Sheila-Na-Gig Editions Announces a New Poetry Collection by George Franklin — Pre-order Now!

Sheila-Na-Gig Editions Volume 7:

Noise of the World

by George Franklin

$13.60 — SPECIAL + Free Shipping! (Pre-order now, Shipping late November, 2020)

Save an extra 20% when you buy Franklin’s Noise of the World and Traveling for No Good Reason (+ free shipping): $21.76

Check out other great titles from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions at: https://sheilanagigblog.com/sheila-na-gig-editions-quick-shopping/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

GEORGE FRANKLIN’S books of poetry include Traveling for No Good Reason (winner of the Sheila-Na-Gig Editions competition in 2018), Travels of the Angel of Sorrow (Blue Cedar Press), and Among the Ruins/Entre las ruinas (Katakana Editores), and he is the co-translator, along with the author, of Ximena Gómez’s Último día/Last Day (Katakana Editores). His poem “Agua” won the 2020 Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Prize, and his poems and essays have appeared in many journals, including The Woven Tale Press Magazine, The Wild Word, Broadsided Press, The Threepenny Review, Sheila-Na-Gig Online, Salamander, Pedestal Magazine, Cagibi, and The American Journal of Poetry. He practices law in Miami and, prior to the pandemic, taught poetry workshops in Florida state prisons.

ABOUT Noise of the World:

The poems in Noise of the World tell real stories, real because the poet doesn’t shy away from the limitations of being human. There are love poems, moments of desire, of “Pressing my lips and teeth hard against / Your shoulder, dissolving beneath your / Fingers, tongue, the shiver in your / Abdomen,” but they are tempered by the knowledge that the person loved will never be fully known and, ultimately, even desire is something that can’t be understood. His poems of history, like his love poems, find their reality in particular moments such as “The dark hands of the Zapatistas / Curled around white cups, eyes ignoring / The camera,” or “That cup of coffee and the soft, white bread / Depend on being born here, not there. Then, / Not some other time.” History encompasses as well the poet’s family, his life in Miami with his compañera, the Colombian poet Ximena Gómez, the classes he teaches in Florida prisons, his travels to Europe, Colombia, and Mexico, the Covid-19 quarantine, the writers and artists who’ve shaped how he sees and responds, and the solitude he experiences: the “House that quiet, the dog outside poking / His nose into opossum smells or / The pleasure of rotting leaves.” This book celebrates sensual life and the imagination while reminding us that even in moments of love or solitude, even when we don’t hear it, the noise of the world is still there.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR Noise of the World:

With his new and remarkable collection, George Franklin offers vivid images, portraits, snapshots, and narratives, conjuring the wonder of travel and romance, the bewilderments of aging and loss, the treasures and illusions of selfhood, and the complex legacies of family. These poems are meticulously crafted, Franklin addressing what it means to love, to be aware of inevitable death, and to seek wholeness in, as he writes, “the random pieces of our lives.” Impeccable work from a versatile poet at the height of his alchemical powers.   – John Amen, Editor, Pedestal Magazine

In his new collection Noise of the World, George Franklin offers an intimate exploration of the emotional pressure points in our lives. In this day and age when the loudness of life can overwhelm, his careful observation of people and places, in memory and recollection, in imagining and re-imagining, focuses us on the importance of who we are and what we do in the unseen moments of our days. The subtle power of Franklin’s craft lies in the attention and intention, and at times devotion, of his words, which resonate long after reading. Threaded through this collection is a deep understanding of the connections between us and the tenuous nature of it all. Noise of the World chronicles a lifetime of tender observation, whether it is a connection with places traveled to or home during lock-down, or in moments in time with a lover, an aging self, or a dying father. These deftly crafted poems slow down time, allowing us to savour the moments that our lives are made of.   –Kusi Okamura, Editor, The Wild Word

REVIEWS OF TRAVELING FOR NO GOOD REASON:

by Richard Allen Taylor in Pedestal Magazine: https://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/george-franklins-traveling-for-no-good-reason-reviewed-by-richard-allen-taylor/

by Deborah Bacharach in Broadsided Press: https://broadsidedpress.org/broadsides-to-books-is-the-arrow-in-motion/

Reviews on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Traveling-No-Good-Reason-Sheila-Na-Gig/dp/1732940606

About Grimmgirl

I co-founded the small press poetry magazine Sheila-Na-Gig in California in 1990. I ran the press for 10 years, producing 14 print copies of the journal. I now hold a Ph.D. in 20th Century American Literature from Ohio University and an MFA in poetry from the University of Washington. I am currently an Associate Professor of English at Ohio University Southern, where I teach courses in composition, American literature, and creative writing. My poetry, creative nonfiction, and critical essays have appeared, or are forthcoming, in The Brock Review, Proteus, Rattle, Spillway, and the critical anthologies, The Body in Medical Culture; On the Literary Nonfiction of Nancy Mairs; and Stephen King’s Contemporary Classics: Reflections on the Modern Master of Horror.

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