Download or read book Armored Hearts written by David Bottoms and published by Copper Canyon Press. This book was released on 2013-07-15 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Armored Hearts, combining new poems and a selection from previous volumes, offers the power of idiomatic narrative at its naked best. "It is refreshing to read a poet who is not obliquely vague, who tells a story cleanly and convincingly, and yet who will not close down mysterious and complicated things about life that simply defy such closure."--Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Download or read book We Almost Disappear written by David Bottoms and published by Copper Canyon Press. This book was released on 2013-08-30 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An exquisite storyteller."—The Southern Review "David Bottoms's poems just get better and better."—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution "One finds here what one expects in a book of good Southern poems: clear narratives . . . evocative images, searching irony, and meditative poise." —Library Journal Rooted in the customs of Southern families and peopled with undertakers, bluegrass musicians, daughters practicing karate, and elderly parents, David Bottoms' poems are generous, insightful, and lean headlong into familial wisdom. Past and present interweave with grandmothers spitting tobacco juice, ponds "filled with construction runoff," and the boyhood home-site paved over for a KFC. This is Bottoms' most personal and heartbreaking book. From "My Daughter Works the Heavy Bag": A bow to the instructor, then fighting stance, and the only girl in karate class faces the heavy bag. Small for fifth grade—willow-like, says her mother— sweaty hair tangled like blown willow branches. The boys try to ignore her. They fidget against the wall, smirk, practice their routine of huff and feint. Circle, barks the instructor, jab, circle, kick, and the black bag wobbles on its chain. Again and again, the bony jewels of her fist jab out in glistening precision, her flawless legs remember arabesque and glissade. Kick, jab, kick, and the bag coughs rhythmically from its gut. The boys fidget and wait . . . David Bottom, Georgia's Poet Laureate, was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2009. He teaches at Georgia State University and co-edits Five Points magazine. He lives in Marietta, Georgia.

Download or read book Under the Vulture tree written by David Bottoms and published by William Morrow. This book was released on 1987 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert Penn Warren, in a recent introduction given at the Library of Congress, wrote that in the work of David Bottoms "we find a strong and original new poet. Underlying all his work is the simple and unusual conviction that the world we see is trying to tell us something." In the thirty new poems collected in Under the Vulture-Tree, the world speaks to David Bottoms in startling and disturbing ways. Again, with uncompromising realism, Bottoms explores the wilderness we thought we'd civilized, the wilderness the world proves daily is alive in the human heart. Unusual, often startling situations, coupled with the poet's powerful narrative voice, create a drama that is extraordinary in poetry today, but it is his rare talent for revealing the universal in the specific that makes his vision true witness to our common struggle.

Download or read book Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump written by David Bottoms and published by William Morrow &Company. This book was released on 1980 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Waltzing Through the Endtime written by David Bottoms and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In these 14 poems, David Bottoms waltzes through the "Christ-haunted South" and highlights how and where the afterlife intersects our daily lives. In a strong and musical voice, Bottoms, the poet laureate of Georgia, modernizes the narrative traditions of the American South. He encounters the ghosts of musicians and recounts strange instances of religious visitation: From "Vigilance": Like my neighbor again who grew a yellow rose wilted with the sign of the cross, or his sister in Biloxi who once saw the virgin swimming in a bowl of vegetable soup. Accolades, yes, to Ramona Barreras of Phoenix, Arizona, who pulled from her oven in 1977 a tortilla scorched with the face of Christ, which may or may not have been the face that appeared some ten years later in Bras D'Or on an outside wall of a Tim Horton's Restaurant, though both made the papers and drew their share of pilgrims. "What does it mean," Bottoms asks, "that God keeps stamping his image on pastry and French toast, on biscuits lightly burned around the edges?" At the core of this book is a seeker, a person trying to make sense out of an unintelligible world, confronting the darkest dimensions of human nature, and writing a gorgeous, meta-physically charged poetry. David Bottoms, the Poet Laureate of Georgia, teaches at Georgia State University in Atlanta. He is the author of four books of poems and founding editor of Five Points magazine. His work has been featured on National Public Radio and on The Southern Voice, a television series profiling Southern writers.

