The current issue of Portage Magazine includes two reviews of Karl Elder’s books, most notably for us, the one we published, Alpha Images. Check it out: Alpha Images: Poems Selected and New by Karl Elder; reviewed by Fred Kreutz
The Distance Between Stars by Jeff Elzinga has been selected as a finalist in the Literary Fiction category of the 2020 Midwest Book Awards. Finalists are chosen from more than 240 entries from publishers all over the Midwest.
The Midwest Book Awards is one of the longest-running literary awards in the country celebrating excellence in independent publishing.
Stay tuned for the winners to be announced on June 26!
June 19, Water’s Edge Press will participate in the 2021 Maker Faire, held at Mead Public Library and City Green in Sheboygan, WI. According to the event website, the event is “the Greatest Show (& Tell) on Earth – a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness.”
Sheboygan Poet Laureate, Lisa Vihos, has also organized an Acoustic Cafe in association with this event that will feature many of the writers from Water’s Edge Press. They’ll read selections from their books and be available for book signing afterwards.
At the Water’s Edge Press table, visitors can learn about Dawn Hogue’s path to small press publishing. All of the books from Water’s Edge Press will also be available to purchase.
Please mark your calendars: June 19, 2021, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visit the event website for more information.
In celebration of National Poetry Month, Arcadia Books (Spring Green, WI) hosted Daniel and Austin Smith for a conversation about poetry, the influence of writers like Tobias Wolff, Lucien Stryk, Michael Mott, and Gary Snyder, and how growing up in a community of writers shaped them both. Daniel and Austin both share selections of their work.
Consider this video to be a free course in how to read, craft, and appreciate poetry from two fine American poets who happen to be father and son. The two discuss origins of their poems, their interdependent growth as writers, the impact of place in their writing, and how effective it is to blend genres.
Ancestral by Daniel Smith is the newest book from Water’s Edge Press, due out June 1. We agree with Austin’s assessment that his father’s book “Conveys emotion via the physical world.” Rooted in a Midwestern landscape, Ancestral’s sense of place is never “claustrophobic,”
Austin says, adding that the poems “remind [him] of the poets [he loves], like Ted Kooser, who writes so beautifully about Nebraska. There’s a universality to the poems despite their placedness.”
Enjoy the video and pre-order Ancestral. Austin’s books are available here.
We’re excited to announce that we will publish a collection of poems by poet Daniel Smith. ANCESTRAL will be released early summer 2021. Daniel Smith’s ANCESTRAL draws from the thirty years he farmed his family’s dairy farm in northwestern Illinois.
With poetry grounded in the rural Midwest, ANCESTRAL explores a family’s deep attachment to the land, the physical work of farming and the emotional disruption one endures when such a life is no longer sustainable. These poems provide a powerful depiction of the changes impacting agriculture and our rural communities.
Follow us for updates on Dan’s book as well as for all of our authors.
We’re excited to announce that we will publish a collection of poems by Milwaukee poet, Ed Werstein. Communiqué: Poems from the Headlines will be released early summer 2021. Werstein’s inspiration for Communiqué came from current and historical headlines from local, national, and global news sources.
Sometimes satirical, sometimes reverent, always thought-provoking, Werstein’s poems are sure to find their way to bookshelves everywhere.
Follow us for updates on Ed’s book as well as for all of our authors.
We’re happy to announce that Water’s Edge Press nominated work from these three outstanding writers for a Pushcart Prize. Congratulations to Kathryn Gahl (The Velocity of Love), Jeff Elzinga (The Distance Between Stars), and Karl Elder (Alpha Images).
Pre order your copy of Karl Elder’s Alpha Images: Poems Selected and New. $24 at https://www.watersedgepress.com/shop
Karl Elder, Lakeland University’s Fessler Professor of Creative Writing, has gathered the best of his poetry in Alpha Images: Poems Selected and New. This 270 page volume includes over 50 new or previously uncollected poems.
Noted for exceptional range—his work in open, closed, and invented forms—Elder’s verse is similarly multifaceted in his choice of subject matter.
Says David Lehman of The Best American Poetry series, “Karl Elder is a poet of rich imagination and high intelligence, whose work I have admired for many years.”
Observing Covid-19 safety, Jeff Elzinga met with interested readers at Literatus & Co. yesterday and personally inscribed copies of The Distance Between Stars. If you missed this event, you can still buy copies at the store. And, of course, you can always order from us. Use coupon code HAPPY until December 14 to save 10% on your order from Water’s Edge Press on Jeff’s book (and all of our books).
With the holidays quickly approaching (and with Covid keeping us all close to home), you are likely making your gift-giving list early. Books are the perfect 2020 gifts, inducing couch-cozy snuggling safely at home.
When you buy from us (instead of that huge online bookseller), you put more money in writers’ pockets.
Help us help our authors: buy books directly from www.watersedgepress.com/shop by December 14 using coupon code: HAPPY and save 10% on your total order.
Ancestral
$25.00
A Hollow Bone
$16.00
Lamenting My Failure to Learn How to Tap Dance: And Other Missteps
$18.00
Something Novel Came In Spring
$15.00
Poems from the Winter House
$25.00
