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{"id":2478,"date":"2021-04-18T09:45:51","date_gmt":"2021-04-18T09:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/?p=2478"},"modified":"2021-05-12T20:57:12","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T20:57:12","slug":"texas-poetry-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/?p=2478&lang=ar","title":{"rendered":"Texas Poetry Spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First annual Texas Poetry Spotlight &amp; giveaway<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:18px\"><strong><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><a id=\"Top\" name=\"Top\"><\/a>Lone Star Lit is celebrating National Poetry Month with our first annual Texas Poetry Spotlight! Texas poets and poetry provide great variety in subjects and forms. <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\">We\u2019ve got haiku, ghazals, villanelles, free verse, sonnets, odes, epistles, and elegies; lyric and narrative; free verse and rhymed poetry. We\u2019ve got pilots, beer, God, jokers, Olympics, reverse psychology, parks, the pandemic, botany, van Gogh, <em>nidus<\/em>, violence, and joy. We\u2019ve got Texas people, places, critters, and history; and, of course, love in all its permutations.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\">We hope y\u2019all enjoy and discover something edifying in this inaugural Texas Poetry Spotlight, and enter the <a href=\"#Giveaway\"><strong>GIVEAWAY<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;to win one of eight books of poetry.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/beyond_haiku_1.png\" style=\"height:192px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:24pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><strong><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Beyond-Haiku-Pilots-Write-Poetry\/dp\/1952779561\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Beyond Haiku: Pilots Write Poetry<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Captain Linda Pauwels&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><em>included in <strong><a href=\"#Giveaway\">giveaway<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:16px\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\"><em><span style=\"color:black\">Beyond Haiku<\/span><\/em><span style=\"color:black\"> peeks through the cockpit door to reveal the poetic heart of airline pilots. Captain Linda Pauwels, instructor pilot on the Boeing 787 and former aviation columnist for the Orange County Register, presents a selection of haiku and short poems by men and women who fly airplanes for a living. The writing is niche and empathetic. The humor is characteristically wry, befitting the pilot persona. Beautiful illustrations, by children of pilots aged six to seventeen, bring this flight of fancy in for a smooth landing. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Proceeds from <em>Beyond Haiku<\/em> will go to the Allied Pilots Association Emergency Relief and Scholarship Fund, to provide support for pilots impacted by industry effects of COVID-19.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/correspondence_in_d_minor_1.jpg\" style=\"border-style:solid; border-width:1px; height:320px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:24pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><strong><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jamesrdennis.com\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Correspondence in D Minor<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:16px\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\">James Dennis<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><em>Correspondence in D Minor<\/em> is James Dennis\u2019s first collection of poetry. Many of the poems are fictional letters to historical or literary figures. Texas Book Lover said Dennis &#8220;is grappling with regret and longing, as well as amusing us and himself, frequently with irreverent humor. Dennis\u2019s work accommodates both \u201cskedaddle\u201d and \u201cimprimatur\u201d in the same poem. The cleverness evident in these poems belies a humility, just a guy trying to do no harm, and maybe figure out how to escape the cycles of history along the way. Dennis is skillful and inspired, both the artist and the technician.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/gods_foolishness_1.jpg\" style=\"height:300px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><strong><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lsupress.org\/books\/detail\/gods-foolishness\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">God\u2019s Foolishness<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\">William Wenthe<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\">St. Paul writes that \u201cthe foolishness of God is wiser than men.\u201d William Wenthe\u2019s <em>God\u2019s Foolishness<\/em> explores the limits of human wisdom when facing matters of love and desire, time and death, the continuity and fragility of our natural environment. At the same time, these poems suggest our human limitations lead us to a sense of something infinite. With cinematic fluidity, Wenthe\u2019s poems shift from close observation to panorama: from a tea mug to ancient monuments, from a warbler on an elm branch to the specter of imminent natural disaster. These poems of crisis offer passion and intellect mediated through a careful concern for poetic craft. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/insatiable_consumption_1_0.png\" style=\"height:332px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9780578597317?aff=LoneStarLit\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color:#0033ff\"><span style=\"font-size:20px\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\">Insatiable Consumption of Being:&nbsp;A Collection of Poems, Writings, and Micro Stories<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:16px\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\">Tiffany Sunday<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><em>included in <strong><a href=\"#Giveaway\">giveaway<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:16px\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\">Sunday\u2019s passion for poetry and fiction pours from the pages as she shares her self-discovery and personal journey. Readers are guided through emotionally charged themes of love, grief, inequality, and the triumphant feeling of overcoming challenges.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/listening_devices_1.jpg\" style=\"height:320px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:22px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jamesrdennis.