Bøger udgivet af Little Red Tree Publishing

"The Complete Poetry of Cicely Fox Smith" 2nd Edition, is now fully revised and edited with 74 new poems, edited by Charles Ipcar and James Saville. Cicely Fox Smith was once described by a reviewer as the "poet of the sea." This accolade was not casually given or thinly deserved, it was a considered evaluation of the immense body of work that was admired universally by all, and in particular those who sailed and were of the sea. For the first time, this book, "The Complete Poetry of Cicely Fox Smith," brings all her poetry together, now fully revised, in one book for all to see not only the quantity but also the quality of her poetry. Cicely Fox Smith was born February 1, 1882, and was well-educated at The Manchester High School for Girls from 1894 to 1897, where she described herself later as "something of a rebel," and started writing poems at a comparatively early age. She published her first book of verses when she was 17 and it received favorable press comments. She had a fierce desire to travel to Africa but eventually settled for a voyage to Canada, residing for the most part in the James Bay neighborhood of Victoria, British Columbia, from 1912 to 1913. Her spare time was spent roaming nearby wharves and alleys, talking to residents and sailors alike. She listened to and learned from the sailors' tales until she too was able to speak with that authoritative nautical air that pervades her written work. On November 23, 1913, Cicely returned to England. She soon put her experiences to use in a great outpouring of poetry, some of it clearly focused on supporting England's World War I efforts. Much of her poetry was from the point of view of the sailor. In fact, the detailed nautical content of her poems made it easy to understand why so many readers presumed that she was male. She was familiar with life at sea as few armchair amateurs would ever be. It was only when she was well established that she routinely used the by-line "Miss C. Fox Smith" or "Cicely Fox Smith." Cicely had her poetry published in a wide variety of magazines and newspapers but most notably "Punch" magazine for which she wrote many poems between 1914 and her death in 1954. She later re-published most of these poems in poetry books. In all, she published some 660 poems. In her life she also published a wide range of books including romantic novels and children's books and also contributed many literary reviews for "Punch" and the "Times Literary Supplement." Her literary outpourings were such as to persuade the Government to award her, at the age of 67, a modest pension for "her services to literature." She kept writing to the end of her life about many things and many places but always with the accuracy and knowledge of an expert. Cicely Fox Smith died on April 8th, 1954, in the village of West Hasle Bow, Devon. Cicely is now rapidly gaining a wider appreciative audience as more musicians set her poems to music and produce many fine songs, primarily in the nautical folk song tradition; over 100 of her poems have been adapted for singing and recorded. It is hoped that the publication of the 2nd Edition of "The Complete Poetry of Cicely Fox Smith," with 74 new poems, both published and unpublished, and the important addition of an introduction by Marcia Phillips McGowan, Ph.D., will bring with it a wider recognition and the attention she so richly deserves as a true "poet of the sea.

"Passion Seeds" by Suzanne Ondrus', winner of the third "Venice Quebodeaux "Pathways" Poetry Prize" by Little Red Tree Publishing, is a wonderful debut collection of poems. Her poetry explores cultural identity and the human dramas that shape and transcend it. Richard Harteis writes in his introduction, "These poems speak to both what we want to keep invisible, such as shame and racism and speak to what we want visible, desire and love. It is the work of a shaman who connects seemingly antithetical threads of reality into the cloth of life. The dream world is where ingenuity lies, for both poets and others. Ondrus taps into both the dream world and reality so that the invisible becomes visible and audible." Larissa Szporluk writes, "Romantic, restless, inquisitive, and hungry, with a timeless sensuality and soul-bearing tone...it is a document of the human moving in and out of love. ...Her poetic fluctuates between a language of self-possession and of dispersion, until 'obliteration of self, ' takes place, and the dream to be a poet, not of earth, flesh, race or nation, but of the universal air that regards it all, is achieved." Patricia Jabbeh Wesley writes that the book is, "A provocative debut collection that is brave and urgently necessary. It brilliantly brings us into a new world where poetry is neither American nor African, where over and over, the speaker in each poem discovers another world, another America and another Africa, a larger world outside our vision of the world we thought we knew. This is a book that will surprise."

What happens when the wife of a prize-winning poet develops breast cancer? When her biopsy results came back, Kate Lantry sat her husband down and made a serious request. "I want you to document this cancer journey. I want you to go back to writing a poem every day. I want you to write about exactly what happens, as accurately as you can. Don't leave anything out." He told her he had covid fog, and could barely think, much less write. She said, 'If I can face all this again, you can write a few poems.' He told her he would.He hadn't yet heard the phrase 'tell your story of how you overcame everything, and it will become someone else's survival guide.' He didn't know how much these poems would mean to others as he posted them on social media, day by day. Women who had gone through similar trials, spouses who loved them, family members who had lost their mothers, daughters, and wives. As time went on, new people wrote him, people who had been newly diagnosed, and who were terrified, but they said that if Kate could go through this, so could they, and her story gave them courage to face what had to be done.And so he wrote, day by day, poem by poem. He documented their lives, their garden, their daily walks in the park, and all aspects of her treatment journey, as they entered the unfamiliar world of biopsies and ultrasounds, of Chemo and immunotherapy, of surgery and proton radiation. This volume, Book One, begins the story in April, the time of her diagnosis, through the end of June, when Chemo had to be paused.

"The Library of Unfulfilled Wishes" a wonderful book of short stores by New London, CT, writer, Arthur Dean. He writes in his introduction: "This is my second collection of short stories to be published by Little Red Tree Publishing. They are gleaned from my biweekly column, 'My Two Cents,' in the "Jewish Leader," a local newspaper in Southeastern Connecticut, these pieces were originally presented in serial form over several months. The first collection, also titled, 'My Two Cents,' contained numerous short stories and essays. This collection includes several longer pieces... This collection features many characters who happen to be Jewish, but I believe their struggle to find meaning in their lives is universal."

"Artist in a Pixelated World," by Jean-Yves Solinga, is a wonderful new book of poems that sees him wander into the space between the selectivity of reality-pixelated world-and mellifluous lyricism of his poetic response. From his early teenage poems, he has tried to breach, with only the strength of his humanism, the divide between reality and dreams, life and nothingness, social solidarity and admitting defeat. "Artist in a Pixelated World" attempts to add to those who instinctively, unapologetically and passionately believe in poetry's ability to dare to impose words on the temporal reality we all live. For the front cover, Jean-Yves has chosen Delacroix's magnificent painting, "The Death of Sardanapalus" (1827), which is a reconstructed moment in antiquity of a besieged ruler's narcissistic madness of self-destruction, together with everything around him. At first glance it might appear to be descriptive but it was perceived as highly symbolic of the French Crown, at the time, and an alarmingly dramatic depiction of the "other," the "orient," with its abandonment and erotic forms, so at odds with the ordered norms of academic approved standards of representation, and so blatantly offensive to the artificial mores of civilized French society of the early 1800s. Note that the painting, while appearing to depict carnage of the innocents and guiltless, is disturbingly devoid of blood. Delacroix depicts a scene of bloodless terror and violence, substituting real blood with vibrant red colored elements. The painting itself and the exaggerated pixelated effect applied-highlighting of selected negative areas-is by its very nature an artistically driven decision process. The effect, in many ways, suggests modernity, in our digitized visual world, but also the conscious decision of selection by Jean-Yves in certain specific aspects. In other words the original painting, by Delacroix, is a selective interpretation of an event, symbolic and fraught with meaning-although the passing of time has robbed it of its full impact on modern eyes-and is itself selectively deconstructed and reassembled into a new visual with an additional set of meanings superimposed upon it. And as you read this book of poems you will see the pixelated effect and selection process applied to each and every poem. Jean-Yves has been described as "fearless," and no other epithet is more becoming a poet who is constantly reaching and searching for new ways to express his thoughts. In that regard we are all the wiser, and knowledgeable, while being sublimely entertained.

"Paris: Genesis of a Muse" is the tenth book of lyrical poetry that Little Red Tree Publishing has published in as many years. In this book Jean-Yves has taken the opportunity to tentatively explore the subject of the genesis of his own muse. The title is therefore both a literal and a provocative ghost, in so many ways. So we are left searching for a response to the intriguing question: Who or What is this muse, or more specifically how Paris became the genesis...? Having been born outside of France with a soul that is as one with the desert (Maghreb) of North West Africa, Jean-Yves is magnetically drawn to the epicenter of French culture and the density of its history. To be inextricably linked but essentially an observer might be the genesis, whether this is the thought or the physical touch of grains of sand passing through young fingers, or the thought of the profound secular world of Moulin Rouge at the bottom of the Montmartre hill so close to the Catholic Basilica, or indeed the flawed but still compelling pastiche of Parisian life and French Morocco, or the existentialist vision of Sartre's concept of the absurdity, where exquisite beauty exists in the same space and time as unspeakable disaster… And, one cannot wander too far from the influence of Camus, which invades the very essence of Jean-Yves.

