Reuben Jackson and Rose Solari to Read at the American Poetry Museum

December 14th, 2019 Reuben Jackon, Rose Solari, and the wonderful Maryland poet Maritza Rivera will perform poems from their catalog at the American Poetry Museum in Washington, DC. The readings will be followed by a question and answer period. more info

Sure to be a treat for the DMV poetry fan, Reuben Jackson and Rose Solari are known to have particularly excellent chemistry together, having read and worked together for over twenty years.

In the early '90s Rose and Reuben were fresh poets just hitting the scene. Their debut collections were each picked up by Gut Punch Press, a lovely small press out of DC which sadly folded, leaving both titles, Difficult Weather by Rose Solari and fingering the keys by Reuben Jackson in a publishing and distribution limbo. It's worth mentioning that both books received the Columbia Award in consecutive years, Rose's from Carolyn Forché and Reuben's from Joseph Brodsky. These were new, exciting, and significant works in the DC lit scene.

Fortunately, with ASP's advent, Rose's Difficult Weather didn't stay dormant long. A second edition was soon published with an intro from Katherine E Young, the former Poet Laureate of Arlington. However, despite its influence and aura in the District, a copy of fingering the keys would set you back fifty dollars on Amazon or a hundred work hours searching through storage bins or hunting it in the Book Thing.

Now, finally, Reuben's fingering the keys is available to poetry lovers far and wide on virtually every platform coupled with a collection of totally new material, Scattered Clouds. One cannot diminish the role of Rose Solari and Reuben Jackson's enduring friendship in this culturally significant acquisition for ASP. Difficult Weather and fingering the keys, just like Rose and Reuben, are finally united again under the same roof.

Listen to Rose and Reuben on this very candid ASP podcast: