Alan Squire Publishing

A Small Press With Big Ideas

Rose Solari’s Review of “Million Dollar Red” Lands on the Front Page of Lit Pub Gleah Power's powerful new memoir receives the thumbs up from ASP's Rose Solari. ASP'S OWN Rose Solari made waves today when her review of the much-anticipated new Gleah Powers memoir Million Dollar Red hit the front page of Lit Pub. Solari, the co-founder of Alan Squire Publishing and a working editor on almost every book we published, was more than prepared for the job of critic, penning a review that, though positive, does not pull any punches. At the end of the review, Solari gives Powers her most … [Read more...]

Rose Solari Tackles NaNoWriMo Author Rose Solari takes a relaxed approach to National Novel Writing Month National Novel Writing Month (AKA NaNoWriMo) is now in full swing with many a bleary eyed creative furiously typing dawn to dusk or until carpal inevitably benches them (carpal tunnel release is our Tommy John’s). Their goal: 50,000 words by the end of the month AND a publishable manuscript, at least in spirit. With the myriad articles on NaNoWriMo burnout, on “slogging through” the challenge, and on just finishing a manuscript, Rose Solari has decided to use NaNoWriMo in her … [Read more...]

Rose Solari's Interview in The Kenyon Review Shows Us What it Means to be a Literary Citizen Kristina Marie Darling from the Kenyon Review sat down with ASP Co-Founder and poet, Rose Solari to talk literary citizenship, ASP, and editing as a career. ASP Co-Founder and poet, Rose Solari. Read the Kenyon Review's interview with Rose Solari Here The Kenyon Review recently published an interview with ASP's own Rose Solari concerning several different operational and philosophical aspects of the modern independent press. One of the questions that the interviewer, … [Read more...]

Rose Solari will be bringing her poetry to the Martha Washington Community Library to read alongside some great DMV poets including, Anne Harding Woodworth,  Rocky Jones, and Anne Becker. The event is titled: "Building to a Crescendo: A Poetry Reading" The event will be hosted by Steve Allen May … [Read more...]

Featured Audio: Rose Solari Reads "The Beginning , 1939" "Rose's voice is as much a part of the journey as the text. Her understanding of (and love for) the music within language is entrancing-haunting, and delightful. It moves me like love itself." Reuben Jackson 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, … [Read more...]

In honor of National Poetry Month, Poet Rose Solari is teaching a one-session seminar, “Five Great Poems,” in which participants will read and discuss five poems by contemporary masters of the form: Tony Hoagland, Anne Sexton, Derek Walcott, Natasha Tretheway, and Stanley Plumly. You can register here: https://www.politics-prose.com/class/five-great-contemporary-poems-1944 … [Read more...]

February 4th-8th from 10:00AM to 12:30PM This February poet and author, Rose Solari, offers a new version of her popular A Poem a Day workshop with an emphasis on what the great singer/songwriter Peter Gabriel called “Digging in the Dirt” — delving deep into memory and past experiences to find the materials for meaningful poems. The Workshop will take place at Politics and Prose.  … [Read more...]

Hear Rose Solari Read "Letter from Sligo Creek" from her Award-Winning Collection, Difficult Weather "Like the cover photo, the poems in Difficult Weather are timeless and—unlike the poems in many first books—extraordinarily mature. Although the narrative voice is generally that of a young woman in her late twenties and early thirties whose subject matter sometimes ranges back to early childhood, these are poems of adulthood: the discovery and endlessly painful rediscovery of human frailty, sexual and emotional betrayal, bad love in all its familial and romantic varieties, memory, and … [Read more...]

Rose Solari reads "Margaret in Oxford" from her debut novel A Secret Woman Event Notification: Rose Solari and David Gewanter at Second Story Books in DC this Weekend! "[In A Secret Woman,] Rose Solari explores the eternal literary theme of self — who we are, who are the ones we love, and how we invent and reinvent these people, trying always to paint ourselves into the vast canvas of life and history. A very promising fiction debut." Robert Olen Butler Robert Olen Butler loves Rose Solari's debut work of fiction for its sense of the eternity. This is one of the many reasons all of Rose … [Read more...]

