Of Whiskey and Winter
AUTHOR
Peter Conners
INTRODUCTION BY
Peter Johnson
A stunning collection of prose poems that grapple with the distance between dreams and hard realities. Praised by Naomi Shihab Nye for their keen sensitivity, dreaminess, and wit, with vibrant layering of image and detail (AbeBooks), these poems move through memory, fatherhood, and the mysteries of everyday life with remarkable depth. By turns manic and contemplative, zany and wise, Conners' rollicking poems have the power to simultaneously challenge, illuminate and praise the illusive character of the world (Biblio). Rochester-based poet and BOA Editions editor Peter Conners crafts language that invites readers to look deeper, to discover the thing behind the other thing—poetry that disorients the familiar and uses odd juxtapositions to alter our sense of where we are. Published by White Pine Press, this collection showcases a distinct voice in contemporary prose poetry.
Reviews
“Peter Conners' stunning prose poems are packed with keen sensitivity, dreaminess, and wit. I love his time travels, the vibrant layering of image and detail. This is language and vision I want to come home to again and again.”
—Naomi Shihab Nye
“I don’t know what’s more remarkable about the poems in Of Whiskey and Winter, their exquisite music or their startling, acrobatic leaps. By turns manic and contemplative, zany and wise, his rollicking poems have the power to simultaneously challenge, illuminate and praise the illusive character of the world.”
—Gary Young
Peter Johnson was born in Buffalo, New York. He received his BA from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and his MA and PhD in English from the University of New Hampshire. He is the winner of the 2001 James Laughlin Award for his second collection of prose poems, Miracles & Mortifications (2001).
His other books include Eduardo & "I" (White Pine, 2006), Pretty Happy! (1997), and the chapbook Love Poems for the Millennium (1998). He is also the author of a novel, What Happened (Front Street Books, 2007), as well as a collection of short stories, I'm a Man (2003).
Johnson is the founder and editor of The Prose Poem: An International Journal and the editor of The Best of The Prose Poem: An International Journal (White Pine Press, 2000).
Peter Conners is the author of ten books of poetry, nonfiction and fiction, including the prose poetry collections, Of Whiskey and Winter and The Crows Were Laughing in Their Trees. He also edited the ground-breaking prose poetry/flash fiction anthology PP/FF: An Anthology, as well as an issue of American Book Review dedicated to prose poetry/flash fiction, and was founding editor of Double Room: A Journal of Prose Poetry and Flash Fiction. In his nonfiction books, he has documented music and countercultural communities in such books as Growing Up Dead: The Hallucinated Confessions of a Teenage Deadhead; JAMerica: The History of the Jam Band and Festival Scene; Cornell ‘77: The Music, The Myth, and the Magnificence of the Grateful Dead’s Concert at Barton Hall; and White Hand Society: The Psychedelic Partnership of Timothy Leary & Allen Ginsberg. His books have been published by White Pine Press, Da Capo Press, City Lights, Cornell University Press, Starcherone Books, and Marick Press. He lives with his family in Rochester, NY where he works as Publisher and Executive Director of the award-winning independent publishing house BOA Editions. His website is: www.peterconners.com