Honor for poet Lawrence; meet author Hoggins | BookEnds
Published 4:33 pm Friday, July 10, 2015
POULSBO — “Grayling,” the latest book of poetry by Jenifer Browne Lawrence of Poulsbo, is the winner of the 2015 Perugia Press Prize.
The Perugia Press Prize is a national poetry award for first or second books by women. “Grayling” was chosen from nearly 600 submissions.
Set in the temperate rainforest of Southeast Alaska and the Pacific Coast, “Grayling” moves through the interior wilderness of a woman shaped by and inhabiting the rough country of her upbringing. The poet writes back into her circle a father who was both threat and savior, a sister who died too young and herself as mother. Fish, plant life, the Northwest coastal landscape, memory and experience weave together as “Grayling” straddles the faultline between past and present.
Poet Erin Belieu said of “Grayling,” “Lawrence’s voice is pulled tight by oppositions: seeking and restless, but with a formal discipline and precision that shape and contain the poems’ appealing, subterranean energies. It’s a beautiful, thoughtfully-made book, showing this craftswoman at her finest.”
Lawrence is a civil engineering technician and edits Crab Creek Review. Her first book is “One Hundred Steps from Shore.” Her awards include the Orlando Poetry Prize, the James Hearst Poetry Prize, the Potomac Review Poetry Prize, and a Washington State Artist Trust GAP Grant.
From “Grayling”:
In the House on Gastineau Channel
My sister ironed her dress
on a bath towel laid over the walnut table.
Heat lifted the varnish and shaped
a milk cloud of a missing girl.
November tides flushed blue
clay and cobbles from beneath the deck,
saltwater freezing to creosote pilings like pitch.
Curly dark-haired dog, a salmon-catcher
with a retriever’s soft mouth, and she,
third from our mother’s womb.
The baneberry grew like a prophet.
Behind the outhouse, we nailed
siding in a Sitka spruce, a platform
big enough for a sleeping bag and book.
Above us, scolding, the red
squirrel with a turquoise tumor
like a jewel piercing its eyelid.
* * *
Meet author Matthew Hoggins at Barnes & Noble
Matthew Hoggins of Port Orchard will sign copies of his book, “A Speedy Story,” 11:30 a.m. to noon July 11 at Barnes & Noble, in the Kitsap Mall.
Read Speedy’s story and find out how such a tiny turtle can make such a big impact and create a friendship that spans generations.
From the book:
He doesn’t open his mouth, so he does not talk.
He has no bones, so he does not walk.
He doesn’t have a nose, so he can’t even sneeze.
Plus he is green and fuzzy, like old, moldy cheese.
He is a turtle that is not even real.
A little stuffed toy, what’s the big deal?
