Maureen Alsop’s ‘Mantic’ Featured in Sundress Publications’ ‘Wardrobe’

A detail from ‘The Celestial Atlas of Flamsteed’ (1795), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

Maureen Alsop’s Mantic (Augury Books, 2013) is being featured in Sundress PublicationsThe Wardrobe this month.

Sundress Publications is a nonprofit publishing collective and host of several online journals. The Wardrobe is Sundress’ monthly feature that highlights the work of female-identified authors and their publishers. Each week the series features the work of a single author from an existing or forthcoming publication. Check out three poems by Alsop on this month’s The Wardrobe.

Learn more about Sundress and their ongoing work in the literary community.

More on MANTIC

Maureen Alsop’s MANTIC Reviewed in Poetry Salzburg No. 26

Image from Shin-Bijutsukai, courtesy of The Public Domain Review

Maureen Alsop’s Mantic (Augury Books, 2013) has recently been reviewed in the University of Salzburg’s biannual Poetry Salzburg Review, based in Austria. British-American poet Robert Peake calls Alsop’s collection a “bewitching book of divinations.” Though the magazine is only available in print, subscriptions and individual issues, including issue 26, are available for purchase over at PSR’s site.

Maureen Alsop’s MANTIC Reviewed in ‘Prick of the Spindle’; New Material in Superstition Review

Photo by Nicolas Amara

The latest issue of the Alabama-based quarterly Prick of the Spindle features a review of Maureen Alsop’s Mantic (Augury Books, 2013) by poet Christopher R. Vaughan, who speaks of the themes in Mantic and how they function:

‘Mantic’ means ‘of or relating to the faculty of divination: prophetic,’ according to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary. Alsop’s collection is indeed largely a tour of mantic poems whose helpful subtitles state the exact type of divination being attempted . . . . Mantic is a fascinating and consistently inventive exploration into the depths of experience. There is an ocean of feeling here, and the collection is at its most successful when the author brings a clear shape to the painful and dark currents running through the book.”

Read the full review here.

While you’re at it, check out this collection of wonderful new guest posts, podcasts, and poems by Alsop on this spring’s Superstition Review.

—-

More on MANTIC

 

 

Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!

PICS: Maureen Alsop Wins Tony Quagliano International Poetry Award, Reads at Berl’s in Brooklyn

Augury’s own Maureen Alsop (MANTIC, Augury Books, 2013) is the new recipient of the Tony Quagliano International Poetry Award, which, in conjunction with the Hawai’i Council for the Humanities (HCH), annually recognizes an accomplished poet with an outstanding body of work. HCH and Tony shared the vision that:

“the words we know, all the words we have acquired along the ways of connecting them in all our respective cultures, are nothing less than the irreducible expression of a singular nature we call human.” —Tony Quagliano

Poet Devreaux Baker, last year’s winner of the Tony Quagliano Award and primary judge for this year, had this to say about Maureen Alsop’s work:

“Maureen Alsop creates a world where language and rhythm form a perfect ‘fusion.’ This poetry that is both inventive and elegant and yet never loses emotional depth…. As a reader I felt I was being taken on an extraordinary journey in which I was offered new and unexpected ways to experience the world. Throughout all the poems there is the underlying beauty of expression; a sense of real joy that is felt by a poet pushing the limits, bypassing boundaries, creating whole new territories of the mind, heart, and voice.”

Also this week, more pictures from Maureen’s recent reading with fellow writers Julie Carr, Sasha Steensen, and Graeme Bezanson at Berl’s Poetry Shop in Brooklyn. Thanks to everyone that came out, and congratulations again to Maureen Alsop!

Augury’s Maureen Alsop reads from MANTIC at Berl’s Poetry Shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sasha Steensen (HOUSE OF DEER, Fence Books) reads at Berl’s Poetry Shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julie Carr (RAG, Omnidawn) reads at Berl’s Poetry Shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Founding Editor of ColdfrontGraeme Bezanson reads at Berl’s Poetry Shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Find out more about the readers and the event  here on Berl’s site.

More on MANTIC

 

 

Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!

Cleaver Magazine Reviews Maureen Alsop’s MANTIC

Photo by Dave Bledsoe of FreeVerse Photography

Cleaver Magazine‘s Matthew Girolami reviews MANTIC (Augury Books, 2013) by Maureen Alsop, wherein, according to Girolami, “both the divine and the worldly share the same page.” Girolami continues:

“As the ‘-mancy’ titles suggest, Mantic is as a much a lexical read (or listen—read aloud) as it is an exploration of reaction; Mantic is beautiful for its teaching verse and for its honesty: with poem after poem inspired by divining, Alsop points to the many ways humanity has attempted to shape the world in its favor, whether that favor comes from desire or fear. As a result, the poems shift from their theses and speak less of divining and prediction than what innately drives these practices and, ultimately, humanity.” —Matthew Girolami, Cleaver Magazine — Read the full review here

More on MANTIC

Look for MANTIC new from Augury Books

 

 

 

Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!

May 21: Maureen Alsop Reads at Berl’s Poetry Shop in Brooklyn

Augury’s own Maureen Alsop (MANTIC, 2013) is in New York and will be reading Wednesday, May 21 at 7 p.m. at Berl’s Poetry Shop in Brooklyn.

She will be joined by Sasha Steensen (HOUSE OF DEER, Fence Books), Julie Carr (RAG, Omnidawn), and Coldfront Founding Editor Graeme Bezanson.

