George Witte's Blog, page 7
January 31, 2017
Howard Frank Mosher
I can't express how lucky I was to work with Howard Frank Mosher on his novel God's Kingdom. After a very short bout with cancer, Howard passed away on January 29, 2017, surrounded by family and friends.
For all who loved Howard and his work: we will miss him and value him and re-read him. No one knew or loved Vermont as he did, and his evocation of the Northern Kingdom past and present will take its place among other great American fictional worlds, including Faulkner's, Fred Chappell's, Stegner's, Welty's, and others who have opened up places and people we otherwise would never know.
For those who haven't read Howard Frank Mosher: I hope God's Kingdom will be a doorway to all of his books.
We can all look forward to his final book, Points North, a collection of stories set in the Northern Kingdom of Vermont and featuring the Kinneson family, which will be published by St. Martin's Press in early 2018.
God's Kingdom
For all who loved Howard and his work: we will miss him and value him and re-read him. No one knew or loved Vermont as he did, and his evocation of the Northern Kingdom past and present will take its place among other great American fictional worlds, including Faulkner's, Fred Chappell's, Stegner's, Welty's, and others who have opened up places and people we otherwise would never know.
For those who haven't read Howard Frank Mosher: I hope God's Kingdom will be a doorway to all of his books.
We can all look forward to his final book, Points North, a collection of stories set in the Northern Kingdom of Vermont and featuring the Kinneson family, which will be published by St. Martin's Press in early 2018.
God's Kingdom
January 3, 2017
Spider from Mars--new book on David Bowie by Woody Woodmansey
Bowie fans: this is a memoir by Woody Woodmansey, the drummer in Spiders from Mars who played on Bowie's core albums and was there at the center of his self-creation.
I'm thrilled to work with Woody on his book and hope Bowie fans will find it as rewarding as I do.
For a taste, here's an interview with Woody on Vice's music site, just up:
https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article...
Spider from Mars: My Life with Bowie
I'm thrilled to work with Woody on his book and hope Bowie fans will find it as rewarding as I do.
For a taste, here's an interview with Woody on Vice's music site, just up:
https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article...
Spider from Mars: My Life with Bowie
November 15, 2016
This Broken Shore--new issue just out
I'm delighted to have my poem "Touch and Go" published in the just-released new issue of This Broken Shore, edited by Daniel Weeks and Gregg G. Brown, which presents a range of writers from New Jersey.
Other contributors that I know, have read with, or at least admire from a distance include Susanna Rich, Michael Waters, Thomas Reiter, Prescott Evarts, and Linda Muhlhausen.
Here's a link in case readers want to explore fiction, poetry, and essays from NJ:
This Broken Shore 2016
Other contributors that I know, have read with, or at least admire from a distance include Susanna Rich, Michael Waters, Thomas Reiter, Prescott Evarts, and Linda Muhlhausen.
Here's a link in case readers want to explore fiction, poetry, and essays from NJ:
This Broken Shore 2016
September 10, 2016
September 11, 2001
Twenty three years ago, I was finishing up a business breakfast with a literary agent at a place on 20th Street and Broadway, a few blocks from my office in the Flatiron Building. The windows in this restaurant were frosted, so we couldn't see out.
The bill arrived, and I handed the waitperson my credit card. She returned minutes later, apologizing that the card machine was down for some reason and could we pay cash? Between the two of us, my colleague and I scrounged enough bills and change and walked outside, into a brilliant September morning.
Broadway stood still: cars and taxis and buses stopped, people in the streets, all staring downtown. We turned and saw the first building in flame. One of us (I forget which) said, "Uh-oh." We looked quietly at each other and went our separate ways.
In the office, colleagues had gathered at windows on the south side of the Flatiron, which faces directly down Fifth Avenue. Some were on the phone, trying to reach spouses or loved ones; one was concerned about a relative who might have been in the still-standing building. All of us assumed a terrible accident had occurred--until the second building erupted. At that moment we began making arrangements to evacuate and, somehow, to get home or to a place of safety.
