New Poetry Book "God in Her Ruffled Dress" out in October from What Books Press

I'm thrilled that my second full-length book of poetry, God in Her Ruffled Dress, is to be published October 17, 2023, by What Books Press, reaching online bookstores October 25. 

You can order a signed copy directly from me now. Go here for payment options or contact me.

What Books Press comprises a collective of writers, who have created a small nonprofit publishing house featuring beautiful-looking and compelling literary work with a West Coast sensibility. 

(One of the reasons I enjoy their collective approach is that in the '80s, I was a member of the San Francisco-based publishing and editorial collective Five Fingers Poetry, launching the respected literary journal Five Fingers Review.)

Back to God in Her Ruffled Dress: it appears an astounding 34 years after my first full-length poetry volume The Transparent Body, from the highly esteemed Wesleyan University Press New Poets Series. You can purchase that volume directly from me as well, along with the chapbook that preceded it, Anorexia. 

In the years between my first books and this new one, I became a jazz and groove singer and spoken-word artist, with seven albums and a number of singles featuring my original songs and adventurous versions of standards and covers, most of them interwoven with my spoken verse. Poetry, spoken word, poetic rap are all represented in these innovative music-verse meldings. I was fortunate to record with James Gardiner, who has more than 40 gold and platinum records as an engineer and is also a highly skilled producer and composer, at Pajama Studios in Oakland. Some of my tunes were composed with such artists as Wayne Wallace, Barbara Higbie, Scott R. Looney, Ben Flint, and Jeff Marrs and all feature some of the best musicians in the Bay Area. 

It's been refreshing and fascinating to return to the literary world where I cut my artistic teeth. And to compare today's poetry publishing with the indie music scene, which constantly transformed itself throughout the more than 20 years in which I've been releasing music. Of note is that I'm grateful that the fraction-of-a-penny streaming model has not penetrated literary or any other kind of publishing.

To my surprise and delighted gratitude, six fabulous poets and critics sent me supportive remarks about the new book. They are displayed in various ways here, because there's so much to highlight, and because some of you prefer images and some like text (and because, let's face it, I'm so proud). 

  

“A book of deep seeing, ‘the code inside the code’... also a book of intense listening, ‘the bright spurt of trumpet’ and the train calling like a late-night lover… a series of divine pleasures transcribed faithfully by a skilled musician and writer.” 

—D.A. Powell, author of Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys and Repast: Tea, Lunch, and Cocktails

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“Bears écriture feminine into the twenty-first century with grace, wit, and incredible technical dexterity.”  

—Kristina Marie Darling, author of Daylight Has Already Come and Look to Your Left: A Feminist Poetics of Spectacle

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“Lisa B’s stunning new book weaves together body, spirituality, politics, and the world we live in….Fierce, feminist, and necessary...this engaging collection will stir your mind and bring you into beauty, into ‘a place so much more multiple than one god’s face.’ ” 

—Kelli Russell Agodon, author of Hourglass Museum and Dialogues with Rising Tides

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“A dazzling lyrical demonstration... She takes us on a journey through ecstasy and pain: from the highs of great jazz performance to the zen of blood testing for diabetes.” 

—Lawrence R. Smith, editor of Caliban

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“Effortlessly surprising, thoughtful, and inventive...musical and rhythmical above all...[poems on] the physicality of jazz, the physicality of spirituality, and the self hearing all her edges and hinges through illness, pleasure, and doubt.”  

—Sean Singer, author of Honey & Smoke and Today in the Taxi

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“Offers a series of superb poems about...jazz greats...[and other poems] that call down the spirit in ways that are at once promiscuous and defiant.”

—Daniel Tiffany, author of Cry Baby Mystic and My Silver Planet: A Secret History of Poetry and Kitsch

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Look for upcoming posts about poetry readings and workshops! If any of you would like to review the book or interview me, of course I'd be glad to accommodate you. 
And please contact me and/or join my mailing list for updates direct to your email box.