they are trade paper editions, my design background is in limited editions, so care is taken that text blocks and margins are balanced. We also use fine art on the cover whenever we can, often recommended by the author. I work with authors closely during the editorial process to ensure the content is in keeping with their intention of how the writing should appear.

Some of our authors have won prizes and fellowships, some do performance poetry, some write in other forms, or about art, and some play musical instruments. Most of them have taught or are teaching. My background is in visual art and design. There is a web site you can go to, idesignbooks, and view some of my work in book art. The site may be archaic, but I am taking steps to improve it with a new design and elements that make it more search engine friendly.

Thank you for buying Deerbrook Edition books, if you have, by doing so you are supporting writers and artists, not just a publisher. The more books we sell, the more authors we can publish, market, and promote. By buying our books you help us make a difference.

Book Publishing News

On July 16, the News Hour had a very interesting ANALYSIS spot on publishing. Readership seems to be up in libraries although many stores may be seeing fewer sales; even the big stores like Borders; the independent stores and publishers are important; and the "book" doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. The e-books are just another form of distribution, as with audio books, (note what Jonathan Karp and Raphael Sagalyn have to say,) that even new forms like the e-books attention can be good for book sales in general.

I can remember in library school during the early 1980's there was concern for the disappearance of the physical card catalog being replaced by computers, and even books being replaced, and I am glad to say so far the book has held strong. For me, there still isn't anything like holding and reading a book, and as pointed out in another News Hour report on newspapers, the ability to 'search' a paper, a catalog, or a book, by hand, is very user friendly .

Hyacinth for the Soul has another review

Hyacinth for the Soul, Joan I. Siegel,
Deerbrook Editions 2009, $16.95


“We knew who we were back then,” begins Joan I. Siegel’s Hyacinth for the Soul—and I found myself sitting beside her on the stoop, “snug” in my “square-toed socks.” Siegel, professor emeritus at SUNY/Orange, offers a collection of sensual, compassionate, and highly individual poems. “As though darkness were a hand, / a tactile memory / like playing the piano. You touch lost things.” These lost things include childish fears (“black holes that could vacuum us / up like a pair of socks.”), joys (“you and your sister… comfortable as animals in each other’s smell,”) and puzzles (“How the veins / of the lamb on your plate looked / just like the veins in your wrist.”)



The details of everyday life filtered through memory become mysterious. Her father, “dark as rain on black umbrellas” in a photo taken before her birth, will later ask his wife, “Who are you?” In these lovely poems, Siegel meditates on her experiences and thus allows us to see ourselves.

Lee Gould, The Chronogram.

See the link below in post "News from Blooming Grove".

Our books are availale on line from spdbooks, do an advanced search, type in Deerbrook Editions in the publisher line and titles come up.

Finding Father

“Finding Father”—Join four poets in a journey beyond Hallmark holiday tributes to fatherhood for an engaging presentation of poems celebrating and suffering the fathers in our lives, at Longfellow Books, One Monument Way, Portland, on Thursday, June 18, at 7 pm. Local poets Michael Macklin, Betsy Sholl, Martin Steingesser and Judy Tierney will read and present poems about fathers from their own writings and those of other poets. Admission is free.

“This will be a more nourishing bowl of soup than the usual holiday fare for Father’s Day,” says Martin Steingesser, coordinator and participating poet in the program. Each poet will read one or two poems of their own and one poem by another poet about fathers or some aspect of fatherhood.

News from Blooming Grove

Joan at her piano.

Joan Siegel has also been active reading and promoting her book in her area of the Hudson Valley / Blooming Grove, NY. Here is a list of events and reviews out or to come. We believe her book, "Hyacinth for the Soul," to be noteworthy, as Joan is an accomplished writer and has gotten good endorsements from some notable people. Mary Makofske's review is archived on this blog (03/15-03/22) as well as on "The Renaissance Reader" web site PDF (link below) which also has a sample poem from the book.

Some endorsements from the cover:

These passionate, caring poems range seamlessly from personal lyric to public outcry, from a pair of well-turned pantoums of childhood memories to a poem that rewrites the liturgy of a responsive reading from the Passover service. Siegel knows how to go for the small specific details that illuminate even the darkest subjects.
—Maxine Kumin


Reading this extraordinary collection, I’m reminded of John Crowe Ransom’s statement that death “is the great subject of poetry, the most serious subject.” Within its persistent shadow, Siegel writes of love, both domestic and romantic, of the burden of human suffering, and of the regenerative powers of nature and the human spirit. And she does so with the impeccable ear of a musician and the craftsmanship of a master jeweler. This is an important book. 
—William Trowbridge

All the endorsements can be found in the earlier post in the archive for 03/08-03/15.

This new title, and all of our recent books, can be found at spdbooks by doing an advanced search and filling in only the publisher name, Deerbrook Editions, which should bring up all the titles.


"Hyacinth for the Soul" Reviews:

1) Mary Makofske review, see earlier post (3/15-3/22).

2) James Cotter review to be published in Home Planet News (#63 Fall 2009)

3) Nina Shengold review to be published in The Chronogram (July 2009)

4) Amy Berkowitz, Times Herald Record (May 17, 2009) . . . more of an interview, you can access it on-line at recordonline.

5)Lee Gould, June 29, 2009,The Chronogram

READINGS:

4/2/09 Mt. Saint Mary's College (Newburgh, NY)

4/3/09 SUNY/Orange (Middletown, NY)

4/18/09 Baby Grand Books (Warwisk, NY)

6/9/09 Moffat Library (Washingtonville, NY)

Date pending...Fall 2009...Thrall Library (Middletown, NY)

Date pending...Woodstock Poetry Society (Philip Levine, Director)...awaiting a reading date

Date Pending...(August 21) Joey's Cafe (Washingtonville, NY)