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Now Available from Press 53
Dirt Sandwich
a new collection of poetry by
Linda Annas Ferguson
$12 plus $2 S&H
NC residents add. 81 sales tax
Order online at www.Press.53.com
or mail check to Press 53, PO Box 30314
Winston-Salem, NC 27130-0314
Cover photo by Bee Brady
Linda Annas Ferguson knows—to borrow Wallace Stevens’ formulation—that “Death is the
mother of beauty.” She proclaims in one of her poems, “Everything / is drenched with endings,
alive with dying.” Her work exists at the shimmering mid-point between an urge to celebrate
the world’s beauty and a pained recognition that this beauty is mutable. She recognizes that our
being only temporary inhabitants of this life is not a problem to solve but a mystery to feel—and
a mystery that compels us to make poems. As she wryly puts it, she is “dying to write / a decent
poem.” Linda Annas Ferguson has done more than that. She has given us a book of tender,
clear-eyed, complex meditations, a lovely book by a poet whose vision we can trust.
— Chris Forhan, author of Black Leapt In
Dirt Sandwich is about love, loss, and, above all, vanishment—”an oyster, still silky and iridescent,” “the ocean, never deep enough.” For me, the book has three touchstones—the title poem, in which a woman whose husband is dying takes the earth he will become into her own body, “Midsummer’s Eve” in which we see friends between two worlds galloping through the dark woods outside a bonfire’s circle, and the last poem in the book that ends “You whisper/‘stay,’ to the small of my palm, my cheek/to all I thought was without need.” Three touchstones are more than the law allows, but Linda Annas Ferguson has achieved them and with her permission I’ll be carrying them, warm in my pocket, on my own journey.
— Lola Haskins, author of Solutions Beginning with A
The moment is dear to us, precisely because it is so fugitive, Stanley Kunitz once wrote. And it is somewhat of a paradox that poets should spend a lifetime hunting for the magic that will make the moment stay. With a precision of craft and a tenderness of heart, Linda Annas Ferguson has found a way to make it stay. From Adam’s first meticulous naming, to a stripper’s deliberate moves, to Janice Joplin’s final song, Ferguson guides us through the quotidian world on an undercurrent of holiness. How lucky we are to have this bright and deeply moving collection.
— Cathy Smith Bowers, author of The Candle I Hold Up To See You
Author's Comment
It is so exciting to be published by Press 53. Their professionalism and warm spirit are beyond reproach. I also am elated that they are based in my home state of North Carolina. I grew up in the piedmont area near Hickory, NC, where I attended Granite Falls High School. My humble beginning was in the mill village of Rhodhiss. My residence now is in Charleston, SC, but I look forward to reading in both the Carolinas as part of my book tour. I have family in North Carolina near Lincolnton, so I am back and forth so often, I still call both home. I look forward to seeing you on my journey.
Recently Updated : Click here for : New READINGS
Recently Updated: New poems posted: Click Here:
Linda's book, Dirt Sandwich (Press 53) was a finalist in the 2010 Next Generation Book Indie Award. http://www.indiebookawards.com/
Linda's poem, Journey, (Press 53) was nominated for a Pushcart Prize
http://www.pushcartprize.com/index.htm
Linda's poem, "Journey" from her new book, Dirt Sandwich, was featured on Verse Daily.
Click here to read:
http://www.versedaily.org/2009/aboutlindaannasfergusonds.shtml
Linda's poem, "I Wanted to Hear Her Howl," was nominated by Wild Goose Poetry Review for a Pushcart Prize and The Best of the Net Award.
http://www.pushcartprize.com/index.htm
http://www.sundresspublications.com/
Linda's poetry is included in a new anthology by Ragged Sky Press:
EATING HER WEDDING DRESS: A COLLECTION OF CLOTHING POEMS
EATING HER WEDDING DRESS: A COLLECTION OF CLOTHING POEMS brings together one hundred celebrated and distinctive voices from across the United States, including internationally acclaimed poets such as Kim Addonizio, Margaret Atwood, Billy Collins, Elaine Equi, Jorie Graham, Maxine Kumin, Paul Muldoon, and Charles Simic, to speak about clothing as object of desire, as memento, and as metaphor for the body. Arranged into four parts, this anthology includes poems of self-presentation and identity, poems of alteration and transformation, poetry about the woven word, and poems invoking the talismanic quality of clothing.