Download or read book Stacks of Wax written by David Bottoms and published by . This book was released on 2020-09 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When considering the tapestry of popular-music history that has emerged in the last 40 or so years - a chronicle that shows no signs of abating - there have been critical and enthusiastic studies of not just performers, or the cities in which they arose in any number, but also of the recorded legacy of such cities, i.e. its record labels. Cincinnati, for all its decades of accomplishment in the recorded-music arena, has been heretofore perhaps underserved. Apart from real-time newspaper articles of the 1940s-'70s, a number of fine books have appeared, each of which provides a further tantalizing look at the vast offerings of the Queen City and the Ohio River Valley. This book is the complete document of the subject at hand, and is intended as a bedrock upon which to construct a (hopefully ongoing) library of Cincinnati's record companies, a library that encompasses the aforementioned volumes as well as encourages new efforts from fresh pens. The subject, owing to the stunning breadth and depth of the city's industry and drive, is probably inexhaustible. The book - its targeted collectors and enthusiasts aside - also seeks to advance understanding two specific communities who were substantial parts of the cultural, political and musical milieu of Cincinnati (and indeed, great swaths of the Midwest): African-Americans and Appalachians. The contributions and excitement consistently delivered by these populations greatly enriched the styles and ever-shifting forms of American popular music, especially in the fecund Postwar era, and here the book intends to shed some new light on their conditions, treatment and influence both then and now. Finally, the book is a fond meditation upon a city with strengths and flaws, successes and failures, all of which can be found writ small in the record business of the 20th century. In our accelerating, fraying culture, the analog world of this story is not a lesser place - far from it. That world was one of grit, risk and often-sweet rewards. As it recedes ever further into the past, hopefully the story of its many and varied musical lights will remain engaging and inspiring.

Download or read book Oglethorpe s Dream written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oglethorpe's Dream unites the award-winning photography of Diane Kirkland with the beautifully powerful writing of David Bottoms, Georgia's poet laureate. The result is a stunning portrait of the lands, waters, culture, and people of Georgia. From the sea islands to the cities, from the wiregrass to the mountain forests, Kirkland gives us a gallery of spectacular images showcasing the state in its breadth, beauty, and diversity. Marrying landscape to history, Bottoms gives voice to a people filled with courage, pain, conviction, and, above all, hope. Together they capture the natural beauty of the diverse landscape, the richness of the state's storied past, and the essence of its spirited people. "Isn't that what you always hoped for," Bottoms writes, "to find a place . . . and yourself in that place?" Oglethorpe's Dream helps us all to see a place called Georgia, and there to find something of ourselves. The publication of this book was made possible by the financial support of the State of Georgia, the leadership of Governor Roy E. Barnes, and the partnership of the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade & Tourism, the Georgia Humanities Council, and the University of Georgia Press.

Download or read book Vagrant Grace written by David Bottoms and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bottoms has a breathtaking ability to capture human tenderness, vulnerability, and cruelty in a single line. His poems, set primarily in the American South, witness people in their moments of failure, as their fantasies and families collapse around them. Like Faulkner and Dickey, Bottom blurs the distinction between good and evil, while exploring the violent underbelly of our national history.

