Fall 2014: Issue 1
“Perfection is a godless ghost.” Such is the title of a poem by Firestone Feinberg published in this collection. It seems an especially fitting assertion for this introduction to Aji’ s inaugural issue. Aji does not adjure authors to change their work, although inevitably we do see a flaw here or there. Instead, we celebrate the spirit, the expression, the image, the mood or the idea a particular piece evokes...
-Erin O'Neill Armendarez, General Editor
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In this Issue:
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If you loved the fall issue, check out some of the featured works from our select writers below.
Colin Dodds
About Wisdom’s Real Opposite—101 Poems about an Odyssey on a Stool
Written in and about bars over a ten year period, these poems observe impossible hopes colliding with shabby realities in both starkly lucid and deeply distorted moments. These are funny poems that avoid being a comedy routine, severe and extreme poems that nonetheless maintain sympathy and humanity. Taken together, they represent what the best of books promise—something better than drinking alone.
Poems in this and the other three volumes in this series have appeared in more than 180 publications; some have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. The songwriter and poet David Berman (Silver Jews, Actual Air) said of them: “These are very good poems. For moments I could even feel the old feelings when I read them.”
C.S. Fuqua
White Trash & Southern
Spanning nearly three decades of C.S. Fuqua's literary career, White Trash & Southern collects 232 poems, 232 stories of life, celebration, mourning, joy, and sadness. “An unflinching examination of the sorrows and joys we experience while moving through the world." -- Dr. Wendy Galgan, Editor, Assisi
Paul Hostovsky
Paul Hostovsky's Selected Poems
Paul Hostovsky's Selected Poems (2014, FutureCycle Press) brings together 120 poems from this prolific, masterful, Pushcart Prize-winning poet's previous five collections of poetry, Bending the Notes (2008), Dear Truth (2009), A Little in Love a Lot (2011), Hurt Into Beauty (2012), and Naming Names (2014). Jeffrey Harrison, speaking of Hostovsky’s work, has said succinctly: "This book kicks ass."
Michael Keshigian
Dark Edges
The theme of Michael Keshigian's latest poetry book, Dark Edges, released September, 2014 by Flutter Press, explores the nature of stress, loss, and trauma and the questions events raise which might be difficult to comprehend, making us, at times, retreat into the imagination for the sake of solace or self preservation.
Rich Murphy
Americana, Prize Americana winner 2013
“Rich Murphy draws us inevitably to these poems in joyful celebrations of language and the human imagination. Sheer intelligent joy runs through this book, hurray!”—Geoffrey Gatza, author of Apollo and House of Forgetting “Murphy’s visions are brilliantly wicked, like Linh Dinh’s sharp critique of America through a mirror called truth-telling. “-- Charles Alexander, author of Pushing Water, editor/publisher of Chax Press
Lazola Pambo
Oscar’s Journey
It is the twenty-first century. After dropping out from two distinguished universities, a young man by the name of Oscar Ludwe is about to change his livelihood with his extraordinary gift of writing. A book for young and old which unravels the importance of decision making and sacrifice!
Colin Dodds
About Wisdom’s Real Opposite—101 Poems about an Odyssey on a Stool
Written in and about bars over a ten year period, these poems observe impossible hopes colliding with shabby realities in both starkly lucid and deeply distorted moments. These are funny poems that avoid being a comedy routine, severe and extreme poems that nonetheless maintain sympathy and humanity. Taken together, they represent what the best of books promise—something better than drinking alone.
Poems in this and the other three volumes in this series have appeared in more than 180 publications; some have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. The songwriter and poet David Berman (Silver Jews, Actual Air) said of them: “These are very good poems. For moments I could even feel the old feelings when I read them.”
C.S. Fuqua
White Trash & Southern
Spanning nearly three decades of C.S. Fuqua's literary career, White Trash & Southern collects 232 poems, 232 stories of life, celebration, mourning, joy, and sadness. “An unflinching examination of the sorrows and joys we experience while moving through the world." -- Dr. Wendy Galgan, Editor, Assisi
Paul Hostovsky
Paul Hostovsky's Selected Poems
Paul Hostovsky's Selected Poems (2014, FutureCycle Press) brings together 120 poems from this prolific, masterful, Pushcart Prize-winning poet's previous five collections of poetry, Bending the Notes (2008), Dear Truth (2009), A Little in Love a Lot (2011), Hurt Into Beauty (2012), and Naming Names (2014). Jeffrey Harrison, speaking of Hostovsky’s work, has said succinctly: "This book kicks ass."
Michael Keshigian
Dark Edges
The theme of Michael Keshigian's latest poetry book, Dark Edges, released September, 2014 by Flutter Press, explores the nature of stress, loss, and trauma and the questions events raise which might be difficult to comprehend, making us, at times, retreat into the imagination for the sake of solace or self preservation.
Rich Murphy
Americana, Prize Americana winner 2013
“Rich Murphy draws us inevitably to these poems in joyful celebrations of language and the human imagination. Sheer intelligent joy runs through this book, hurray!”—Geoffrey Gatza, author of Apollo and House of Forgetting “Murphy’s visions are brilliantly wicked, like Linh Dinh’s sharp critique of America through a mirror called truth-telling. “-- Charles Alexander, author of Pushing Water, editor/publisher of Chax Press
Lazola Pambo
Oscar’s Journey
It is the twenty-first century. After dropping out from two distinguished universities, a young man by the name of Oscar Ludwe is about to change his livelihood with his extraordinary gift of writing. A book for young and old which unravels the importance of decision making and sacrifice!