Same Old Story: Prepublication Notes

Last week CavanKerry Press's new managing editor told me that the press has some marketing plans for my third poetry collection, Same Old Story, which is due out this spring. I am in the odd situation of juggling three 2014 releases, so I'm feeling schizophrenic and somewhat perplexed--trying to read proofs, think about design, and plan for sales for three different but overlapping books.

Anyway, CavanKerry has decided that Same Old Story, which has many links to myth and fairy tales (not to mention regular everyday life), might be a suitable text for convincing readers that poetry isn't poisonous. So teachers: if you are considering classroom adoption and would be interested in acquiring a desk copy, please contact Starr Troup at the press. Likewise, if you belong to a book group, Starr would love to hear from you.

Finally, if you are interested in writing a prepublication review, the press would be glad to send you an electronic version of the collection. Starr will even suggest places to submit your review. This would be a huge help, not only to me but also to the press, which designs and publishes beautiful books and is working hard to hold its own in the small-press crush.

And thank you, as always, for your kindness.

New from CavanKerry Press in 2014

“Driving” is the presiding conceit that shapes Dawn Potter’s new collection, Same Old Story, and what an exhilarating ride this is! From the mythos of antiquity, to fairytales, to nineteenth-century novels, to relief when “the plow guy” shows up on Valentine’s Day, in a world where “newsmen / chant wind-chill rates and hockey stats,” Potter marries the quotidian and the sublime pretty much line by line. That pairing is dictional, syntactical, rhythmical, and often conceptional as well, but always, always, the scope is sweeping and the affect—in this reader’s experience—unparalleled.  In her “Notes from a Traffic Jam,” the poet exclaims, “Oh, sometimes I fear I’ve lost the will to imagine / this comedy, this ugly beauty, this moving-picture world,” but Potter doesn’t have to imagine it. She sees it clearly, and how brilliantly she has shaped her craft to capture it and give it back to her readers illuminated and writ large.  Potter’s sustained acts of synthesis and transformation are an astonishing achievement.

—Gray Jacobik