New releases from Smokestack Books, February 2008
Martín Espada and Jon Anderson will
be in the UK this Summer to read from Crucifixion in the Plaza de
Armas and Seeds of Fire:
Martín Espada, CRUCIFIXION IN THE PLAZA DE ARMAS
Crucifixion in the Plaza de Armas brings together Martín
Espada’s Puerto Rico poems in one volume for the first time. Here the
poet contemplates the meaning of Espada - ‘sword’ in Spanish -
for conquerors and for rebels over the centuries; celebrates the African
slaves who brought their music to the island; and searches the mountains
for the grave of his great-grandfather. Espada also writes of
colonialism and the movement for independence, from the Ponce Massacre
to the life of poet Clemente Soto Vélez, imprisoned for ‘seditious
conspiracy.’ Throughout the collection, Espada insists on the details
that give history a human face.
Paperback £7.95 ISBN 9780955402816
Jon Anderson (ed) SEEDS OF FIRE: CONTEMPORARY POETRY
FROM THE OTHER USA
Seeds of Fire brings together the work of over fifty poets
from the other USA - including Adrienne Rich, Fred Voss, Grace Paley,
Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez, Martín Espada and Pete Seeger. Lyrical,
satirical, raging and prophetic, they bear witness against the forces of
imperial slaughter, environmental catastrophe and social disintegration.
These poets sow their seeds of fire in the hope that the real
globalization project is the building of international unity among all
those - including the ghosts of John Coltrane, Emmett Till, Tom McGrath,
Rachel Corrie, Woody Guthrie, Emma Goldman, Tom Paine and the Blue Cat -
who believe that a better world is still possible.
Paperback £7.95 ISBN 9780955402821
For more information about Smokestack Books, see
www.smokestack-books.co.uk
Smokestack Books is supported by the Arts Council, England
