Fiction Suggestions for Summer Reading

Last week I posted an article to One Poet’s Notes with a list of titles in the current issue of Valparaiso Poetry Review on its “Recent and Recommended Books” page, which includes various new volumes of poetry and poetics. At the time, I suggested the roster might assist those seeking current published collections of poems or essays about poetry for their summer reading.

As I suspect is the case with most readers of VPR, although I regularly pore through numerous books of poetry or volumes about poetic issues, I do not limit my reading to these items. Especially during the summer months, my materials for reading always include books of fiction, averaging at least one novel or short story collection each week, more during vacation time. In fact, since I am now a co-editor of the new online literary journal, Valparaiso Fiction Review, I have also received requests recently from some readers for recommendations of fiction books that might provide valuable selections for summer reading.

My habit has been to consciously alternate between contemporary works, usually published within the last year or so, and classic books of fiction that I have not yet gotten around to reading, as Marilyn Monroe seems to be doing with James Joyce’s Ulysses in the accompanying photo. I also sneak into the mix volumes of historical nonfiction on a number of topics, biographies or memoirs, and collections of critical commentary on poetry, art, film, music, etc.

However, since the older books of fiction I have been encountering lately are meant merely as a way for me to catch up and to fill gaps in my past experiences as a reader, openings which would be singular to each individual, I thought I would share today, in time for the Independence Day to Labor Day season, only the recently published books of fiction that I have read in the last few months. These books represent part of my early summer reading (between the close of spring semester and the July 4th weekend), and I mention them with the intention of recommending these new works as possible additions to others’ reading lists during the remaining months of summer.

I am not aware of any particular theme or type of writing prevalent in the books included below, since there was no deliberate pattern concerning content or style during the selection process. Nevertheless, some might note that eleven of the sixteen books are authored by females—purely a coincidence, but one that nicely balances the alternating list of classic books I have been reading, a majority of which happen to be written by males.

Although I have enjoyed some of these books more than others, and I regard a few of them as excellent, all have proven to be rewarding to read. In addition, I realize any person’s choice is idiosyncratic and subject to personal taste. Therefore, as with the poetry recommendations last week, I will not add any commentary or rank the selections in this post. Indeed, I do not have any desire at this time to offer critical reviews of the books; instead, the titles of these personal suggestions are merely listed alphabetically by author:

Sunset Park, Paul Auster
Once Upon a River, Bonnie Jo Campbell
All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost, Lan Samantha Chang
Room, Emma Donoghue
The Collected Stories, Deborah Eisenberg
The Adults, Alison Espach
Freedom, Jonathan Franzen
Lord of Misrule, Jaimy Gordon
Great House, Nichole Kraus
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann
The Paris Wife, Paula McLain
A Gate at the Stairs, Lorrie Moore
The Wilding, Benjamin Percy
The Help, Kathryn Stockett
Brooklyn, Colm Toibin

I hope everyone enjoys the summer ahead and all find lots of leisure time that might allow for further reading.

Poem of the Week: “Prague Floods, 2002” by Walter Bargen

The VPR Poem of the Week is Walter Bargen’s “Prague Floods, 2002,” which appears in the Spring/Summer 2011 issue (Volume XII, Number 2) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

Walter Bargen has published thirteen collections of poetry. His recent books are Theban Traffic (2008) and Days Like This Are Necessary: New & Selected Poems (2009). He is the winner of the Chester H. Jones Foundation prize in 1997, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1991, and the William Rockhill Nelson Award in 2005. He was appointed the first Poet Laureate of Missouri (2008-2009).

Tuesday of each week One Poet’s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers visit it.

“Outside the Floodwalls” from TINTED DISTANCES

As I watched news this past week of the flood waters rising and cresting in North Dakota, engulfing the city of Minot, as well as endangering a nuclear reactor in Nebraska near the swollen Missouri River, I felt great sympathy for the people in that region, especially the many who have lost their homes, and I thought of a visit to Huntington, West Virginia years ago during which I traveled along the floodwalls there, guided by a friend and resident of the city.

