Poetry. The voice of poet John Tynan in these VOICE LESSONS has a natural beauty all its own that is both an innate gift and a moral, as well as technical, achievement: fresh, unspoiled, casual and yet artful, never dry or contrived, always freely flowing, and of a sensibility so kind, humorous, and radically open to experience in its immediacy and depth, that it seems an inseparable, innate part of the poet's character; and yet, again and again, in his reflections, in his lyricism, the burden of experience and memory is acknowledged and overcome by a rededication of self to love and life. If there is a lesson in these LESSONS for his readers, it may be that spontaneity and immediate joy constitute not merely a state of being, but a creative act of becoming.

Voice Lessons and Other Poems

Literature & Fiction

Tynan, John

Poetry

Sagging Meniscus Press

Poetry. Jacob Smullyan's DRIBBLE, a cycle of 144 poems written in 1983, sets itself the task of exploring a peculiar, seemingly unpromising corner of poetic space. Its apparent subject matter is the grotesque obscenity of physicality: excrement, innards, foodstuffs, the reek of loss and sexuality, the pancake-like weight of words and representation. But what emerges is quite different from what its monstrous image repertoire might suggest: an extended meditation on the inner forces of creation and destruction. DRIBBLE's surreal mechanisms, by which the derangement of sense becomes ordinary, reveals new paths through experience, and in this new world, discredited matter, impelled by a powerful transcendental yearning, takes on new meaning and form; soul arises from the mire with cathartic impact and an unexpected tenderness.

Dribble

Smullyan, Jacob

Fiction. The formal playfulness of Christopher Carter Sanderson's novel, THE TOO-BRIEF CHRONICLE OF JUDAH LOWE, is visually apparent at a glance. It consists of two parts, each composed of a series of short fragments. The first part, 79/79/'79, has 79 titled sections of 79 words each, and is set in 1979. The second, @1000thenovel, is set in 1980, and consists of roughly 1000 tweets of 140 characters each; the story also has 140 characters. The book is far more, however, than a formalist game. It is a deeply affecting Bildungsroman in which an adolescent explores many different windows into himself and his emerging world, and where the unity and plurality of experience are vividly encountered together. It's a masterful experiment in the best sense, and a deeply affecting story.

The Too-Brief Chronicle of Judah Lowe

Sanderson, Christopher Carter

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Humor. Music. Of all of Raymond Smullyan's many books, A MIXED BAG: JOKES, PUZZLES, RIDDLES AND MEMORABILIA perhaps best captures the timeless delight of the casual conversation of this American polymath. A seamless continuum of jokes, stories, puzzles, and reflections, caught in an deliciously unpremeditated arc that nonetheless is remarkably cohesive, it is sparkling and charming proof that cheerfulness need not be incompatible with intelligence, nor pleasure with wisdom.

A Mixed Bag: Jokes, Riddles, Puzzles and Memorabilia

Humor & Entertainment

Smullyan, Raymond

Humor

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Science. By a singular ruse, the author of this account obtained entrance to the most exclusive party in the scientific world of the 20th century: The Einstein Centennial Symposium at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, on March 14-18, 1979. Admission was denied to all but a hand-picked group of celebrities: Nobel Prize winners, surviving members of Einstein's family, renowned Einstein scholars and historians, and journalists. Unbeknownst to the organizers of the event, Mr. Lisker turned out to be the only journalist present with the scientific competence to cover the entirety of this unique event. The result is a gripping and fascinating story that is both informed and humane, scientifically credible and politically aware.

In Memoriam Einstein

Lisker, Roy

History & Criticism

Fiction. Jewish Studies. Music. LINCOLN CENTER IN JULY AND OTHER STORIES is the first volume of the collected stories of Roy Lisker. Written over a period of more than sixty years, these works are a significant cross-cutting slice of the vast creative output of this American polymath, a mathematician, political activist, underground journalist, prankster and provocateur, poet, playwright, novelist, artist, composer, and above all, always, man of letters, who has carved out for himself an entirely original and authentic career outside the bounds of conventional institutions and produced a body of work of astonishing vitality and breadth. We regard the publication of these stories, all together for the first time, as an important event in American letters. This volume contains tales of frustrated, ego-mad, and possessed musicians, and depraved and/or misled men of science; two hysterical mathematical spoofs; and culminates in the novella The Governments of Chelm, in which the legendary shtedl of fools grapples with one system of government after another, to no avail.

