November 17, 2004

Boise State's Ahsahta Press Publishes Island By Charles O. Hartman

Ahsahta Press at Boise State University announces the publication of Island, a collection of poems by Charles O. Hartman, author of five previous books of poetry including Glass Enclosures and The Long View. “If poets are lucky to study everything,” the Boston Book Review has written, “Hartman’s wide-ranging and inventive mind is one of the luckiest writing. His poems are our good fortune.” Hartman’s new book is inspired by the culture of Greece, from the inhabitants and views of the Greek island of Aegina to the Greek alphabet (including the numerical meaning of pi). Hartman takes his passionate and perceptive intelligence so determinedly into his project that he includes eight poems he wrote in Greek and translated back into English. The influences of Greek poets from Homer to Ritsos, compounding his own encompassing lyric gift, allow him to explore and rhapsodize on the meaning of being, leaving and coming home. “Tambourine,” which opens the book, begins Now:/ I walk a coast brilliant as dragon glass/ for water flinging splinters chaotic alongside/and in the distance long orders of island/ spun for the occasion out of morning/ corporeal light/ as mythical violence sets a bloodline running…. The sentence continues on, but in addition to the imagery, readers are invited to note that Hartman’s poem is based upon the number pi: its first word has three letters; the second, one; the third, four; and the rest of the poem abides by the patterning. The poet Fanny Howe has praised Hartman’s “ease with English language rhythms and his innate references to a kind of Shakespearean swell of wit, paradox, and metaphor.” He is the author of critical books including Virtual Muse: Experiments in Computer Poetry; Jazz Text: Voice and Improvisation in Poetry, Jazz, and Song; and Free Verse: An Essay on Prosody. His interdisciplinary mastery of language, music and their architectures feed his poetry, transforming into work instantly recognizable as his own. Island marks the 65th book from Ahsahta Press. Ahsahta, Mandan for “Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep,” has produced volumes by such poets as Liz Waldner, Graham Foust, Dan Beachy-Quick, Lisa Fishman, Linda Bierds, and Sandra Alcosser. The press awards a $1,500 prize for the best manuscript of poetry submitted between Jan. 1 and March 1 each year. Island is available from the BSU Bookstore, 1910 University Drive, Boise, ID 83725; from Small  Press Distribution (http://www.spdbooks.org); and directly from Ahsahta Press at http://ahsahtapress.boisestate.edu. -30- Island, by Charles O. Hartman ISBN 0-916272-80-X, paper 6" X 8" 124 pages $14.95 Contact: Janet Holmes, Ahsahta Press director, (208) 426-2195, jholmes@boisestate.edu Media Contact: Kathleen Craven, University Relations, (208) 426-3275, kcraven@boisestate.edu