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong><span style=\"color:#0033ff\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\">Listening Devices<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:16px\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\">James Dennis<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:16px\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\"><em>Listening Devices<\/em> is James Dennis\u2019s second collection of poetry. Former Texas Poet Laureate Carol Coffee Reposa says, &#8220;<em>In Listening Devices<\/em>, James Dennis brings a near-Renaissance breadth to bear on a dizzying array of topics . . . [but] he still finds room for humor, vigorously defending \u201cthe cowardice of (his) convictions.\u201d&nbsp;Further, Dennis is as much at home with the sonnet or ghazal as with free verse, and this command of craft, coupled with his deep music and arresting imagery, transforms the seemingly ordinary into the breathtaking. No doubt about it: James Dennis is a poetic wizard.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:24pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:12.0pt\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/mad_ramblings_the_1.jpg\" style=\"height:304px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:24pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><strong><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/books\/the-mad-ramblings-of-a-joker\/9781947677043\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">The Mad Ramblings of a Joker<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Brandon Dillon<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><em>included in <strong><a href=\"#Giveaway\">giveaway<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Poet Brandon Dillon makes his debut with <em>The Mad Ramblings of a Joker<\/em>, a brutally honest collection, full of metaphor and vibrant imagery. His work covers topics such as PTSD, depression, and heartbreak, and softer moments of hope and reflective peace. His poetry is deep and unforgettable, a beacon for a dark world that needs a friend to say, \u201cI&#8217;ve been there. I understand.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"background-color:white\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/9780875657639_p0_v1_s600x595.jpg\" style=\"height:267px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\"><strong><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"color:#1f3763\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tamupress.com\/book\/9780875657639\/the-national-parks\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">The National Parks: A Century of Grace<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">karla k. morton,&nbsp;Alan Birkelbach<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><em>included in <strong><a href=\"#Giveaway\">giveaway<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Poets karla k. morton and Alan Birkelbach began this journey to celebrate our national parks\u2019 one hundredth anniversary, but for these two poets the sojourns quickly became something greater than that. In their words, \u201cAs humans we have this tendency to look at a piece of land and see real estate. [But] when concrete covers all our natural spaces, not only do we lose Earth\u2019s creatures, we also lose the great teacher of our souls. You cannot sit beneath trees taller than the Statue of Liberty, or gaze upon vistas untouched since their creation, without feeling the awe and wonder of what the natural world has to offer. You cannot experience such beauty without being wholly changed. Our great-great-great-grandchildren deserve these untouched gifts.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">This journey, illustrated with gorgeous color photos of all of America\u2019s grand national parks, is a feast for the eyes and heart. In the end, it is a plea for us to save these wonders for all future generations.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/on_wings_of_silence_1.jpg\" style=\"height:300px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:24pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><strong><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brazosbookstore.com\/book\/9781942956679\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">On Wings of Silence<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Dede Fox&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Seventeen-year-old Diana Greene travels from Texas to Mexico City, searching for adventure, freedom, and romance. She finds all three. Then her first love Guillermo vanishes during the revolutionary chaos before the 1968 Olympics. Heartbroken, she searches for the truth about his disappearance. As police threaten those who ask questions, she risks becoming one of the missing. (This novel in verse was featured on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/content\/wings-silence-dede-fox\" target=\"_blank\">Lone Star Book Blog Tours<\/a>.)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/proper_gray_areas_1_0.png\" style=\"height:320px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:24pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><strong><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9780578790312?aff=LoneStarLit\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Proper Grey Areas: A Collection of Poems<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Tiffany Sunday&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><em>included in <strong><a href=\"#Giveaway\">giveaway<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Sunday\u2019s sophomore volume of poetry is both intimate and eclectic as she writes about love, grief, abuse, inequality, empowerment, and the global pandemic. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/we_make_a_tiny_herd_1.jpg\" style=\"height:282px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\"><strong><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mainstreetragbookstore.com\/product\/we-make-a-tiny-herd-lucy-griffith\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">We Make a Tiny Herd<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Lucy Griffith<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><em>included in <strong><a href=\"#Giveaway\">giveaway<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">&#8220;With sparkling diction sparse as the far West Texas desert of her poems\u2019 settings, Griffith captures the iconic essence of the late, fiercely independent Judy Magers, also affectionately known as \u201cLa Reina\u201d or \u201cBurro Lady,\u201d who, for decades, with nothing but her loyal burro and what meager possessions she could carry on its back, traveled bar ditches, slept beneath the starry sky, and never used a tent or made a superfluous fire. What a story!