Lost Valley Press Lost Valley Press is an imprint of Satya House Publications, Contact: lostvalleypress@gmail.com |
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| Bal Harbor Blues | Noh Place Poetry Anthology | Confluence | Get Your Book Seen and Sold | In the Kingdom | A Year of Questions |
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 Art Exhibit June 29, 2024 |
Available at Art Exhibit Poetry Reading & Book Signing |
A Year of Questions About the AuthorAJ Juarez was of the Ashiwee and Yeomen First Nations (Zuni and Yaqui). Poet, artist, writer, and musician, he was the founder of Noh Place Artists Cooperative and the former lead singer for The Ghost Shadows, a seminal Worcester band known for its unusual blending of Jazz, heavy metal, funk, Native American songs, and straight ahead rock. His Native flute musings can also be heard on John Zaganiacz's Virtual Equinox recordings. As a student he coordinated the Poetry Center at Worcester State College and was a founding member of The Center for the Study of Human Rights. He was deeply involved in the No Nukes and Anti-Apartheid movements. He was a lifelong Jazz aficionado and a former Jazz host at WCUW (91.3 FM). His Jazz poetry and artwork can be seen on the jazzhistorydatabase.com website. His art work has also been used on book covers and as illustrations. In the 2018 exhibition, "A Forty Year Retrospective" at the MAP Gallery in Easthampton, MA, AJ and his visual arts mentor, Michel Duncan Merle, highlighted their collaboration as artists and poets. AJ lived on a lake in Western Massachusetts. AJ passed away peacefully on May 23, 2024. ReviewsThese poems do what poems should: they interrogate the world in the name of the earth. They are not rhetorical questions. They concern the sacredness of life. The voice here is serious but not grave. They are spoken from an ancient tradition by a man who is a father, a husband, an elder of an extended family that includes you, the reader. They question, sometimes with biting humor, the authority of a world that ignores-or worse-destroys the bonds of humanity to the sources of life in the earth. They celebrate the music and poetry throughout human culture that nourish the roots of community. The poems become brief ceremonies that remind us of our original belonging in the company of love. — Bill Tremblay, award-winning poet |
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Available on Book Lovers Space Lunch & Learn at the Coterie Commons in Doylestown, PA on "Everything you need to know about writing your first book." Authorpreneur Summit Bucks County PA Local Author Fair Q&A and Book Signing |
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Get Your Book Seen and Sold
It is easier than ever to publish a book, but many authors find out too late about the actual work—the book marketing—that needs to be done to achieve sizable book sales. Instead of embracing the opportunities to promote their books, authors are intimidated and shut down. Those days are over. This is the book authors MUST HAVE to give their books the best chance to be seen and sold. In this essential, easy-to-understand guide, authors will work through the graphs, examples and exercises to learn: * The fundamentals of book marketing: Message, Audience, and Hook
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Available at EVENTS Poetry Reading & Book Signing Poetry Reading & Book Signing Poetry Reading & Book Signing Poetry Reading & Book Signing Poetry Reading & Book Signing Poetry Reading & Book Signing Poetry Reading & Book Signing
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In the Kingdom A book where poems and peace can be found. A tribute to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont - rolling hills of the pastures on the horizon, the wildlife, the stillness needed for dreaming, have long been the wellspring for Jonathan Blake's writing. About the AuthorJonathan Blake has been following the gospel of his heart for as long as he can remember. Writer, educator, arts activist/organizer, he makes his home in central Massachusetts. Currently, he teaches in the English department at Worcester State University, where for the past twelve years he has hosted a round robin open reading series for students, faculty and staff and the greater Worcester County poetry community called ONE POEM. His poems and essays can be found in an array of journals and anthologies, including the Atlanta Review, Amoskeag, Beloit Poetry Journal, Brilliant Corners, Poetry East and The Worcester Review. On occasion, he has the privilege of fashioning his public readings in collaboration with some of the fine jazz musicians who also call central Massachusetts home. Reviews"A meditation on the beauty of love's stillness amid an ever-chaotic world, Blake's poems dare us to sit in solitude; to embrace the power of loneliness; and to hold reverence for nature's sweet sadness and muted glory. It's as if he sees into our hearts - our desires and longings - and welcomes us to find a quiet intimacy in the expansiveness of our natural world, despite the vulnerable reckoning it may awaken within each of us. A masterful collection, In the Kingdom is a remarkable and gorgeous