Halina Duraj

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This Friday, Jan 24 — Launch Party for BEAST and THE FAMILY CANNON

Photo by Dave Bledsoe of FreeVerse Photography

You’ve saved the date, you’ve told your friends.

Now all you have to do is show up at 7 pm on Friday, Jan 24, to Augury Books’ 2014 launch party for our new books: Frances Justine Post’s BEAST, and Halina Duraj’s THE FAMILY CANNON, Augury’s first fiction publication. Enjoy the friends, the wine, and the readings by Post, Duraj, Timothy Donnelly, and Ely Shipley. Then come join us after for drinks down the street.

Details

What:  2014 launch party for Augury’s new books! Complete with readings, drinks, and irresistible new books for sale.

Who:  Augury Books’ new authors, Frances Justine Post and Halina Duraj, as well as special guests Timothy Donnelly (The Cloud Corporation) and Ely Shipley (Boy with Flowers).

When:  7:00 p.m. — Friday, January 24, 2014; Join us after the event for drinks in the neighborhood.

Where:  Berl’s Poetry Shop — 126A Front Street / Brooklyn, NY 11201 (next to Superfine in D.U.M.B.O.)

Why:  Because we all love new poetry, new fiction, wine, and each other.

How:  Take the F to York Street or the A/C to High Street. And you can RSVP to this event on Facebook.

Secure your copies of THE FAMILY CANNON and BEAST now by pre-ordering!

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Halina Duraj Preview: Read Excerpt from THE FAMILY CANNON Then Pre-Order!

Photo and THE FAMILY CANNON Cover Art by Dave Bledsoe, FreeVerse Photography

From “Tenants,” THE FAMILY CANNON by Halina Duraj

My mother scrubbed the blood all evening. She dipped the hard-bristled brush in a bucket of ammonia while my father ate pork chops and sauerkraut at the kitchen table. She came downstairs to make him a cup of tea—he’d never made one for himself—and she turned on the TV for him while he put his feet up on the coffee table. Then she went back upstairs to paint. She painted that same night so the room could be advertised the next day. I didn’t have to sleep in the trundle that night, because she never came to bed. I crept up the stairs, and at the top, I rested my chin on the banister. On the other side of the wall, I heard the slap of the brush against the plaster and my mother crying. A strip of light appeared under Don the Barber’s door, and then I heard bedsprings and floorboards and I turned and went down the stairs. From the darkness at the bottom, I watched him cross the hall, and I heard murmurings and mumblings and then my mother’s voice a little louder, a little firmer, then a shushing noise. ‘Please,’ I heard my mother say. ‘Don’t.’

And then Don the Barber walked back across the hall, shut the door. His light didn’t go off, but I went to bed anyway. I woke up at six o’clock when my mother came downstairs and made my father breakfast and packed his lunch and carried it out to his car and went down to the Tribune to place a new ad: Room for rent. Just painted. Please inquire.

In the afternoon, she painted a second coat, and then you almost couldn’t see the stains.”

Don’t forget our launch party with a reading by Halina Duraj, on January 24, 2014 — RSVP now or simply save the date. We will see you there!

Order Now on Amazon — Look for it new from seller Augury Books

Thank you!

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Announcing Augury’s 2014 Launch Party: Friday, January 24th at Berl’s Poetry Shop

Hamlet’s terrace, Kronborg, Denmark

Hello friends! It’s almost time to celebrate the launch of Augury’s 2014 catalogue: Frances Justine Post‘s poetry book, Beast, and Halina Duraj‘s book of short fiction, The Family Cannon. 

Help us celebrate putting these two books out into the world. At the same time, enjoy readings by Augury’s debut authors, Frances Justine Post and Halina Duraj, as well as guest readings by Timothy Donnelly and Ely Shipley.

Details

Who: Augury Books’ new authors, Frances Justine Post and Halina Duraj, as well as poets Timothy Donnelly (The Cloud Corporation) and Ely Shipley (Boy with Flowers).

What:  2014 launch party for Augury’s new books! Complete with readings, drinks, and irresistible new books for sale.

When:  7:00 p.m. — Friday, January 24, 2014; Join us after the event for drinks in the neighborhood.

Where:  Berl’s Poetry Shop — 126A Front Street / Brooklyn, NY 11201 (next to Superfine in D.U.M.B.O.)

Why:  Because we all love new poetry, new fiction, wine, and each other.

How:  Take the F to York Street or the A/C to High Street. Also, please RSVP to this event on Facebook.

Secure your copies of The Family Cannon and Beast now by pre-ordering!