&#8221;\u2014Larry D. Thomas, Texas Institute of Letters member, 2008 Texas Poet Laureate<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/woman_with_the_amber_eyes_the_1.jpg\" style=\"height:308px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><strong><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Woman-Amber-Eyes-Observations-Experiences\/dp\/B08XLGGDNT\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">The Woman with the Amber Eyes<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Charlie Whipple<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Pastoral Poems, epigrams, haiku, humor, essays, songs, observations, experiences, Americana, Texas Hill Country: a potpourri to soothe the soul.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/beer_songs.jpg\" style=\"height:300px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\"><strong><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9780978989224?aff=LoneStarLit\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Beer Songs For The Lonely<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Francois Pointeau<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><em><span style=\"color:black\">Beer Songs<\/span><\/em><span style=\"color:black\"> is an intoxicated ramble of the Parisian streets. It is un-apologetic, surrealistic, funny, sometimes sloppy, and always full of life. It is a cry of loneliness and a cry of passion. It is a collection of poems or &#8220;songs&#8221; meant to be read out-loud over a mug of beer, or two, or three . . .<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/bright_specimen.jpg\" style=\"height:308px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:24pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><strong><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9781646050574?aff=LoneStarLit\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Bright Specimen<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Julie Poole&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><em>included in <strong><a href=\"#Giveaway\">giveaway<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">With the loving eye of an amateur botanist, poet Julie Poole has distilled nature to its finest, tender points. Through poems spread delicately across the page, interspersed with images of the pressed flowers themselves, Poole\u2019s poetry gives voice to a meditative expression of flora. Each poem creates an individual cataloged world through which to explore the body, sexuality, strength, and a devout refusal to admit the separation between humans and nature.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Inspired by the Billie L. Turner Plant Resources Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the largest herbaria in the Southwestern United States,&nbsp;<em>Bright Specimen<\/em>&nbsp;weaves together a written index through the harmony of botanical wonder.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/brook_the_divide.jpg\" style=\"height:309px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\"><strong><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9781950730261?aff=LoneStarLit\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Brook the Divide<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Rebecca A. Spears<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><em><span style=\"color:black\">Brook&nbsp;the Divide<\/span><\/em><span style=\"color:black\"> is the result of the poet\u2019s creative meddling in the life of Vincent van Gogh. Her speaker is fascinated not only with van Gogh\u2019s art, but she is also enamored with him as a man and a human. In her imaginary friendship, she discovers how difficult it can be to \u201cbrook the divide\u201d between everyday life and the creative life.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/lone_star_heart_1_basic.jpg\" style=\"height:259px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><strong><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Lone-Star-Heart-Michael-Baldwin\/dp\/1942956142\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Lone Star Heart: Poems of Life in Texas<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Michael Baldwin, Johnny Bowen<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><em>included in <strong><a href=\"#Giveaway\">giveaway<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><em><span style=\"color:black\">Lone Star Heart<\/span><\/em><span style=\"color:black\"> contains fifty-five poems about Texas and fifteen full-color images of Texas subjects. The poems are divided into four sections: Texas weather, Texas places, Texas critters, and Texas folks. Many of the poems are of personal experience of the author, others depict historical places and events such as the battle of the Alamo, but often with a personal twist. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Native Texans will find many of these poems evoking their own memories of Texas. Non-natives will find the book not only of poetic interest, but a fine introduction to all things Texas.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/thethejacketcoveronly.jpeg\" style=\"height:276px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:24pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><strong><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/backlashpress.com\/product\/into-the-the-by-robin-reagler\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Into The The<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><em> <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:16px\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\">Robin Reagler<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:16px\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\"><em><span style=\"color:black\">Into The The<\/span><\/em><span style=\"color:black\">,&nbsp;by Robin Reagler of Houston, Texas, won the Backlash Press Best Book Award. According to Gretchen Heffernan, publisher at Backlash Press, \u201cReagler\u2019s poetry shows us how language is playground, high ground, and common ground for communicating what is most important about our human condition.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">The book of poems has garnered a great deal of advanced praise. According to Pulitzer Prize-winner Jericho Brown, \u201cThis is a book of strict observance of all that can be touched.\u201d&nbsp;Laura Mullen, author of seven books, describes the book this way: \u201cthe poems in <em>Into The The<\/em> are bursting with fresh insights and imbued with a joyous passion for life.