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
_____________________________________
“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
_____________________________________
“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
_____________________________________
“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
_____________________________________
“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
_____________________________________
“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
_____________________________________
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.
.jpg)
.png "Launch Reading by Lisa B (Lisa Bernstein) and Others for Fall 2023 Titles from What Books Press")
.jpg)
_God%20in%20Her%20Ruffled%20Dress_page-0003.jpg)
_God%20in%20Her%20Ruffled%20Dress%20-%20Copy.jpg)
