Publishers Weekly articles from February 2008

Publishers Weekly archives from February 2008

Toy Fair 2008: from high tech to traditional: new toys incorporate books and Web sites.(Foreword)(New York International Toy Fair)
February 25, 2008... During this year's New York International Toy Fair, held February 17-20, visitors to the Javits Center saw technology around every corner. One key theme was the creation of online communities to support toy play; toys from Beanie Babies to...

Kensington buys Holloway backlist.(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... Kensington Publishing has acquired most of the publishing assets of Holloway House Publishing in Los Angeles, the original publisher of classic 1960s black crime writers such as Donald Goines. The acquisition includes about 400 backlist...

S&S Children's reorg.(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... S&S Children's Publishing president Rick Richter announced a restructuring, creating three units that will handle both hardcover and paperback editions. The new units are the trade group (which includes Books for Young Readers, Atheneum and...

On the block.(Foreword)(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... Last week, Reed Elsevier's Tad Smith announced the company's intention to sell its B2B magazine division, Reed Business Information, of which Smith is U.S. CEO. The impending sale of RBI, which houses more than 100 magazine titles including...

The elephant (& donkey) in the room.(Foreword)
February 25, 2008... What will people want to read nine to 12 months from now? That, more than distribution systems, e-publishing and a dozen other red-herring--like questions is what preoccupies publishing people most. Especially this year, what with the most...

Griffin joins Egmont USA.(Regina Griffin)(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... Egmont USA has made its first hire under its new v-p and publisher, Elizabeth Law: Regina Griffin has been named executive editor. She was previously editor-in-chief of Holiday House and has worked with such creators as Walter Dean Myers,...

New Medallion line.(News Briefs)(Medallion Press's Medallion Masterpiece Collection)(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... St. Charles, Ill., romance publisher Medallion Press is launching a fifth romance imprint, Medallion Masterpiece Collection. The new imprint will include a collection of romance novellas by various authors, all illustrated by the team of...

New Orleans booksellers rebound.(Let the Good Times Roll)
February 25, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Mardi Gras is a slow time for book sales," admitted Tom Lowenburg, co-owner of Octavia Books in New Orleans, reflecting on a lackluster week earlier in February. "We saw a lot of our customers out on the street,...

AAP Paper guide.(Association of American Publishers' Handbook on Book Paper and the Environment)(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... The AAP's Paper Issues Working Group is releasing a Handbook on Book Paper and the Environment, a new guide intended to help book publishing professionals understand and navigate the issues around paper conservation and sustainability in the...

Silver joins Nan Talese.(Janet Silver)(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... Former Houghton Mifflin v-p and publisher Janet Silver has joined Random House's Nan Talese imprint as editor-at-large. At Houghton, Silver's list of star authors included Philip Roth, Jonathan Safran Foer and Cynthia Ozick.

Green Bibles from Thomas Nelson.(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... The Thomas Nelson Bible Group has begun phasing out synthetic covers for its Bible products; the publisher expects to have new eco-friendly Bible offerings in stores in early 2009.

Correction.('Married Lovers' book by Jackie Collins)(Correction notice)
February 25, 2008... Our On-Sale Calendar(Feb. 4) listed the wrong author for Married Lovers (St. Martin's, June 10); the book is by Jackie Collins.

Norton wins new Rosenberg.(Deals)(Tina Rosenberg's 'The Social Culture: Cracking the World's Toughest Problems Through the Power of the Group')(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... Bob Weil at Norton beat out six other houses in an auction for Tina Rosenberg's The Social Cure: Cracking the World's Toughest Problems Through the Power of the Group; Gail Ross sold North American rights. The book will look at intractable...

Beilock auctions first book.(Deals)(Sian Beilock's 'Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Success and Failure at Work and Play')(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... Leslie Meredith at the Free Press was the winner, world rights, at a two-day auction for University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock's first book, Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Success and Failure at Work and Play; Dan...