To celebrate the publication of this new, stylish anthology during National Poetry Month, Ragged Sky Press, The Arts Council of Princeton and Gallery 125 will hold special reading events this April in Princeton and Trenton, New Jersey:
Reading & Reception:
Friday April 3, 2009, 7:30-9:30 pm
Arts Council of Princeton
Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, 102 Witherspoon Street, Princeton NJ 08542
phone (609) 924-8777
www.artscouncilofprinceton.org
Full list of poets in EATING HER WEDDING DRESS: A COLLECTION OF CLOTHING POEMS
Kim Addonizio
Marcia Aldrich
Sherrill Alesiak
Celia Lisset Alvarez
Margaret Atwood
Elizabeth H. Barbato
Wendy Barker
Janet Barry
Rachim Baskin
Jan Beatty
Shaindel Beers
Nadine D. Boulware
Deirdre Brennan
Michael R. Brown
Megan Buchanan Cherry
Enriqueta Carrington
Billy Collins
Carolyn A. Dahl
Elizabeth Danson
Diane Elayne Dees
Madeline DeFrees
Stephan Delbos
Juditha Dowd
Lynn Emanuel
Elaine Equi
John Estes
John L. Falk
Roberta Feins
Linda Annas Ferguson
Ellen Foos
Alice Friman
Christine Gelineau
Wally Glickman
Jorie Graham
Susan Grimm
Carol Guess
Greg Hagan
Rasma Haidri
Daniel A. Harris
Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
Carlos Hernndez Pea
Beatrice M. Hogg
Janis Butler Holm
Jean Hollander
Eric Howard
Winifred Hughes-Spar
M.J. Iuppa
Vasiliki Katsarou
James Keane
Shelley Spence Kiernan
Jane Knechtel
Maxine Kumin
Valerie Lawson
Daniel W.K. Lee
Laura LeHew
Howard Lieberman
Betty Lies
Lorraine Henrie Lins
Diane Lockward
Christina Lovin
Bobbi Lurie
Amy MacLennan
Eileen Malone
Alda Merini
Susan Meyers
Paul Muldoon
Charlotte Nekola
Ruth O'Toole
Carl Palmer
Andrea Potos
Wanda S. Praisner
James Richardson
Penelope Scambly Schott
Lynne Shapiro
Rochelle Jewel Shapiro
Shoshauna Shy
Charles Simic
Erin Elizabeth Smith
J.D. Smith
Elizabeth Anne Sussman Socolow
Jill Stein
Harvey Steinberg
Susan Stewart
Maxine Susman
Katrin Talbot
Maria Terrone
Mary Langer Thompson
Anca Vlasopolos
Donna Vorreyer
Lynn Wagner
Helen Pruitt Wallace
Ann Walters
Andy Wass
Arlene Weiner
Lesley Wheeler
Irene Willis
Laura Madeline Wiseman
Anne Harding Woodworth
Susan Yount
Andrena Zawinski
Claire Zoghb
Linda's poetry is included in the new anthology, After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events, to be released September, 2008. Information and ordering at: http://www.poetryofrecovery.com at Sante Lucia Books.