Lincoln Center in July and Other Stories

United States

Fiction. THE HOUSE OF WRITERS is a playful novel set in 2050, when the publishing industry has collapsed, literature has become a micro-niche interest, and Scotland itself has become an enormous call center. Those writers who remain reside in a dilapidated towerblock, where they churn out hack works tailored to please their small audiences. The novel weaves together individual stories of life inside (and outside) the building, where each floor houses a different genre, as the writers fight to keep the process of literature alive with varying degrees of success. THE HOUSE OF WRITERS is a feast of wit: a surreal entertainment, a bracing satire, a verbal tour de force, and a good-spirited dystopian comedy; it is also a loving homage to language, literature, and the imagination, and a plea that they remain vital well into the dubious future that awaits us.

The House of Writers

Nicholls. M.J.

Humor & Satire

Literary Nonfiction. Jewish Studies. THE BUTTON THIEF OF EAST 14TH STREET: SCENES FROM A LIFE ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE 1927-1957 is Fay Webern's masterful chronicle of a youth spent in one of New York City's most vibrant immigrant communities during the harsh years of the Great Depression and The Second World War. Its forty-two beautifully sculpted episodes not only conjure into vivid existence a complete world, but reveal something of the bedrock of the author's inner being, in which the irreducible hardness, the 'is'-ness, of reality may be felt: the burden of survival; the 'stone in the heart'; the daily concerns, serious or frivolous, erected on it; and at the same time, always, flying above, indomitable, the muse of poetic imagination and the 'spirit of defiance. THE BUTTON THIEF is a joyous, magnificent achievement—an extraordinarily truthful and moving work of art, both radically personal and universal, utterly transcending the category of memoir. "It's amazing that well into the 21st century, we have been graced with this bittersweet, compelling, and often hilarious memoir of the Jewish Lower East Side during the thirties and the post-war era. Fay Webern's detailed portrait of this bustling neighborhood of immigrants, shops and overcrowded tenements brings to mind the work of the great Jewish writer Anzia Yezierska, although Webern has a sharper eye, and is less prone to sentimentality. With wit and affection, Webern vividly evokes the progressive housing project her family moved into, and its eventual demolition. Webern's unique personal story draws us into the very heart of the New York story, revealing the evolving experience of this influential immigrant community, so often mythologized but not always understood."—David Winner

The Button Thief of East 14th Street: Scenes from a Life on the Lower East Side 1927-1957

Biographies & Memoirs

Webern, Fay

Regional U.S.

Fiction. Jack Foley's autobiography begins, "What is a life but stories?" The stories collected here are not his life but a fantastic consciousness in which he is as lost as anyone. Foley writes what he does not know; he writes what he can imagine. The dead sprout up here as easily as leaves of grass. Stylistically the stories range widely—some are comic, some bring tears. All manifest "the strangeness and the power of poetry," plunging us into the enigma of the human heart.

The Tiger and Other Tales

Foley, Jack

Fiction. Stephen Moles' remarkable novel THE MOST WRETCHED THING IMAGINABLE could be described as any of the following: —A modern-day Book of the Dead which uses important events from relatively recent history (such as the Mayerling Incident and the Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 crash) and elements of popular culture (such as the Beatles and Shakespeare) to give expression to the same basic narrative found in all the ancient funerary texts from around the world. —A semi-autobiographical novel about the author's work with the Dark Meaning Research Institute and his efforts to stop their ground-breaking parasemantic findings from being appropriated/suppressed by the authorities. —A sister publication to Moles' previous novel, Paul is Dead, offering insights into the book's main themes (such as how to create a Möbius-strip-style twist in one's life story and make contact with an alternate self). —A poetic work in which the imagery (which has its own grammar and syntax) tells the story instead of the words: the entangled symbols are brought to the fore to such an extent that the reader is able to see the unconscious beneath the partially visible surface narrative and decide on the full literal meaning of it (rather than the other way around, as with all most books, where the literal meaning is made explicit and the underlying meaning remains partially or completely hidden). By whichever corner it is picked up, no matter how gingerly, what will be uncovered is an endlessly inventive and delightful work of wit, ingenuity, personal charm and no little substance.

The Most Wretched Thing Imaginable: Or Beneath the Burnt Umbrella

Moles, Stephen

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