Dutton preempts.(Deals)(The Science of Marriage and Jonathan Tropper's new novels)(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... Just before an auction in which at least eight publishers were slated to participate, Amy Hertz preempted world rights to New York Times health columnist and Well blogger Tara Parker-Pope's The Science of Marriage via Lynn Johnston. The book...

Debut preempts.(Deals)('The Gendarme' and Rhoda Janzen's memoir)(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... Amy Einhorn preempted world English rights to M.T. Mustian's The Gendarme for her imprint at Putnam with a six-figure offer to Scott Mendel. Armenian-American Mustian's debut is described as an epic novel about a 92-year-old Turkish-American...

Two-book deal for Lieb.(Deals)(Josh Lieb)(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... Coexecutive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Josh Lieb has sold I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President; Jessica Rothenberg at Razorbill won North American rights to two books in an auction conducted...

Calendar March 2-8.(Calendar)
February 25, 2008... 3/2 Taking a break from The Wire, Richard Price publishes Lush Life (FSG). PW said it "reminds readers why he's one of the masters of American urban crime fiction." 3/3 Today is the NEA's annual Read Across America Day...

Squire goes solo.(People)(Gilda Squire resigns from Amistad)(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... Gilda Squire has left her position as director of publicity at HarperCollins's Amistad imprint to start her own PR firm. Gilda Squire Media Relations will provide publicity, booking, event planning and media coaching services for authors and...

Penguin launches celebrity-oriented Hispanic imprint.(En Espanol)
February 25, 2008... Penguin announced this week the creation of a personality-driven Hispanic imprint, Celebra. The line's first book--His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S. by Geraldo Rivera--pubs tomorrow. Celebra will operate under the New...

Lynch up at Riverhead.(People)(new senior editor Megan Lynch )(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... Megan Lynch has been promoted to senior editor at Riverhead Books. Lynch, who has been at the Penguin imprint for five years, has published such books as Dinaw Mengetsu's The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears and Ellis Avery's The Teahouse...

Plesser, Beresford up at RHPG.(People)(Random House Publishing Group assistant editors Abby Plesser and Lea Beresford )(Brief article)
February 25, 2008... Abby Plesser and Lea Beresford have both been promoted to assistant editor at Random House Publishing Group. Plesser started at RH in 2004 as an intern at Knopf, and moved to RHPG as an editorial assistant in 2005. She's worked on, among...

Andrews McMeel publishes Sur La Table books.(Branding)
February 25, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With about 70 stores nationwide, Sur La Table is the second-largest specialty cookware retailer in the U.S., after Williams-Sonoma, which has about 250 stores. Both companies have strengths and weaknesses, but one...

Canine lit goes highbrow.(Hot Topic)('The Labrador Pact,' 'Promise of the Wolves,' and 'The Art of Racing in the Rain')(Book review)
February 25, 2008... In 2006, PW heralded a new strain of chick lit: dog lit, wherein pups play big roles in the lives of their stiletto-wearing, serial-dating owners. Now the trend has moved literary, with three forthcoming serious novels featuring dog and wolf...

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
February 25, 2008... PW's review of The Killing Ground said that "while the mole hunt will be familiar to genre buffs and the characters and the perils they face aren't as nuanced as those in John le Carre or even David Ignatius, the author's plausible scenario...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
February 25, 2008... Women & Money's return to the list after nearly 10 months can be explained in one word: Oprah. On February 13 Orman was Oprah's sole guest; at the end of the program viewers were offered a free e-book of Women & Money, available at oprah.com...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.
February 25, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Berenson's The Faithful Spy, winner of last year's Edgar Award for Best First Novel, has 300,000 copies in print after two trips to press. And now it has achieved the big payoff: #1 on our mass market list. New...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.
February 25, 2008... Cameron Diaz will star in the New Line Cinema version of Picoult's 2004 bestseller, My Sister's Keeper, directed by Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook). Shooting will begin soon. The book won the American Library Association's Alex Award and the...

