Able Muse Anthology

Book excerpt: The Able Muse Anthology -- from the new Able Muse Press -- celebrates Able Muse's journey through its first decade and beyond, by showcasing the best of the published poetry, fiction, essays, interviews, book reviews, art and photography, including a foreword by Timothy Steele. This anthology has received high praise and acclaim from Dana Gioia, David Mason, Charles Martin, Catharine Savage-Brosman, X.J. Kennedy, Catharine Savage Brosman and others. PRAISE FOR THE ABLE MUSE ANTHOLOGY: . . . This book fills an important gap in understanding what is really happening in early twenty first century American poetry. - Dana Gioia. . . . You hold in your hands a remarkable anthology of poems, translations, an interview, essays, short stories and visual art. - David Mason. . . . This extraordinarily rich collection of fiction, poetry, essays and art by so many gifted enablers of the Muse is both a present satisfaction and a promise of future performance. - Charles Martin. . . . Neither unskilled, lethargic, nor distracted from their proper enterprise, the muses in the past decade have been singularly able, as this outstanding anthology of work from The Able Muse demonstrates. - Catharine Savage-Brosman. . . . Here's a generous serving of the cream of Able Muse, including not only formal verse but nonmetrical work that also displays careful craft, memorable fiction (seven remarkable stories), striking artwork and photography, and incisive critical prose. - X.J. Kennedy. CONTENTS: FOREWORD by Timothy Steele. INTRODUCTION by Alexander Pepple. FICTION -- Kristen Edwards, Thaisa Frank, Delaney Lundberg, Marge Lurie, Molly Malone, Dennis Must, Nina Schuyler. ESSAYS & BOOK REVIEWS -- Suzanne J. Doyle (on Turner Cassity), Daniel L. Corrie, Leslie Monsour (on Richard Wilbur). INTERVIEWS -- Kevin Durkin (with Timothy Steele). POETRY TRANSLATION -- Charles Baudelaire translated by Jennifer Reeser, translations from the Persian by Dick Davis, Hafiz translated by Jeffrey Einboden and John Slater, Louise Labé translated by Annie Finch, Petrarch translated by A.M. Juster, Giovanni Pascoli translated by Geoffrey Brock. POETRY -- Brian Culhane, Shekhar Aiyar, Rhina P. Espaillat, Geoffrey Brock, Kate Benedict, Turner Cassity, Cally Conan-Davies, Catherine Chandler, Maryann Corbett, Kevin Durkin, John Beaton, Stephen Edgar, Annie Finch, Jeff Holt, R.S. Gwynn, Rachel Hadas, Dolores Hayden, Beth Houston, Mark Jarman, Julie Kane, Julie Carter, Rose Kelleher, Robin Kemp, X.J. Kennedy, Len Krisak, Lyn Lifshin, April Lindner, Thomas David Lisk, Dennis Loney, Amit Majmudar, Ted McCarthy, Mebane Robertson, Richard Moore, Esther Greenleaf Mürer, Timothy Murphy, Estill Pollock, Aaron Poochigian, Jay Prefontaine, Chelsea Rathburn, Leslie Monsour, A.E. Stallings, Timothy Steele, Richard Wakefield, David Stephenson, Alan Sullivan, Marilyn L. Taylor, Diane Thiel, Deborah Warren, Geraldine Connolly, Robert West, Gail White, Bob Watts, Kim Bridgford, William Conelly. ART & PHOTOGRAPHY -- Üzeyir Lokman Çayci, Andrew Dolphin, Misha Gordin, Terri Graham, Solitaire Miles, Billy Monday, Royena Rasnat, Linda Spencer, Kamil Varga, Christopher Woods.