The Houstiliad

The Houstiliad

Author: Michael Lieberman

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2015-12-01

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1680030566

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In this savage yet beautiful book length poem Michael Lieberman captures the rage of men in modern society. He reimagines the characters of Homer's Iliad, recasts them, and sets them in conflict in today's Houston. Unflinching is its descriptions of violence, The Houstiliad implicitly contrasts the rage of Homer's Achilles which was specific and focused with the free-floating rage of contemporary men. Though unsparing in its descriptions, Lieberman's portrait is leavened by lovely lyric passages, reflection, and humor. For those who care about the complicated role of men in modern society this book is revelatory without promising an easy path to redemption or honor. Achilles' wrath is where our tale begins then spools out venom and men's mortal sins. It's tempered true yet riffs on Homer's style, suffused with guile, grit, and mordant wile. * * * Men savage men in violent travails though in the end it's humor that prevails.


Some Dark Fire

Some Dark Fire

Author: Michael Lieberman

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2023-04-05

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1680031082

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Michael Lieberman’s Some Dark Fire, New and Selected Poems is a generous sampling of an exceptional poet’s mature work, written over almost thirty years—since Lieberman moved to Houston in 1988. His poems offer a perspective on our world that is in turn celebratory, somber, joyous, dark, tender, and, most of all, doubt-plagued. He offers no easy answers, but his questions will enrich and reward the reader. This deeply felt book is the work of a gifted poet and research physician at the height of his powers. Lucky Every heart conceals a few small secrets or, if full of amplitude and plenty, large ones. I begin with a green bough, forsythia— supple and yellow with flower. I end there—not because I am impoverished, but because I have it all.


Women of Harvard Square

Women of Harvard Square

Author: Michael Lieberman

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2014-10-15

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 1937875865

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The women of Harvard Square are smart, sassy, and sexy. There's Agnes, who with her boyfriend Maynard provides the inspiration for her best friend Diana’s new play that turns into a steamy, boundary-bending sendup. As for Agnes and Diana, don't even try to imagine their shenanigans. You'll want to meet Agnes's grandmother Abigail, who at eighty-seven is still feisty and more than a little naughty—and Adriana, her daughter and Agnes’s mother, who receives a shocking gift from her old Radcliffe roommate. That’s Olympia, the award-winning novelist, who gets the scare of her life when she decides to set her new novel in Pittsburgh and visits. Did I mention Beverly, the long, tall Texan who came to Harvard for college and never left—and never left Texas behind? Oh, and Henrietta, whose imagination is so outrageous and dark that she will soon get her own novel. What the women of Harvard Square are saying about Mike Lieberman: Agnes Lubeck: “Mike Lieberman is a master.” Diana Endicott: “I’m on board with what he has done. This guy gets it.” Beverly Ardmore: “He’s nothing but a pimp. It’s all the more outrageous because we're both Texans.” Abigail Lubeck: “I thought I would be only an old person, Agnes’s creaky grandmother. But he gave me a great role to play, and you know what? He threw in a vibrator as well. He knows how to honor older women.” Henrietta Markham: “Mike Lieberman gave me more than I deserve. He gave me motive and opportunity as the crime folks say—and with them sex and, well . . . I’ll let you read The Women of Harvard Square.”


The Houstiliad

The Houstiliad

Author: Michael Lieberman

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 9781680030556

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"In this nervy adaptation of Homer's classic, the story of Achilles' rage is told with a deft touch and a large dollop of humor. Achilles, an MIT-trained engineer, has dropped out and with Patroclus, his white macaw, cruises around Houston on an old BMW motorcycle looking for trouble. And he finds plenty. Along the way we meet Hector, the Hammer; Agamemnon, a wealthy Houston businessman with an eye for Achilles' girlfriend; Aphrodite, a custom bra designer; Apollo, owner of Cafae Apollo; and many of Homer's other characters, as Lieberman liberates them from their classical context. The result is a wry take on Houston and an uncompromising exploration of the rage of men in contemporary society"--ECIP Summary.


A Community of Writers

A Community of Writers

Author: Robert Dana

Publisher: University of Iowa Press

Published: 1999-04-01

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 1587292769

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With these words, written long before his Iowa Writers' Workshop became world famous, much imitated, and academically rich, Paul Engle captured the spirit behind his beloved workshop. Now, in this collection of essays by and about those writers who shared the energetic early years, Robert Dana presents a dynamic, informative tribute to Engle and his world. The book's three sections mingle myth and history with style and grace and no small amount of humor. The beginning essays are given over to memories of Paul Engle in his heyday. The second group focuses particularly on those teachers—Robert Lowell, John Berryman, Kurt Vonnegut, for example—who made the workshop hum on a day-to-day basis. Finally, the third section is devoted to storytelling: tall tales, vignettes, surprises, sober and not-so-sober moments. Engle's own essay, "The Writer and the Place," describes his "simple, and yet how reckless" conviction that "the creative imagination in all of the arts is as important, as congenial, and as necessary, as the historical study of all the arts." Today, of course, there are hundreds of writers' workshops, many of them founded and directed by graduates of the original Iowa workshop. But when Paul Engle arrived in Iowa there were exactly two. His indomitable nature and great persuasive powers, combined with his distinguished reputation as a poet, loomed large behind the enhancement of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. This volume of fine and witty essays reveals the enthusiasm and drive and sheer pleasure that went into Iowa's renowned workshop.


All about Skin

All about Skin

Author: Jina Ortiz

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres

Published: 2014-11-11

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 029930194X

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A short fiction anthology of work by award-winning, multicultural, women writers, All about Skin captures the reality of harsh media pressures, difficult family relationships, racial prejudices, and other problems that face women of color around the world.


Active Romanticism

Active Romanticism

Author: Julie Carr

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2015-03-31

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 081735784X

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"Essays that highlight the pervasive role of Romantic poetry and poetics on modern and contemporary innovative poetry"--


Journey Within

Journey Within

Author: Sarah Al Mulla

Publisher: eBook Partnership

Published: 2015-05-11

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 1783017244

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A Journey Within takes you on a powerful and stirring journey through life - a journey that is relived and retold through first-hand experiences of love, faith, courage, desire and many other emotions.


City at the End of Time 形象香港

City at the End of Time 形象香港

Author: Ping-kwan Leung

Publisher: Hong Kong University Press

Published: 2012-06-01

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 9888139355

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Written by Leung Ping-kwan in the 1980s and 1990s, this volume of poetry evokes the complexity of Hong Kong city life in the critical moments preceding the 1997 handover. The poet muses upon the problems of cultural identity and the passing of time, and explores the relationship between poetry and other genres and media within a cross-cultural and cross-border context. An introduction by Ackbar Abbas in the original edition relates Leung’s writing to the cultural and political space of Hong Kong in the 1990s. This expanded bilingual version adds a new essay by Esther Cheung, and also a recent conversation between Leung and three critics, which provides insights on how Leung’s poetry still resonates powerfully after two decades. The book invites readers to look afresh at Leung’s meditative poetry and probe into the contradictory realities of this changing postcolonial city.