Children's series and tie-ins bestsellers.(books)
February 25, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fancy Nancy creators Jane O'Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser are currently touring, separately, in support of their-latest title, Fancy Nancy: Bonjour, Buttery, and are drawing overflow crowds. At A Whale of a Tale...

Audio bestsellers/fiction.
February 25, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Lorelei King does the story justice, milking the prose for every drop of humor with her amusing, distinctive and superlatively accented rendition of each character. Her voices border on caricature, but that's...

Audio bestsellers/nonfiction.
February 25, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "A New Earth has had healthy sales from the very beginning," says Penguin Audio executive producer Patti Pirooz. Between its initial printing in 2005 and being chosen by Oprah Winfrey's book club, the Tolle...

Making a deal at Bologna: what agents are bringing to the fair.(Children's Books)(Bologna Children's Book Fair)
February 25, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Debut novels and fantasy stories of all stripes are among the offerings from agents packing their briefcases for next month's Bologna Children's Book Fair. The fantasy genre, which is booming around the world,...

Shambhala goes frontlist.(Independent Publishing)(Trumpeter Books)
February 25, 2008... Good backlist publishing is earned. You are either publishing classics and books that have already proven themselves, or you are publishing at a consistent and trusted quality in a specific area--selling on your reputation. But in today's...

Torrie Rice Wild West bookseller.(50 Under 40)(Interview)
February 25, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The same indomitable pioneering spirit that won female Wyomingites the right to vote in 1869--a half-century before the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920--undoubtedly contributed to 27-year-old Torrie Rice's...

Indies' experiment payoff: small publishers are eager to try new things.(Fast-Growing Small Publishers)(Cover story)
February 25, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One thing that unites the fast-growing small presses on this year's list is their willingness to experiment. Whether it's publishing more titles, publishing fewer titles, selling to new markets or expanding into...

How does our gardening grow?(Gardening Books)
February 25, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] According to the National Gardening Association (NGA), an estimated record 91 million households participated in one or more types of DIY indoor and outdoor lawn and garden activities in 2005. In 2006, homeowners...

Sins of the father: in Wolf, Augusten Burroughs revisits his family saga.(Author Profile)(Interview)
February 25, 2008... Although Augusten Burroughs says he grew up feeling like a complete outcast, at age 42, seated at a fancy Manhattan restaurant where we've agreed to meet for lunch, he fits right in. Well dressed in a "cashz" New York sort of style--jeans,...

For a Sack of Bones.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... For a Sack of Bones LLUIS-ANTON BAULENAS, TRANS, FROM THE CATALAN by CHERYL LEAH MORGAN. Harcourt, $25 (368p) ISBN 978-0-15-101255-8 Set in Franco Spam in 1949, Barcelona novelist and playwright Baulenas's revenge tale of Legionnaire Sgt....

Sleeping Arrangements.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS Madeleine Wickham. St. Martin's/ Dunne, $23.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-31238342-8 Wickham (The Gatecrasher; also, the Shopaholic series as Sophie Kinsella) spins a delightful story of British families forced to spend...

The Importance of Being Married.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... The Importance of Being Married GEMMA TOWNLEY. Ballantine, $13 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-345-49980-6 Townley (Little White Lies) misses The mark with this chronicle of the tangled web spun by Jessica Wild and her cohorts after Jessica...

The House at Midnight.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... The House at Midnight LUCIE WHITEHOUSE. Ballantine, $25 (352p) ISBN 978-0-345-49931-8 At 30, Londoner Joanna still spends her free time with her Oxford college friends, now with burgeoning careers and all on the cusp of real adulthood....

The Summer of Naked Swim Parties.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... The Summer of Naked Swim Parties JESSICA ANYA BLAU. Harper Perennial, $13.95 paper (304p) ISBN 978-006-145202-4 In this debut novel, Blau addresses the coming-of-age of a young girl as she navigates her way through the confusion of...

The Hard Way.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... The Hard Way JULIE LUONGO. Forge, $13.95 paper (272p) ISBN 978-0-7653-1667-7 After college, Lucy Venier's search for happiness takes her on a bumpy but ultimately fulfilling ride in Luongo's witty debut. Should Lucy be a Philly crime...