The volume will include 115 poets from 15 nations, Three U.S. Poets Laureate, a Pulitizer Winner, a Whitbread Book of the Year winner, a Whitbread Poetry Award winner, Two Lannan Award winners, and Two Forward Prize winners. The poets are:
Anthony S. Abbott, Paul Allen, Doug Anderson, Simon Armitage,
Bernardo Atxaga, Rachel Tzvia Back, Carole Baldock, Georgia Ann Banks,
Jennifer Barber, Shaindel, Beers, Nazand Begikhani, Pam Bernard, Elizabeth
Bernardin, Sonja Besford, Laurel Blossom, David Bottoms, Cathy Smith Bowers,
Renée Michele Breeden, Jericho Brown, Clinton B. Campbell, Margaret Chula,
Allison Hedge Coke, Martha Collins, Peter Cooley, Genie Cotner, Steven
Cramer, J. P. Dancing Bear, Shelley Davidow, Nehassaiu deGannes, Rita Dove,
Carol Dine, Carol Ann Duffy, Douglas Dunn, Gail Rudd Entrekin, Joseph
Enzweiler, R. G. Evans, , György Faludy, Linda Annas Ferguson, Annie Finch,
Kate Gale, Lisha Adela Garcia, Richard Garcia, Jane Gentry, Molly Gloss,
William Greenway, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Barbara G.S. Hagerty, Donald Hall,
Therése Halscheid, Farideh Hassanzadeh, Joy Helsing, Sister Lou Ella
Hickman, Diane Holland, Liu Hongbin, Faye J. Hoops, Randall Horton, Joan
Houlihan, Bette Lynch Husted, Major Jackson, Liesl Jobson, Ilya Kaminsky,
Sandor Kányádi, Willie James King, Deborah P. Kolodji, Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda,
Kurtis Lamkin, Stellasue Lee, Jeffrey Levine, Nancy Tupper Ling, Roseann
Lloyd, Naomi Ruth Lowinsky, Thomas Lux, John McAllister, Rebecca McClanahan,
Jim McGarrah, Jenni Meredith, Susan Meyers, Joseph Mills, Barbara Mitchell,
Majid Naficy, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Valerie Nieman, Tolu Ogunlesi, Gail
Peck, J. E. Pitts, Iain Haley Pollock, Barbara Presnell, Anna Rabinowitz,
Ron Rash, J. Stephen Rhodes, Alexa Selph, Kevin Simmonds, Deema Shehabi,
Marcia Slatkin, Paul Sohar, Satyendra Srivastava, Dennis Ward Stiles,
William Stafford, C.C. Thomas, Becky Thompson, Rhett Iseman Trull, Brian
Turner, Susan Varon, Pramila Venkateswaran, Ellen Doré Watson, Patricia
Wellingham-Jones, Marjorie Wentworth, Meir Wieseltier, Janet Winans, Terri
Wolfe, Diana Woodcock, Martin Kevin Young
Linda has had recent work accepted for publication by Solo Press:
Solo Cafe 6: Teachers and Students
http://www.solopress.org/Solo_Press/Home_Page.html
Linda's book of poetry, Bird Missing from One Shoulder, is featured on Wild Goose Poetry Review. Two of her new poems are included in the latest issue.
http://www.wildgoosepoetryreview.com/Current_Issue.html
http://www.wildgoosepoetryreview.com/reviews.html
http://www.wildgoosepoetryreview.com/files/Microsoft_Word_-_summer_2008.pdf
Linda's new chapbook manuscript, Endings, was recognized by the South Carolina Poetry Initiative of the University of SC in the 2008 Chapbook Competiton. Two poems from the manuscript will be published in their Web Anthology in May, 2009.
Linda Annas Ferguson's book, Bird Missing from One Shoulder, was selected for an honorable mention in the
2008 Brockman-Campbell Poetry Book Award presented by the North Carolina Poetry Society. Here is
what judge Kwame Dawes had to say about Linda's book.
