#3728: Haitian Poet Wins Prize (fwd msg) (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Siu Press at www.si.edu/~siupress / e-mail: <jnathan@siu.edu>


Please allow me to forward the following news release from Southern
Illinois University Press's web page.

For further information on this posting, point your web browser to:
http://www.siu.edu/~siupress/news_release/phipps_news.htm  
http://www.siu.edu/~siupress/titles/s00_titles/phipps_crossroads.htm   

NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
CONTACT: Dan Seiters <danseit@siu.edu>

PRIZE-WINNING HAITIAN POET
"EMBRACES AWE AND WOE THROUGH CURSES AND PRAISE"* 

Award-winning poet Lucia Perillo has named CROSSROADS AND UNHOLY WATER by
Marilene Phipps winner of the second annual Crab Orchard Award Series in
Poetry. CROSSROADS AND UNHOLY WATER (87 pages, $11.95 paper, April 1) is
being published jointly by The Crab Orchard Review and by Southern Illinois
University Press.

The three sections of the book -- "Caribbean Beginnings," "Life in
Nirhtte," and "Vigils" -- follow the organic pattern of life's stages. The
voyage is life itself.  It starts in, and meanders through Haiti.  It is
made by people who might stare at the sun, see if it will incense or blind
them, people whose madness is defiance and strength. We enter their story
directly when they call us to attention.  We enter their poetry indirectly
when an invisible portraitist paints and chisels them in full complexity,
hesitation, and color.

Edwidge Danticat calls Phipps an "exquisite poet," and Lucia Perillo says
"these poems do not fade even after the last page is turned."

"CROSSROADS AND UNHOLY WATER is a first book by Marilene Phipps, but this
wonderful collection embodies a fully initiated voice that dares some old
truths through youthful language. These poems are earned; they are woven
around the breast-pin of experience. In fact, this collection embraces awe
and woe through curses and praise that unearth a meeting place for the
unspeakable as well as culminant beauty-a book of acknowledgment and
ritual."

-Yusef Komunyakaa,* author of Thieves of Paradise and Neon Vernacular