Peculiar Pages

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On the 25th at Ken Sanders Rare Books (map), Fire in the Pasture‘s editor Tyler Chadwick will be leading readings from the book.  Among the poets likely to appear at this substantial event are E.S. Jenkins, Elizabeth Pinborough, Lisa Bickmore, Alan Mitchell, Alex Caldiero, Sunni Wilkinson, Danielle Dubrasky, Sarah Duffy, Marie Brian, Laura Nielson Baxter, (Paul Swenson*), and Michael Hicks.

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Paul Swenson’s health failed him since he told us he would be part of this event. His presence will be missed. To quote from his final email to us,

I’ll be around for the Ken Sanders reading, and would be honored to participate.

I’m still on the  journey to full health, but determined to get all the way back. The book is one hell of an achievement.

Thank you, Paul. It meant a lot, coming from you.

Requiescat in pace.

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We have received a report that Fire in the Pasture-poet Paul Swenson has passed.

He’s been a significant poet for many decades and will be missed.

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This Saturday at Claremont Graduate University, Sunstone West, a small tidier Sunstone Symposium, will feature panels about two Peculiar Pages book. (Note that times and participants are subject to clarification.)

The first, Monsters & Mormons, accomplished with the help of A Motley Vision and the most fun currently available in print. Participating authors Erik Peterson (“Bichos”) and Brian Gibson (“The Eye Opener”) will be talking about their works as well as reading their own and others’ stories. Responding to their presentation will be Patrick Q. Mason, the Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies and Associate Professor of North American Religion at Claremont, and the author of The Mormon Menace: Violence and Anti-Mormonism in the Postbellum South (Oxford University Press, 2011).

Also featured are several poets from Fire in the Pasture. Featuring editor, poet, and AMV-contributor Tyler Chadwick discussing a Javen Tanner poem, and, in a separate session, readings from Tyler, Neil Aitkin, Karen Kelsay, Elisa Pulido, Laura Stott, Holly Welker, and, we hope, more.

Sunstone West is always great fun and you’ll want to catch other panels and presentations while you’re there.

Come to L.A.!

Register today!

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If you have not been following Fire in the Pasture editor Tyler Chadwick’s scintillating and scalpellating comments on the poems of his new book, you are truly missing out. The added value of his mini-essays  could well double the what you’re getting for your money. So pick up a copy of Fire in the Pasture (if you haven’t already) and follow along at home.

Go forth and buy. (Of course, it’s cheaper through us.)

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For those following along at home, Fire in the Pasture, our collection of 83 publishing Mormon poets, was supposed to come out today. Due to a variety of issues, this is not happening and we can no longer pretend it might. We are nearly finished with interior and exterior design, after which we will send proof sheets to all the poets, after which, hooray, the book will finally come out.

Our new official release date is ASAP.

In the meantime, let this delayed announcement whet your appetite:

The cover art on this landmark volume will be Curious Workmanship by the extraordinary Mormon artist Casey Jex Smith. The vigor of this image stands alone and so we are proud to present to you here without type, that you may enjoy it purely as a work of art, purely as a visual embodiment of all this collection means to us and will shortly mean to you.

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Fire in the Pasture: 21st Century Mormon Poets is delighted to present the most thorough list of currently active Mormon poets imaginable. Really, nothing like this list has ever been seen before. Behold! and be amazed!

Neil Aitken

Matthew James Babcock

S.P. Bailey

Laura Nielson Baxter

Mark Bennion

James Best

Lisa Bickmore

Will Bishop

Sara Blaisdell

Marie Brian

Joanna Brooks

Gideon Burton

John Burton

Marilyn Bushman-Carlton

Alex Caldiero

Scott Cameron

Shannon Castleton

Tyler Chadwick

Elaine Christensen

Michael R. Collings

Elaine M. Craig

Judith Curtis

Melissa Dalton-Bradford

William Deford

Danielle Dubrasky

Sarah Duffy

Sarah Dunster

Deja Earley

Simon Peter Eggertsen

Kristen Eliason

Lisa Ottesen Fillerup

Elizabeth Garcia

Sharlee Glenn

Aaron Guile

Laura Hamblin

Nicole Hardy

Warren Hatch

Michael Hicks

Sarah Jenkins

LaVerna B. Johnson

Helen Walker Jones

Patricia Karamesines

Karen Kelsay

Lance Larsen

Claire Åkebrand Lavers

Timothy Liu

Natasha Loewen

P.D. Mallamo

Casualene Meyer

Alan Rex Mitchell

Danny Nelson

Glen Nelson

David Nielsen

Marilyn Nielson

Jon Ogden

Calvin Olsen

Sarah E. Page

Jim Papworth

David Passey

Steven L. Peck

Jonathon Penny

Elizabeth Pinborough

Joe Plicka

Elisa Pulido

William Reger

Jim Richards

John W. Schouten

N. Colwell Snell

Sally Stratford

Laura Stott

Paul Swenson

John Talbot

Doug Talley

Javen Tanner

Arwen Taylor

Amber Watson

Holly Welker

Terresa Wellborn

Philip White

Laraine Wilkins

Sunni Brown Wilkinson

Darlene Young

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Unfortunately we could not all be present last Saturday when lead editor Tyler Chadwick announced this project at the AML Conference. But now you can have an identical experience (assuming you would, had you been there, have held your laptop too high thus presenting you from hearing the announcement).

Tyler Chadwick Announces Fire in the Pasture at the AML Conference on March 26, 2011

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This June 30, Peculiar Pages is proud to announce the first serious new collection of Mormon poets since the Eugene England and Dennis M. Clark-edited Harvest in 1989. That work’s excellence has been rightly lauded and it will never lose its place in Mormon letters. Yet over twenty years have passed and it is now time for a new volume of poetry to take its place in the canon and Peculiar Pages is proud to announce that we have arranged with poet Tyler Chadwick to edit and release Fire in the Pasture: 21st Century Mormon Poets.

Tyler announced the new volume Saturday at the annual Association for Mormon Letters conference and we will be announcing more information related to the project over the course of this week including a complete list of contributors.

Focusing on the 21st-century work of poets known and new, Fire in the Pasture will make an enormous contribution to the Mormon literary scene, a contribution which we trust will match the contributions of our finest poets over the last decade.

Stay tuned.