Category: Book News

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Vihos’ haiku journal makes December 1 debut

Ordinarily we wouldn’t promote books we didn’t publish, but this one is an exception. For one thing, we did the book design. Second, it’s a fantastic collection of haiku bundled with a daily journal.

Here’s the official description at lisavihos.com:

“In 5-7-5: a daily haiku journal, Lisa Vihos marks the passage of time through the most observational of all poetic forms: haiku. Her daily poems are rooted in the natural surroundings of her Wisconsin home, and while her portraits of daily life can be personal and introspective, all are evidence of universal experience. Through sun and clouds, joy and sorrow, Vihos reminds us of the transience of the natural world and life itself. This journal urges readers to seize the pen and write the day, for one year or up to four.”

This book will not be on Amazon, at least not for a while, but you can buy it from the author’s website. I hope you will. I plan on giving this book to several people for the holidays.

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Newest acquisition: Pigeon Falls by Jeff Elzinga

We’re excited to announce we will publish Jeff Elzinga’s second novel, Pigeon Falls. Look for it in April 2025.

About the book

Pigeon Falls follows surveyor Tom Bishop and his small band of coworkers, a traveling crew of wind turbine builders, to an out-of-the-way corner of Wisconsin’s Driftless Area for one final project of the season before winter arrives. During their week amid this distinctive landscape, unforeseen challenges test the crew’s character and threaten to pry the team apart. Caught up in the ordeals are a pig farmer hell-bent on reversing generations of family failure, a young newly-wed resisting an abusive husband, and other local citizens living the quintessential life of folks in small-town America. Tom Bishop must also come to terms with his own undiagnosed health issues and whatever legacy a childless, divorced man can hope to leave behind someday. As Bishop says, after one particularly trying day, “The truest form of darkness, when you’re out in the middle of nowhere, is found not in the heavens but on earth.” In Pigeon Falls the disabling effects of hardship and greed are laid bare, yet in the end it is a story of solidarity, resilience, and hope.

Learn more about the author at his website: jeffelzinga.com

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Geosmin is finalist in Midwest Book Awards

Geosmin

Congratulations to Catherine Young, whose book Geosmin was selected as a finalist for regional poetry in the 2023 Midwest Independent Publishers Association Midwest Book Awards.

“This year’s finalists represent the best of the best in Midwest publishing,” said Jennifer Baum, the association’s director. “We are proud to honor these authors and publishers for their outstanding work,” she said.

Gold winners will be announced in person at the Midwest Book Awards gala held on June 17, 2023 at Open Book in Minneapolis. Renowned book critic Mary Ann Grossmann is set to keynote the event, which is open to the public.

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The Distance Between Stars chosen as a finalist in Midwest Book Awards

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!

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Daniel and Austin Smith: father and son talk poetry, life, and connections to the land

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.

Arcadia Books celebrates National Poetry Month with Daniel Smith & Austin Smith
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Now taking pre-orders for Elder’s 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.”

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Columbia University School of the Arts Features ‘The Distance Between Stars’

Jeff Elzinga’s novel The Distance Between Stars was featured on the website for Columbia University School of the Arts on September 17, 2020 in an article by Nicole Saldarriaga. Elzinga is an 1978 alum of the university.

We’re happy to see news of Jeff’s excellent novel reaching a wider audience.

Purchase copies signed by the author.

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Signed copies of The Distance Between Stars

Starting July 15, 2020, we are offering copies of The Distance Between Stars signed by the author, Jeff Elzinga.

Order yours today before our supply sells out. This offer is available only at Water’s Edge Press.

ABOUT THIS BOOK

The Distance between Stars, a story about DUTY, RACE, and national IDENTITY.

In an African country quickly sliding towards civil war, an American diplomat adrift in his personal life searches for an investigative reporter who has gone missing in the bush.