  Rose Solari reads "Benedict" from her Debut Novel A Secret Woman is not only a pleasure to read, it is sneaky serious in a way I particularly like. Rose Solari explores the eternal literary theme of self — who we are, who are the ones we love, and how we invent and reinvent these people, trying always to paint ourselves into the vast canvas of life and history. Robert Olen Butler Many schools of poetry stress economy. The Shakespearean sonnet is limited to twelve lines, ten syllables each; the sestina uses requisite repetition to enforce its themes; imagism is a principle of … [Read more...]

Rose Solari reads "Last Night I Tried to Walk You out of My Body" Rose's voice is as much a part of the journey as the text. Her understanding of (and love for) the music within language is entrancing-haunting, and delightful. It moves me like love itself. Reuben Jackson Rose Solari is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, The Last Girl, Orpheus in the Park, and DifficultWeather(re-issued by ASP in 2014); the one-act play, Looking for Guenevere; and the novel, A Secret Woman. She has lectured and taught writing workshops at many institutions, including the University of … [Read more...]

Rose Solari reads "Achilles on Shore" "No one reads poetry like Rose Solari. She enters the essence of each word with a voice, making meaning become spirit. I think her great gift is the understanding that language can make you feel what the speaker experiences...so she proceeds to make you feel her passion, her wit, and love." Grace Cavalieri Rose Solari's upcoming poetry workshop at Politics & Prose is titled "Revise, Rethink, Reveal." "Rethink" holding, for Rose, an essential place in the poetic process. It makes sense then why she would gravitate toward poems about myth and family. … [Read more...]

A Featured Solari Poem on Poets and Artists Rose Solari's poem "Portrait of a Girl Gulf-Side" is featured on Poets and Artists with a small introduction by Grace Cavalieri. Read the full poem and introduction here An Excerpt: PORTRAIT OF A GIRL, GULF-SIDE                    Naples, Florida At first, I thought it was happiness that made her rock her head from left to right, again, again — that girl, maybe twelve, in her pink   skirted two-piece, her dark hair swimming, gorgeous, down her back. She clutched an Ipad in a thick pink rubber case.   Rose Solari is the … [Read more...]

Rose Solari Speaks to Ramola D at Delphi An Interview with Rose Solari Rose sits down with Ramola D, the founder and editor of Delphi Quarterly,  to talk about her writing and publishing journey. She touches on writing, Joanna Biggar, James J. Patterson, the business behind the scenes, and the conception of Alan Squire Publishing. Read the full article at Delphi Quarterly here An excerpt on the conception of Alan Squire Publishing: Rd: That sounds like such a great approach. Did something in particular inspire you both to move forward from running a sports magazine to starting a … [Read more...]

On Her Relationship with Music, Three Poems by Rose Solari Read all three poems by Rose Solari: Another Country, Myself When I was There, and That Day  on the Redux Literary Journal site "These three poems are all rooted in my relationship with music. After my brother died, I was going through some old photos when I ran across one of us as young adults in our parents’ living room. Mom was at the piano singing and playing, and he and I were laughing, trying to sing along while he balanced me on his shoulders. This became the basis for 'Another Country.' Our mother was a tremendously gifted … [Read more...]

Rose Solari is judging this year's Charlene Kushner Wicked Woman Poetry Prize Brickhouse Books has announced the Charlene Kushner Wicked Woman Poetry Prize. The winning manuscript will be published by Brickhouse books and the author receive $250. The Manuscript must be about a woman (or women) who challenged expectations or broke the mold. Our very Own Rose Solari, author of A Secret Woman and The Last Girl, will be judging the competition. Entries are accepted Sept. 1, 2018, to January 4, 2019, via Submittable. Accommodations available for members of the disability community. … [Read more...]

Finding Myth By Rose Solari As a child, I distrusted mythology, as I did any literature that adults seemed to think was especially well-suited to kids. Tales of Mount Olympus, of Zeus and Hera and their many disruptive children, seemed to me to be just stories about people who never existed performing feats that were clearly impossible, not unlike Santa Claus. I much preferred, for example, the work of Louisa May Alcott and Charlotte Bronte. In Little Women and Jane Eyre, I found believable tales that I could both enjoy and learn from, stories that helped me to grow up. I found my way … [Read more...]