After once again being devastated by a great flood in 1937 that left 6,000 citizens of Huntington homeless, the city was included in a Flood Control Act passed by Congess, authorizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to immediately construct floodwalls about 15 miles long and as high as 20 feet to protect the area from the Ohio River, which they have done to this day. In 1937, the river crested at 69 feet, which would have been just three feet short of the top of the current wall. Indeed, at least a dozen times since the building of the walls, the city has been saved from subsequent destructive flood levels.

“Outside the Floodwalls,” the following poem of mine inspired by that visit to Huntington, is included in my new collection of poems, Tinted Distances, recently released by Turning Point Books:

OUTSIDE THE FLOODWALLS

. . . . . For DeLane Ball


. . . . . I

This morning when the sun began to show itself
. . . . . above those uppermost ridges that scratch against

the smooth blue skies like black saw blades,
. . . . . we drove down from your home hidden among

the higher, densely wooded hills. Descending
. . . . . steep and winding roads, we arrived just as a fast

peel of dawn finished. Already, the early bustle
. . . . . of this city’s small business section had begun

as, at last, we passed through the thick brown dust
. . . . . of downtown construction towards floodwalls

reaching far and tall beside the river’s narrow edge.
. . . . . You have lived here forty years, nearly your whole

life, often traveled much of the river’s length looking
. . . . . to discover lost inlets with rare waterlogged wrecks

or rotted out hulls left forever in sludge and filled
. . . . . with bilge. In these beloved mysteries, you tell me,

you have found a way to measure life’s change,
. . . . . loss come as part of the cost of taming the waters.


. . . . . II

Today, you’ve taken me for a tour of those remote
. . . . . ruins you’re sure will never lose their significance,

have shown me boats that, like the stored memories
. . . . . of old men, you say may have grown faulty

with age, but continue to give a glimpse into lives,
. . . . . times we will never witness. And now afternoon

is ending, this stretch is littered with large barges
. . . . . drifting down river, each searching its home port.

As those old cargo boats slip slowly past a last grasp
. . . . . of evening light, overloaded holds gracelessly

bear their burdens once more. Massive bulks
. . . . . dragged steadily downstream by the slightest pull

of a late summer current, they eventually disappear
. . . . . in a flat distance brought on by faint haze of dusk,

and all along these marred banks lining the Ohio,
. . . . . darker stains of high-water lines, which yet mark

these great gray walls like still visible scars, again
. . . . . are starting to recede into nightfall’s first shadows.

. . . . . —Edward Byrne

Tinted Distances is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. In addition, I am currently offering a sale of signed and numbered copies of the volume. Please view sidebar for ordering signed copies. Readers may also find more information about Tinted Distances and details on purchasing the autographed discount copies at my personal web site, which presents a further selection of poems from this new collection and other past books for readers to browse as well.

Photo Friday: “Brick Wall Graffiti Art”

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VPR Summer Reading List, 2011

Like the figure above in Pablo Picasso’s Young Girl Reading a Book on the Beach, many are beginning to dip into their summer reading. Therefore, as today represents the first full day of summer, I thought this might be a good time to remind everyone each issue of Valparaiso Poetry Review contains a “Recent and Recommended Books” page for suggestions of poetry collections and volumes containing prose about poets or poetics.

Below readers will find those books that were listed with the current Spring/Summer 2011 issue (Volume XII, Number 2). Perhaps some of them will provide apt suggestions for addition to your summer reading.