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/apr_30_0.jpg\" style=\"height:323px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:24pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><strong><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9781625345615?aff=LoneStarLit\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Patmos<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><em> <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:16px\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\">(Juniper Prize for Poetry)&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:16px\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\">Bruce Bond<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">The dead are never far from the living in&nbsp;<em>Patmos<\/em>, the end is always nigh, and the cultural symptoms of denial and reconciliation, unresolved shame and loneliness, remain just beneath the surface. In this book-length poetic sequence, Bruce Bond explores the psychology of endings as a living presence that haunts our spiritual, moral, and ecological imaginations, elevates its summons, and draws us to question its significance. The horrors and glories in the revelations of John of Patmos provide a lens into a wound, a crisis of values, a longing to heal a visionary brokenness that is fundamentally solitary and yet contemporary, written against a door that will not open.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/2021-03-12_12-17-10.jpg\" style=\"height:299px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:24pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><strong><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Generations-Texas-Poets-Dave-Oliphant\/dp\/1609404815\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Generations of Texas Poets<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Dave Oliphant&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Dave Oliphant is widely considered the finest poetry critic ever produced by Texas. This volume brings together some forty years of essays, articles, and reviews on the topic of Texas poetry, its history as well as addressing individual poets and their books. Only one other book in the last two decades addressed the topic, and <em>Generations of Texas Poets<\/em> is larger, more comprehensive, and of superior literary quality. In 1971, Larry McMurtry famously descried the lack of good Texas poetry; Oliphant has spent a lifetime nurturing it, publishing it, and has become its best critic.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/41hpmlhys9l._sx371_bo1204203200_.jpg\" style=\"height:268px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:24pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><strong><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Neem-Nidus-Olive-Life\/dp\/9693532996\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Of Neem, Nidus, and Olive: A Life<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Dr. Amanullah Khan,&nbsp;Agha Nisar Ali Khan&nbsp;(Illustrator)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">A reconciliation of what was and what is with what might be: <em>Of Neem, Nidus, and Olive<\/em> is narrative poetry, a memoir that invites the reader to imagine life through the combined vision of the writer and the illustrator, and images to discover and rediscover with each reading. Dr. Khan\u2019s poetry explores <em>nidus<\/em>, relationships, natural devastations like volcanoes and hurricanes, the difficulty of telling a young woman she has leukemia, doubt in the face of suffering, and the tragedy of zealots \u201cincinerating\u201d young lives and faith. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">The author, who has a strong narrative voice, is a hematologist\/oncologist in McKinney, Texas, president of Cancer Center Associates, and past president of the Poetry Society of Texas. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/content\/lone-star-indie-review-neem-nidus-and-olive-life\" target=\"_blank\">Lone Star Lit Indie Review<\/a>)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/pandemia_cover_final.jpg\" style=\"height:300px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:24pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><strong><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/aztlanlibrepress.com\/pandemia-by-edward-vidaurre\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Pandemia &amp; Other Poems<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:24pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:12.0pt\"><span style=\"color:black\">Edward Vidaurre<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><em>Pandemia &amp; Other Poems<\/em>&nbsp;comes to the world as a salve to a trifecta of crises\u2014border issues of children in cages and immigrants being held in tent cities to wait with little or no hope; a virus that has crippled the world, forcing us to re-evaluate and test our resolve as survivors; and the ongoing issue of police brutality stirring protests around the world.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\">Vidaurre is a poet who wants to help people, and who works through \u201cthe ghostly streets of uncertainty\u201d in the midst of this pandemia with dreams, hope, and love\u2014always, there is love.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/9781682830642.jpg\" style=\"height:300px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\"><strong><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"color:#1f3763\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9781682830642?aff=LoneStarLit\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Gracious: Poems from the 21st Century South<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">John Poch&nbsp;(Editor),&nbsp;Bryan Giemza&nbsp;(Introduction by)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">John Poch&#8217;s newly curated collection, <em>Gracious: Poems of the 21st Century South<\/em>, spotlights both emerging and notable voices from this poetry-rich region. This book promises to be the best and most influential anthology of Southern poetry published in over thirty years. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><em><span style=\"color:black\">Gracious<\/span><\/em><span style=\"color:black\"> steers away from stereotypical mockingbird-and-magnolia verse and instead amplifies a variety of lyric voices covering a wide breadth of Southern experience. Bryan Giemza&#8217;s timely introduction situates the anthology among the current discourse in Southern studies. <em>Gracious<\/em> features the work of some of our best-known poets alongside those who have just published their first books. In all, there are eighty-four poets included whose work moves both the heart and the intellect. <em>Gracious<\/em> is, in the end, a new poetic geography, a book that strives to define Southern poetry for a generation to come.