Books published by Spuyten Duyvil

In this book of translated Danish poetry, farming is not used as a background for personal drama but as the speaker's central subject. The poet succeeds in defining his central task as the vivid evocation of the repeated seasonal chores that make up the essence of farming life. Never sentimental, and often humorous, the book might be called an earthy celebration of essential ritual; but it is an elegy as well, for the poems also chronicle the pressures that lead to collapse of farming as a vocation, describing the slow shift of a vital farming village into a bedroom community for those who work elsewhere. How the poet manages to maintain his "dream about farming" as a living possibility, to make it part of a stable vision of the possible, without flinching from sober facts and figures, is one of its many impressive achievements.Carl Dennis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of twelve books of poetry including Practical Gods and Another ReasonKnud Sorensen's poems investigate and lament the end of the Danish farmer's way of life, brilliantly capturing its intertwined beauty and sadness. These poems have a universality that speaks to the disappearance of the family farm, not just in Denmark but in America and across the globe. All thanks to Michael Goldman for such vivid translations that allow a new audience to see 'Denmark like a green dream about eternity.'Denton Loving, author of Crimes Against Birds, editor of drafthorse literary journalKnud Sorensen's formidable literary output bears a vulnerability, an embracing, gentle warmth, and a penetrating apprehension of emotional depth in commonplace events. May his work take flight and find readers around the globe.Dorthe Nors, Danish author of Karate Chop..".Sorensen is one of the best Danish poets.,"br> Martin Gregersen, Kristelig Dagblad"Knud Sorensen has acquired a unique, compassionate and deep insight into the mentality and the psychological shifts among farmers and rural people as a result of the total change in their circumstances over the past 60 - 70 years."Johannes H. Christensen, Jyllands-Posten"No one has, for so many years and in so varied and detailed ways, written about rural life and the radical changes it has undergone, as Knud Sorensen."Erik Svendsen, Jyllands-Posten

Cecil Bodker's characters are raw and sensitive, unpredictable and universal. The young boy, Tacit, untangles secrets in mythic stories of family, love and sacrifice. Each character has refused to leave me.Jacqueline Sheehan, New York Times bestselling author of The Center of the WorldOnce-in-a-lifetime storytelling with the power of Faulkner. These characters live and breathe in Michael Goldman's expert translation. Cecil Bodker's prose rings with sheer humanness that connects us all.Casey Harding, Managing Editor, The Missing SlateThe first words, the first lines, and we are Cecil Bodker's captive and her fan. There is no waiting for a reward; it is there in every sentence.Annelise Vestergaard, Jyllands-Posten...every word believable. Quite a rare achievement. "The Water Farm" is the ideal of fine, unassuming, story-telling craft.Bent Mohn, Politikken

Heather Woods is a lightning rod; her poems abundant with the evanescent, sensual pleasures of God and spirit in this remarkable, transformative first collection. 'May all beings be full of light and the roots of light,' she writes, a modern mystic who acts as both a receiver and transmitter of radiance. This is a holy book of the highest order.D. A. PowellSomebody shook, then popped the lid on, the Great Hymnal: out flew these devotional lyrics wholly recast - ravenously tender, carnally transcendent, and fearlessly pitched towards ecstasy. Heather Woods reawakens a tradition that Dickinson, George Herbert, H. D. inhabited, whereby the poet constructs a void of self as an act of seduction, a surrender to language that is also a command of sonority and syntax. Light bearing calls down the powers holily and hotly; it filled "me up such// that my seams would burst."Aaron ShurinHeather Woods' extraordinary debut poetry collection, Light Bearing, is a spell binding, light-charged tour de force. Shot through with ardor, compassion, love and wit, Woods invites us to "commit luminous chaos together and render havoc holy." These poems swoon, dive, dip, swirl, twirl, and ascend to help us transcend our pedestrian daily cares. Word play offers us new angles into the spiritual and the corporeal. Lines like, "This little light of mine,/ I'm gonna fret and pine," turn time worn lyrics on their heads and wake us from any dolor to light our way. You'll have no need for extra candles or a flashlight if the power goes out on a windy night. This shining, glowing book of poems will light the darkest room and your world will be suddenly, brilliantly lit.Toni MirosevichLight Bearing is a work that is at once precise, conflicted, unflinching in its gaze. In these pages, I am reminded that the real work of poetry is hidden in the underbelly of its lines, and the complexity of emotions. That is to say these poems are beautiful, dangerous, and devastating to read.Truong Tran