"It is art that turns the hardships and tragedies of our lives into something quite beautiful—something that ultimately teaches us of the alchemy of poetry. Linda Annas Ferguson’s poetry in this collection never succumbs to the temptations of sentimentality and self-indulgence, even as she writes these moving poems about loss and memory. She looks back at loved ones with a clear-eyed sense of detail, a quest to find the poem where it is and not where we want it to be. This is a skill that good poems eventually master. Simply put, these are beautiful poems—well-shaped, carefully considered and wonderfully imagined:
It is when you can’t hear
the sound of yourself
that you know who you are,
a body, no longer solid
standing in an ocean.
The sun, a hole in your world
where time burns through."
Kwame Dawes, Director, SC Poetry Initiative and the Distinguished Poet-in-Residence, University of South Carolina
The winner of this competition was Becky Gould Gibson for her book, Need Fire and the other honorable mention was Barbara Presnell, for her book, Piece Work. Congratulations Barbara and Becky.
Linda Annas Ferguson's poetry book, Bird Missing from One Shoulder, was also selected for an honorable mention in the
2008 Oscar Arnold Young Book Award of the Poetry Council of North Carolina. A poem from her book will be printed in the 2008 Edition of Bay Leaves. The Judge was Sally Keith, MFA Faculty, George Mason University.The Winner of this competition was Janice Moore Fuller, for her book Séance. Second place went to Keith Flynn for his book, The Golden Ratio.
Congratulations Janice and Keith.
Linda's poetry will appear in a new anthology, Beyond Forgetting: Poems and Prose about Alzheimer's Disease, (Kent State University Press) edited by Holly Hughes with an introduction by Tess Gallagher.
Poets included in the anthology are:
Judith H. Montgomery, Candace Pearson, Bruce Berger, Rachel Dacus, Alice Derry, Brian Daldorph, Lorene Delany-Ullman, Drew Myron, Joseph Green, Sean Nevin, Judith Barrington, Ryan G. Van Cleave, Arlene Ang, Linda Alexander, Ellen Kirvin Dudis, Jim Natal, Tess Gallagher, Larry D. Thomas, Len Roberts, Carolyn A. Dahl, Sean Nevin, Melanie Martin, Scott Peterson, Martha Modena Vertreace-Doody, Andrew Riutta, Rachel Dacus, Lana Hechtman Ayers, Sheryl L. Nelms, Andrena Zawinski, Gary Thompson, Barry Spacks, Dave Parsons, Penny Harter, Richard Beban, Chris Tusa, Peter Seidman, Cora Spindler, E. A. Axelborg, Gary Young, Mary Zeppa, Ron Pies, Ethna McKiernan, Stephen Mead, Jeff Worley, Tim Myers, Maureen Owens, Persis Knobbe, Jane Alynn, Gilbert Allen, Esther Altshul Helfgott, Ailsa Kennedy Steinert, Mark Thalman, Linda Annas Ferguson, Elizabeth Farrell, Allan Douglass Coleman, Catherine Wiley, Rob Hardy, John Grey, John Davis, Jan Harrington, Holly J. Hughes, Claire Keyes, M. J. Iuppa, Judith Arcana, Arthur Ginsberg, Edward Hirsch, David Mason, Nancy Dahlberg, Denise Calvetti Michaels, Jayne Pupek, Kay Mullen, Madelyn Garner, Kate Bernadette Benedict, Nancy Dahlberg, Marion Boyer, Margot Wizansky, Holly Zeeb, Shebana Coelho, Diane Porter Goff, Barbara S. Simpson, Tina Welling, Mary Barrett, Sybil Lockhart, Christine Higgins, Nina Corwin, Sarah Leavitt, Donna Wahlert, Rick Kempa, Joel McCollough, Dan Bellm, Elizabeth Garton Scanlon, Marion Boyer, Cathleen Calbert, Nancy Tupper Ling, Joanne Clarkson, Elizabeth Cohen, Margot Wizansky, Linda Alexander, Theodore Deppe, Ellen Kirvin Dudis, Kenith Simmons, Paulann Petersen, David Mason, Judy Kronenfeld, Joan I. Siegel, Kake Huck, Ellen Kirvin Dudis, Marie Bahlke, Susan Ludvigson, Paulann Petersen, Gary Thompson, and Pamela Miller Ness,
Bird Missing from One Shoulder, Linda's full book of poetry, is now available
More information: Book Page
March 13, 2007: 12 Noon
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS READING
Poetry at Noon Series
Thomas Jefferson Building
Mary Pickford Theater: 3rd Floor
Linda will read from her work on the subject of "Forgiveness."
