Thursday, September 30, 2021

New Book! Dreams I've Held: Uncollected Poems (1943-1979) by Simon Perchik



This volume includes the full edition of Simon Perchik's very first book, The Bomber Moon, which was self-published in 1950, and is long out of print. Poems between 1943 & 1979 published in many literary magazines have also been collected, and appear in book form for the first time. These include The Lambert Castle Poems from 1943-49, two hundred and fifteen poems called "The "A" Poems, a set of five prose poems, and a rare long narrative poem entitled Misha's Funeral.


Simon Perchik, an attorney, was born 1923 in Paterson, NJ and educated at New York University (BA English, LLB Law). His poems have appeared in various literary journals including Cholla Needles, Partisan Review, Poetry, The Nation, and The New Yorker.

excerpt from A215:

I always walk in afternoons
when heat beats hard for me
and bangs the sides of grass
against the heat and me.

But then in the cool evening of my mind
I grip the moon's long hair
and braid the dreams I've held
with tears from everywhere.

Click here to read a review of Dreams I've Held by John Riley

Click here to purchase Dreams I've Held online, 400 pages ($15) 

New Book! The Land Of Little Rain by Mary Austin


Mary Austin graduated from Blackburn College in 1888 and moved to California. Her family established a homestead in the San Joaquin Valley. She was a prolific novelist, poet, critic, and playwright, as well as an early feminist and defender of Native American and Spanish-American rights. Austin and her husband were involved in the local California Water Wars, after which the water of Owens Valley eventually was drained to supply Los Angeles. When their battle was lost, they moved to Death Valley, California. For 17 years, Austin made a special study of the lives of the indigenous peoples of the Mojave Desert. Mount Mary Austin, in the Sierra Nevada, was named in her honor. It is located 8.5 miles west of her longtime home in Independence, California. Mary Austin is best known for The Land of Little Rain (1903), her tribute to the deserts of California.



New Book! The White Heart Of Mojave by Edna Brush Perkins


This historical journal of a journey through the Mojave in 1920 is a treasure for all lovers of this desert region. Edna and her friend Charlotte visited the desert at a time when one could travel far distances before seeing another human. Their expectation was to experience the strenuous life of the outdoors being touted by Theodore Roosevelt, and to explore by choice "the wild and lonely place" of the Mojave Desert. Edna's voluptuous prose lets us know that this goal was reached with a deep and lasting joy. Reading her words today demonstrates the desert still has a magical draw 100 years later.

Edna Brush Perkins began working for suffrage with the Ohio Woman's Suffrage Party. After the defeat of the suffragists' 1912 Ohio referendum campaign, Perkins became chairman of the ward organization of the Ohio Woman's Suffrage Party. Perkins was influential in efforts to help women gain the right to vote for the municipal elections in 1914, and presidential elections in 1917, though the latter decision was ultimately overturned. During 1916-1918, Perkins served as the Chairman of the Women's Suffrage Party of greater Cleveland.

Her work in the suffrage movement included organized door-to-door campaigns, petitioning Ohio legislatures, and debating against anti-suffragists. Nationally, Perkins participated in a suffrage parade in Boston and led a suffrage parade in Cleveland in 1914. In 1915, she gave speeches in Massachusetts, Mississippi, and represented Ohio at the National American Woman Suffrage convention in Washington, D.C. She wrote a pamphlet entitled "What It Is", which was distributed by volunteers who worked to gather signatures to support the suffrage movement. Perkins also co-founded the Women's City Club in Cleveland in 1916 and used this platform to focus on the birth control campaign.

When the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920 giving women the right to vote, Perkins travelled through the Sahara and the Mojave deserts with fellow woman suffragist Charlotte Hannahs Jordan. She later wrote two books, The White Heart of Mojave (1922) and The Red Carpet of the Sahara (1925) about her experiences. Perkins exhibited her artwork at the Cleveland Museum of Art from 1927 to 1930.


Wednesday, September 1, 2021

September Issue Released! Cholla Needles 57!

 


The cover and interior art is from JLG

powerful current literature by:

Bettina T. Barrett
John Sierpinski
Ernest Alois
Heather Morgan
Roger G. Singer
Caryn Davidson
Kent Wilson
Peter Jastermsky
Dave Eberhardt
Michael G. Vail
and
Jonathan B. Ferrini

Available locally at Rainbow Stew in Yucca Valley
and Space Cowboy in Joshua Tree