Find out all you need to know about the readers and the event details here on Berl’s site.

More on MANTIC

Look for MANTIC new from Augury Books

 

 

 

Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!

National Poetry Month: Washington Independent Review of Books on Maureen Alsop’s MANTIC

Photo by Dave Bledsoe of FreeVerse Photography

Happy National Poetry Month! Read this wonderful MANTIC (Maureen Alsop, Augury Books, 2013) review by Grace Cavalieri in this month’s Washington Independent Review of Books.

 

Mantic by Maureen Alsop

“We can tell when a poem is sent out into the world scared and these poems are the opposite. They’re fearless. Alsop is like a hero who boldly moves forward and never looks back. She’s a social revolutionary using words to change our concepts of reality and the world.” —Grace Cavalieri, April 2014 Exemplars, Washington Independent Review of Books

Read the Whole Review

More on MANTIC

Buy MANTIC

PICS: Augury at AWP 2014

This year’s AWP offsite reading, Augury Books and Friends in Seattle, was a resounding success. We had a wonderful night of wine, snacks, readings, and socializing at the stunning Noble Gas Neon Company venue. Thank you so much to everyone who came out to attend the reading.

Special thanks to Lia Hall and Cedar Mannan for providing the space, as well as our 12 incredible Augury and guest readers, Maureen Alsop (Mantic), Halina Duraj (The Family Cannon), Alison Espach, Lia Hall, Lauren Hunter, Cynthia Lowen, Karyna McGlynn, Patrick Moran (The Book of Lost Things), Frances Justine Post (Beast), Alicia Jo Rabins, Camille Rankine, and Diana Spechler.

Welcoming the Crowd

Phoebe Rusch Helps Augury Editor Kate Angus Set Up

Augury and Friends Settle In

Patrick Moran and Camille Rankine Read for Augury Books and Friends Offsite, AWP 2014

Alison Espach Reads for Augury Books and Friends Offsite, AWP 2014

Camille Rankine Reads for Augury Books and Friends Offsite, AWP 2014

Cynthia Lowen Reads for Augury Books and Friends Offsite, AWP 2014

Diana Spechler Reads for Augury Books and Friends Offsite, AWP 2014

Halina Duraj Reads for Augury Books and Friends Offsite, AWP 2014

Frances Justine Post Reads for Augury Books and Friends Offsite, AWP 2014

Karyna McGlynn Reads for Augury Books and Friends Offsite, AWP 2014

Lauren Hunter Waits to Read at Augury Books and Friends Offsite, AWP 2014

Lia Hall Reads for Augury Books and Friends Offsite, AWP 2014

Maureen Alsop Reads for Augury Books and Friends Offsite, AWP 2014

Patrick Moran Reads for Augury Books and Friends Offsite, AWP 2014

Alicia Jo Rabins Reads for Augury Books and Friends Offsite, AWP 2014

A poem by Maureen Alsop

Here is some more great work from our readers at the upcoming Augury Books & Friends offsite AWP reading/shindig in Seattle. The reading will be at Noble Neon, 3130 Airport Way S on Friday, February 28th from 7:30 until we all feel like going back to our hotels. If you’ll be in Seattle, please join us! Today’s poem is by Maureen Alsop and appears in her book Mantic which we were happy to publish last year.

Photo by Dave Bledsoe of FreeVerse Photography

GYROMANCY

divination by walking around a circle of letters until dizzy you fall down on the letters or in the direction to take

So you go wither. Go muscled in foxglove. So the surface of passionflower’s scent known

to the lungs will be touched by the mouth. So a camera’s song leans

over the guardrail. So the graffiti of circles. So lexicon is devoured by chalk

in the grassland. So omega. So bilge. So yesterday the tradition of order was left

to the entangled hawfinch. So I refused. So I am not a lady. Not your supper jug. Your

hunt of her. So dumpling, who’s your fried chicken? Even in neon-fragment. Even in

mastic-erotic-red. Your taste of me dispensed. So inconsolable keystrokes do not

withdraw from honesty, as honesty is in itself inconsolable.

So found I was without you. I do not remember how you left. Transparent, history

steeped in your head. So I held my finger to the small

blossoms of your eyelids. So I told the sun

to go. And there it spread. So flagstone. So eaglet.

Maureen Alsop, author of Mantic, available to order here, has new poems appearing at Watershed Review, Citron Review and ditch.

Over 35% Off: End of Year Book Specials

This time of year, everyone is in the giving spirit. More importantly, everyone has various giftees they need to cross off of an ever-expanding list.

For a short time at a 35% discount, you can give the gift of poetry while supporting Augury Books and the literary arts. Expand your own collection or help beef up the bookshelves of your aspiring-writer niece or your poetry-loving boyfriend. Trying to think of an original gift for colleagues in your office that will entertain and impress? Voila.

For only $40, including shipping* — more than 35% off the regular price — get all four books:

Simply send $40 to augurybooks@gmail.com via PayPalinclude your full name and shipping address on the PayPal order to avoid delays, and your books will be shipped within 24 hours.**

Love the idea, but already have our catalogue? Bravo! You can still help spread literary cheer. Share this with friends and (continue to) support the arts.

As always, to keep receiving posts such as this, follow our blog by clicking in the bottom right corner of this page.

*International shipping not included in special. Please contact us for international shipping rates. Sorry, no Amazon orders for this special!
**For receipt before 12/25/13, place order before end of business day 12/19/13.