Cultural Writing. This new book by the publisher of Bottom Dog Press is a memoir of a midwest town and family, a time and place, and a life. "It is Smith's simple directness, human scale, and respect for reality that makes his MILLDUST AND ROSES such a sweet, kind, modest, touching, and unassuming book" -- David Budbill."MILLDUST AND ROSES is a beautiful tapestry, the substance of which describes an Ohio Valley working-class family from the mid-century onward" -- Holly Beye.
Liberty Kovacs' life story has all the elements of the American Dream, both its myth and its reality. Breaking free from the patriarchal rule of her Greek immigrant family, she set an uneasy but independent course that led to her becoming a nurse and marrying fellow Ohioan, the poet James Wright. Headed for the fabled Land of Happiness, Life broke in with all its unpredictable misery: living in Minneapolis with their two sons, the marriage was soon riven by alcoholism, angers, unspeakable trauma and eventually bitter divorce. Bereft but courageous, Liberty set a new course and headed west to San Francisco where she had a scholarship to study psychiatric nursing. A single mother, she experienced triumphs in her profession, married again and bore a third son - that household too fell victim to unhappiness and despairs. Yet with each blow, her spirit rose again and again, never giving up on herself or her sons, whom she writes about with disarming openness. -Merrill Leffler, publisher of Dryad Press, author of Partly Panemonium, Partly Love, Take Hold
Mingo Junction, a working-class town in the upper Ohio River Valley, has a rich mix of ethnicities and races with a history going back to the Mingo Indians, including visits from George Washington in the 1770s. Early settlement came as the coal mining industry flourished, followed by iron and steel foundries and accompanying railroads and river barge traffic. Mingo's chief industry is its steel mill, first Carnegie Steel Mill, then Wheeling-Pitt Steel Mill for over 100 years. The town's deep character is etched in its work, social, cultural, and natural landscapes. This is seen in its schools, churches, businesses and industry, daily life, active social organizations, and its famous figures: Jake Strott and George Kakasic of the 1930s Pittsburgh Steelers (Pirates); Joe Fortunato of the Chicago Bears; coach Woody Hayes; Spud Hughes, inventor of menthol cigarettes; and Bill (Lil Squirt) Albaugh, spokesperson for Squirt soda. Renowned singing groups include The Antones, The Stereos, Buddy Sharp and the Shakers, The Mingo Men, and Bob Parissi of Wild Cherry. Among major movies filmed in the town are Reckless, Hearts of Steel, and 1978 Academy Award winner The Deer Hunter.
Real people talking their lives: waitresses, store clerks, veterans, rock musicians, exchange students, cooks, hair dressers, cancer survivors, artists, gas station attendants, red caps, prostitutes, retirees, seniors...All reaching for the truth they find. �Ohio writers I have most admired include fiction writer Sherwood Anderson and poet James Wright. I believe everyone has a song to sing, a tale to tell, and a voice to tell it with. The secret is to learn to listen.� - Larry Smith
Larry Smith's third book of fiction is set in his homeland of Ohio's rural and industrial Appalachia along the Ohio River. It is a story of four generations of family moving from the Civil War times to the 1950's in the Panhandle area of the Ohio River Valley. Fathers and sons live with and work through deep silences to some kind of understanding.
From the Preface: I love the �Precedent� poems included here, for they remind us that our work includes history and models which we can learn from and adapt to our own times. These writers all take us back through Walt Whitman to Emerson�s definition of the poet�s role: �The poet is the sayer, the namer, and represents beauty,� and so a truthful �naming� and �saying� are a part of all of these beautiful poems. Denise Levertov�s poem �Life at War,� written during the Vietnam War, speaks to us immediately and directly by naming what has been lost in adopting a contemporary mindset of warfare: �our nerve filaments twitch in its presence/ day and night, / nothing we say has not the husky phlegm of it in the saying, / nothing we do has the quickness, the sureness, / the deep intelligence living at peace would have.� For her and the poets and readers here the poem bravely confronts the world and yet moves us to imagine the peace within it and ourselves. We offer this book as part of that intention.-Larry Smith