Download or read book Easter Weekend written by David Bottoms and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One Easter weekend in Macon, Georgia, two brothers--with big dreams--kidnap a rich college kid for ransom. But a murderous gangster raises the stakes. In this gritty novel of loss, violence, and redemption, a distinguished American poet explores the dark world last seen in the novels of James M. Cain, where death lurks everywhere and a new beginning is always just out of reach. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Download or read book Writing on Napkins at the Sunshine Club written by Kevin Cantwell and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writing on Napkins at the Sunshine Club includes a poet laureate of Georgia and of the United States¿and the poet who read at President Clinton¿s second inauguration. The oldest was born in 1905 and the two youngest in that ominous year of American history, 1968. The Pulitzer-winning Stanley Kunitz wrote a famous poem about the Indian Mounds. Miller Williams, father of the Grammy winning Lucinda Williams, lived in Macon in the early 1960s and became a friend of Flannery O¿Connor. In the late 1970s, soon after his Mercer days, David Bottoms writes the poems for Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump and wins the Walt Whitman Award. Jud Mitcham wins the Devins Award for his first book, Somewhere in Ecclesiastes, and Seaborn Jones is doing his stint with Mister Rogers¿ Neighborhood and would later connect, in San Francisco, to one of the last pure lines of surrealism in American expression. Several poets came out of Macon or arrived in Macon soon after. Between Mercer University and Macon State College the activity of poetry in Macon thrived. Adrienne Bond wrote her seminal poems and started up the Georgia Poetry Circuit. Judith Ortiz Cofer passed through Macon State at the brink of her position at the University of Georgia and in American letters as an important artistic spokesperson for women¿s experience. From Bruce Beasley and his hybrid poetics, to Stephen Bluestone and his learned craft in the lyric poem, this book presents a selection for all students of Southern Literature some of the best poems of other poets, too, like Anya Silver, Amanda Pecor, Marjorie Becker, and the late Reginald Shepherd who was as well-known at his early death as any poet of his generation. Many of these poets studied with and knew the important poets of their time. The poems, nevertheless, speak for themselves.

Download or read book Surgical Wing written by Kristin Robertson and published by Alice James Books. This book was released on 2017-05-16 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “In Surgical Wing, you will find yourself in phone booths, county fairs, fishing boats, and among ghosts. Strange birds will enter hospital waiting rooms. You will be seduced by knot-makers. You will witness illness, grief, and healing. Finally, the book itself will become the wings that steer you to a greater understanding of yourself and the world.” —Anna Silver In Surgical Wing, surrealistic poems visit an experimental hospital ward, manifesting visions of winged angels and medical tests, as we bear witness to a doctor’s’ meddling and miracles. Robertson’s poems challenge the internal and external metamorphoses of the human condition and the juxtaposition between death and life by personifying the soul through images of birds. From “You’re About to Fold a Paper Airplane”: Build evidence of air. Pull the results of your blood test from the mailbox. Fold in half: you have wings already. Abnormal? Fold again. You can’t see the inner-workings of an aircraft. And when you’re folding, you can’t study much else. Book your tumor markers a flight to Bora Bora. Vector, Victor. Clearance, Clarence. On any scrap of paper write carry. Write heavenward. Write I choose this over you. Replace this. With flying. With peregrination. Or write I can’t fear you another morning. And fold. Kristin Robertson is a native of East Tennessee, and she graduated with a PhD in creative writing from Georgia State University in Atlanta. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Harvard Review, Indiana Review, TriQuarterly, Third Coast, and Verse Daily, among other journals. Kristin lives outside Los Angeles and teaches at the University of California, Riverside.

Download or read book David Bottoms written by William Walsh and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The South has a long tradition of great writers who remain in the South, transforming the local landscape into a universal one. Currently Poet Laureate of Georgia, David Bottoms is one of the South's most revered poets. The fifteen critical essays in this collection set out to examine the images and themes revealed in his poetry and fiction. Topics include the role of rebirth and resurrection, the presence of faith in the poems, masculinity and gender, and race in the South.

Download or read book A Supposedly Fun Thing I ll Never Do Again written by David Foster Wallace and published by Back Bay Books. This book was released on 2009-11-23 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These widely acclaimed essays from the author of Infinite Jest -- on television, tennis, cruise ships, and more -- established David Foster Wallace as one of the preeminent essayists of his generation. In this exuberantly praised book -- a collection of seven pieces on subjects ranging from television to tennis, from the Illinois State Fair to the films of David Lynch, from postmodern literary theory to the supposed fun of traveling aboard a Caribbean luxury cruiseliner -- David Foster Wallace brings to nonfiction the same curiosity, hilarity, and exhilarating verbal facility that has delighted readers of his fiction, including the bestselling Infinite Jest.

