Books published by Pleasure Boat Studio

"Make It True meets Medusario brings together poets from divergent languages, cultures, and aesthetics to create a...conversation...a fertile meeting place for ongoing ideas about poetry that might trouble the all too-easy academic labels and the subsequent segregation those aesthetic and political divisions cause within the larger, global poetry community." -From the book's introduction by Matthew TreaseThis collaboration, spawned by two previous anthologies, includes the Spanish language poets of the Neobarroco school, as organized by José Kozer, a Cuban Neobarroco poet, together with poets from the Cascadia bioregion, arranged by Paul E Nelson, founder of the Seattle Poetics Lab (SPLAB) and Thomas Walton, editor-in-chief of Pageboy Magazine, Seattle, WA.Translated by Alejandro Carrillo and Dana Nelson; NEOBARROCO (Medusario) poets include: Carmen Berenguer, Marosa Di Giorgio, Roberto Echavarren, Eduardo Espina, Reynaldo Jiménez, Tamara Kamenszain, José Kozer, Pedro Marqués de Armas, Maurizio Medo, Néstor Perlongher, Soleida Ríos, Roger Santiváñez, and Raúl Zurita; CASCADIANS (Make It True) poets include: Stephen Collis, Elizabeth Cooperman, Sarah de Leeuw, Claudia Castro Luna, Nadine Maestas, Peter Munro, Paul E Nelson, John Olson, Shin Yu Pai, Clea Roberts, Cedar Sigo, Matthew Trease and Thomas Walton

Sandler's novel brings to life the New York art world from the death of Jackson Pollock in 1956 to the emergence of Andy Warhol in 1962. The setting is downtown New York. The novel follows the careers and interactions of four artists of different generations and styles-two first generation abstract expressionists and two younger painters. Other leading characters include an elder and younger critic, two art dealers, a curator, and a collector.The novel portrays competition within the self and with others for artistic recognition, as well as the soul-searching suffering for one's art. Connections are forged and betrayed. Whether relationships thrive or plummet, for business, pleasure or both, makes for an exciting, tough and dramatic world. Art theory and art history are interwoven throughout this crisp and sparkling narrative, through intriguing plot twists and dialogue.

A hit and run driver pinwheeled his daughter's car into the waters of Tomales Bay and his life is turned upside down. Then the sheriff's detective tells him he may have found the driver, a rich man who lives nearby. Fueled by his anger and an overwhelming desire for revenge, he plots ways to make his daughter's killer suffer and die. Like the predatory egret, he stalks his victim, waiting for the right moment to strike. Drowning in the sea, rattlesnakes and crude bombs are parts of his obsessive pursuit, leading to the inevitable violence of what he imagines to be the final strike of the egret's sharp beak.

This book is a requiem. It is also a house. Each room is elegant and spare but with a feral grief coming in at every opening. For My Father, by Amira Thoron, is the debut of a poet with both exquisite technical skill and acute emotional perception The speaker of these poems directly addresses the father who vanished and her yearning for him

*LIGHTS zine is a new outlet for a variety of local and Pleasure Boat Studio talents to showcase their work, providing another forum for creativity & community. Behind the name: When first coming up with the name for this collective way to publish more people, and without the gambling nature of worrying about reviews and success for authors, as well as a way to brand and get more widely known in Seattle and beyond, I was thinking of one word possibilities, starting with boat related ideas as a connection to ''Pleasure Boat'': mast, anchor, waves, skiff, oar, etc. Then, ''lights'' came to me simple as that and I liked it and stuck with it. Then, I got to thinking of forms of light, natural and electrical, and the feeling and meanings "Light" can evoke; by what light is cast, by which angle and direction; and what lights can show or reveal, reflect or bare witness to. Lights illuminate the dark so we can see where we''re going, and see where we are. So, take a glimpse and a ponder into what these contributors want to show you, for what they may put a spotlight on in our lit up world, however dark it might get sometimes.

This novel is a virtual time machine that takes the reader back to 11th century England- the time of Saxon domination before and after the disastrous Battle of Hastings in 1066. Step directly into the footsteps of Cuthwin of Alnwick. There are few "great men or women" in this historical novel, but instead the story of an ordinary man and his wife who work to survive. Cuthwin, who dictates his story around his 85th year of life, scrupulously avoided people of great power and standing. As he told his wife, the fiery Cwenburh, "such folk as we, are pebbles and dirt under heavy merciless wheels of great men and women." So, follow the real medieval life, and not that of fantasy and privilege. Via the combination of conscientious research and robust storytelling, "Cuthwin" is a historical novel dealing respectfully with its period and people. For accurate historical information about that time, and other fun facts and engaging personal vignetts, please visit: cuthwinandcwenburh.com

Poetry. Women's Studies. This book is a powerful follow-up to Driscoll's 1998 collection, THE RAPE POEMS, also from Pleasure Boat Studio.