Ackerman, Diane: One Hundred Names for Love, W.W. Norton
Ai: No Surrender, W.W. Norton
Alter, Robert (Tr.): The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, W.W. Norton
Azzouni, Jody: Hereafter Landscapes, Poet’s Press
Bakaitis, Vyt: Deliberate Proof, Lunar Chandelier
Baker, Devreaux: Red Willow People, Wild Ocean Press
Balbo, Ned: The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems, Story Line Press
Barresi, Dorothy: American Fanatics, University of Pittsburgh Press
Basalyga, Annette: Lifer, Music of Note
Bateman, Claire: Coronology, Etruscan Press
Beals, Elen Wade (Ed.): Solace in So Many Words, Weighed Words
Behrendt, Lynn: Petals, Emblems, Lunar Chandelier
Blatner, Barbara: The Still Position, NYQ Books
Bradley, John: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Brodsky, Lewis Daniel: At Dock's End: Poems of Lake Nebagamon, Volume Two, Time Being Books
Brown, Lily: Rust or Go Missing, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Byrne, Edward [Ed.]: Poetry from Paradise Valley, Pecan Grove Press
Byrne, Edward: Tinted Distances, Turning Point Books
Cassian, Nina: Continuum, W.W. Norton
Cherry, Kelly: The Retreats of Thought, Louisiana State University Press
Coghill, Sheila & Thom Tammaro (Eds.): Visiting Dr. Williams: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of William Carlos Williams, University of Iowa Press
Daniels, Jim: Having a Little Talk with Capital P Poetry, Carnegie Mellon University Press
Delanty, Greg and Michael Motto (Eds.): The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation, W.W. Norton
DeNiord, Chard: The Double Truth, University of Pittsburgh Press
Deulen, Danielle Cadena: Lovely Asunder, University of Arkansas Press
Doallas, Maureen E.: Neruda's Memoir, T.S. Poetry Press
Domina, Lynn: Framed in Silence, Main Street Rag Publishing Company
Dubrow, Jehanne: Stateside, TriQuarterly Book: Northwestern University Press
Dunham, Rebecca: The Flight Cage, Tupelo Press
Dunn, Stephen: Here and Now, W.W. Norton
Dunn, Stephen: What Goes On: Selected and New Poems 1995-2009, W.W. Norton
Ekiss, Keith: Pima Road Notebook, New Issues Press
Elliot, Joe: Homework, Lunar Chandelier
Espada, Martin: The Trouble Ball, W.W. Norton
Fenton, Elyse: Clamor, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Fitzgerald, Mark: By Way of Dust and Rain, Cinammon Press
Flynn, Rachel Contreni: Tongue, Red Hen Press
Frey, Emily Kendal: The Grief Performance, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Friedman, Jeff: Working in Flour, Carnegie Mellon University Press
Friedrich, Paul: A Goldfinch Instant, Virtual Artists Collective
Frith, Laverne, Imagining the Self, Cherry Grove Collections
Frost, Carol: Honeycomb, TriQuarterly Books: Northwestern University Press
Gay, Ross: Bringing the Shovel Down, University of Pittsburgh Press
Gibson, Stephen: Paradise, University of Arkansas Press
Gilbert, Sandra: Aftermath, W.W. Norton
Glazer, Michelle: On Tact, & the Made Up World, University of Iowa Press
Gloeggler, Tony: The Last Lie, NYQ Books
Goldberg, Beckian Fritz: Reliquary Fever: New and Selected Poems, New Issues Press
Goodfellow, Jessica: The Insomniac's Weather Report, Three Candle Press
Goodrich, Charles: Going to Seed: Dispatches from the Garden, Silverfish Review Press
Gorrick, Anne: I-Formation (Book 1), Shearsman Books
Greene, Elizabeth: Moving, Inanna Publications
Greinke, Eric: The Potential of Poetry, Presa Press
Greinke, Eric: Traveling Music, Presa Press
Hales, Corrinne Clegg: To Make It Right, Autumn House Press
Hanson, Julie: Unbeknownst, University of Iowa Press
Hazo, Samuel: The Stroke of a Pen: Essays on Poetry and Other Provocations, University of Notre Dame Press
Herrle, David: Abyssinia, Jill Rush, Time Being Books
Hodgen, John: Heaven & Earth Holding Company, University of Pittsburgh Press
Jackson, Major: Holding Company, W.W. Norton
Kameen, Paul: Re-Reading Poets: The Life of the Author, University of Pittsburgh Press
Kaufman, Debra: The Next Moment, Jacar Press
Keane, Erin: Death-Defying Acts, WordFarm
