Books published by Cervena Barva Press

An ordinary neighborhood on the edge of the city comes to life in Karen Friedland's "Tales from the Teacup Palace"-its dogs, trees, houses, spouses, and people, living and gone.

“For some twenty years now, I have been truly blessed to call poet Simon Perchik my close friend.  We met by chance, or perhaps not.  Simon brought me and Gloria Mindock together.  Another blessing.  Si’s great sense of humor, his brilliance as a poet, and his deep compassion for the world help fuel me as person and writer.”— Susan Tepper, January 25, 2020

In Fire Tongue, the poems are precise and unsparing as they probe old questions of how and why the unspeakable enters our lives. In terse, suspenseful language and lines that are as light as their subjects they carry are heavy, indeed ominous, Sesling looks for hope, for what can redeem us. The poet finds the answer in our ability to listen, to feel, to own a conscience, and to value life. -Afaa Michael Weaver Poet Zvi Sesling is at a point in life where there is much more in his past than in his future. In "Fire Tongue" there is delicate balance of the past, present and speculation of what is to come. Sesling fearlessly faces what we all feel deep in our marrow - our own mortality. As a highly skilled poet with a gimlet eye, Sesling pulls this off with a mixture of humor and pathos. No word is wasted... life is too short for that... Sesling, my friends, is well acquainted with the night. -Doug Holder Ibbetson Street Press Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing/Endicott College Fire Tongue takes us on a journey down Zvi Sesling's "road of sorrows." Here is madness, pain, cities of the dead, remnants of the lost, vast fields of suffering, outcroppings of cruelty, deserts of war and violence. With a dream-like clarity and precision reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch, Sesling shows us what we cannot deny about our nature, our history, our times. This is poetry as ritual incantation, a fiery tongue in its own right, teaching us how to navigate and thus perhaps begin to understand our harsh and bloody terrain. -Fred Marchant Author of The Looking House (Graywolf Press)

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Travel Writing. "Matt Potter unflinchingly allows us inside his mind and heart, sharing fears and insecurities that most of us would never dare to reveal. His book is both poignant and funny, and through Potter's eyes we get a vivid picture of Germany--its landscapes, people, customs and quirks--while also witnessing one man's struggle to make sense of his own life as well as life at large."--Len Kuntz, author of The Dark Sunshine "Matt Potter's HAMBURGERS AND BERLINERS took me to Germany--with brief forays to Austria, Portugal and other European countries--without me having to shift an inch from my sofa. Potter's prose is, as always, absorbing, amusing, enlightening and engaging. If you are thinking of a trip to Europe (or Australia, where Potter originates) make sure you read HAMBURGERS AND BERLINERS before you go. This intimate portrait of an Australian abroad should be nestled in your hand luggage beside your spare undies and bottled water--it's just as essential. Potter examines the differences between cultures big and small-between countries, continents or, at the other end of the scale, the microcultures that exist within a block or a street. He constantly questions the what and the why of things, observing idiosyncrasies and habits and ingrained patterns of thought in a way that makes you see your own surroundings and behaviours afresh. Never uncomfortably disrespectful (though often funny), Potter had me smirking with some of his descriptions and going 'Aha!' at others. HAMBURGERS AND BERLINERS is that rare thing, a guide to humanity, forgiving in its delivery but covering every niggly aspect of living as a foreigner abroad in delicious detail, warts and all. If you want to give your brain a holiday, get it, read it, and have a bal

What May Have Been is a novel in letters exchanged between the artist Jackson Pollock and his fictional lover, a young woman called Dori G. Susan Tepper and Gary Percesepe have created a sexy and luminous love story that takes place sometime during the late 1940's, in that sandy wonderland at the eastern tip of Long Island known as The Hamptons. Advance Praise for What May Have Been "In this extraordinary novel, Pollock tells his lover that things like paint and wives are very small in the scheme of things. Gary Percesepe and Susan Tepper show how the great scheme of things is, in fact, in literary art, captured in paint and wives and a Montauk surf and a silky scarf and narrow hips and a cold water flat and a used Ford. Brilliantly conceived, brilliantly executed, this is a stunning book about art and about life." -Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain "The fictional letters between Pollock and an imaginary Dori G come out in a hailstorm of paint flecks, lockets, long looks, kisses, blowing sand. Dori sees Jackson in his distance and his nearing, and his return to her like the visit of one of the Greek gods to his mortal lover, as piercing and as fatal." -Mary Grimm, author of Left to Themselves and Stealing Time "How to convey the irresistible pleasures of this novel in letters? The language mimics the slashing, dramatic immediate heroic gestures of abstract expressionism, is an extraordinary act of poetic invention, and tells a sexy and doomed love story." -James Robison, author of The Illustrator and Rumors "These two fervent voices exude the splendor and gloom of adulterous love." -Mark Wisniewski, author of Confessions of a Polish Used Car Salesman

Poetry. Jewish Studies. Middle Eastern Studies. "With unflinching courage, clarity, and wit, Sami Shalom Chetrit has gone places no contemporary Israeli Hebrew poet has dared venture. These are places in which the brutality of separatist ideology, enforced identity, militarism, and military occupation, have attempted to blot out the ethics of memory and human relations. It is in these ruins that Chetrit's rage, irony, and compassion create new ways of imagining realities we thought had reached a point of utter saturation. This collection finally allows English readers a chance to hear Chetrit's vital and inspiring voice."--Ammiel Alcalay, professor of Comparative Literature Queens College and CUNY Graduate Center