News Release

PRESS NEWS / February 5, 2007

Boise State University's Ahsahta Press Release 2007 Sawtooth Poetry Prize Winner, 'The True Keeps Calm Biding Its Story'

Boise State University’s Ahsahta Press has released its 2007 Sawtooth Poetry Prize winner, “The True Keeps Calm Biding Its Story,” by Rusty Morrison.

Morrison, of Richmond, Calif., became the sixth winner of the prize last year when poet Peter Gizzi selected her manuscript for the $1,500 award. The book had recently also won the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, a prize for a manuscript in progress. Ahsahta Press is publishing her second book.

The poems in “The True Keeps Calm Biding Its Story” give a step-by-step accounting of the speaker’s transformation as she reconciles herself to the death of her father. Gizzi called it “a joyous read and a remarkable book.”

“Publisher’s Weekly” gave the book a starred review, saying “Morrison’s vamp on grief not only draws readers’ attention to the tenuous capacity of language to manage loss, but also leaves the reader moved by what comes to feel like an intensely intimate work.”

Ahsahta Press has been attracting attention from the national media. Another Ahsahta Press book, “Case Sensitive” by Kate Greenstreet, was listed recently in the New York Times Book Review as one of the top 10 independent poetry bestsellers. In addition, the press released another book this spring: “Realm Sixty-Four” by Kristi Maxwell. These releases, as well as more information about Ahsahta Press, can be found at http://ahsahtapress.boisestate.edu. 

Ahsahta, which is Mandan for “Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep,” has produced volumes by poets such as Graham Foust, Linda Dyer, Noah Eli Gordon, Dan Beachy-Quick, Lisa Fishman, Lance Phillips, Heather Sellers, Sandra Alcosser, David Baker, Linda Bierds and Wyn Cooper.


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Media Contact: Julie Hahn, University Communications, (208) 426-5540, juliehahn@boisestate.edu

Boise State University is emerging as a metropolitan research university of distinction. This transformation is being powered by the university’s first comprehensive campaign to support students, faculty, strategic initiatives, research and infrastructure. That’s why the campaign to raise $175 million in private support is called Destination Distinction.

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Last reviewed on Tuesday, February 05, 2008