PW talks with Joseph Olshan: Italian intrigue.(Q&A)(Interview)
February 25, 2008... Throughout Joseph Olshan's literary career, he's written about everything from restless gay men to Jamaican chambermaids and has enjoyed the success of a Hollywood adaptation of his 1985 debut, Clara's Heart. His new novel, The Conversion...

City of Thieves.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... * City of Thieves DAVID BENIOFF, Viking, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-670-01870-3 Author and screenwriter Benioff follows up The 25th Hour with this hard-to-put-down novel based on his grandfather's stories about surviving WWII in Russia....

The End of East.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... The End of East JEN SOOKFONG LEE, St. Martin's/ Dunne, $23.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-31237985-8 Lee's poignant debut saga covets three generations of a Chinese-Canadian family in Vancouver. Their story begins when Chan Seid Quan emigrates to...

The End of Baseball.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... The End of Baseball PETER SCHILLING JR. Ivan R. Dee, $25 (352p) ISBN 978-1-56663-782-4 With this debut, sportswriter Schilling has written one of the best baseball novels since Howard Frank Mosher's Waiting for Teddy Williams. Using...

Harry, Revised.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... Harry, Revised MARK SARVAS. Bloomsbury, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-1-59691-462-9 his debut novel from popular literary blogger Sarvas focuses on the midlife crisis of recently widowed Harry Rent. Harry maintained a complicated and uneasy...

The Miracle at Speedy Motors.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... * The Miracle at Speedy Motors ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH. Pantheon, $21.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-37542448-9 Precious Ramotswe, "Botswana's foremost solver of problems," is used to handling mostly straightforward domestic cases, which makes a...

The Blue Religion: New Stories about Cops, Criminals, and the Chase.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... The Blue Religion: New Stories About Cops, Criminals, and the Chase Edited by MICHAEL CONNELLY. Little, Brown, $24.99 (384p) ISBN 9780-316-01251-5 Mystery Writers of America presents a high-quality anthology of 19 original stories that...

The Reavers.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... The Reavers GEORGE MACDONALD FRASER. Knopf, $24 (288p) ISBN 978-0-307-26810-5 The late author of the beloved Flashman Papers (Flashman on the Alarch, etc.) offers a 16th-century tale of swordplay and gleefully anachronistic wordplay...

The Hakawati.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... * The Hakawati RABIH ALAMEDDINE. Knopf, $25.95 (544p) ISBN 978-0-307-26679-8 Stories descend from stories as families descend from families in the magical third novel from Alameddine (I. the Divine), telling tales of contemporary Lebanon...

People of the Weeping Eye.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... People of the Weeping Eye W. MICHAEL GEAR & KATHLEEN O'NEAL GEAR. Forge, $24.95 (400p) ISBN 978-0-7653-1438-3 The Mississippian chiefdoms of 13th-century North America rule the latest Forgotten Past novel from the Gears (People of the...

The Drop Edge of Yonder.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... * The Drop Edge of Yonder RUDOLPH WURLITZER. Two Dollar Radio (Consortium, dist.), $15 paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-9763895-5-2 Known for 1969's Nog and the 1973 script for Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Wurlitzer delivers a mystic western...

South by South Bronx.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... South by South Bronx ABRAHAM RODRIGUEZ. Akashic, $15.95 paper (350p) ISBN 978-1-933354-56-9 Told from a variety of perspectives, including that of Detective Sanchez of the Bronx NYPD, this fevered noir from Rodriguez (Spidertown) centers...

Somewhat Saved.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... Somewhat Saved PAT G'ORGE-WALKER. Dafina, $22 (288p) ISBN 978-0-7582-1889-6 In the latest loving church spoof from G'Orge-Walker (Sister Betty! God's Calling You, Again!), Sister Betty and her fellow evangelists get shipped off to Las...