Download or read book Fight Scenes written by Greg Bottoms and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2008-09-10 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an intricately linked series of poetic, short tales set in a 1983 suburb, Greg Bottoms portrays his life as one of two "at–risk" boys as they attempt to learn how to be—and what it means to be—men. By turns funny, disquieting, and moving, Fight Scenes takes an unsparing look at juvenile disaffection and the dark side of white, working–class masculinity. By narrating his experiences with childhood buddy Mark, Bottoms shows how many of America's young men learn to think about work, sex, weakness, violence, and themselves. In a pared–down, highly readable style that brings to mind the work of Raymond Carver, Sherman Alexie, and Denis Johnson, Bottoms has created a work of literature that shows how even the most accepted forms of "toughness" can have a damaging, disorienting, and finally dehumanizing effect on everyone, especially kids.

Download or read book Tops Bottoms written by Janet Stevens and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 1995-03-29 with total page 43 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hare solves his family’s problems by tricking rich and lazy Bear in this funny, energetic version of an old slave story. With roots in American slave tales, Tops & Bottoms celebrates the trickster tradition of using one’s wits to overcome hardship. “As usual, Stevens’ animal characters, bold and colorful, are delightful. . . . It’s all wonderful fun, and the book opens, fittingly, from top to bottom instead of from side to side, making it perfect for story-time sharing.”--Booklist

Download or read book The Onion s Dark Core written by David Bottoms and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This valuable little book is a collection of six essays by and four interviews with Georgia Poet Laureate David Bottoms. Edward Hirsch, author of The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems, says, "This deeply considered little book-offhandedly personal, keenly thoughtful-treats poetry with the seriousness it deserves as 'the most natural vehicle of the spirit, ' a quest for the divine." Dave Smith, author of Little Boats, Unsalvaged: Poems 1992-2004, says, "Bottoms writes something more like meditation than criticism and his book will pleasure long and well the most discriminating as well as the amateur reader."

Download or read book Black Bottom Saints written by Alice Randall and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An enthralling literary tour-de-force that pays tribute to Detroit's legendary neighborhood, a mecca for jazz, sports, and politics, Black Bottom Saints is a powerful blend of fact and imagination reminiscent of E.L. Doctorow's classic novel Ragtime and Marlon James' Man Booker Award-winning masterpiece, A Brief History of Seven Killings. From the Great Depression through the post-World War II years, Joseph “Ziggy” Johnson, has been the pulse of Detroit’s famous Black Bottom. A celebrated gossip columnist for the city’s African-American newspaper, the Michigan Chronicle, he is also the emcee of one of the hottest night clubs, where he’s rubbed elbows with the legendary black artists of the era, including Ethel Waters, Billy Eckstein, and Count Basie. Ziggy is also the founder and dean of the Ziggy Johnson School of Theater. But now the doyen of Black Bottom is ready to hang up his many dapper hats. As he lays dying in the black-owned-and-operated Kirkwood Hospital, Ziggy reflects on his life, the community that was the center of his world, and the remarkable people who helped shape it. Inspired by the Catholic Saints Day Books, Ziggy curates his own list of Black Bottom’s venerable "52 Saints." Among them are a vulnerable Dinah Washington, a defiant Joe Louis, and a raucous Bricktop. Randall balances the stories of these larger-than-life "Saints" with local heroes who became household names, enthralling men and women whose unstoppable ambition, love of style, and faith in community made this black Midwestern neighborhood the rival of New York City’s Harlem. Accompanying these “tributes” are thoughtfully paired cocktails—special drinks that capture the essence of each of Ziggy’s saints—libations as strong and satisfying as Alice Randall’s wholly original view of a place and time unlike any other.