We here at Augury Books wish to celebrate the life of poet David Joel Friedman, who won the 2012 Augury Books Editors’ Prize with his poetry collection, Soldier Quick With Rain.
Sadly, David passed away earlier this week.
Below you’ll find a loving tribute from his friend and fellow poet Geoffrey Nutter, included here with his permission.
But first, here’s a short excerpt from David’s poem “Having Said That”:
“Having said that, let me say this. It is too soon to be a number-cruncher. It is too late to be a second-guesser. But it is right on time to be a hedgehog. Indeed the blue sky is a skein.”
“[W]hat I’ve come to realize is that through poetry I am charting the inner life, and often traces of that linger as object, in memory, in historical record. So now, I must investigate my own inner life and the inner lives of those around me. This is where that poetic impulse takes over, to wonder, turn over, feel and draw connections. When I’m reconstructing an inner life, my own included, I’m using my body as the verb—the is, to be—in metaphoric equations. It is through my metaphors that I’m better able to tell an emotional truth that often goes unnoticed.” (read more)
The Rumpus reveals the gorgeous cover for Arisa White’s new poetry memoir, Who’s Your Daddy.
The cover drawing is the work of Sydney Cain, aka sage stargate, and the cover designer was Shanna Compton. The cover reveal comes with a wonderful interview with Arisa White on the book’s journey to publication. Read all about it here.
Congratulations to t’ai freedom ford & all the other nominees for their recognition by the 2020 Hurston/Wright Foundation’s Legacy Award for Poetry!
From their site: “The 2020 Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards continue the foundation’s tradition of recognizing literary excellence by Black writers from the United States and around the world.”
Dear friends and readers, we wanted to write and reaffirm our stance that Black Lives Matter.
What’s happening across the country is incredible and necessary and long overdue. Millions of people have flooded the streets, taken to social media, toppled racist statues, raised their voices, and put their lives on the line to make change happen. It’s got to happen. We stand with the protestors’ calls to reimagine public safety and reform all systems and institutions that continue to threaten Black lives on a daily basis. We count ourselves among those examining our own personal culpability, simultaneously humbled and galvanized during these moments of self-interrogation as we contemplate what collective actions might best serve to dismantle the structural and systemic racism endemic to our culture. We are hopeful and determined as we join so many empowered others in fighting for racial justice and equality. Things must change, the movement can only be forward. Friends, we honor your marching and messaging and critiquing and having those hard conversations in this fight for progress—we promise to do the same.
To support Black voices and Black art, we urge our subscribers to buy books by Blackauthors from Black-owned independent bookstores, visit Black-owned galleries across the US, watch plays by Black writers, and listen to Black journalists discuss the media’s reckoning with racism and white supremacy. We would also suggest visiting NY Magazine‘s comprehensive web page for additional guidance on actions and funding suggestions in support of Black lives and communities of color.
We congratulate t’ai freedom ford and her incredible book & more black for winning the 2020 Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry!
Lambda judges are cited as saying & more black is “percussively suave and strikingly sonic” and said ford “makes every sound, every image, every idea, every movement devastatingly liquid and lyrical.”
Today I’m asking folks to buy books from independent publishers. A lot of small presses are struggling, and the resources we rely on are either grinding to a halt or have become severely impaired/impacted by the coronavirus.
Brooklyn Arts Press & Augury Books sell PDFs & ebooks for $9 or less.
AWP – Booth 1418 – March 5-7 / Whale Prom – March 7
If you’re a writer, publisher, or book enthusiast coming out to AWP this year in San Antonio, please read on to learn what Brooklyn Arts Press / Augury Books has planned for you!
Nothing. We have nothing planned.
Between the coronavirus freaking everyone out, last minute cancelations, and my finger getting sliced open in an Uber en route to the airport (which led to a fun tetanus shot in Austin), it’s been decided that we are going to wing it. Everything. We are winging everything.
Which so far has been awesome. They have breakfast tacos here that put your breakfast tacos to shame. The weather is a comfy 68 degrees. I just watched The Invisible Man at the Alamo Drafthouse and might go swimming today, because people swim here. We’re living life to the fullest with a hybrid rental and friends to knock back drinks with. A grackle swooped down to attack me this morning, because Texas, and I’m happy to report that following some bargaining involving a tostada, we are now friends, and he will be staying with us in Brooklyn this summer. See if I’m kidding.
Here is what we can promise. Next week, starting Thursday March 5th, we will be selling some of the best small press books on the market at Booth 1418 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, where they keep inventing the Alamo. We will be sporting two enormous bottles of Purell and unmitigated pride in what we do. We will arm-bump you, we will discuss literature and movies and Netflix with you, we will be collecting your hotel toiletries to hand out to Haven For Hope, a nonprofit center for the homeless that sports a teaching campus and living facilities. Awesome blossom. Concurrently, on Saturday the 7th, we will have a table at Whale Prom, that iconoclastic anti-AWP popup where all the cool and anti-cool kids hang out. Our book discounts will be so amazing that people will ask if we’re kidding.
Augury Books is excited to announce that we will be opening our doors to reading full-length Poetry manuscripts, from January 1-31, 2020. We will not be reading for any other genres at this time.
Please check the above “Submissions” button at the top of the Augury Books home page for more information.