Peace.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... * Peace RICHARD BAUSCH. Knopf, $19.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-307-26833-4 An abrupt and chilling act of violence opens Bauch's 11th novel, marking the beginning of a bleak but compelling meditation on the moral dimensions of warfare. Cpl....

Compulsion: An Alex Delaware Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... Compulsion: An Alex Delaware Novel JONATHAN KELLERMAN. Ballantine, $26.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-345-46527-6 Bestseller Kellerman serves up all the elements his fans have come to love in the 22nd entry in his Alex Delaware series (Obsession,...

Santa Fe Dead.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... Santa Fe Dead STUART WOODS. Putnam, $25.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-399-15490-4 Bestseller Woods's third thriller to feature prominent New Mexican attorney Ed Eagle (after Short Straw and Santa Fe Rules) opens with a bang, but soon devolves...

The Death Dealer.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... The Death Dealer HEATHER GRAHAM. Mira, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-7783-2532-1 A serial killer fixated on Edgar Allan Poe stalks New York City in this captivating paranormal romantic thriller from bestseller Graham (The Last Noel). When...

The Genius.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... * The Genius JESSE KELLERMAN. Putnam, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-399-15459-1 Greed gets Ethan Muller, a 33-year-old Manhattan art dealer, into hot water in Kellerman's superb third stand-alone thriller (after Trouble). When reclusive...

Lost Souls.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... Lost Souls LISA JACKSON. Kensington, $22 (416p) ISBN 978-0-7582-1183-5 Kristi Bentz, having recovered from her last encounter with a sadistic monster in bestseller Jackson's Absolute Evil, faces an equally terrifying ordeal in this...

Love and the Incredibly Old Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... Love and the Incredibly Old Man LEE SIEGEL. Univ. of Chicago, $22.50 (240p) ISBN 978-0-226-75705-6 Mix a history of Spanish conquistadors in the New World with a porny pulp tale, and the result is this entertaining novel. The premise:...

I'd Like.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... I'd Like AMANDA MICHALOPOULOU, TRANS. FROM THE GREEK BY KAREN EMMERICH. Dalkey Archive, $12.50 paper (142p) ISBN 978-1-56478-493-3 A novelist and columnist for the newspaper Kathimerini, Michalopoulou has fashioned a baker's dozen of...

Janeology.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... Janeology KAREN HARRINGTON. Kunati (IPG, dist.), $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-60164-020-8 Tom Nelson, a Texas academic, is devastated when his wife, Jane, drowns their two-year-old son and almost kills the boy's twin sister in Harrington's...

Infected.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... * Infected SCOTT SIGLER. Crown, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-307-40610-1 In Sigler's riveting horror thriller, alien seeds from outer space infect a number of unlucky humans, who develop some unusual symptoms--itchy, blue triangular growths...

The Legend of Hereward.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... The Legend of Hereward MIKE RIPLEY. Severn, $28.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-7278-6503-8 This solid historical from Ripley, best known for his Angel crime series (Angel's Share, etc.), chronicles the exploits of Hereward the Wake, an...

Sleeping with the Devil.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... Sleeping with the Devil VANESSA MARLOW. St. Martin's Griffin, $13.95 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-312-36477-9 A dream of love becomes a nightmare in this creepy erotic thriller from Marlow, the pen name of bestselling romance writer Cheryl...

Road to Nowhere.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... Road to Nowhere PAUL ROBERTSON. Bethany House, $17.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-7642-0325-1 In his savvy sophomore suspense novel, former indie bookseller Robertson (The Heir) uses multiple points of view to set up a seemingly innocuous story...

The Disagreement.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... The Disagreement NICK TAYLOR. Simon & Schuster, $26 (384p) ISBN 978-1-4165-5065-5 The Civil War is but the noisiest of the struggles that the ambivalent hero of this historical novel wants to distance himself from. In 1862, at age 17,...

The Crystal Skull.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... The Crystal Skull MANDA SCOTT. Delacorte, $25 (384p) ISBN 978-0-385-34010-6 Edgar nominee Scott (No Good Deed) mixes adventure, supernatural phenomena and cryptography to create a fast-paced supernatural thriller. Mayan apocalyptic...