Kelleher, Rose: Bundle o’ Tinder, Waywiser Press
Kildegaard, Athena: Bodies of Light, Red Dragonfly Press
Kinsella, John: Divine Comedy: Journeys Through a Regional Geography: Three New Works, W.W. Norton
Kistulentz, Steve: The Luckless Age, Red Hen Press
Klatt, L.S.: Cloud of Ink, University of Iowa Press
Laird, Nick: On Purpose, W.W. Norton
Larsen, Katherine: Radial Symmetry, Yale University Press
Laux, Dorianne: The Book of Men, W.W. Norton
Levin, Harriet: Girl in Cap and Gown, Mammoth Books
Lewis, Lisa: Vivisect, New Issues Press
Lipszye, Carol: Singing Me Home, Inanna Publications
Lockward, Diane: Temptation by Water, Wind Publications
Longenbach, James: The Iron Key, W.W. Norton
Lynch, Thomas: Walking Papers, W.W. Norton
Malech, Dora: Say So, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Malone, Eileen: I Should Have Given Them Water, Ragged Sky Press
Marbrook, Djelloul: Brushstrokes and Glances, Deerbrook Editions
Mathews, Harry: The New Tourism, Sand Paper Press
McCrae, Shane: Mule, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
McCullough, Laura: Panic, Alice James Books
McCullough, Laura: Speech Acts, Black Lawrence Press
McKenzie, Carter: Out of Refusal, Airlie Press
Menes, Orlando Ricardo (Ed.): The Open Light: Poems from Notre Dame, 1991-2008, University of Notre Dame Press
Myers, Jack: The Memory of Water, New Issues Press
Orr, David: Beautiful and Pointless: A Guide to Modern Poetry, Harper
Ostriker, Alicia Suskin: The Book of Seventy, University of Pittsburgh Press
Pastan, Linda: Traveling Light, W.W. Norton
Paul, Bradley: The Animals All Are Gathering, University of Pittsburgh Press
Peterson, Allan: As Much As, Salmon Poetry
Phillips, Louis: R.I.P.: A Poetic Sequence, Livingston Press
Pietrzykowski, Marc: Following Ghosts Upriver, Main Street Rag Publishing Company
Pratt, Charles W.: From the Box Marked Some Are Missing: New and Selected Poems, Hobblebush Books
Pursley, John: If You Have Ghosts, Zone 3 Press
Rich, Adrienne: Tonight No Poetry Will Serve: Poems 2007-2010, W.W. Norton
Rimbaud, Arthur [John Ashbery (Tr.)]: Illuminations, W.W. Norton
Roberts, Katrina: Underdog, University of Washington Press
Rogers, Bobby C.: Paper Anniversary, University of Pittsburgh Press
Rozewicz, Tadeusz [Joanna Trzeciak (Tr.)]: Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems of Tadeusz Rozewicz, W.W. Norton
Sakellariou, Becky D.: Earth Listening, Hobblebush Books
Savich, Zach: The Firestorm, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Schmidt, Elizabeth Hun (Ed.): The Poets Laureate Anthology, W.W. Norton
Seuss, Diane: Wolf Lake, White Gown Blown Open, University of Massachusetts Press
Shankar, Ravi: Deepening Groove, National Poetry Review Press
Sheehabi, Dema K.: Thirteen Departures from the Moon, Press 53
Sheeler, Jackie: Earthquake Came to Harlem, NYQ Books
Shepherd, Reginald: Red Clay Weather, University of Pittsburgh Press
Stern, Gerald: Early Collected Poems 1965-1992, W.W. Norton
Stock, Norman: Pickled Dreams Naked, NYQ Books
Sullivan, Anita: Garden of Beasts, Airlie Press
Thomas, Larry D.: A Murder of Crows, Virtual Artists Collective
Tobin, Daniel: Belated Heavens, Four Way Books
Townley, Wyatt: The Afterlives of Trees, Woodley Press
Trelles, Emma: Tropicalia, University of Notre Dame Press
Trigilio, Tony: Historic Diary, BlazeVOX Books
Valdata, Pat: Inherent Vice, Pecan Grove Press
Volgelsang, Arthur: Expedition: New & Selected Poems, Ashland Poetry Press
Warren, Rosanna: Ghost in a Red Hat, W.W. Norton
Wheeler, Lesley: Heterotopia, Barrow Street Press
Wilson, Eric G.: My Business Is to Create: Blake's Infinite Writing, University of Iowa Press
Wohlfeld, Valerie: Woman with Wing Removed, Truman State University Press
Wojahn, David: World Tree, University of Pittsburgh Press
Wong, Pui Ying: Yellow Plum Season, NYQ Books
Wood, Susan: The Book of Ten, University of Pittsburgh Press
Youmans, Marly: The Throne of Psyche, Mercer University Press
Zimmer, Paul: The Importance of Being Zimmer, Settlement House

Publishers or authors are encouraged to send review copies of new poetry collections or volumes on poetics to the address below:

Valparaiso Poetry Review
Edward Byrne, Editor
Department of English
Valparaiso University
Valparaiso, IN 46383

Valparaiso Poetry Review also welcomes for consideration submissions of reviews or essays of critical analysis concerning any of the listed books. Those interested in submitting reviews should examine the VPR submission guidelines page.

Poem of the Week: “At Stes. Maries de la Mer, Summer 1977” by Margaret Perry

The VPR Poem of the Week is Margaret Perry’s “At Stes. Maries de la Mer, Summer 1977,” which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2000-2001 issue (Volume II, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

Margaret Perry’s poetry and short stories have appeared in many journals, including Arts Alive, Forum, Obsidian II, Panache, Phylon, Short Story International, and Willow Review. Her books include A Bio-Bibliography of Countee P. Cullen, 1903-1946, Silence of the Drums: A Survey of the Literature of the Harlem Renaissance, and The Short Fiction of Rudolph Fisher, all published by Greenwood Press. She has taught Afro-American Literature at the University of Rochester and worked as a librarian in the New York Public Library, as well as for the U.S. Army at West Point. She retired as director of Valparaiso University's Moellering Library in 1993.

Tuesday of each week One Poet’s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers revisit it.

“Father’s Garage”

For Father’s Day, I offer one of my recent poems with an appropriate focus, “Father’s Garage,” which appeared in the Spring 2010 issue of Tidal Basin Review.

In addition, since this weekend coincides with the U.S. Open Golf Championship, scheduled every year for the final round to fall on Father’s Day, watching the event once again evokes pleasant memories of those many fine times shared with my father on a golf course.

Indeed, in a previous post from April of 2008 at One Poet’s Notes—titled “Golfing with My Father” after a poem by W.D. Ehrhart that appeared in Valparaiso Poetry Review and is reprinted in the article—I have written in prose about assorted impressions of my father that are tied to the sport, and I recommend readers revisit that commentary as well.

FATHER’S GARAGE

Another still winter night and stars
. . . . . glitter again, shining over the far dark

fields, sparkling like the tapered
. . . . . rows of thin drill bits or those heaps

of nuts and bolts I remember seeing
. . . . . scattered across a tabletop under dull

shop lights in my father’s garage,
. . . . . that graying wood-framed structure

behind our house he had converted
. . . . . one summer Sunday into a carpenter’s

workroom. In a corner of that dimly
. . . . . lit space, he would spend long hours

each weekend, sometimes fitting
. . . . . together the finely-sanded pine slats,

fashioning drawers, planing molding
. . . . . until smooth, staining cabinet doors,

varnishing shelves, always repairing
. . . . . several pieces of furniture at a time

for many of our neighbors who knew
. . . . . to listen for the music of his jigsaw.


—Edward Byrne

Photo Friday: “Pink Magnolia”

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“Following Alex” from Autism: A Poem

As I have mentioned previously, I have created a separate blog site as an open experiment of poetry composition, perhaps a glimpse at an emerging manuscript as it matures. The contents represent portions of an ongoing personal project with a particularly narrow focus intended to eventually develop toward a book-length poem tentatively and simply titled Autism.

The poem will grow as sections are added. The individual pieces are designed so that they may be viewed as independent items; however, I have consciously carried themes, images, and language through the extended sequence with the hope that connectivity and continuity will be preserved among numerous sections of the long poem.

I have now posted a new section, “Following Alex.”

Readers are asked to regard Autism as a work in progress, a partial draft rather than a finished product (even if some selected segments previously may have appeared in print), and I request everyone realize various revisions—edits, emendations, or expansion—may be made to the posts at any time in the future.

In addition, I would like to remind readers that a portion of this poetry series in progress was released in March as Dark Refuge, an audio chapbook by Whale Sound. The dozen poems in that chapbook represent a narrative designed as a poetic sequence, part of this overall project of poetry I have been composing about particular observations or impressions concerning the characteristics and consequences associated with autism through a poetic chronicling of personal experiences with Alex.

