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Foreign Rights: Available Now: LiteratureThe Agnostics by Wendy Rawlings The American Wife by Elaine Ford Curious Attractions by Debra Spark The Ed Bullins Reader: Twelve Plays and Selected Writings by Ed Bullins, edited by Mike Sell Joyce/Foucault by Wolfgang Streit Mapping Michel Serres by Niran Abbas On Louise Glück by Joanne Diehl Outside the Lines by Christopher Hennessy Selected Prose by John Ashbery Textual Awareness by Dirk Van Hulle The AgnosticsWendy Rawlings Rights: World The Agnostics is a novel of faith, love, and family life so closly observed and spare we can almost feel its characters think. Yet while it travels these inner roads, the sweep is as much outward and generational, exposing the geology of families in disarray across shifting fidelities, crises of faith, and the small moments that cement our lives together Stephen and Beverly Wirth are by all accounts a typical American family. Although they come from religiously disparate backgrounds—she is Jewish; he, Protestant—their love for each other is all that matters at first. Together they have two daughters, Louise and Deborah, whose own very different personalities quickly emerge as powerful forces within the family dynamics. After years of marriage, Bev and Stephen drift slowly apart, their ultimate separation coming in stages as Bev struggles with her sexuality. Between bouts of alcoholism and attempts to restore an ever-growing fleet of decrepit boats, Stephen does his best to raise their daughters. But things are no different for the girls. Abandoned by a mother they feel they no longer know and stuck with a father increasingly out of control, Louise and Deborah lose themselves in their own efforts to grow up, battling troubles both inherited and of their own convention. Painting with a fine and delicate brush, the author reveals her characters’ lives as a series of discrete moments, letting us experience their conflicts from within. But The Agnostics is also a story of a generation coming of age in a time of cultural turmoil, struggling to find a place for itself in the world, and searching for something to believe in. Wendy Rawlings's first book, Come Back Irish, won the 2000 Sandstone Prize in Short Fiction from The Ohio State University Press. Her stories and creative non-fiction have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Tin House, Colorado Review, New Letters, Bellingham Review, Fourth Genre, and other magazines. She has held residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Bread Loaf Writer's Conferences, where she was the 2002 John Farrar Fellow in Fiction. She has an MFA from Colorado State University and a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of Utah. At present, she is an Assistant Professor in the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Alabama. August 2007 The American WifeElaine Ford Rights: World A brilliant collection of keenly observed stories from the 2006 winner of the Michigan Literary Fiction Award for short fiction Of Elaine Ford's earlier novel, Missed Connections, The Washington Post wrote that it is a work "of small episodes, of precise sentences, of unusual clarity". Much of the same could be said of The American Wife, this year's winner of the Michigan Literary Fiction Award for short fiction. Throughout the collection, Ford shows herself to be a writer who never takes the easy out, and that is what gives these pieces their strength and resonance. In one story, a penniless World War II vet moves into the garage next door and begins to paint snow scenes on wood boards. Years later his work appears in a Boston art show. In another, a young wife and her baby, alone in the Greek countryside while her archaeologist husband goes on extended digs, finds that her child has been abducted and exchanged with another—or has it? Throughout her stories, Ford touches on the mysteries, triumphs, insults, unanswered loves and dreams deferred—the literal and figurative small deaths that make up our lives. Each story in itself is a masterpiece in miniature of such detail as to open a door into seeing the world in new ways. Elaine Ford is the author of five novels. For her fiction she has received two National Endowment for the Arts grants and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is Professor Emerita at the University of Maine, where she taught creative writing and literature. Presently she lives in Harpswell, Maine. October 2007 Coming After: Essays on PoetryAlice Notley Rights: World Coming After is a collection of essays and reviews by the acclaimed poet Alice Notley, a major figure among the New York School of poets. This collection on poetry and poets includes commentary on the work of, among others, Eileen Myles, Frank O'Hara, Ron Padgett, and Anne Waldman. Alice Notley has been an important presence in the second generation New York School, and for the past decade has lived in Paris, where she edits the magazine Gare du Nord. Notley has authored over twenty books, including the recent Penguin titles Mysteries of Small Houses and Disobedience, both of which have garnered critical acclaim. Spring 2005 Curious Attractions: Essays on Fiction WritingDebra Spark Rights: World Curious Attractions: Essays on Fiction Writing is filled with lively and engaging essays on aspects of the writer's craft, from acclaimed novelist Debra Spark. The topics include the challenge of beginnings and endings, the problem of magical realism in the United States, handling emotion in fiction, the novella, and creative inspiration. The essays were first delivered as lectures in the acclaimed MFA Program in Creative Writing at Warren Wilson College. Debra Spark is director of the Creative Writing Program at Colby College and author of the novels Coconuts for the Saint and The Ghost of Bridgetown. After earning an MFA from the Iowa Writers Program, she edited the anthology 20 under 30: Early Works by Today's Influential Writers. She has been a fellow at Yaddo and at the Bunting Institute, and a recipient of a grant from the NEA. Spring 2005 The Ed Bullins Reader: Twelve Plays and Selected WritingsEd