Here's to 2022! And Here's a Sale...
2022 was a big year for ASP and our writers. In March, we had a booth at the annual AWP Conference, and our offsite reading, featuring authors Saida Agostini, Dave Housley, Elizabeth Hazen, and Richard Peabody, along with special guests Teri Ellen Cross Davis and Leslie Pietrzyk, had a standing-room-only audience packed with literary stars.
In April, ASP sponsored the American Authors Weekend at the Oxford Literary Festival in Oxford, England. Saida Agostini, David Downie, Elizabeth Hazen and Dave Housley each gave fabulous presentations on their current titles, and ASP co-founder Rose Solari chaired two panels.
In autumn, we launched David Downie’s Roman Roulette, his second Daria Vinci mystery, with a book tour that included appearances at Politics & Prose in Washington, DC, Book Passage in Corte Madeira, California, and the Museo Italo Americano in San Francisco.
We’re so very glad to be back to live readings, and grateful to all who came out in support of our authors. In gratitude, we celebrating 12 years of independent literary publishing with a special holiday offer: All ASP titles are on sale here for just $10. Order more than one and we’ll throw in a surprise free gift!
We’ve got big plans for 2023, so stay tuned!! And thank you for your support of ASP — A Small Press With Big Ideas.
Featured Audio: Rose Solari reads “The Beginning, 1939”
In “The Beginning, 1939” Rose Solari’s mastery of recitation is put to the music of her capricious mother and the frantic hopes of her father who wishes to leave “no long, tight pauses for her to fill.” I’ve written before about Rose’s use of swing and rhythmic motifs in her work, elements which are alive in this poem, but what is really mesmerizing to me about “1939” is the musical image toward the end which harbors no pretense of cramming lieder into language, but instead focuses on the very physical act of her mother playing the piano:
Mikaela Lefrak Examines the Life of Maryland Poet Laureate, Grace Cavalieri
The beloved Grace Cavalieri “contains multitudes” according to Mikaela Lefrak in her newest article from WAMU taking a look at the life and career of the 10th Poet Laureate. And Ms. Lefrak treats her subject with the due respect of a life which cannot be covered succinctly in 500 words. She delivers a reverent tourists’ view of Grace Cavalieri’s life, hitting the big things: her poetry and work ethic, the passing of her husband, Kenneth Flynn, her conversion to Buddhism, and finally her new tenure as Poet Laureate.
Listen to Grace Cavalieri on the Kojo Nnamdi Show
Grace Cavalieri’s recent stop at NPR’s The Kojo Nnamdi show is now streamable. Over a substantive 22 minutes, listen to Grace talk about poetry, inspiration, and her plans as the 10th Maryland Poet Laureate.