Dark Refuge is available for readers to experience in differing formats: as online audio, online text, free downloadable mp3, pdf, e-book, print edition, and cd. Therefore, I also urge readers to visit the main page for Dark Refuge.

Poem of the Week: “Man Dining (The Artist’s Father)” by Maggie Schwed

The VPR Poem of the Week is Maggie Schwed’s “Man Dining (The Artist’s Father),” which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2010-2011 issue (Volume XII, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

Maggie Schwed’s poems have appeared in Western Humanities Review, Witness, Raritan, Nimrod, Commonweal, Pleiades, Barrow Street, and other magazines or anthologies. Her chapbook, Out of Season, was published in 2008 by Finishing Line Press. She lives with her husband in New York City, where she taught high-school English and adult literacy while her children were growing up. For the past four years, she has been learning to farm, and she is a farm assistant in livestock with the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in New York.

Tuesday of each week One Poet’s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers revisit it.

Photo Friday: “June Rose”

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VPR Submission Guidelines: A Policy Change

As some readers may have noticed, the submission guidelines for Valparaiso Poetry Review have been altered slightly. Beginning June 1, the option of submitting poems, essays, or reviews through postal mail has been discontinued. When VPR was initiated in 1999, most poets submitted by postal mail. In the past dozen years that situation has continually shifted, and the vast majority of submissions received have been sent by e-mail.

Other editors will confirm that handling e-mail submissions is much more convenient and manageable. Furthermore, writers will verify that e-mail submissions are simpler and inexpensive. In most cases, e-mail submissions result in quicker response times from journals. Therefore, most electronic magazines today restrict submissions to e-mail or use online submission managers, as is the case with the newly instituted Valparaiso Fiction Review.

However, until now Valparaiso Poetry Review has accepted submissions in both e-mail and postal formats, primarily as a courtesy and as part of an ongoing tradition. Indeed, in earlier years, some of the finest poems in VPR offered by a few well-known poets had been presented only because snail mail submissions were acceptable. Nevertheless, I have found lately that all of these poets now also correspond with me through e-mail.

In an informational piece published at One Poet’s Notes in 2009 at the time of a rate hike announced by the U.S Post Office (“VPR Note on Submissions: An Update”), I reported the following: “the vast majority of submissions received in the first few years were sent by postal mail; however, a bit more than three-fourths of the nearly 7,500 poems received in the last year were sent by e-mail.” Yet, statistics of submissions in the past year have shown a further growth in the number of e-mail submissions, which now account for about 95% of the almost 10,000 works received annually.

In addition, virtually all the postal submissions have included an e-mail address in their contact information, and acceptance notices for poems or prose received through postal mail were usually sent in e-mail messages accompanied by a request for an e-mail response containing a Word file of the work. Consequently, the option in the guidelines allowing postal submissions no longer seems necessary, and it has been deleted.

Once again, as I have in the past, I wish to express my appreciation to all who have submitted poetry, reviews, essays, or interviews for appearance in Valparaiso Poetry Review, and I encourage others to consider submitting to VPR with their work.

Poem of the Week: “June” by Lightsey Darst

The VPR Poem of the Week is “June” by Lightsey Darst, which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2008 issue (Volume IX, Number 2) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

Lightsey Darts received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Literature in 2007. She is the author of Find the Girl (Coffee House Press, 2010). Her work also has been published in various literary journals, including Antioch Review, Gulf Coast, The Literary Review, and New Letters.

Tuesday of each week One Poet’s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers revisit it.

Photo Friday: “Sunset After a Storm”

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“Through Alex’s Eyes”

I am delighted to report that the current issue of Valpo, the magazine of Valparaiso University, includes a feature titled “Through Alex’s Eyes,” which focuses on works my wife Pam and I have written about our son Alex. Pam writes commentary twice weekly at her blog, One Autism Mom’s Notes, and I regularly present poetry at Autism: A Poem. Author Tom Wyatt explains in his article, Pam and I publish our writings “as parents of an autistic child” in separate genres, mine “from a creative perspective and Pam from more of a memoirist’s point of view.” As Wyatt notes, each of our writings “gives Alex a voice through his parents’ eyes.”

I invite visitors to read the entire article of “Through Alex’s Eyes,” which is now also available as an isolated entry at my personal web site.