SO LATE, SO SOON: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, by Carol Moldaw, and THE CASANOVA CHRONICLES & OTHER POEMS, by Myrna Stone, are both now available.

VENISON, a book-length poem by Thorpe Moeckel, is now available.

Etruscan Press is proud to announce that TOUCANS IN THE ARCTIC by SCOTT COFFEL has been selected as this year’s winner of the Norma Farber First Book Prize by The Poetry Society of America. Established by the family and friends of Norma Farber for a first book of original poetry written by an American and published in either a hard or soft cover in a standard edition in 2009, the Norma Farber First Book Prize is one of the most prestigious awards in the country.

Toucans in the Arctic has been called “an inspired truant from any number of poetical schools.” In this lyric case study of tumult and tranquility, the poet, tour pamphlet in hand, wanders through the national park of the psyche, noting surfeits of beauty and ruin as he scrambles across the eerie landscapes of identity and marriage.

Of Toucans in the Arctic, Suzanne Cleary writes, “Of wide reference and deep thought, of language taut and somehow new, these are 21st Century poems of joy, rage, erudition, wry humor, monumental tenderness. You will remember the day you discovered this book.”

Tara Caimi, a Wilkes MFA grad and last year’s Etruscan design intern and this year’s professional Etruscan book designer, got some good news on the writing front: a chapter from her memoir was accepted by THE MAGUFFIN. Well done, Tara. In addition to her memoir, Tara is currently at work on designing two forthcoming Etruscan books, CORONOLOGY by Claire Bateman and FIRST FIRE, THEN BIRDS: SELECTED POEMS OF H.L.Hix. She’s a woman of many talents!

We’re delighted to offer the first “Wilkes Etruscan Prize” in recognition of our partnership with the Wilkes low-residency Creative Writing Program.  The prize is open to current Wilkes Creative Writing students.  Here’s the scoop:

“Nothing attested, everything sung,” says the poet H. L. Hix. In poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, translations and literary criticism, Etruscan publishes books that emerge from an impulse thrumming  through every genre: the yearning to make words sing. With the Wilkes Etruscan Prize, we invite the Wilkes student community to join us in this multi-genre celebration. Send us one page: your best page, in any genre.It can be beginning, middle or end. It can be prose, script, or poetry. Send us a  page that sings.  The winner will receive a complete library of Etruscan books, a one-year subscription to new titles, and a $100 honorarium. In addition, a professionally designed broadside of the winning page will be produced and distributed at the June Residency. The Etruscan prize will be judged by Etruscan author and Wilkes Advisory Board member, H. L. Hix. Please send all submissions by Word attachment to books@etruscanpress.org. The prize is open to all current Wilkes graduate writing students who will graduate in or after June 2010.

Just back from the Wilkes MFA residency week, an intense funferall of seminars, readings, workshops, films, plays, and unscheduled screeds. The craic was mighty. Hosted by the tireless Bonnie Culver and assisted by the peripatetic Mr. Jim Warner, we weaved and slid through the week and landed more or less safely, but not unchanged. We were delighted to unveil the new website at the banquet, along with preview’s of Tara Caimi’s design of THE CASANOVA CHRONICLES by Myrna Stone. Other highlights include a ‘can-you-top-this’ sex theme in Sunday’s faculty reading; a film on James Jones featuring Mike Lennon, John Bowers and Kaylie Jones in their salad years, and a comic impression of Dr. Lennon himself by Matt Hinton, to close the banquet ceremonies. I hope we all made it home. May we not outlive ourselves, and a safe journey.