LITERARY GAZETTE of REVIEW BOOKS A SUPPLEMENT OF THE RIVER REPORTER 2007 You’re leading in Industry because you are taking avantage of technology, so why build your house the old-fashion way? More than 30 Modular Homes on Display • Fully Decorated 1,000 to 3,5000 Plus Sq. Ft. • Over 6 Quality Manufacturers 10 Year Home Owner’s Warranty • Bank Financing Take Advantage of Technology Call Shorten Homes ask for the DESIGNER GROUP 1-800-458-0249 “Living High with Low Prices” SHORTEN HOMES 1110 Scranton-Carbondale Hwy. • Scranton, PA 18508 • www.shortenhomes.com 2 • LITERARY GAZETTE 2007 THE RIVER REPORTER LITERARY GAZETTE of REVIEW BOOKS Contents FICTION Contributors 5 Mary Greene Harpsong by Rilla Askew BRANDON ADAMS is the author of “Broke: A Poker 6 Anne Willard Voodoo Hearts by Scott Snyer Novel” and “The Story of Behavioral Finance” (with Brian 7 Mary Greene Russian Lover and Other Stories by Jana Martin Finn). He teaches a popular course in behavioral finance at Harvard, and he is a regular in the world’s biggest poker NON FICTION cash games and tournaments. 9 Therese Broderick The Violin Maker: Finding a Centuries-Old Tradition in a THERESE L. BRODERICK, MFA, is a freelance writer Brooklyn Workshop by John Marchese and workshop leader living with her husband and daughter 10 Sheila Dugan Lighting the Way: Nine Women Who Changed Modern in Albany, NY. She teaches poetry through the Knowledge America by Karrena Gore Schiff Network (knolegenetwork.org) in Colonie and the Roarke 11 Brandon Adams The Poker Face of Wall Street by Aaron Brown social services center in Troy. Her poems have won nation- 12 Sandy Long The Place You Love is Gone by Melissa Holbrook Pierson al and local awards and have been published widely. 13 Vickie Kohler Trafficking in Sheep by Anne Barclay Priest CASS COLLINS is a writer and actress who divides her time between lower Manhattan and the Upper Delaware FEATURES River Valley. She shares her homes with her husband, Jim 14 Deborah Poe Words that dance: An interview with Lori Anderson Moseman Stratton; their teenaged children, Conor and Callison; and 15 Cass Collins Chairman Mao and Alice Walker: Legendary area their Schnauzer, Aengus. Her bi-weekly column, The River book club grows into the 21st Century Muse, appears in The River Reporter. SHEILA DUGAN, mother of five daughters and grand- POETRY mother of five, was a contributing writer of biographies 17 Therese Broderick Another Woman Who Looks Like Me by Lyn Lifshin for “The Third book of Junior Authors,” a Wilson Library 18 Deborah Poe birdsong beyond if / then: Handmade works publication; among them, the article on Alice and Martin by Lori Anderson Moseman Provensen. She resides in Milanville, PA and is a member 19 Priscilla Orr What Feeds Us by Diane Lockward of the Upper Delaware Writers Collective, based in Nar- rowsburg, NY. 21 Priscilla Orr Poetry Shorts 23 Mary Greene Shiv Maribito: Archiving the greats, one beautiful book at a time MARY GREENE is an associate editor at The River Re- porter newspaper in Narrowsburg, NY. She holds an MFA LOCAL INTEREST in poetry from Brooklyn College and is founder and direc- tor of the Upper Delaware Writers Collective in Narrows- 23 Vicki Kohler It’s a Long Road to a Tomato by Keith Stewart burg. She has read and performed in many local venues 24 Dorothy Hartz Black Dome Press Offerings: Local interest and has published two books of poetry. 25 Sandy Long Black Dome Press Offerings: Area trail guides 26 Dorothy Hartz Tom Quick Trail: A Chronicle of the Delaware River Valley DOROTHY HARTZ is a writer and retired English teach- er living in Fremont Center, NY. Her poems and articles by James W. Burbank have appeared in local publications since 1997, when she 26 Dorothy Hartz Purple Mountain Press Offerings returned to the Delaware River valley after 30 years. She is a grant facilitator for the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance and FOR CHILDREN a member of the Upper Delaware Writers Collective, both 27 Sheila Dugan Kid’s Picks from Boyds Mills Press in Narrowsburg, NY. VICKI KOHLER lives in Eldred, NY on land that has been in her family for four generations. Originally a dairy farm, the property now has various gardens and is home to ducks, chickens, cats, dogs and a nasty goose named Ralph. Although the original dairy farm survived