Congratulations to Catherine Young, whose book Geosmin was selected as a finalist for regional poetry in the 2023 Midwest Independent Publishers Association Midwest Book Awards.
“This year’s finalists represent the best of the best in Midwest publishing,” said Jennifer Baum, the association’s director. “We are proud to honor these authors and publishers for their outstanding work,” she said.
Gold winners will be announced in person at the Midwest Book Awards gala held on June 17, 2023 at Open Book in Minneapolis. Renowned book critic Mary Ann Grossmann is set to keynote the event, which is open to the public.
The Distance Between Stars by Jeff Elzinga has been selected as a finalist in the Literary Fiction category of the 2020 Midwest Book Awards. Finalists are chosen from more than 240 entries from publishers all over the Midwest.
The Midwest Book Awards is one of the longest-running literary awards in the country celebrating excellence in independent publishing.
Stay tuned for the winners to be announced on June 26!
In celebration of National Poetry Month, Arcadia Books (Spring Green, WI) hosted Daniel and Austin Smith for a conversation about poetry, the influence of writers like Tobias Wolff, Lucien Stryk, Michael Mott, and Gary Snyder, and how growing up in a community of writers shaped them both. Daniel and Austin both share selections of their work.
Consider this video to be a free course in how to read, craft, and appreciate poetry from two fine American poets who happen to be father and son. The two discuss origins of their poems, their interdependent growth as writers, the impact of place in their writing, and how effective it is to blend genres.
Ancestral by Daniel Smith is the newest book from Water’s Edge Press, due out June 1. We agree with Austin’s assessment that his father’s book “Conveys emotion via the physical world.” Rooted in a Midwestern landscape, Ancestral’s sense of place is never “claustrophobic,”
Austin says, adding that the poems “remind [him] of the poets [he loves], like Ted Kooser, who writes so beautifully about Nebraska. There’s a universality to the poems despite their placedness.”
Pre order your copy of Karl Elder’s Alpha Images: Poems Selected and New. $24 at https://www.watersedgepress.com/shop
Karl Elder, Lakeland University’s Fessler Professor of Creative Writing, has gathered the best of his poetry in Alpha Images: Poems Selected and New. This 270 page volume includes over 50 new or previously uncollected poems.
Noted for exceptional range—his work in open, closed, and invented forms—Elder’s verse is similarly multifaceted in his choice of subject matter.
Says David Lehman of The Best American Poetry series, “Karl Elder is a poet of rich imagination and high intelligence, whose work I have admired for many years.”
Jeff Elzinga’s novel The Distance Between Stars was featured on the website for Columbia University School of the Arts on September 17, 2020 in an article by Nicole Saldarriaga. Elzinga is an 1978 alum of the university.
We’re happy to see news of Jeff’s excellent novel reaching a wider audience.
Starting July 15, 2020, we are offering copies of The Distance Between Stars signed by the author, Jeff Elzinga.
Order yours today before our supply sells out. This offer is available only at Water’s Edge Press.
ABOUT THIS BOOK
The Distance between Stars, a story about DUTY, RACE, and national IDENTITY.
In an African country quickly sliding towards civil war, an American diplomat adrift in his personal life searches for an investigative reporter who has gone missing in the bush.
Retired Lakeland professor has first novel published
Jun. 1, 2020
We are excited to share that Lakeland Professor Emeritus Jeff Elzinga has published his debut novel, “The Distance Between Stars,” through Water’s Edge Press.
We recently signed Wisconsin poet Kathryn Gahl and will publish her collection of poems, The Velocity of Love. We’re hopeful we can have this volume in readers’ hands this fall. Follow us to keep tabs on this project.
Water’s Edge Press is excited to announce we have agreed to publish The Distance Between Stars, a novel by Jeff Elzinga.
The Distance Between
Stars takes place over ten days in an East African country on the verge of
civil war. The country of Umbika, like many of its neighbors, had once replaced
colonial repression with a dictator of its own choosing, but now, after fifteen
years of stagnant social and economic progress, peaceful protests are turning
violent. The Life President accuses the U.S. government of secretly supporting
his opposition, and tribal animosities, simmering for years, are rolling into
full boil.
Joe Kellerman is an American diplomat, among the
Department’s best problem solvers. He has spent his entire career in
sub-Saharan Africa, moving from one difficult assignment to another. Joe is
white, middle aged, and adrift in a solitary life, where his work is all that
matters to him. As Umbika begins to disintergrate, a controversial black
American journalist arrives in country on a fact-finding trip. Joe is assigned
to assist him, but for many reasons, the two men do not get along. When the
journalist disappears in the bush, Joe is sent to find him or find out what
happened to him. What follows is a story about duty, race, national identify,
and the vanishing point where these elusive perspectives meet.