New European Poets.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... * New European Poets EDITED BY WAYNE MILLER AND KEVIN PRUFER. Graywolf, $18 (352p) ISBN 978-1-55597-492-3 Tasked with representing European poets who began publishing after 1970, poets and editors Miller and Prufer recruited 24 regional...

Sleeping It Off in Rapid City: Poems New and Selected.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... * Sleeping It Off in Rapid City: Poems New and Selected AUGUST KLEINZAHLER. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25 (144p) ISBN 078-0-374-26583-0 The witty, gritty poet and memoirist Kleinzahler (The Strange Hours Travellers Keep) has produced...

Factory of Tears.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... Factory of Tears VALZHYNA MORT, TRANS. FROM THE BELARUSIAN BY FRANZ WRIGHT AND ELIZABETH OEHLKERS WRIGHT. Copper Canyon (Consortium, dist.), $15 paper (116p) ISBN 978-1-55659-274-4 The 26-year-old Belarusian Mort has made a big splash in...

Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems.(Book review)
February 25, 2008... Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems MARK DOTY. HarperColtins $22.95 (340p) ISBN 978-0-06-075247-7 Doty's first book, Turtle, Swan, appeared in 1987. He has published six books of poetry and four memoirs, all excellent, since. This hefty...

Virginia quarterly debut.(Book review)
February 25, 2008... The University of Georgia Press and Virginia Quarterly Review have teamed up to launch the VQR Poetry series, curated by VQR editor Ted Genoways and his staff. They're kicking off the series with four new books. The History of Anonymity...

Isle of the Signatories.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... Isle of the Signatories MARJORIE WELISH. Coffee House (Consortium, dist.), $16 paper (128p) ISBN 978-1-56689-212-4 Always thoughtful, sometimes hard to follow, the New York-based poet and critic Welish (The Annotated 'Here') attracted...

God Particles.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... God Particles THOMAS Lux. Houghton Mifflin, $22 (80p) ISBN 978-0-618-93182-8 The prolific Lux (The Street of Clocks) should please but may not surprise his many admirers with this 11th book, accessible and surrealist-influenced. Lux...

Special Orders.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... Special Orders EDWARD HIRSCH. Knopf, $25 (80p) ISBN 978-0-307-26681-1 This seventh from the popular Hirsch (Lay Back the Darkness) brings its demotic, heartfelt, autobiographical pieces together to form a picture of Hirsch's whole life,...

Drunk by Noon.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... Drunk by Noon JENNIFER L. KNOX. Bloof (Ingram, dist.), $15 (72p) ISBN 978-0-6151-6355-0 This second book from Knox, a young New York poet, continues the playful romp through the warped Americana she began in her debut, A Gringo Like Me....

National Anthem.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... * National Anthem KEVIN PRUFER. Four Way (UPNE, dist.), $15.95 (82p) ISBN 978-1-88480-083-2 Anyone with doubts about the place of politics in poetry should have this book thrust in his hands. Prufer (Fallen from a Chariot) makes the...

February publications.(Poetry Notes)
February 25, 2008... Since his suicide in 1978, Frank Stanford has been a legendary figure among poetry enthusiasts. While most of his work has long been out-of-print, his powerful, surrealistic poems, which evoke a wilder America and an intense inner life ("Go...

The Fabric of Sin.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... The Fabric of Sin PHIL RICKMAN. Quercus (IPG, dist.), $24.95 (458p) ISBN 978-1-84724-084-4 British author Rickman once again cleverly blends supernatural elements with a conventional whodunit plot in his ninth Merrily Watkins novel...

A Carrion Death.(Brief article)(Book review)
February 25, 2008... * A Carrion Death MICHAEL STANLEY. Harper, $23.95 (480p) ISBN 978-0-06-125240-2 This impressive debut from Stanley, the South African writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip, introduces overweight assistant superintendent David...