"The Little Red Book of Wordplay:-with Perspicacious the Cat" by Leland James is a book of words for children. Words, figures of speech in particular, are fun! Alliteration, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, idiom ….Why not present these to young people as enjoyment, not as academic exercises with definitions to be memorized, regurgitated, and forgotten. Wordplay with Perspicacious asks the question, and answers it: make words fun, and let the learning come along for the ride. Each figure of speech is presented in a stanza or two of poetry crafted by internationally acclaimed poet, Leland James. The verse introduces the figure of speech, with clever (wordplay) examples. Each figure of speech is supported by illustrations, whimsically capturing the figure of speech, in illustrations by Anne Zimanski (highly lauded illustrator of Leland James' earlier children's' books, Longberry's Leap and A Mice Christmas, both also from Little Red Tree Publishing). Vocabulary is presented alongside the poetry, for exploring new good-tasting words. Examples from literature and song lyrics come next, followed by a "Perspicacious Challenge," a word play exercise. Use of the book in mentoring young persons is discussed in an author's note prefacing the book. The book has been extensively tested with young people during its writing by Leland James who does poetry readings for young and old on a regular basis. The primary goal of the book is instilling the joy of words, as the quote from Robert Frost at the beginning of the book says: " … all the fun's in how you say a thing." Here's the flavor of the book, from the introduction: Wordplay is not like building with blocks,/more like hopscotch, or the tying of knots;/Or filling your pockets with exquisite rocks;/Or guessing how many a beetle has spots…. Exquisite, a tasty word, is singled out and defined in the context of the verse. exquisite [ik-skwiz-it]: a specially high level of beauty, The pearl necklace is exquisite. The comprehension of definitions and vocabulary were tested during piloting of the book, and happily, they did in most cases "come along for the ride."

"Clair-Obscur of the Soul" by Jean-Yves Solinga, is a book of poetry by a poet of immense ability and range whose poetry collected in this book is truly remarkable. It contains many breathtakingly beautiful and sophisticated poems, which reach out to the very limits of the human condition, where true art exists. They are a product and symbolically reflect a life of cultural duality and a search for the cool plains of resolution with the past. He came from the "solar" heat of French Morocco to the "Labradorean" cold coastal waters and countryside of New England. His father, a gendarme, mother, sister and brother had gone through the tragic war years of occupation in Marseille, which would later become the topic of conversation at the dinner table. He was then transferred after WWII in 1946 to Sidi Bel Abbès where Jean-Yves was born in the hospital that serviced the Headquarters of the French Foreign Legion on the periphery of the Sahara in Algeria. The family traveled again with Jean-Yves only a month old, to Salé, just south of Sidi Moussa, in Morocco, where his father was posted. The journey was very difficult for the adults but Jean-Yves spent most of it comfortably sleeping on the garments in a suitcase. The family settled and Jean-Yves spent an idyllic childhood in the sun of North Africa. He attended French grammar and secondary schools. His memories of that time are of the joy of being aware of the pleasure of sight; the cocoon of the innocence of youth unconscious of geopolitical matters. His family, having decided to settle in America, sent Jean-Yves, at age 14, ahead alone in order not to miss the start of the school term. Living in New England he would experience first hand one of his many future encounters with the freezing cold and snow which up to that time had been seen on Christmas cards. A new and completely different life began. He had already written poetry by the time of his bachelor's degree and a brief tour of duty in the US Army after which he began a career teaching French Language, Culture and Literature in Connecticut schools and colleges. He completed a Masters and then a PhD on North Africa before retiring in 2004 at which time he earnestly concentrated on his writing. The title "Clair-obscur of the Soul" was chosen because it is indicative of this cultural duality, and many of the poems in this book draw you into a world of intellectual contrasts, where one reality is juxtaposed with another, that is simultaneously fascinating, unsettling and revelatory. As you read Jean-Yves' poems you are immediately aware that here is a previously unpublished poet with an effortless ability to use language, conveying myriad emotions, creating an ambience of mellifluous subtlety with immense depth from the very first poem. Jean-Yves' free prose style of poetry, which eschews more traditional forms, is not in the least affected or pretentious but rather it is immanent to his expansive vision and narrative voice as a poet. This is a remarkable book and debut from a poet who has lived through some of the important social upheavals of the late 20th century and writing from the depths of his soul. A book of poetry that must be read by all those interested in a singularly unique view of life that may redefine the capacity of poetry to be what it should be: the art of expressing pure thought about the existential human condition.

This is a seminal book-fully revised with new poetry and photographs-of exploration and discovery into the literary genesis of Jack London, one of American's most famous authors. It brings together all the poetry of Jack London to support the assertion that he was first and foremost a poet who wrote fiction and nonfiction and not a writer of fiction and nonfiction who also wrote poetry. After more than 30 years of research in all the known depositories and databases of Jack London material, Wichlan publishes his groundbreaking research and analysis. The book contains the poetry embedded in London's writing and correctly identifies previously uncredited authors and defines the poetry probably written by Jack London. Included in this book are two published plays in verse, "The First Poet" and "The Acorn Planter," and book inscriptions Jack London wrote in his first editions given to his first wife, Bessie Maddern, their children and his second wife, Charmian London. Twenty-eight pages from his first log book "No 1-Magazine Sales" are reproduced, which reveal the true extent of London's avid study of classical prosody taken from a previously unknown source. In an extended introduction Dan Wichlan cites many examples and quotes from London's 55 books, numerous letters, and descriptions of his life with poetry from Charmian London's biography of her husband. Dan connects and links London's words and actions from many sources to support the central theme of the book that Jack London was a poet and his lyrical prose style a direct consequence of prosodic studies, poetic aspirations and a lifelong passion for poetry. Therefore, this book is essential reading for those interested in discovering the true Jack London.