New & Noteworthy Books

New Books from Independent &
University Presses

See full list of noteworthy books by category below

Posted on August 4, 2008

Poems in Conversation
and a Conversation

Chapbook by Elizabeth Alexander, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon

Slapering Hol Press, 2008

Chapbook: 29pp; $12.00

The inaugural chapbook in Slapering Hol's Sleepy Hollow series. Each poem in this collection invites the reader to savor and question, to enter this conversation.

Pitch Black

Graphic Novel by Youme Landowne and
Anthony Horton

Cinco Puntos Press, September 2008

ISBN-10: 1933693064

ISBN-13: 978-1933693064

Hardcover: 64pp; $17.95

A graphic novel, a true story - a life lived underneath the New York City subway system. Born in 1968, Anthony is a homeless artist living underneath New York City. If you want to see his work, you’ll have to walk along the tunnel walls in the darkest parts of the transit system.

In the Devil's Territory

Fiction by Kyle Minor

Dzanc Books, November 2008

ISBN-10: 0979312361

ISBN-13: 978-0979312366

Paperback: 220pp; $16.95

A collection of stories and novellas about the choices we face and where those decisions lead us, including "A Day Meant to Do Less," a Best American Mystery Stories 2008 selection.

Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire

Novel by David Mura

Coffee House Press, September 2008

ISBN-10: 1566892155

ISBN-13: 978-1566892155

Paperback: 280pp; $14.95

Ben Ohara is the sole surviving member his family. A troubled and brilliant astrophysicist, Ben's younger brother has mysteriously vanished in the Mojave Desert. His father, one of a small group of WWII draft resisters (known as the No-No Boys) during the internment of Japanese Americans, committed suicide when Ben was young. And his mother, whose wish to escape the past was as strong as his father's ties to it, has died with her secrets. Now struggling to support his wife and children and under pressure to complete his historical study, Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire, Ben realizes that the key to unlocking the future lies in reassessing the past.

Stratification

Poetry by Meghan Punschke

BlazeVox Books, March 2008

ISBN-10: 1934289841

ISBN-13: 978-1934289846

Paperback: 90pp; $16.00

All the wondrous stratifications of water, atmosphere, myth, history, society and (of course) the chills and fevers of colloquial lives are rigorously plotted in this dense, layered, disconcerting book. - Robert Polito

Gates of Reconciliation

Ed. Frank Stewart, Barry Lopez

University of Hawai'i Press, July 2008

ISBN-13: 978-0824833206

Paperback: 200pp; $16.00

In this anthology of essays, fiction, and poetry set in South America, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Asia, the United States, and elsewhere, a diverse group of writers explores the role of literature in confronting the most pressing issue of our time: how individuals, communities, and nations can reconcile differences and grievances and forge a future with a renewed sense of dignity and mutual respect. In these works, past and present conflicts—some resolved and some not—are illuminated by literature, uncovering the complexities, subtleties, gestures, and necessary deliberations of forgiveness and healing. The urgency of such deliberations is captured by guest editor Barry Lopez, who asks, “Who will heed the plea of Everychild for a less brutal future?”