dedication to navigating the human soul in any season." — Amanda Katz, PhD, Professor of History, Utah State University; "Lyrical, memorable, and lovely, Jonathan Blake's In the Kingdom provides the antidote we need now for the curated identities urged on us by social media. In place of glitz and glam, he offers wisdom and restraint. In place of the shallow celebrity promised by the 140-character tweet, he offers patient attentiveness to profound reality. He celebrates beauty. He dares to imagine his own impermanence. There are no distracting city lights here, but rather a reminder of the restorative power of the natural world and the rhythm of the seasons. The algorithms we are now tempted to live by have been engineered to make us forget the depth of our hunger. These are poems that feed our souls." — David Thoreen, Professor of English, Assumption University "These poems are quiet moments with deep roots. Blake is a secular monk of sorts - a married Han Shan wandering the rich pond-scape and hills of the Northeast Kingdom. When his students ask "What is Poetry?" Blake responds: "How do I tell them/ About the quiet in the heart/.../ for what grows fragrant/ In the dark? Truth grows out from the pond, from dreams, from a father's visiting ghost." In the Kingdom is a collection you'll want to read more than once." —Bill O'Connell, author of Sakonnet Point and When We Were All Still Alive |
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Available at EVENTS Poetry Reading & Book Signing Poetry Reading & Book Release |
Confluence Geoff Wilkinson's poetry provides new ways to look at ourselves and each other. His main theme is connection: connection to self, loved ones, friends, nature, community, ancestors, and future generations. In these poems you will find moments of beauty, wonder, and grace that are present if only you pause and pay attention. From poems about mourning to the celebration of life in all its forms, Wilkinson work transcends the everyday and explores the depths of all this world has to offer. About the AuthorGeoff Wilkinson is a professor at Boston University School of Social Work, where he teaches community organizing, advocacy, and organizational change. A lifelong activist, he worked as a community organizer and as executive director of two statewide organizations advancing health, housing, and social justice, the Massachusetts Senior Action Council and the Massachusetts Public Health Association. He also served as senior policy advisor to the commissioner and director of policy and planning for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Wilkinson is a founding board member and treasurer of the National Association of Community Health Workers. He is also a co-founder of two organizations working to promote peace and affordable housing, respectively, in the town where he lives just south of Boston with his wife of over 40 years. They have two married sons and two grandchildren. This is his first book. Reviews"Language, in the hands of a skilled poet, brings possibilities to life—witnessing time, place, happening, memories, emotions, absurdity. The skilled poet draws us into essential moments that take us on journeys we may not have imagined. Geoff Wilkinson is a skilled poet, worth savoring like a great cup of tea! Enjoy!" – Michel Duncan Merle, Artistic Director, Akademia Duncan "Geoff has turned urgency in the poetry . . . beautiful images, he takes pieces of the grand universe and turns some into palpable bites of everyday reality. Geoff’s interest into the mystery of humanity is without hesitation and weaves for us the intimate connection between human and the cosmic experience. Beautiful work!" – Jean Lozoraitis, D.Ed., Poet, musician, painter, and educator "In these finely crafted, potent poems, Geoff Wilkinson gives us new ways to look at ourselves and each other. The settings range from rural Vermont to the American southwest, from Haiti to Hiroshima, from the cityscapes of Central Massachusetts to Chile under the brutal dictatorship of the 1970s. His main theme is connection: to self, to the beloved, to friends, to nature, to the wider community, to ancestors, and to future generations. His work is informed by a stubborn hope borne of long experience and painful lessons. Wilkinson invites us to look more closely, more intently, and more bravely at ordinary life, and to see the moments of beauty, wonder, and grace that are present there if we pause and pay attention. Yet he also engages with harsher truths. This collection asks us to look squarely at the many forms of violence that surround us, but it does so not through dogmatism but by a quiet, attentive bearing-of-witness to the world in which we live." – Shanee Stepakoff, MFA, Ph.D., author of Testimony |
