Move over, C.S. Lewis; Melissa Studdard is here! Annalise of the Verdant Hills is one of the most delightful protagonists to skip through the pages of literature since Dorothy landed in Oz. Join Annalise and her two walking, talking wondersheep as they travel to ever more outlandish places and meet outrageous and enlightening folk on their journey to discover interconnectedness in a seemingly disconnected world. Discover with them how just one person can be the start of the change we all strive for. A book for all ages, for all time: wonderful, wacky, and bursting with truth!

Six Weeks to Yehidah

Teen & Young Adult

Studdard, Melissa

Science Fiction & Fantasy

All Things That Matter Press

Melissa Studdard's high-flying, bold poetic language expresses an erotic appetite for the world: "this desire to butter and eat the stars," as she says, in words characteristically large yet domestic, ambitious yet chuckling at their own nerve. This poet's ardent, winning ebullience echoes that of God, a recurring character here, who finds us Her children, splotchy, bawling and imperfect though we are, "flawless in her omniscient eyes." -Robert Pinsky In so many ways the poems in this book read like paintings, touching and absorbing the light of the known world while fingering the soul until it lifts, trembling. Gates splayed, bodies read as books, and hearts born of mouths, Studdard's study, which is a creation unto itself, would have no doubt pleased Neruda's taste for the alchemic impurity of poetry, which is, as we know, poetry that is not only most pure of heart, but beautifully generous in vision and feeling. -Cate Marvin

I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

Saint Julian Press, Inc.

In the complex world dynamics of today, it feels more important than ever to remind ourselves that cultural heritage outlasts and outweighs political climates and that art is one of the vehicles through which we can transcend our differences to find our common humanity. Tracing back to the most ancient literary texts, we see that although the details of our lives and environments change with the times, the basic fears and aspirations of humankind remain the same. We look to the arts to show us what we most need to see about ourselves--that we are in the end, all of us, a human family.The Conference of the Birds, the 12th Century Sufi allegorical poem by Persian poet Att r, deals with these universal themes. Conference tells the story of the seeker's journey towards God, towards the evolution of self through wisdom, love, openness, and connection. In it, all the birds of the world convene and determine that they need a ruler. Such a leader is known in the form of the mythic and divine bird, Simorgh, who resides in a distant land. The journey to this faraway place leads the birds through seven valleys of understanding, the first of which requires them to cast off all the preconceived ideas and dogma in their thinking, and the final of which requires annihilation of the self in order to attain complete communion with the divine.Beginning with the discord and lack of purpose of the birds and culminating in the discovery that they are all individually and together Simorgh, The Conference of the Birds is a timeless model of transforming confusion and lack of unity into the realization of harmony and purpose.Christopher's piece, released in 2018, traces the metaphoric journey of the birds in seven short character pieces, each lasting between one and three minutes, and each focusing on a highly defined musical personality evoked by the corresponding valley. Much of the string writing is inspired by the flocking movement of birds; that is, there is a 'group logic'--a kind of unity of movement and purpose in which all the parts are highly interdependent. In the fall of 2019, the Argus Quartet, who were performing The Conference of the Birds, contacted Christopher to discuss the possibility of reciting poems in performance between the musical pieces, and Christopher recommended that Melissa write the text. The resulting poems, which became Like a Bird with a Thousand Wings, respond most intimately to Christopher's musical interpretation of the valleys but were written, as well, in consultation with Sholeh Wolpe&#769;'s, contemporary translation ofAttar's The Conference ofthe Birds (W.W. Norton & Co).Rather than retelling Attar's allegory, Melissa's poems intend to provide imagery and language to illuminate and accentuate specific qualities of the sound journey Christopher has created in response to Att r. In order to tease out Att r's narrative sequence, Melissa has woven mini summaries, as well as quotes from various translations, through the text.It is our hope that by uniting the artistic disciplines of poetry, composition, visual art, and performance, Attar's vital allegory will be brought further to life on the stage and in other artistic mediums. Melissa Studdard & Christopher Theofanidis January 19, 2020 Manasota Key, Florida

Like a Bird with a Thousand Wings

Framed as a job application, and bounding with associative leaps and surrealist underpinnings, Dear Selection Committee is a subversive, sexy love song to an endlessly messy self and the burning world it inhabits. Full of apostrophic power, these poems shift among registers of loss, desire, and joy as they wrestle with issues such as climate change, addiction, modern distractions, gender presentation, religious questioning, and the nature of pain. Dear Selection Committee attests that although life can feel like a bumpy cab ride to interview for a job you feel uniquely unqualified for if you lay aside the anxieties of self just long enough to peer out the window, you'll see great beauty amidst the chaos.

Dear Selection Committee

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Jackleg Press

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