Latest chapbook
Stepping on Cracks in the Sidewalk
(read a sample poem from this book)
Linda's chapbook, Stepping on Cracks in the Sidewalk, is available for purchase : ORDER
“Linda Ferguson’s elegiac poems about her father and mother, both of whom worked in textile mills, capture the lives of a dying generation of southern laborers. They came from the farms and hills to the small towns, married and raised their children, and worked loyally at their jobs until the jobs were no more. When her father returns from his last night on the graveyard shift, “white lint clinging to his hair / like a disintegrated halo,” we celebrate the unsung heroism of these men and women whom Ferguson depicts with the love of a daughter and the sure hand of a mature poet.”
--- R. S. GWYNN, author of No Word of Farwell
Reading Linda Annas Ferguson’s poems is like watching a good documentary. I believe what I see: real images, real memories. And I believe in this poet’s commitment to preserving the truth--however hard or bleak--about her parents’ lives, her personal history. I am moved by the intimacy of these poems.
---DAVID TRINIDAD, author of Plasticville and The Late Show
New Poetry Anthology forthcoming Summer, 2007
The Southern Poetry Anthology: South Carolina
Texas Review Press
Linda's work is included in the new anthology Southern Mist published by Old Mountain Press.
ISBN:
978-1-884778-42-1
Authors include: J.S. Absher, Sandra Ervin Adams, Kathrine Russell Barnes, Frederick Bassett, Joann Bishop, Thomasa Bonners, Stuart Burroughs, Mary Margaret Carlisle, Jim Clark, Ed Cockrell, Frank Craddock, Russell Crews, Patricia Daharsh, Phebe Davidson, Polly Davis, Tom Davis, Terri Kirby Erickson, Sue Farlow, Linda Annas Ferguson, Ann Fogelman, Dare Freeman Ford, Tom Gluzinski, Marian Gowan, Phyllis Jean Green, Kerri Mai Habben, Ken Habben, Ken Hada, Kristina Hall, Maxine Carey Harker, Joseph Haymore, Maura High, Jackie W. Jackson, Jerry Judge, Debra Kaufman, K.D. Kennedy, Jr., Jo Koster, Blanche L. Ledford, Brenda Kay Ledford, Suzanne Baldwin Leitner, Maria Lund, Michael H. Lythdoe, Al Manning, David T. Manning, Stephen Miles, Paul C. Mitchell, Rebecca J. Mitchell, Jerome Norris, Martha Oquinn, Margaret L. Parrish, Patricia Podlipec, Michael Potts, Edwina Rooker, Dr. Lynn Veach Sadler, Joanna Catherine Scott, Martha Sisk, Sybil Austin Skakle, Warren Slesinger, Linda M. Smith, Susan Sonnen, Dorothea Spiegel, Tonya Staufer, Cassie Premo Steele, Dennis Ward Stiles, Nancy Dew Taylor, Katherine Tracy, Chris Vierck, Betty Watson, Gail White, Charles "Hawk" Weyant, Glenda Sumner Wilkins, Barbara Ledford Wright,
Bird Missing from One Shoulder, was a finalist in the Holland Prize at Logan House Press.
Stepping on Cracks in the Sidewalk, was 1st runner-up in the Robert Phillips Prize at the Texas Review Press, judged by R. S. Gwynn.
Stepping on Cracks in the Sidewalk was also a finalist in the White Eagle Coffee Store Press judged by John Surowiecki.
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