2007-03-10T03:56:00.000-08:00

SILENCES: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF LOSS

Blue Lion Books (West Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A. & Espoo, Finland) has released Eileen R. Tabios' latest book:

SILENCES: The Autobiography of Loss
Multi-Genre Poetry by Eileen R. Tabios
ISBN-13: 9525645096
402 pages
Price: $23.06
Release date: March 2007
Available for Purchase HERE:

NEW REVIEW from OTOLITHS (Jan. 2008) says in part: "Tabios’ investigation of margins often has a feminist accent....perhaps the most important assertion... involves precise political resonances: ”I am Babaylan. I have never been mastered by three centuries of invading colonizers or their religion” (70). The spirit of Filipina women has survived colonizations, and the spell-maker invites others to experience the restorative energy of its voice and scent: “Breathe in the sampaguita breeze known by warrior cultures as jasmine. Inhale my breath// into your veins to linger there, healing your ears now to hear me sing. . . .” The “autobiography of loss” moves from “silences” to articulation, and it also includes the autobiography of future gain. CLICK HERE FOR ENTIRE REVIEW.

EILEEN R. TABIOS' publications includes 15 poetry collections, an art essay collection, a poetry essay/interview anthology, and a short story book. SILENCES: The Autobiography of Loss, her 12th print poetry collection, extends a unique body of transcolonial writings. Here, she uses poetry to disrupt conventional autobiography. Utilizing an anthology structure, she presents poems, art criticism, prose poetry, and lists to convey a narrative arc for a poet's biography -- specifically how a poet's life logically lapses to a multiplicity of silences, to varied forms of Loss.

Blue Lion Books, directed by Peter Ganick and Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, publishes experimental poetry, visual poetry, and fiction. Blue Lion Books specializes in books over 250 pages long, believing that an idea, if expressed, should be expressed in its fullest manner.

Recipient of the Philippines' National Book Award for Poetry, Ms. Tabios also edited or co-edited five books of poetry, fiction and essays released in the United States. Her poetry and editing projects have received numerous awards including the PEN/Oakland-Josephine Miles National Literary Award, The Potrero Nuevo Fund Prize, the Gustavus Meyers Outstanding Book Award in the Advancement of Human Rights, Foreword Magazine Anthology of the Year Award, Poet Magazine's Iva Mary Williams Poetry Award, Judds Hill's Annual Poetry Prize and the Philippine American Writers & Artists' Catalagan Award; recognition from the Academy of American Poets, the Asian Pacific Association of Librarians and the PEN-Open Book Committee; as well as grants from the Witter Bynner Foundation, National Endowment of the Arts, the New York State Council on the Humanities, the California Council for the Humanities, and the New York City Downtown Cultural Council.

Ms. Tabios performs the poetics blog, "The Blind Chatelaine's Poker Poetics" and edits the journal GALATEA RESURRECTS: A Poetry Engagement while steering Meritage Press. She is the Poet Laureate for Dutch Henry Winery in St. Helena, CA where, as a budding vintner, she is arduously and long-sufferingly researching the poetry of wine.

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Orders & Distribution:
Blue Lion Books at Cafe Press
Signed Copies Available Directly from Author by e-mailing GalateaTen@AOL.com

For more information on Blue Lion Books, please go to
http://www.bluelionbooks.info or contact
editors@bluelionbooks.info

EXCERPTS

2007-03-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

from SILENCES is available HERE and HERE for poems and experimental prose. For sample art criticism, you can go HERE and HERE.

BOOK COVER...AS "LOSS"

2007-03-01T14:25:00.000-08:00

Jukke Pekka-Kervinen designed the book cover through a program he wrote that generates a stochastic layout based on the letters of my name. After the layout phase, the program chooses one photograph from a big group of Jukka's photos, makes some manipulations, and then superimposes the manipulated fragment with the letter combination. Part of Jukka's poetics has to do with not allowing editing. Thus, after each (cover) image is generated, Jukka always destroys the original Postscript file.

The process reflects what Jukka calls one of his "basic" principles: "simply, if I use programs to generate works, I'm not allowed to edit them afterwards, otherwise I will make them manually."

Not only do I appreciate the thoughtfulness of the process, but I appreciate how it reflects the fragility of life and poetry. And how poetry, ultimately, cannot be pinned down. Thank you, Jukka!

--Eileen Tabios