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News Release January 23, 2007
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“In No One’s Land” and “Bone Pagoda” are available from the BSU Bookstore; from
Small Press Distribution (www.spdbooks.org);
and directly from Ahsahta Press athttp://ahsahtapress.boisestate.edu.
Subscribers to the 2006‑2007 season of Ahsahta Press books receive both books at
a discount with free shipping; details are available at
http://ahsahtapress.boisestate.edu.
“In No One’s Land” by Paige Ackerson-Kiely won the 2006 prize, which was judged
by D.A. Powell. Chosen from among 500 entries, Ackerson-Kiely’s book contains
“haunted and compelling” poems, according to poet David Wojahn.
“These are not the poems born of quiet contemplation; they are edgy and lurid,
painfully administering to the world of convenience stores, diners, one-night
stands,” Powell writes of the collection. “ ‘In No One’s Land,’ stakes a claim
on wilderness and, most assuredly, manages to homestead there.”
Janet Holmes, director of Ahsahta Press, says that “Paige’s poems strike you on
the first reading. She has a rawness in her poetry, as in the line, ‘Hello, I
was forgotten,’ that makes you sit up and ask yourself, ‘What just happened?’
But there’s a vital sense of observation and imagination at work, too: ‘It is
late and the waitress is shining cutlery, folding cloth squares into neat little
tents a boy who is small for his age might imagine sleeping under.’ ”
Ackerson-Kiely received a $1,500 award and the publication of her book as her
award for the prize. She lives in Lincoln, Vt.
Susan Tichy received the National Poetry Series award for her first book, “The
Hands in Exile.” Her third, “Bone Pagoda,” released by Ahsahta Press this week,
is a personal journey through “Vietnam” — the country, the war, and the moral
catastrophe signified by this word in American memory.
“These poems are at once angry, elegiac and yet marked by a severe beauty,”
writes poet and critic Michael Heller, “striking poems, ‘enlisted in the cause
of something real.’ ”
Tichy writes about the infiltration of a small underground anti-war newspaper by
a young man she dated who was later revealed to have been a spy for the CIA,
determined to discover a Chinese source for the paper’s funding. A young war
resister herself, Tichy later married a Vietnam veteran, and their trip together
to that country added dimension and complexity to her already thoughtful
consideration of America’s — and her own — involvement.
“There are so many tangents to Susan’s story,” Holmes said. “She is clearly
searching for the truth amidst her conflicting allegiances, both in historical
terms and in terms of language — she writes with a level of searing honesty
rarely seen.”
Tichy, a professor at George Mason University, serves as poetry editor of the
journal Practice: New Writing + Art. When not teaching, she lives in a ghost
town in the southern Colorado Rockies.
Ahsahta Press, an all‑poetry imprint at Boise State University, has been
publishing since 1974. The name “Ahsahta” comes from the Mandan word for a Rocky
Mountain bighorn sheep, and was first recorded during the Lewis and Clark
expedition.
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Contact: Janet Holmes, Ahsahta Press, (208) 426-2195,
jholmes@boisestate.edu
Media Contact: Julie Hahn, University Communications, (208) 426-5540,
juliehahn@boisestate.edu
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Last reviewed on Tuesday, February 27, 2007
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