Books Wish List

Just throwing it out to the universe--it wouldn't suck if the following books somehow fell into my lap:

If ever a book was written just for me, this is it: Rebel Souls: Walt Whitman and America's First Bohemians, by Justin Martin. Great review, here:

http://artery.wbur.org/2014/09/04/bohemians-justin-martin

STFU & take my money!  Ireland's Pirate Queen: The True Story of Grace

O'Malley, by Anne Chambers.

Yes, please. Rimbaud: A Biography, by Graham Robb.

I adore Phyllis Barber. She's on the faculty at my alma mater, Vermont College of Fine Arts, and I was lucky to spend some time with her in a writing residency in Slovenia back in 2007. She's the only other person I know who's also been to Tibet (I was there in 2010). Anyway, I want to read her latest, To the Mountain: One Mormon Woman's Search for Spirit.  According to her website, this is "the story of the author's twenty-year hiatus from Mormonism and her visits with shamans in Peru and Ecuador; Tibetan Buddhist monks in North India and Tibet; a variety of Baptist congregations in Arkansas, Missouri, Utah, and South Carolina; megachurches; charismatic Christian congregations, travels with godddess worshipers in the Yucatan, and much more. The book's purpose is to demonstrate how we can not only tolerate a variety of ideas in the spiritual realm, but can learn from their wisdom." Right up my alley! You can also watch the official book trailer.

This looks interesting, too: Strange Big Moon: The Japan and India Journals: 1960 - 1964, by Joanne Kyger. According to the Goodreads synopsis: "Hungry to explore Zen and make the discoveries that would shape a lifetime of poetry, Joanne Kyger left for Japan in her twenties and returned four years later ready to carve out a substantial niche in San Francisco's Beat poetry movement. Whether she is studying under Zen teacher Ruth Fuller Sakaki or meeting with the Dalai Lama (who at 27 'lounged on a velvet couch like a gawky adolescent in red robes'), her journals are witty, amusing, and intelligent, in this fascinating look at the art of poetry and portrait of the counterculture abroad." Another, right up my alley.

Finally, a couple of shout-outs to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard, and Grendel, by John Gardner, two books I've been trying to read for years. I'm visiting the Foreign Language Bookstore in Shanghai later this week, so let's hope I can find even ONE of the above. If not, I'll see if I can order them online and have them shipped. Anyway, that's what's on my TBR (to-be-read) List at the moment. Cheers, Lauren

Write a Review of The Breakdown Atlas

There are three places my chapbook, The Breakdown Atlas & Other Poems, released by Big Table Publishing Company in 2011, can be reviewed:  Goodreads, Google Books, and Barnes & Noble (links are below).  If you've read my poems, and feel compelled to share your thoughts in any of these places, I would really appreciate it, and love love love you forever and ever!  Unfortunately, I think you may need user accounts for these sites...but if you do leave a review, you have my gratitude in advance.  It's hard to get the word out for a small book published through an indie press.  Cheers, Lauren.

To write a review:

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13562031-the-breakdown-atlas-other-poems

Google Books:  http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Breakdown_Atlas.html?id=xIpfXwAACAAJ

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-breakdown-atlas-lauren-tivey/1032014148?ean=9780983066620

Big Table Titles

Howdy, just thought I'd share the link to Big Table Publishing Co.'s list of chapbook offerings again.  There's some great stuff here, including Liz Ciampa's new chap, Good for Everday Use, which I was lucky enough to be asked to write a review for (you can read that at the first link below).  All chapbook titles are $12.00, plus $2.00 shipping, and you can find them (including mine, The Breakdown Atlas & Other Poems) at the second link below.  So, take a look, choose a chap, and help support poets and a hard-working independent publisher!

