Dan Pinkerton

From the publisher:

“Democracy of Noise is a hilarious, surreal send-up of soulless, late-Empire America, a land of unparalleled power, cartoonish wealth amid deep pain and poverty, scientific prowess never-before-seen, but also a place sick at heart with an endless streak of greed, authoritarianism and violence ready to erupt, and more than anything, a nonstop yearning, everywhere, for unmet meaning. In Democracy of Noise, Dan Pinkerton has written the perfect summary of our surreal, depressing-to-the-point-of-hilarity times. These poems are a Venn diagram of all of us. And don’t be fooled: this isn’t some idle art; if you pay attention, you might just recognize what’s wrong in our shared life, or your own. In a country where book bannings have become a point of pride, it’s rare for any book, especially a poetry title, to be important. But this one, without question is.”

In this anthology, editors Deborah Ager, Bill Beverly and John Poch showcase 64 of the best poems to appear in 32 Poems Magazine during its first 10 years of publication. Each poet also offers brief commentary on his or her selected poem. Featuring a wide variety of forms, topics and styles from 64 contemporary poets, OLD FLAME will be a welcome companion in your classroom or on the bookshelves near your favorite reading spot. “What an astounding delight: the best work from one of our best journals… Come, reader, come warm your hands, come be licked by these flames,” says Beth Ann Fennelly. “Fulfilling Yeats’s admonition that ‘our fire must burn slowly,’ this OLD FLAME burns slowly, indeed: its light and heat last,” says H. L. Hix.

DIAGRAM III, the latest baby in the print collection from the magazine DIAGRAM, brings you our own cabinet of wonders: prose, poem, and image. Included here are favorite pieces from 2004 and 2005. Plus many new schematics.

Critically acclaimed novelist and short story writer Richard Bausch continues the tradition of identifying the best young writers on the cusp of their careers in this year’s volume of Best New American Voices. Here are stories culled from hundreds of writing programs such as the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Johns Hopkins and from summer conferences such as Sewanee and Bread Loaf―as well as a complete list of contact information for these programs. This collection showcases tomorrow’s literary stars: Julie Orringer, Adam Johnson, William Gay, David Benioff, Rattawut Lapcharoensap, Maile Meloy, Amanda Davis, Jennifer Vanderbes, and John Murray are just some of the acclaimed authors whose early work has appeared in this series since its launch in 2000. The best new American voices are heard here first.

These poems will do ANYTHING. Edited by Reb Livingston and Molly Arden from No Tell Motel (www.notellmotel.org), this anthology includes seductive poems by over 80 of today’s most discreet poets including Aaron Anstett, Bruce Covey, Catherine Daly, Denise Duhamel, Jill Alexander Essbaum, Amy Gerstler, Noah Eli Gordon, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Cynthia Huntington, Kirsten Kaschock, Amy King, Shin Yu Pai, Lance Phillips, P.F. Potvin, Standard Schaefer, Ravi Shankar, Heidi Lynn Staples, Allyssa Wolf and others.