Authors - N
Sheryl Lynne Nelms brings us Friday Night Desperate (IM Press, 1996), a collection of erotically-charged poetry. As one reviewer puts it, "Sheryl Nelms dissects the night and human sexuality with the compassion of a poet and the power of a chain-saw," a good description of these lively, sharp-witted, lean poems dissecting the Dallas-Fort Worth bar scene. 60 pages.
Seeking Shelter (Four-sep), 2004) and A Stranger To The Land (Garden Street Press, 1997) come from the pen of perpetual nomad Michael L. Newell and combine childhood memories with far-reaching poems of his travels, especially in the Mid-east where he has lived and taught for many years. Poet Benjamin Saltman describes Newell’s poems as being "celebrations and tributes, tight and straight," transforming sadness like the blues. (updated 2006)
*** Fixture of the literary scene, B.Z. Niditch, brings us Boston, Fall and Other Poems (Encircle 2008) - scroll down for book). His poems are inventive and, like William Carlos Williams, are grounded in things. But the poet adds a twist of the surreal to the concrete as he writes about the somber times of the year, the Massachusetts landscape and finds the universal. (Added 4/08)
Parallel to the Horizon
(Pudding House, 2007), by Ann Floreen Niedringhaus, is a skillful thirty-page chapbook, much of its poetry set in Minnesota, with poems about Duluth and the landscape of Lake Superior. There are, in fact, many landscapes, both exterior and interior. She writes about love, marriage and family, and includes two interesting ghazals and three prose poems. This is altogether a varied and satisfying read. (Added 12/07.)Barbra Nightingale's Singing in the Key of L (NFSPS Prress,1999) is a sheer delight. Winner of the 1996 Stevens Poetry Manuscript Award, the poems are often surprising and scary, sometimes bawdy, and manage to be both funny and sad. Best of all, they are totally genuine. She also has a Greatest Hits (Pudding House, 2000) out, with a dozen of her best poems; only four are repeats.
Ashes from a Long-Dead Fire (Salt Fire, 1989), A Deed to Precious Property (1986), and Parochial Habits (1983) come from the pen of Kathleen Bryce Niles and demonstrate her skill with narrative verse that reaches the heart, as she recounts the stories of neighborhood people, real and imagined, during both times of tragedy and the common miracles of everyday life. The first-mentioned book is a series of persona poems telling the story of the Collins Block fire.
Will Nixon's chapbook When I Had It Made (Pudding House, 2001) consists of sixteen poems, some recounting childhood memories, others depict a more cotemporary life. Nixon writes in a discursive ramble that possesses its own unique appeal and he cherishes the particular.
Viewpoint (Hobblebush, 2006) is the absolutely stunning collection of the poetry of Juli Nunlist, the talented poet and musician born in 1916, but ageless as an artist, and collected here by Susan Roney-O’Brien and Patricia Fargnoli, editors. The poems are elegant, moving, impeccable crafted. Don Sheehan says they have the "beauty of illumined slenderness." This is highly recommended; I was brought to tears. www.hobblebush.com (added 2006)