After an hour or more, I made my way to the Hudson River, where a flotilla of boats--some official, some volunteers--had assembled to carry thousands of passengers out of the city to New Jersey. Upon arrival at Hoboken, certain passengers who had stumbled the mile or more from downtown to reach the boats, many of them in shock or weeping, were divided after disembarking into a separate line and rinsed of dust and debris. I walked home to our apartment, where my wife waited anxiously and our three year old prepared to leave with her sitter to go to the park. We elected to stay put, rather than risking a car drive out of town into a panicky and jammed highway system. Every TV channel showed the same images, over and over. From our small balcony we watched the plume, thick and black and more solid than smoke should be, blow east over Brooklyn and to sea.
Years later, thinking about this day, I wrote this poem:
Uh-oh
No photograph records
that day’s unmaking roar.
Things ripped from skins,
words from definitions.
Letters distilled until
incomprehensible,
whistles, clicks, thrummed diphthongs
an underwater song
too deep for human ears.
We wept, or cursed in fear,
beseeched unanswered phones
Please God, alone,
walked home in single file.
The broken and defiled
crept close within our space,
affording grace
we disregarded, lost:
two beams a blackened cross,
missing person fliers,
watch warped by fire.
No explanation why;
the perfect alibi
your word, no witnesses.
You saw this coming, yes?
Our brazen structures razed,
immense collapse the praise
you craved, that roar’s
descending, perfect chord.
Deniability
The bill arrived, and I handed the waitperson my credit card. She returned minutes later, apologizing that the card machine was down for some reason and could we pay cash? Between the two of us, my colleague and I scrounged enough bills and change and walked outside, into a brilliant September morning.
Broadway stood still: cars and taxis and buses stopped, people in the streets, all staring downtown. We turned and saw the first building in flame. One of us (I forget which) said, "Uh-oh." We looked quietly at each other and went our separate ways.
In the office, colleagues had gathered at windows on the south side of the Flatiron, which faces directly down Fifth Avenue. Some were on the phone, trying to reach spouses or loved ones; one was concerned about a relative who might have been in the still-standing building. All of us assumed a terrible accident had occurred--until the second building erupted. At that moment we began making arrangements to evacuate and, somehow, to get home or to a place of safety.
After an hour or more, I made my way to the Hudson River, where a flotilla of boats--some official, some volunteers--had assembled to carry thousands of passengers out of the city to New Jersey. Upon arrival at Hoboken, certain passengers who had stumbled the mile or more from downtown to reach the boats, many of them in shock or weeping, were divided after disembarking into a separate line and rinsed of dust and debris. I walked home to our apartment, where my wife waited anxiously and our three year old prepared to leave with her sitter to go to the park. We elected to stay put, rather than risking a car drive out of town into a panicky and jammed highway system. Every TV channel showed the same images, over and over. From our small balcony we watched the plume, thick and black and more solid than smoke should be, blow east over Brooklyn and to sea.
Years later, thinking about this day, I wrote this poem:
Uh-oh
No photograph records
that day’s unmaking roar.
Things ripped from skins,
words from definitions.
Letters distilled until
incomprehensible,
whistles, clicks, thrummed diphthongs
an underwater song
too deep for human ears.
We wept, or cursed in fear,
beseeched unanswered phones
Please God, alone,
walked home in single file.
The broken and defiled
crept close within our space,
affording grace
we disregarded, lost:
two beams a blackened cross,
missing person fliers,
watch warped by fire.
No explanation why;
the perfect alibi
your word, no witnesses.
You saw this coming, yes?
Our brazen structures razed,
immense collapse the praise
you craved, that roar’s
descending, perfect chord.
Deniability
August 24, 2016
New poems in Hopkins Review
The venerable Hopkins Review has re-launched after many decades' hiatus, with David Yezzi as editor. I'm proud to have two new poems in the just-released issue, contents below:
http://hopkinsreview.jhu.edu/current-...
