Books
Strung Out Along the Endless Branch
Love House
Under the Seal
The Compost Reader
Orion's Belt at the End of the Drive
Fountains for orpheus
Bloom on a Split Board
Original Ruse
Wrecking Ball and Other Urban Haiku
Stick Tight Man
Strung Out Along the Endless Branch
Strung Out Along the Endless Branch was selected by Greg Pape as the winner of the inaugural James Baker Hall Book Award. Accents Publishing is proud to present this debut collection by a brilliant poet, philosopher and observer of both human nature and the natural world. "Wesley Houp has a way of sketching a scene or telling a tale so that the imagined backstory, what isn't said but lurks just outside the poem's words, carries the emotion and meaning and keeps resonating. Emily Dickinson said, "Tell all the truth but tell it slant—". The poems in this book seem to follow that advice. It is a book of poems with its own charmed, often fabulous (in the sense of fable-like) way of evoking and presenting contemporary realities and absurdities, garbled politics, drugs, dangers and divisions of all sorts, but also, the rich particulars, characters, and daily wonders of this world."—Greg Pape
Love House
If you liked Frank X Walker's first poetry collection, Affrilachia, you will love Love House—a book highlighting family life with its joys and challenges, with special attention to social justice placed in historical context. "In Love House, Frank X Walker not only brings the collective past back to us in living color, but these poems delve into the sacred personal, the psychohistory of what it means to be father, son, husband, brother, Black. Up close and personal, he writes poems that are on a pendulum, bringing us through the intersection of what is deeply personal in the intimate glances of the depths of our insides; what we find in birdsong and the garden, the devastation of a flood and erosion, then back to the passing of his closest loved ones, what it means to age, violence and the abuse of power, what it means to be human."—Crystal Wilkinson
Under the Seal
Under the Seal by Carol Mauriello is Accents Publishing's first literary murder mystery. "A mysterious murder in a small Kentucky river town sparks the unfolding of Carol Mauriello's Under the Seal. Mauriello crafts a series of small stories that magnify the whole: a police detective, searching for enough evidence to arrest and convict lonely Patsy Ann Singleton's killer. Patsy Ann's past associations with Mazewood men outside her marriage suggest notable entanglements. An evasive husband pleads innocent to deadly vindictiveness. A dedicated investigator strives for solid evidence to the contrary, suspense mounts, and the reader will feel compelled to follow the quest beyond a shadow of doubt."—Joe Sartor, Associate Professor Emeritus, Art
The Compost Reader
"In her first full-length collection, Karen Schubert works 'Elbows deep in compost,' sifting through that which accumulates with the passage of time, the fecund and dangerous accumulations of a life: memory, regret, joy, and loss. Schubert's fertile reflections by turns witness, correct, and renew the past, her patient gaze transforming both observer and observed. This collection runs through the events of a life like the Ohio River runs through Schubert's native terrain, and like that river 'it will arrive / with more than when it started.'"—Kimberly Johnson
Orion's Belt at the End of the Drive
"What words to describe the poems in Pat Owen's new collection, Orion's Belt at the End of the Drive? I find them meditative, prayerful, haiku-like in their brevity and subtle wisdom. They move fluidly from natural to urban, solitary to communal, river to ocean, young to old, dark to light, observation to appreciation. They're built of questioning, of living, and of a deep desire to understand the self, others, and to find peace in a chaotic world and within the context of mortality."—Maureen Morehead
Fountains for orpheus
"In Fountains for Orpheus, Audrey Rooney invites us to bring our artist eyes to the beauty-filled and bewildering scenes of her well-lived life. 'Come, Gardener,' she writes, and we are introduced to a world of violet skies, river deaths, and small talk. She's a keen writer, wise and intelligent. Emotionally, she never strays far from her music or her man. Congratulations to Audrey for this delightful debut collection!"—Neil Chethik
Bloom on a Split Board
"'Come along, come along,' Nana Lampton sings in these lovely nature poems. Here she gives us ice, the edge of the sea, the half moon, and the dawn. We consort with dogs, salmon, the ravens, the owl, the warbler, deer, thoroughbreds and Audubon's pet turkey. We breathe the fragrance and sight of Daphne, roses, white catalpa and hydrangeas, wild iris. The spirit hovers and explores, unbounded." - Sena Jeter Naslund, Author of Ahab's Wife and Adam & Eve Limited availability. Please contact accents.publishing@gmail.com before ordering this book.
Original Ruse
"There is an attractive restlessness in Barbara Sabol's poems that draws the reader in. Original Ruse begins in the garden with a deft and playful take on Eve's role in getting things moving. Then, with sure craft and lush imagery, Sabol goes on to explore connections between art and survival, the ordinary and the mythic, people and animals, women and men. These are fresh, lively poems to read aloud and savor." - Greg Pape, Author of American Flamingo Limited availability. Please contact accents.publishing@gmail.com before ordering this book.
Wrecking Ball and Other Urban Haiku
The haiku in this book blend a distinctly urban content with the nature-oriented perspective of traditional haiku. "What I admire about Barry George's poetry is the possibility for human utterance within a contemporary scene - not unlike the lyric poem in modern English - explored in Japanese short forms. In three lines he paints a scene as contemporary as Edward Hopper, strikes notes as American as Aaron Copland. George focuses our attention visually and aurally, and thus each haiku is a cinematic moment casting an afterimage long after the poem closes. Even those who are not familiar with the ever-evolving Japanese short form will find Wrecking Ball and Other Urban Haiku universal in compression and resonance." - Jeanie Thompson, author of The Seasons Bear Us and Executive Director, The Alabama Writers' Forum Limited availability. Please contact accents.publishing@gmail.com before ordering this book.
Stick Tight Man
This is Jim Lally's first poetry collection."Like the man covered with stick-tights that cling after a walk in a summer field, these reports from Jim Lally's world -- about falling barns, clothes-lines, spring peepers, ghost trees, poke berries, Quaker meetings, and Daniel Boone (even an homage to the letter W) -- stick with the reader long after the journey. What holds them to us is a discerning eye, an ear for language and for nature in its hummings, a readiness to explore the small ground which opens to the resonating world around us." - Richard Taylor, Author of Rail Splitter Limited availability. Please contact accents.publishing@gmail.com before ordering this book.