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Noh Place Poetry Anthology In an effort to avoid nostalgia and an aggrandizement of anyone’s “glory days,” while narrowing the selection of poets, we solicited work with the understanding that the poems may have been written before, during, or after the poets’ participation in the Noh Place Poetry Series. Thus, the scope of this anthology spans decades, rather than presenting a “freeze frame” on time. Each poet chose their own work for inclusion, and in the same spirit, wrote their own biographical statements, with the idea that such an approach would illustrate the variety of voices and experiences that were an essential component of Noh Place and its philosophy. We believe that this collection of poems, modified from its original, more inclusive plan, contains aesthetic value, poetic stylings, and/or socio-political relevance, and indeed, continues to stand on its own merits. The participating seventeen poets in the anthology were chosen for their local, regional, and/or national importance, and for their representation of the many styles and voices that exemplified the Noh Place Poetry Series. Five of the selected poets have passed away. We asked Noh Place founding member Stephen Campiglio to select their poems and write their biographical statements. We regret that all of the poets who read for the Series over the years could not be included. This exclusion does not reflect any editorial bias or taste. Reviews"Founded on the idea that artists can break barriers between artforms and encourage one another to experiment, the Noh Place Cooperative sponsored events featuring painting, poetry, and music much as the Japanese tradition of Noh Theater weaves music, dance, and drama. Put together from a wide variety of individual artists, The Noh Place Poetry Anthology embodies the mystery and miracle of creativity with amazing unity. Imagine if a poet were to introduce a painter to the practice of writing. There might be a lot of barriers unless the poet were to adopt a light touch, a tentative, speculative way, avoiding stuffiness and pedantry. The poems in this anthology are very much in that mode. It is said that fine poems teach their readers how to read them. What’s fascinating about these poems is how they reveal the way figures of speech are both triggers and products of the imagination. The anthology is both a tour-guide into the practice of poetry and a fountain of inspiration." – Bill Tremblay, award-winning poet, novelist, professor, and editor "This remarkable anthology shines a light on the literary, visual, and performing artists who came together to share their soul-nourishing gifts with the Worcester (Massachusetts) community in the 1980s and 1990s. The contributors comprise an impressive variety of racial, ethnic, and social class backgrounds. All are clear-eyed about the harsh realities of urban existence while at the same time steadfastly playful and life-affirming. The book features several nationally recognized poets, among them Chris Gilbert, Etheridge Knight, and Brother Blue, along with established regional poets such as Jonathan Blake, Stephen Campiglio, Eve Rifkah, Bill O’Connell, Jean Lozoraitis, and some talented writers whose work is published for the first time in these pages. Skillfully edited and creatively combining images and words, the Noh Place anthology celebrates those who contributed to a literary and artistic renaissance in the center of New England during the final decades of the twentieth century. Their voices remain powerfully resonant, relevant, and reverberant today, and deserve to be read, heard, and amplified." – Shanee Stepakoff, MFA, PhD |
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Available on Amazon, EVENTS
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Bal Harbour Blues In 1991, John has a good life running the numbers racket In Brooklyn and Staten Island until his mob boss, Louie the Finger, pulls him out with a late-night phone call. New York state lottery is moving into the mob's turf, so The Finger is shifting business to crack and prostitution. In his mid-fifties and with no interest in the drug trade, John takes Louie's offer to retire on a mob pension to a tacky South Florida high-rise with his wife, Eleanor. Cast out of New York and adrift without purpose, John begins to dissipate in the heat. But Eleanor has other ideas and quietly begins making forays into the Miami underworld with one goal in mind - to develop the perfect crime to help her husband get his mojo back.
About the AuthorJohn Scheinman grew up on Long Island and is a writer and editor living in Baltimore. The last turf beat writer for The Washington Post, he is a two-time Eclipse Award winner for excellence in writing about thoroughbred racing. His piece, Memories of a Master, was named a notable sports story in The Best American Sports Writing 2015 anthology. His headline writing and general reporting has been honored by the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association and Society of Professional Journalists. His sketch comedy has been performed at the Warehouse and Source theaters in Washington, D.C. and Theatre Odyssey in Sarasota, Florida. He made his standup comedy debut in 2019 at the DC Improv Comedy Club. A graduate of American University, he studied writing with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Henry Taylor and improvisational comedy and performance at The Theatre Lab in Washington. He began his journalism career at The Ring, The Bible of Boxing. Listen to him on the podcast "Going in Circles" by Charles Simon. |
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