Reviews: http://www.bigtablepublishing.com/ciamparev2.html

Titles:   http://www.bigtablepublishing.com/chaptitles.html

On Air

Amazon link below for the book On Air, by my friend and publisher, Robin Stratton, recently released by Blue Mustang Press.  A truly great read!  I highly recommend Stratton's modern tale of Boston radio DJ, Eric Storm, his complicated relationship with his mother, and his late "coming of age", all set against the tragic events of 9/11. Both funny and touching, the flow of writing here is smooth and natural, the characters highly developed, and the theme complex yet fully realized. Stratton is a master storyteller, with the fine writing skills to back it up, and this is a book that will leave you thinking about its characters long after you've put it down. Pick up a copy—you won't be disappointed!

http://www.amazon.com/Air-Robin-Stratton/dp/1935199110/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313294692&sr=1-1

New Chapbook Review

Link below to a new review of my chapbook, by Zack Kopp for the Denver Examiner.  A big thank you to Zack.  I'm really lucky to know some great people in the biz!

http://www.examiner.com/books-in-denver/the-sun-is-a-fast-fat-mandala-lauren-tivey-s-breakdown-atlas-review

Reviews!

We're getting close to the publication date of my chapbook, The Breakdown Atlas, and the pre-release reviews are in!  I want to send out my warmest thanks to Sascha Feinstein, Maureen Sherbondy, and Norma Ketzis Bernstock for their time and careful reading of my work~I feel humbled to have been reviewed by these accomplished and talented poets, and I'm quite honored (and psyched!) to have their public endorsement.  Without further ado, here are their seriously cool reviews:  

“Lauren Tivey’s poems confront the reader’s body like shots of tequila—if, that is, the reader has a knowledge of its bite and substance, and knows how to temper the hits with the citrus of lime and the truth of salt.  She shies away from nothing, yet, as though you’ve been friends a long time and have met regularly at the bar, she encourages you to experience tough realities. But here’s the kicker:  These poems will drink you under the table.  You may stagger home, but they’re always ready for last call.”

~Sascha Feinstein, Misterioso and Black Pearls

“Lauren Tivey’s ‘animal-tough’ poems about relationships are stunning, enticing, and brutally honest. The Breakdown Atlas & other poems kicks readers in the gut over and over again, but somehow manages to leave them with a sense of hope in spite of their ‘broken, journeyed bodies’.  I absolutely loved this book!”

~Maureen Sherbondy, Weary Blues and Scar Girl

“With raw energy and in-your-face language, Lauren Tivey's The Breakdown Atlas is a wild journey that begins with the harsh reality of ‘a rotting carcass’ of a marriage.  Through her poems we experience the life of a newly independent woman, feel the pain of a lover's breakdown, and desperation in a Hong Kong hooker hotel.  She expresses a mother's deep love for her distant daughter, for whom she'll pick ‘bouquets of devotion and remorse’.  Her poetry can be raunchy, as in ‘satyrs copulating with witches’; titillating, like ‘a Geisha, opening the flower of her mouth’; yet tender, as she describes ‘the wind chime of your laughter’. Lauren Tivey's poems left me breathless, with a desire to live through her wild ride again and again. She writes in one poem that ‘the kettle screeched holy hell’, and so does her poetry!"

~Norma Ketzis Bernstock, Don't Write a Poem for Me After I'm Dead

Awesome, no?  Strangely craving tequila, here...

Blurbers

Just got word on who's writing blurbs for my chapbook:  Maureen Sherbondy, Norma Ketzis Bernstock, and Sascha Feinstein.  They should be ready in the next couple of weeks.  Will post them when I can.  Stoked!

Chapbook Update

My poetry chapbook, The Breakdown Atlas, which was picked up Big Table Publishing Co. last month, is due out this July.  After settling on the contents and placement, and batting around ideas for a cover design with editor-extraordinaire, Robin Stratton, the reviewer's copy was sent out for blurbs and reviews.  I think it looks good, and I know I've got a lot of strong work in there, but I'm still a little nervous about the reviews, as it's my first chap.  Well, I guess it's just a waiting game now, but we are on a bit of a time crunch to get the book printed and ready for my trip back to the U.S. in July.  I have all the faith in the world in Robin though~she's fast, efficient, and she knows exactly what she's doing.  In the meantime, I keep checking my email, like, every five minutes...