MANHATTAN: An Archaeology
Poems by Eileen R. Tabios
Paloma Press (San Mateo & Morgan Hill, CA)
Release Date: Fall 2017
Pages: 128
Price: $40 (price before discount)
Contact: Aileen Cassinetto at editor [at] palomapress.org
SPECIAL OFFER!
Paloma Press, an independent literary press established in 2016, is pleased to announce A SPECIAL OFFER for the press’ second poetry collection, MANHATTAN: An Archaeology by award-winning poet Eileen R. Tabios. The book’s release price is $20, a 50% discount from its retail price of $40.
Distributor: Paloma Press
BOOK DESCRIPTION
MANHATTAN: An Archaeology presents Eileen R. Tabios’ latest innovative approach to poetry-making. In this book, she uses a diverse set of “artifacts” to excavate a version of New York City’s historical birthplace. Artifacts include the unexpected and the ineffable to create a city only she can imagine—while they include a pearl necklace, piece of pineapple skin, yoga mat, black sateen, and bullet, the “objects” for perusal also range over moonlight, “withheld forgiveness,” and duende. The result, too, is unexpected and ineffable: Poetry that delights and intrigues. Some receptive readers will wake from the book missing something they hadn’t realized they missed, longing for something they hadn’t realized they desired.
ADVANCE WORDS
In archeology, we sift through distances to locate ourselves in these elapsed fragments. Here in Eileen R. Tabios’ new book, Manhattan is our test pit, and Clyfford Still stabilizes the walls adding to
the grace of the make-believe city.
Tabios employs many selves and their debris as her diagnostic artifacts. She lays these items on the table of the first poem, and continues to examine them as subsequent pieces sumptuously unfold, each relic luminous under view, chatoyant. Manhattan becomes the reliquary to hold the past under Tabios’ ecstatic mastery, also the side of the pool to push off from into other worlds, also the ruined stage set of a past self.
to transcend your context
—yet again—
Tabios’ book is an exquisite form of personal forensics and resurrection.
—Anne Gorrick, author of THE OLFACTIONS: Poems on Perfume
Eileen Tabios’ prolific architectonics creates a megalopolis of myriad images, towering as iconic artifacts, graphic as ecstasy. From ziggurats to echoes of flamenco, urban demographics to undulations of body language, the poet strips and strews words from a vocabulary of fabrics. Gestural volubility is unleashed to camouflage the adoration of mischief. Hers is the infinite spin of a world-whirling dervish.
—Alfred A. Yuson, author of The Music Child & The Mahjong Queen
REVIEWS
Newsworthy (June 2017)
Review by Jacket2 (July 2017)
Review by Joey Madia (August 2017)
Review by T.C. Marshall (August 2017)
Review by Grady Harp (September 2017)
Review by Zvi Sesling (September 2017)
Review by Neil Leadbeater (July 2018)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eileen R. Tabios has released about 50 collections of poetry, fiction, essays, and experimental biographies from publishers in eight countries and cyberspace. Inventor of the poetry form “hay(na)ku,” she has been translated into eight languages. She also has edited, co-edited or conceptualized 12 anthologies of poetry, fiction and essays as well as served as editor or guest editor for various literary journals. More information is available at http://eileenrtabios.com
PALOMA PRESS 