Kirjahaku

My Vacation in Hell is a young adult dark fantasy. Set in the mid-1960s, it is a first person narrative by a 15-year-old writer named John Boggle. A troubled nerdy misfit and a frequent flyer of his imagination, John is inspired by a book report reading of Dante Alighieri's the Inferno. In the eternity of the five minutes before summer vacation, he embarks on a pilgrimage based upon his own free-wheeling interpretation of the work.Following Dante's lead, John populates his hell with all the people who have wronged him over the years, inventing deliciously cruel punishments for each of them in his teenage version of cosmic retribution. Aided by his best friend Virgil, a trusty guide in this shared imagination, John also struggles to come to terms with the world's many evils. And as he descends further into this realm, he constructs his own hierarchy of evildoers, assigning them to the levels he believes they deserve.But it is the evil perpetrated upon John, a victim of sexual abuse, which poses the most difficult challenge. The deeper he goes, the more he encounters obstacles, some of whom in the guise of colorful demon characters try their best to keep him there. But the worst obstacle of all is his own self-image, forged out of guilt and shame. He will not leave this hell of his own making, Virgil tells him, until he learns how to deal with the evil inflicted upon him and finds the true center of his being.Fortunately, he has other help besides the ever wise Virgil, who it turns out has a few problems of his own to deal with. John needs more than reason to get him through this, and divinely beautiful aid arrives in the form of Beth, an idealized version of his secret love. Rescuing the pair from the evil that threatens to consume them, she will guide John in the last stage of his spiritual odyssey. She shows him that there are even some good places in Hell, just as there is always some good, however slight, that comes from our worst experiences. Though disturbing at times due to its mature theme, My Vacation in Hell delivers a message of hope with a large dose of humor.

In Gene Twaronite's Death at the Mall, a wry and earnest take on the human predicament is everywhere apparent -our desires and follies, our great possibilities and perpetual undoing are all on display. But here too is an underlying sweetness in the poems that perseveres: an orientation of wonder and astonishment, often brought on by the world itself, in all its unknowable splendor, or brought on by the fecklessness of our actions in the face of the grander forces that shape our days. Twaronite's formal interest and dexterity are on full display in these selected works-whether sestinas spooling out, or the sonic energy of an interior rhyme, or riffs on Marianne Moore or Gertrude Stein. In his poem "Distress," Twaronite recounts the occasion of coming upon a beached sea lion in distress, "an inscrutable moment / between me and one sea lion / sharing the common anxiety / of where the next blow will fall, / trying to make sense of it all." In the crucible of Twaronite's poems, we see the things we are made of with rigorous attention, made new by a capacious imagination. -Tyler Meier, Executive Director, University of Arizona Poetry CenterGene Twaronite's latest collection, Death at the Mall: New and Selected Poems, could easily be labeled a "candy store of poetry delights." Twaronite has amassed such a rich cornucopia of poems that readers will want to keep coming back to their favorite "flavors" of style and theme. Employing a wide range of forms, Twaronite engages his audience with serious yet wry story-telling, poignant personal experiences, and in-depth imagery that enriches the work. Anyone who appreciates the art and craft of poetry and its full range of sensibilities will be attuned to the poetic voice that makes this collection insightful and enjoyable.-Alan Perry, Co-Managing Editor, RockPaperPoem and author, Clerk of the Dead Praise for What the Gargoyle Sees"... playfully haunting and hauntingly playful."-TC Tolbert, Tucson Poet Laureate Praise for Shopping Cart Dreams"In these poems ... our senses awaken to new ways of perceiving what has been before us for years."-Richard Newhauser, Professor, Department of English, Arizona State University

What the Gargoyle Sees is a collection of new and selected poems ranging from science fiction and fantasy to myth, horror, and fairy tale retellings. Flipping perspective and helping us see anew, Gene Twaronite's What the Gargoyle Sees is playfully haunting and hauntingly playful. Full of sincerity and surprise, these poems help us see, "We are each a wholly trinity." Twaronite's formal dexterity delights with multiple meanings and swerves. Here is a world where gallivanting, thankfully, is not dead. What a gift TC Tolbert, Tucson Poet LaureateWhat the Gargoyle Sees pairs creative settings with a realist's eye-the book is full of moving poems that put Twaronite's contemporary sensibility in settings rooted in myth, history, and invention. From the interstellar to the metaphysical, the poems take their occasions imaginatively-but rarely remain in the imagination alone. Instead, Twaronite melds the fabular with the particulars of lived experience. What the gargoyle truly sees, in the end, is the world we've made. It is what I like most about these poems: the way they start in the ether but find meaning in the heart. Tyler J. Meier, Executive Director, University of Arizona Poetry CenterFrom the poignancy of what the gargoyle sees of the children in the war-torn streets below to the magic glow you can experience in four o'clock light when reason gives way to wonder, Gene's poetry can often be surprising and thought-provoking, yet written with an honest simplicity that makes them so enjoyable to read. As the yellow snake says to Gene, "I only wanted to tell you] a story to live in for a time and forget."Susan Shell Winston, Editor at NewMyths.com & Author of Singer of Norgondy