News Release
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January 19, 2006
Boise State�s Ahsahta Press Releases Two New Works
Boise State University�s Ahsahta Press has released two new books of poetry:
67 Mixed Messages by Ed Allen and Knowledge, Forms, the Aviary
by Karla Kelsey, the winner of the Sawtooth Poetry Prize.
Knowledge, Forms, the Aviary was selected by Carolyn Forche for the
prize. Forche, author of The Blue Hour, The Angel of History and The
Country Between Us, is a professor at Skidmore College. Forche wrote
of Kelsey in her introduction, �(Her) gift is for the inter-subjective
lyric, the �we of interdependence � What Kelsey has given us in lyric form
(is) another world, wherein the reader may enter and become awake.�
Kelsey, who lives in Susquehanna, Penn., draws her imagery from philosophy,
and particularly from Plato�s Theaetetus, a Socratic dialogue. �Socrates
envisions the mind as a type of aviary,� Kelsey said in a pre-publication
interview. �Birds of knowledge fly around and the thinker/knower plucks them
down when he or she wants to use them.�
Born in southern California, Karla Kelsey trained as a classical ballet
dancer while earning degrees from UCLA, the University of Iowa�s Writer�s
Workshop, and the University of Denver. She teaches at Susquehanna
University in Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband. Knowledge,
Forms, the Aviary is her first book.
Allen�s book 67 Mixed Messages centers around Suzi, the
breathtakingly beautiful but hopelessly elusive love object of a middle-aged
professor who identifies as gay. Absurd but heartbreaking, this cycle of
traditional sonnets is spiked with puns and literary references.
�With breathtaking ease, Ed Allen takes on the whole tradition of the
sonnet, from Shakespeare to Frost, and emerges a clear winner,� wrote poet
R.S. Gwynn. �After finishing 67 Mixed Messages, I found myself
echoing Allen�s constant refrain, �I love you, Suzi, too.� �
Allen, a professor at the University of South Dakota-Vermillion, is the
winner of the Flannery O�Connor Prize in Short Fiction from the University
of Georgia Press for his book Ate It Anyway. He is the author of the
novels Mustang Sally (produced as the movie Easy Six in 2003) and
Straight Through the Night.
Ahsahta Press, which is Mandan for �Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep,� has
produced volumes by such poets as Graham Foust, Sandra Miller, Brigitte
Byrd, Noah Eli Gordon, Dan Beachy-Quick, Lisa Fishman, Lance Phillips,
Heather Sellers and Ethan Paquin.
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Contact: Janet Holmes, English Department, (208) 426-2195,
ahsahta@boisestate.edu
Media Contact: Julie Hahn, University Communications, (208) 426-5540,
juliehahn@boisestate.edu
Boise State University is the largest institution of higher education in
Idaho with about 18,600 students and 2,200 faculty and staff. More than 190
undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and technical degrees are offered within
eight colleges. A metropolitan university located in the capital city, Boise
State is committed to life-enhancing research, teaching excellence and
public service.
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Last reviewed on Wednesday, January 03, 2007