Bullins, Mike Sell, Editor Rights: World Twelve Plays and Selected Writings collects the most prominent works of Ed Bullins, one of the most influent's plays reflect his dual roles as artist and activist, as they experiment with dramatic convention while advocating a revolutionary black art. Collecting signature plays Clara's Ole Man, The Electronic Nigger and Harlem Diva, among others—as well as performance pieces, fiction, essays, and letters—Eight Plays will be an invaluable collection, documenting the work of an important and controversial American writer, and will appeal to the growing body of scholars and students interested in the Black Arts Movement. Ed Bullins was playwright-in-residence at the historic New Lafayette Theatre in New York, and, along with Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal, editor of Black Theatre magazine. He also served as Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party, and helped to raise funds for the party’s political activities. He is recipient of three Obie awards, a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition, he received the Living Legend award from the National Black Theatre Festival in 1997. Mike Sell is Associate Professor of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and author of Avant-Garde Performance and the Limits of Criticism: Approaching the Living Theatre,Happenings/ Fluxus, and The Black Arts Movement. Fall 2004 Joyce/Foucault: Sexual ConfessionsWolfgang Streit Rights: World Joyce/Foucault is a study of sexual confession in the works of James Joyce using Michel Foucault's historical analysis of Western sexuality as a theoretical underpinning. Wolfgang Streit provides fresh, close readings of individual texts that illuminate Joyce's radical position toward religion and everyday culture in Western society. Joyce/Foucault makes an important contribution to international Joyce studies. Wolfgang Streit is a Lecturer and Documentalist at the Ludwig Maximilians Universitat, Munchen. Fall 2004 Mapping Michel SerresNiran Abbas Rights: World Michel Serres is one of the most prominent French philosophers of his time, with over 30 books to his credit. He was born in Agen, France, in 1930. He entered the French Naval Academy in 1949, and the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris in 1952. He earned an advanced degree in philosophy in 1955. From 1956 to 1958 he served as a naval officer on various French Navy ships, in the Atlantic squadron, in the reopening of the Suez Canal, in Algeria, and in the Mediterranean squadron. He earned his doctorate in 1968. He has taught at Clermont-Ferrand, at the University of Paris VIII (Vincennes) and at the Sorbonne. He has served as visiting professor at Johns Hopkins, and has been on the faculty of Stanford University since 1984. He was elected to the Academic Francaise in 1990. His books include Genesis; The Natural Contract; The Troubadour of Knowledge; Conversations on Science, Culture, and Time; The Parasite; Hermes; The Birth of P! hysics; Rome, Les Cinq Sens; Atlas; and Angels, A Modern Myth. "A left-hander forced to use his right, son of the land turned man of the sea, scientist turned epistemologist, philosopher turned moralist, transplanted Gascon in Paris, outcase voted to the Academie Francaise, Frenchman who spends half the year in the United States as a professor at Stanford, Michel Serres revels in being a half-breed from every point of view. This thoroughly unconventional, utterly brilliant, marvelously erudite philosopher has carved out a niche for himself in France at the edge of established disciplines and accepted methods. Like Derrida, he was long shunned by his colleagues, but also like Derrida, this intellectual loose cannon ended up reaching a large audience; indeed, his latest books, published by Francois Bourin, have sold hundreds of thousands of copies in France." —from the French Publishers' Agency The work of French philosopher Michel Serres has stimulated and challenged readers for many years, as it explores the boundaries of science, literature, culture, language, and epistemology. His writing is rich, metaphorical, and full of ingenious wordplay and unexpected historical and cultural references. Mapping Michel Serres brings together essays by the leading academic interpreters of Serres's work, to shed light on his extraordinary body of work and the remarkable linkages it makes among philosophy, science, and the humanities. Niran Abbas is Lecturer at Kingston University, United Kingdom. Spring 2005 Memory PianoCharles Simic Rights: World Memory Piano is an eclectic array of essays, reviews, and memoir by Pulitzer-prize winning poet Charles Simic, demonstrating the remarkable range of his interests and his astute critical sensibilities. The book includes essays on Robinson Jeffers, Gerald Stern, April Bernard, Charles Wright, Pablo Neruda, Donald Justice, and Richard Wilson, among others; musings on Eastern European poetry and politics; and a memoir piece, "The Sining Simics," about breaking a blood vessel while singing opera. Spring 2006 On Louise Glück: Change What You SeeJoanne Diehl Rights: World On Louise Glück: Change What You See is collection of critical essays on the work of U.S. poet laureate Louise Glück, which also includes a new interview with Glück. Louise Glück is the author of nine volumes of poetry, including The Wild Iris, which won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize, and The Triumph of Achilles, which received the 1985 National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry. On Louise Glück combines the best Glück criticism into one volume, to trace the critical reception of her work, and to offer new insights into her poetry, which has long been noted for its searing honesty and compelling first-person personae. Diverse critical approaches to Glück's poetry are complemented by a previously unpublished full-scale interview, offering a varied and useful array of investigations into the poet and her work. Joanne Diehl is an accomplished scholar and critic, and Professor of English at the University of California, Davis. Spring 2005 On SFThomas M. Disch Rights: World On SF is a collection by the much loved and lauded science fiction writer Thomas Disch. The book spans 25 years of his career, during which he has supplemented his creative output with reviews and critical essays in publications as diverse as The Nation, the New York Times Book Review, the Atlantic Monthly, Fantasy, and Twilight Zone. Disch's perspectives on his genre are skeptical, novel, and often incendiary. The volume's opening essay, for example, characterizes writers of science fiction as "the provincials of literature." Other essays explore science fiction's roots (Poe, Bradbury, Clarke, Asimov, Vonnegut) as well as modern practitioners (Stephen King, Philip Dick, Robert Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, William Gibson ). Disch entertains and provokes with essays on UFOs, Science Fiction as a Church, Newt Gingrich's Futurist Brain Trust. Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Madame Blavatsky also get the Disch treatment. Throughout, the style of writing is lively, agile, and irreverent, exhibiting an incisive honesty that is undiluted by Disch's own attachments as a sci-fi practitioner. Disch's On SF will appeal equally to lovers of science fiction and connoisseurs of the finest critical prose. Thomas M. Disch is master of many literary genres, including science fiction, poetry, drama, and children's literature. His other books from The University of Michigan Press include The Castle of Perseverance and A Child's Garden of Grammar. Spring 2005 Outside the Lines: Talking with Contemporary Gay PoetsChristopher Hennessy Rights: World Outside the Lines gathers for the first time interviews with some of the most significant figures in contemporary American poetry, collecting the voices of our foremost and most promising gay poets. Though each poet is gay, these encompassing, craft-centered interviews reflect the diversity of their art and serve as a testament to the impact gay poets have had and will continue to have on contemporary poetics. The first book of its kind, Outside the Lines features the voices of nationally acclaimed poets Thom Gunn, Frank Bidart, Alfred Corn, Mark Doty, J.D. McClatchy, Mark Doty, David Trinidad, Henri Cole, Carl Phillips, D.A. Powell, Reginald Shepherd, Raphael Campo, and Timothy Liu. Christopher Hennessy is a poet and freelance writer living in Boston who publishes frequently in national and international gay literary publications. He is associate editor at The Gay and Lesbian Review - Worldwide. His poetry has been anthologized in Gents, Bad Boys, and Barbarians: This New Breed edited by Rudy Kikel; and has appeared in publications such as Ploughshares, Crab Orchard Review, Natural Bridge, The James White Review, and Bay Windows. Spring 2005 Selected ProseJohn Ashbery and Editor Eugene Richie Rights: World* John Ashbery has long been held in high regard by both literary conservatives and experimentalists for his inimitable poetry and compelling prose on a wide range of topics. This collection brings together nearly seventy of Ashbery's prose pieces, including essays, reviews, introductions, and interviews. Written over the course of fifty years, these writings reflect Ashbery's close association with the New York School of poets and artists, including Kenneth Koch, James Schuyler and Frank O'Hara, and his noted career as an art critic. In addition to pieces on the New York School writers, Selected Prose features Ashbery's comments on the work of European writers, including Italo Calvino, Witold Gombrowicz, and Raymond Roussel. The book also includes a number of Ashbery's reviews of visual artists, including Fairfield Porter, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jane Freilicher, Lynn Davis, and Rudy Burckhardt, as well as several pieces on film. John Ashbery was born in Rochester, New York in 1927. He is the author of twenty books of poetry, including A Wave (1984), which won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975), which received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award; and Some Trees (1956), which was selected by W. H. Auden for the Yale Younger Poets Series. Among his other works are Reported Sightings (1989), a book of art criticism; a collection of plays; and a novel, A Nest of Ninnies (1969), with James Schuyler. He also edited The Best American Poetry (1988). Ashbery was the first English-language poet to win the Grand Prix de Biennales Internationales de Poésie (Brussels), and has also received the Bollingen Prize, the English Speaking Union Prize, the Feltrinelli Prize, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, two Ingram Merrill Foundation grants, the MLA Common Wealth Award in Literature, the Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize, the Frank O'Hara Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, and fellowships from The Academy of American Poets, the Fulbright Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. He is a former Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets and is currently the Charles P. Stevenson, Jr., Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College. He divides his time between New York City and Hudson, New York. Fall 2005 *United Kingdom rights are not available Textual Awareness: A Genetic Study of Late Manuscripts by Joyce, Proust, and MannDirk Van Hulle Rights: World Textual Awareness: A Genetic Study of Late Manuscripts by Joyce, Proust, and Mann examines three canonical works of the modernist period: Doktor Faustus, À la Recherche du Temps Perdu, and Finnegans Wake, and the writing processes by which these works were created. The book is among the first to look at genetic criticism comparatively, both in the range of texts covered, and in surveying the traditions of textual criticism as they developed in France, Germany, Britain and the U.S. It highlights the tension between the finished text and the unfinished text, an issue underlying both current textual criticism and the so-called crisis of the novel. Dirk Van Hulle is Assistant Professor of English and German Literature at the University of Antwerp. Fall 2004 |
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