About the Book
"This diverse collection celebrates the power of poetry, blending emotional unburdening with joyful wordplay . . . a wild ride through a poetic landscape of trauma, tradition, and whimsy" -- Kirkus Reviews
"At its best, the collection touches on greatness . . . 13 Poets from Long Island has plenty to amuse and provoke thought among lovers of poetry" -- IndieReader "Skillfully written and beautifully assembled, this anthology offers poems that come alive with emotions and melody" -- Cynthia Shor, Executive Director, Walt Whitman Birthplace Association There's a centenarian and a soon-to-be centenarian, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter who was an applicant for the NASA Journalist in Space Project, an NFL running back on New York Jets teams with Joe Namath, a world traveler who's been to the Arctic and Antarctica, a Hungarian refugee whose family escaped the Holocaust and, later, Soviet rule, a former female U.S. Marine who's a Poet Laureate, a philosopher who had talk show host Dick Cavett's father as a teacher and once got a ventriloquism lesson from future Tonight Show legend Johnny Carson, a poet who met President Bill Clinton, acted with future Love Boat captain Gavin MacLeod and slept on a resort mattress once graced by Marilyn Monroe and Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, and a co-founder of Doctors Without Borders U.S.A. who was in the first class of women - and, first women's basketball player - at Princeton University.
And that's just some of the 13 poets whose life experiences and keen observations are transformed into this refreshing, often breathtaking, collection of more than 180 poems.
Edited by Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and author John A. Valenti 3rd and former Nassau County Poet Laureate Evelyn Kandel, this collection includes their work and the work of a group of inspiring amateur poets: Hattie Abbey, Hank Bjorklund, Victoria Bjorklund, Lila Edelkind, John Lange, George Pafitis, Gladys Thompson Roth, Sheila Saferstein, George Strausman, Susan Aster Wallman and Judith Zilberstein. This amazing collection of poets met in a class taught by Kandel, a former U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant who appeared on a 1952 U.S. Postage Stamp featuring "Women in Our Armed Services." Quite simply, their work inspires, covering a wide array of subjects -- love, war, life, death, age, affliction, homelessness, gun violence, genocide, philosophical debate and a range of lighter, off-the-cuff, everyday fun and amusement.
Executive Director of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association Cynthia Shor said of 13 Poets from Long Island: " 'Where Do Poems Come From?' asks one of the poets in this outstanding collection of 13 Long Island poets. Enter and you will be captivated with a multitude of inspirational origins - from Penn Station to Poseidon's briny kingdom, from Marilyn Monroe's mattress to a murder of crows, from bitter herbs to blackboards. Hear the soothing voice of Daddy's mantra or the silence of a latch key child. One poet asks if the beginning of a poem is a word whispered in a dream, while another finds a poem in a garden of verses. Skillfully written and beautifully assembled, this anthology offers poems that come alive with emotions and melody - one poem sings with musical onomatopoeia and another playfully explains the sibling relationship between the apostrophe and comma! Kudos to teacher Evelyn Kandel and Editor John A. Valenti 3rd, and bravo to the 13 highly talented poets in this collection!"
"Whether contemplating history, war, marriage, or the handiness of a narwhal tusk in fighting off one's enemies, the poems largely reflect both the times in which we live and the sensibilities of the individual poets" -- Kirkus Reviewshttps: //www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/evelyn-kandel/13-poets-from-long-island/