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/04_violence_joy_chaos_0.jpg\" style=\"height:308px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\"><strong><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9781952050015?aff=LoneStarLit\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Violence\/Joy\/Chaos: Essays &amp; Poems<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Jane Marshall Fleming<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">This debut, full-length, hybrid collection of essays and poetry explores the moments of joy and chaotic hilarity that mingle with the experiences of trauma and trauma recovery.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Jane Marshall Fleming writes with boldness and shows the beauty in every moment, amidst violent chaos, embracing joy just as much as darkness. Moving from a backdrop of a small Virginia town and eventually finding herself in the freedom and wilderness of the desert, readers will follow the author on her journey mapping her skin, sharing in her joys, grief, pain, loss, discovering love and self-growth, night-blooming like a desert flower. (This collection was featured on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/content\/violence-joy-chaos-jane-marshall-fleming\" target=\"_blank\">Lone Star Book Blog Tours<\/a>.)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/2021-03-12_12-49-00.jpg\" style=\"height:323px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:24pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><strong><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9781680032147?aff=LoneStarLit\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Permutations of a Self: Poems<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:24pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"font-size:12.0pt\"><span style=\"color:black\">Thomas V. Nguyen<\/span><\/span>&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><em>Permutations of a Self<\/em> grapples with issues of belonging and connection, all from the perspective of someone who does a lot more observing and ruminating than living in the present. Most of the poems draw from Nguyen\u2019s imperfect memory of himself and others as it changes throughout time. In many ways, the poet feels like an outsider in his own family because he has gradually forgotten how to speak Vietnamese, his native language that he once knew so well. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\">The poems in this manuscript are as much about coming to terms with that as they are about trying to reconcile what it means to be a part of his family. Interspersed throughout are threads connecting the poet to each one of his family members. They are the moments he turns back to again and again when he is lonely, confused, or unsure about where he comes from and where he is going. (Read a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/content\/lone-star-excerpt-permutations-self-poems\" target=\"_blank\">Lone Star Lit Excerpt<\/a>.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/51kpcvyek4l._sx355_bo1204203200_.jpg\" style=\"height:280px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><strong><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Did-Sing-Your-Song-Poems\/dp\/1947460072\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">Did You Sing Your Song? Poems<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\">Rev. Mary C. Earle<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:16px\"><span style=\"font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">A lifetime of poetry about the land, memories of West Texas, family, and sacredness of life: <\/span>When she was a little girl, Mary Earle&#8217;s maternal grandmother taught her to listen to the garden in her yard, the creek on the Texas Hill Country land, the wind in the trees, and the stars. Her mother, Mary Colbert, started reading to her as soon as she could sit up, and her mother loved to read poetry out loud. The poems in this book are an offering that comes from years of listening to what the Irish call&nbsp;the music of what happens. Mary says, \u201cMy hope is that the poems will invite the reader to listen along with me to that music.\u201d (Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/content\/lone-star-indie-review-did-you-sing-your-song-poems\" target=\"_blank\">Lone Star Lit Indie Review<\/a>.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/apr_13.jpg\" style=\"height:300px; width:200px\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><strong><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.boaeditions.org\/collections\/poetry\/products\/how-to-be-better-by-being-worse\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span style=\"font-size:16.0pt\">How to be Better by Being Worse<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\"><span style=\"color:black\">Justin Jannise <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\">Winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, selected by Richard Blanco as winner of the 2019 A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, Justin Jannise turns the self-help manual on its head in <em>How to be Better by Being Worse<\/em>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif\">These poems flout, subvert, question, and ignore the rules with exploratory energy. Queer experiences are celebrated\u2014from crushing on long-dead, sad-eyed poets to drag divas dancing at Halloween parties\u2014gender constructs are questioned, and familial transgressions are laid bare for the world. Delightfully modulating between flippant, sincere, and back again, <em>How to Be Better by Being Worse<\/em> freely indulges in harmless wickedness as its speaker grows in self-awareness, slowly learning to let go of inherited shame while continuing to seek self-forgiveness for the harms he has caused the outside world. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><a href=\"#giveaway\" id=\"Giveaway\" name=\"Giveaway\"><strong>GIVEAWAY RUNS APRIL 11-MIDNIGHT, CDT, APRIL 30, 2021<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lonestarliterary.com\/sites\/lonestarliterary.etypegoogle10.com\/files\/article_body_images\/tx_poetry_giveaway.png\" style=\"height:450px; width:450px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\"><a href=\"#Top\"><strong>BACK TO TOP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtecenter\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First annual Texas Poetry Spotlight &amp; giveaway<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[813,830,844,886],"class_list":["post-2478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lone-star-literary-life","tag-lonestarliterarycom","tag-newsbrief","tag-poetry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}