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Now Available for Pre-Order: 2014’s ‘Beast’ and ‘The Family Cannon’

PRE-ORDER BELOW:

Beast by Frances Justine Post (Poetry, January 2014)

AND

The Family Cannon by Halina Duraj (Fiction, January 2014)

Beast by Frances Justine Post (Poetry, January 2014)

There is plenty of Circe, and plenty of Caliban, too, in the poems of Frances Justine Post’s book BEAST. Carl Jung would have nodded in affirmation at the way in which myth and archetype pulse and flow under the surface of her poems—wolf, whale, cannibal, fire, doll. Her monologues cast the speaker’s self into these tableaux, and it’s hard to convey the detailed viscerality with which Post renders the human psyche—in all its needy, vengeful, rueful, generous and knowing configurations. ‘What have you been killing, my dear? / Let me wipe your chin.’ Post’s theme is hopeless love, but there is so much bravado, courage, insight, and self-knowledge in the poems that BEAST feels like a weird, wild, somewhat frightening party. Not to mention the sensuous, acrobatic flamboyance of Post’s remarkable writing, which carries this psychic carnival all proudly into Art.”

 —Tony Hoagland, author of What Narcissism Means to Me

Frances Justine Post

Frances Justine Post is the recipient of the “Discovery” / Boston Review Poetry Prize, the Inprint Paul Verlaine Poetry Prize, and the Amy Award from Poets & Writers. Her poems have appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, The Kenyon Review Online, The Massachusetts Review, Pleiades, Western Humanities Review, and others. Originally from Sullivan’s Island, SC, she received her MFA from Columbia University and is currently earning her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Houston, where she is poetry editor for Gulf Coast Magazine.

Order BEAST Now on Amazon — Look for it NEW from seller Augury Books

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The Family Cannon by Halina Duraj (Fiction, January 2014)

With quiet astonishment, Halina Duraj explores the mysteries of love and madness, offering her readers the secret salvation of story. Between a father’s reinvention of himself, a mother’s perplexing fidelity, and a woman’s navigation of the complexities of betrayal, we discover the exquisite pleasures of a world restored and redeemed through Duraj’s luminous gaze, the loving attention and tender playfulness of an extravagantly passionate imagination.”

—Melanie Rae Thon, author of The Voice of the River and In This Light

Halina Duraj’s stories have appeared in The Sun, The Harvard Review, Fiction, Witness, and other journals. She has an MA in creative writing from the University of California, Davis, and a PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Utah. In 2012, she was a writer-in-residence at Hedgebrook, a women’s writing retreat on Whidbey Island, WA. She teaches at the University of San Diego, where she also directs the Lindsay J. Cropper Center for Creative Writing.

Order THE FAMILY CANNON Now on Amazon — Look for it NEW from seller Augury Books

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Augury Books Is on Twitter

In preparation for 2014 and the upcoming launch of our new books, Frances Justine Post‘s Beast—our fourth full-length book of poetry—and Halina Duraj‘s The Family Cannon—our debut break into fiction—Augury Books has joined Twitter!

Follow us to get all the updates and details about our events (including our launch party for the aforementioned books), as well as links to poems, pics, book specials, order info, submissions guidelines, teasers, and other stuff we like (and think you will).

Go on, follow us!

While you’re at it, Like us on Facebook, and Follow this Blog by clicking on the prompt in the bottom right corner —> —>

Thanks, Augury followers!

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Augury Books’ Fiction Publication Will Be ‘The Family Cannon’ by Halina Duraj

Look for ‘The Family Cannon’ new from seller Augury Books

 

 

 

Photo by: Amanda Noyes

Hello friends and fellow lovers of the arts. We were amazed and overwhelmed by the quality of your work; an ardent and sincere thank you goes out to all of you who trusted us with your manuscripts.

Halina Duraj

We are pleased to announce that we have selected Halina Duraj’s The Family Cannon as our inaugural short story collection.

Halina Duraj’s stories have appeared in The Sun, The Harvard Review, Fiction, Witness, and other journals and have been recommended for PEN/O’Henry and Pushcart prizes. In 2012, she was a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award finalist and a writer-in-residence at Hedgebrook. She has an MA in creative writing from the University of California, Davis, and a PhD in creative writing from the University of Utah, where she served as a fiction co-editor for Quarterly West. Halina teaches literature and fiction writing at the University of San Diego.

We would also like to recognize the short story collections of our six finalists:

Adam Weinstein — From the New Technical Manual of Use

Hall Cary — Delaware and Other Places of Mind

Dan Moreau — A Tour of North American Ruins

Ellen Campbell — Contents Under Pressure

Sara Lippmann — Doll Palace

Eleanor Swanson — Exiles and Expatriates

Thank you to our finalists and everyone who submitted during our reading period. Please help us welcome Halina aboard at Augury Books.  Leave a comment, follow this blog, or simply “Like”!

—Augury Books