the Depression, On the cover Kohler is beginning to wonder whether it—and she—will survive the “fallout” from the current administration. TRR photos by SANDY LONG SANDY LONG is a writer, photographer and poet who LORI ANDERSON MOSEMAN, aka “Canoehead,” lives and writes her special brand focuses on regional environmental, cultural and commu- of poetry along the Delaware River in Northeastern Pennsylvania. For an interview with nity issues. For several years, Long wrote book reviews for Anderson Moseman, see page 14. The River Reporter, where she is currently employed as a reporter and columnist. PRISCILLA ORR, a recipient of fellowships from New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Yaddo, is the author of “Jugglers & Tides.” Orr’s poems have appeared in South- LITERARY GAZETTE ern Poetry Review, Nimrod, Worcester Review and other of journals and have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. A Publisher REVIEW BOOKS Geraldine R. Dodge poet, Orr resides in Hamburg, NJ and Laurie Stuart is an associate professor of English at Sussex County Com- Section Editor Assistant Publisher Mary Greene munity College. Danielle Gaebel DEBORAH POE’s writing is forthcoming or has recently Section Editor appeared in Denver Quarterly, Caesura, Red Mountain Mary Greene The Literary Gazette, a special publication of The River Reporter, is pub- Review, Copper Nickel, Drunken Boat and the anthol- Production Manager lished by Stuart Communications, Inc. Entire contents ©2007 by Stuart Commu- ogy Fingernails Across the Chalkboard: Poetry and Prose Connie Kern nications, Inc. on HIV/AIDS From the Black Diaspora. Her poetry col- Marketing Director The River Reporter maintains an offi ce at 93 Erie Ave., Narrowsburg, NY. lection “Our Parenthetical Ontology” is forthcoming from & Cover Design Its mailing address is P.O. Box 150, Narrowsburg, NY 12764. Phone 845/252- CustomWords. Lori Malone 7414. E-mail [email protected]. The River Reporter is online at river- Advertising Sales reporter.com. ANNE WILLARD is an associate editor at The River Re- Emily Grillo Subscription to The River Reporter is $57.00 for two years, $33.00 for one porter newspaper in Narrowsburg, NY. She lives in Han- Jennifer Bitetto kins, NY. Eileen Hennessy year or $22.00 for six months. USPS 354-810. Periodical postage paid at Narrowsburg, NY 12764, and additional mailing offi ces. 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Sha- earth in much the same way Oklahoma ma landscape that is encompassed, says Singer, a fictional folk hero in depres- ron’s hope to rejoin her family is much tethers the pair to its wind-driven, dry Askew, by “land, wind, the force of sky sion-era Oklahoma. The story is told in of her motivation to stay on the move. landscape. As they travel about, meeting and distance, the thickly wooded hills.” three voices: folksay, which generates Harlan’s motives are different, harder to kind people who help them and cruel Her Oklahoma characters are a distil- the myth of Harlan Singer and how he articulate and deeper. He searches for a people who don’t, the voice of Profit lation of the American character, says rose into legend; Sharon, the voice of mystical old bum named Profit, with posits the notion that the ratio of good Askew, for the state is uniquely placed Harlan’s “possum-haired” teenage wife, whom he traveled for a time. Harlan’s and bad people is about 60-40. Sharon in the “gut” of the nation to draw upon who, with gritty, relentless practicality, time with Profit seemed to have shaped goes on to take the measure of this in Southern, Western, Midwestern and tries to hold to the truth of things; and him into something more, and perhaps herself and in her travels. In the end, she Southwestern influences. The town of deepsong, which is Harlan’s own ver- less, than human: he is unable to care says, after all that happens to the pair— Cookson, where the story begins, is a sion of his calling—lyrical bursts of verse for his wife or himself; yet he becomes and it’s plenty—and all the fortunes and real Oklahoma town, whose original expressed mostly from the “bed of white the deep song of (mostly) misfor- streets and buildings ended up under stones” in Harlan’s thicketed, riverside the nation, spill- tunes of the peo- the TenKiller Reservoir, and this sort of hideout.