Please consider subscribing to support this fine journal's new beginning.
http://hopkinsreview.jhu.edu/current-...
Please consider subscribing to support this fine journal's new beginning.
August 22, 2016
The Outside Lands by Hannah Kohler publishes tomorrow
This first novel is a pitch-perfect, dramatic portrait of a family living through intense crisis, both personal and national, and the moral compromises of a young mother as she tries to exonerate her younger brother of a terrible Vietnam war crime. Set in San Francisco 1968 and the burgeoning anti-war movement, The Outside Lands captures many of the same divisions in America that the current election has revived.
Here is a link to Lionel Shriver's recommendation in The Financial Times: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/2c4c90cc-3e...
Yes, I am the book's editor, but also a passionate fan, and hope this post will help spread word to at least a few readers.
The Outside Lands
Here is a link to Lionel Shriver's recommendation in The Financial Times: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/2c4c90cc-3e...
Yes, I am the book's editor, but also a passionate fan, and hope this post will help spread word to at least a few readers.
The Outside Lands
August 2, 2016
META-LAND: Poets of the Palisades II Book Launch
I'm proud to have poems in this new anthology, and wish I could participate in this launch event--but will be away on vacation. Congratulations poets of Meta-Land!
Date: Saturday, August 6, 2016 at 7 PM
Place: Classic Quiche Café, 330 Queen Anne Road, Teaneck New Jersey
The Book Launch for the highly-anticipated new poetry anthology META-LAND: Poets of the Palisades II will take place this coming Saturday! More than 35 well-regarded poets from the tri-state area will recite their work.
This important new anthology is divided into 11 themed sections, with work by 58 poets featured in the acclaimed North Jersey Literary Series, as well as original art from the same network of poets and artists!
META-LAND: Poets of the Palisades II is now available on AMAZON and through The Poets Press http://astore.amazon.com/poetspress-2...
Date: Saturday, August 6, 2016 at 7 PM
Place: Classic Quiche Café, 330 Queen Anne Road, Teaneck New Jersey
The Book Launch for the highly-anticipated new poetry anthology META-LAND: Poets of the Palisades II will take place this coming Saturday! More than 35 well-regarded poets from the tri-state area will recite their work.
This important new anthology is divided into 11 themed sections, with work by 58 poets featured in the acclaimed North Jersey Literary Series, as well as original art from the same network of poets and artists!
META-LAND: Poets of the Palisades II is now available on AMAZON and through The Poets Press http://astore.amazon.com/poetspress-2...
July 25, 2016
Normativity by Jaime Jarrett
This is a terrific new musical that debuted (just closed its run) at the New York Musical Festival over this past week:
http://www.normativitymusical.com/
Congratulations Jaime Jarrett and to the dynamic cast of the show! I think Normativity would appeal to college and high school theater programs, much as Spring Awakening did, and recommend it to theater program directors and educators as a musical that explores in provocative depth what "normal" means for young people who struggle against how it is culturally defined.
http://www.normativitymusical.com/
Congratulations Jaime Jarrett and to the dynamic cast of the show! I think Normativity would appeal to college and high school theater programs, much as Spring Awakening did, and recommend it to theater program directors and educators as a musical that explores in provocative depth what "normal" means for young people who struggle against how it is culturally defined.
April 29, 2016
Dwight Garner reviews The Adventurist by J. Bradford Hipps
I can't recommend this novel highly enough; if you are a fan of Walker Percy's The Moviegoer (or, perhaps more apt, The Last Gentleman), The Adventurist will touch that same chord. Dwight Garner says it better than I can:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/boo...
The Adventurist: A Novel
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/boo...
The Adventurist: A Novel
April 28, 2016
Giveaway of The Apparitioners for National Poetry Month
I'm offering 10 copies of my first book, The Apparitioners--hardcover, dust jacket, color endpapers, beautifully designed, and signed--for National Poetry Month (extending a bit into May). Sign up to enter here:
