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Ordering Info.
Selected by Barrow Street Press (forthcoming, 2022)
FRANK DARK
“In his astonishing new collection, Frank Dark, Stephen Massimilla graphs as through a spectroscope the shifting phantasmagoria of sensory perception, investigating how and whether such a thing as the “self” might cohere amid the Bergsonian flux of experience. By turns winking and melancholic, modernist in ambition but radically contemporary in sensibility, Frank Dark traces in impressionistic lyricism the permutating forms through which we live, move, and have our being. “When will I learn to read // the airbrushed deity on the universal / billboard?” Massimilla asks, suggesting reading and writing alike as exercises in scripting ourselves—always provisionally, tentatively—into a kind of Platonic lightworld. Language, then, for Massimilla, serves as a “guide […] from our lost islands / of thought // to the far, pusillanimous / half-lights of Tallahassee.” One hears Stevens here, or Rimbaud, with their unbelievable Floridas, but more than this one hears Massimilla, a master of associative fabulism, darkly frank, finely registering, across this collection, that tide-like flux of impressions in which, as he insistently reminds us, we “haven’t gone under yet.” This is a marvelous book.”
-Christopher Kempf
“In Frank Dark we are granted sudden and sustained access to the intimate conversation of Earth with History. Frond and fish, heron and horizon all account for themselves in lucent encounter with humanness and with the troubled human record. Stephen Massimilla moves far beyond social discourse, into a deeper, communal understanding of language and its fate. That love may be a portion of that fate is a hope these poems cherish beyond words.”
-Donald Revell
“In Frank Dark, Stephen Massimilla offers us visions of light breaking through, even as “winter’s darkness closes in behind our backs.” The poet exults in the runic power of words to wrest luminosity from the veiled surface, to chart the “heart’s weather,” and to bear epiphanic witness to the “doe browsing in spun mist.” Thus, we are compelled to follow Massimilla, a siren of language, an intoxicator, into his realm of beauty and sadness by a brilliance of thought and a radiance of emotion—at once sensual, playful, spacious, compassionate, heartbreaking. These stunning poems, these daring visions, dazzle.”
-Emily Fragos
“In his new collection, Frank Dark, Massimilla pens stark and striking landscapes whose very presence seems enchanting and impossible. Here, Massimilla lavishes attention not only on harbors and harvests, but also on details as fine as the “gasping ragman of shadow hovered / memory-thin between magnesium lamps.” A superb collection.”
-Kyle McCord
“In Frank Dark, Stephen Massimilla maps all the shores, edges, and underworld entrances. These liminal spaces are full of shadows and winged messengers of ecological collapse and the fragility of all bodies in this increasingly perilous world. “The way forward / is the way back and / is not safe,” Massimilla writes, aware that something in us still loves a wound, something in us still wants to witness the world and its beauty even as it’s ending.”
-Traci Brimhall
“Stephen Massimilla’s poems are visions. In them, the senses are passionately alive, both to the beautiful and the grotesque. His poems have the feeling of ancient stories, but also the fragility of this world now, of human love and nature. These poems shapeshift, at one moment dystopian; then there is a turn of perception and a glimpse of tenderness. These are soulful portraits of our lives on this earth, seen with an unblinking, compassionate eye.”
-Hermine Meinhard
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New release from Cave Moon Press
STRONGER THAN FEAR: POEMS OF EMPOWERMENT, COMPASSION, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Coedited by Stephen Massimilla and Carol Alexander
All proceeds go to the Malala Fund, empowering the education of girls around the world
In this timely and timeless collection, remarkable poets—both emerging and established—bring myriad traditions, styles, and vital perspectives to pressing questions, such as how poetry can help us to overcome obstacles to empowerment, compassion, social change, and educational opportunity. Drawing from the work of teachers, artists, and activists, Stronger Than Fear moves us into sudden and startling awareness. These poems arrive at their truths with insight and generosity, with courage and spirit. The anthology includes work by Kim Addonizio, Ellen Bass, Toi Derricotte, Rita Dove, Tess Gallagher, Juan Felipe Herrera, Jane Hirshfield, Major Jackson, Yusef Komunyakaa, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Kevin Young, to name only a representative sampling.
“In his elegy for W.B. Yeats, Auden famously avowed that ‘poetry makes nothing happen.’ Yet in the very same stanza, he went on to define the art as ‘a way of happening’ (italics mine). In that single word ‘way’ resides the genius of Stronger than Fear. For all its beautiful diversity, for all the ambitious reach—into ancestry, into history, into hazard and futurity—of the poems gathered here, there is a striking concord and unity of purpose. And that purpose is compassion, and its prospect is of the ways in which compassion, truly voiced, redeems the times in which we live. There is a thrill of humanity in these poems—something to refresh our hopes and to renew our courage.”
-Donald Revell
“The poems in Stronger Than Fear are the rooms of the world we live in. Their complex truths are artfully arranged to lead us through nerve and redemption, inner and outer. This remarkable anthology enters social and political issues without offering answers. Instead, the poems draw us up to a current of other people’s experiences and the tender personal that lies beneath. Through the sinew of crafted lines and the multiplicity of honesties, this collection moves readers toward an unshadowed humanity.”
-Lauren Camp
“Rarely has our democracy been more in need of empathy and progressive advocacy than in this present moment. In this striking new anthology, Alexander and Massimilla offer our finest poets of witness in a single potent collection. With each line of this text, our authors are ‘making it easier for us to breathe.’”
-Kyle McCord
“During times when society feels in danger of accepting inequities or giving in to despair, …Stronger than Fear offer[s] consolation, an attentiveness to the world, even a joy that resists defeat. In sections that seek to give voice to wounds and reclaim the stories of history, these poets find the language and community that can give us all courage. Carol Alexander and Stephen Massimilla have gathered poets and poems that remind us that we are more than news headlines sometimes suggest. That humans are capable of great compassion. That poetry can be a vehicle for empowerment. That above all we must never abandon hope; we must notice the world speaking and we must listen.”
-Traci Brimhall
“Through poems of empathy, empowerment, and witness, Alexander and Massimilla have compiled an anthology of great aesthetic and political value…probing the inequities of wide-ranging social systems. These poems rest together, sometimes uncomfortably, but always in productive tension…. Such juxtapositions reveal what Ada Limón, in ‘A New National Anthem,’ calls the ‘unsung third stanza’ written into—or beneath, or beside—our most familiar cultural rituals. Curated to unveil these truths, Stronger Than Fear prompts us to acknowledge the fraught national histories still very much with us today, and in doing so, encourages us to forge ahead into new and unanticipated social futures.”
-John James
Go to Cookingwiththemuse.com for more information, or go to the Ordering Page to purchase the book.
Winner of the Eric Hoffer Book Award, the National Indie Excellence Award, the New England Book Award, the Living Now Book Award, and many others, and selected as the “Top Pick” by The Chicago Tribune and many other publications.
Cooking with the Muse: A Sumptuous Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry, and Literary Fare
Co-authored with chef and author Myra Kornfield and published by Tupelo Press
“This vertiginous, seductive, learned book surprises the palate on every page. Its ranging, awakening recipes and awakening, ranging poems would be more than enough to satisfy any cook or reader. The added notes, though… These are an education, invitation, and testament to the peregrine splendors of human hungers of every kind—for dishes and flavors, for knowledge and history, for the transformations and sustenance that both cooking and literature bring. The only dilemma is where to shelve this—in the kitchen among the cookbooks, or in the library next to Dickinson, Hopkins, and Heaney.”
– Jane Hirshfield, Poet, Essayist, and Translator
“If I ever had the chance to take off a year and spend it in the country with my family, the one cookbook I’d pack is Cooking with the Muse. Preparing recipes from this book will persuade you to slow down and appreciate the powerful connection between food, poetry, and nature. Come to think of it, wherever you are — enjoying the fantasy vacation of your dreams or anchored to hearth and home — Cooking with the Muse will provide you with a tasty new seasonal recipe, and poem, every night.”
– Sara Moulton, Chef, Cookbook Author, Television Personality
“I have fallen in love with Cooking with the Muse. What a treasure trove of recipes, poems, quirky and fascinating literary references and reflections on food and its meaning in our lives. I don’t know when a cookbook has been such a good read! I find myself underlining my favorite bits, like this from Lucille Clifton: “I taste in my natural appetite / the bond of live things everywhere.” I want to give this book to every poet and cook I know.“
– Ellen Bass, Poet and Teacher
“Delicious and captivating—the perfect source of inspiration—this cookbook truly unites the literary and culinary arts. What a great gathering of the gifts of poetry and cooking!”
– Barbara Sibley, Co-Founder of The San Miguel Poetry Week and Chef-Owner of La Palapa Restaurant
“A sensual chef-d’oeuvre of culinary prowess seasoned with the cultural notes of poetry and nutritional wisdom —you will savor every page of this holistic masterpiece.”
– Kathie Swift, Leading Nutrition Author and Speaker
“A golden idea comes to the table in Cooking with the Muse. Of course there is poetry in cooking! Recipes even look like poems—the lines distinct and the outcome magically blended. Literally delicious, Cooking with the Muse delights, entices, comforts and enthralls. Each dish is a poem in itself.”
– Molly Peacock, Poet, Author, Speaker
“Part love song, part practicum, part history lesson, Cooking with the Muse is a delightful page-turning compendium heralding the life-giving joy of cooking with the seasons.”
– Mary R. Cleaver, The Cleaver Company, The Green Table, Table Green at The Battery
“Prepare your appetites! This glorious compendium of recipes, food lore, poetry, and history offers savory layers of enjoyment in every category – It’s a delicious feast of love.”
– Naomi Shihab Nye, Poet and Novelist
“Cooking with the Muse is a book I want to cuddle up with in bed and use in the kitchen until it becomes tattered and splattered.”
– Liz Lipski, PhD, Author of Digestive Wellness, Director of Academic Development Nutrition Programs, Maryland University of Integrative Health.
“Cooking, like any other art, requires the Muse. She leads us down misty paths of green herbs, tantalizes us with the smells from a simmering cauldron, drizzles sweet rosewater dew on our tongues. Alas, all too often, the Muse escapes us, and we experience a culinary cul-de-sac. In this mouth-watering book, Kornfeld and Massimilla generously mix rich poetry and prose, irresistible recipes, vibrant photographs, and timeless nutritional wisdom to reawaken the sleeping Muse within us. She entices us back to the kitchen, whispering in our ears the long-forgotten names of beloved flavors, inspiring us on every level: to listen, to taste, to celebrate, to cook, to love, and to eat.”
– Jessica Prentice, Co-Founder Three Stone Hearth Community Supported Kitchen
“Cooking with the Muse not only guides you through the seasons showing you how to make inspired dishes with global flavors; it does so with words of poetic inspiration, providing a multicultural view of the pleasures of cooking and eating. Cooking with the Muse offers a combination that satisfies both stomach and soul.”
– Richard Ruben, Seasons to Taste, LLC, author, The Farmer’s Market Cookbook
Visit cookingwiththemuse.com for more information.
Ordering Info.
Selected in the Stephen F. Austin State University Press Poetry Series Prize Competition
The Plague Doctor in His Hull-Shaped Hat
“Stephen Massimilla’s new collection is utterly lovely and entirely strange. Fixed in the exactitude of the Moment, these are poems that are ‘on their way to the next world.’ From the ‘basil-blue mornings’ of the here and now to the apocalyptic dusks of swans and neon talismans, the reader is ever included in a quick-step with the poet. Lucid and delicious, the work is riddled with sublime forms of play—word play, mind play, heart play…a wondrous and vivid intelligence. Many mythic characters enter these worlds: from Odysseus, Raskolnikov and Vallejo, to little LuLu and Madame La La, even one evanescent unicorn. Sublime, dead serious, wickedly funny, above all, this is a book that is a delight to partake of.”
-Lucie Brock-Broido
“Stephen Massimilla’s poems…show us that this world is translucent, that poetic language can open portals with its beauty to the ‘delicious luxuries’ of truth.”
-Dean Young
“In his resounding new collection, Stephen Massimilla yokes classic and contemporary vocabulary and worry to land- and seascapes reminiscent of Wallace Stevens’ ‘Sea Surface Full of Clouds.’ These loci—in traditional forms or riverine lines—are populated with beasts of land, sea and air: geese, tigers, bugs, pigeons, crocodiles…. An octopus and a prostitute cohabit in the book’s mid-section, ‘An Inky Parable.’ Literary, painterly, or Greek gods and heroes, and Darwinian natural detail spiral around Massimilla’s ‘caduceus of sentence/ and line’ throughout. The poet speaks most to my heart when he speaks most simply, as in ‘Etymology’: ‘and / I stand, wanting / air in my blood // And its nostalgia, / Latin / for our pain.’”
-Rika Lesser
“The Plague Doctor in His Hull-Shaped Hat is a big, violent book of lyric poems bursting with undercurrents of passion; no matter where you come up for air, you feel in the grip of winds that keep circling back, pitching about in some faraway sea, where everything is bending toward everything else. ‘Stylized chaos,’ well describes these luminously expressionistic poems full of funky wordplay and a punk sensibility, all vivid with sharks and maddening gulls, gothic cityscapes amidst sprawling gardens and neon harbors, poems dripping with color and lust. The Plague Doctor is phantasmagorical, baroque, unbelievably nervy, brilliantly articulated, …and beautifully distorted, like the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh.”
-David Dodd Lee
Cover paintings © by Stephen Massimilla Cover design © by Glynnis Osher Read Poems From This Book | Ordering Info.
Winner of The 2001 Bordighera Poetry Prize.
Sponsored by The Sonia Raiziss-Giop Foundation
Forty Floors From Yesterday
A bilingual Edition Translated into Italian by Luigi Bonaffini
“The surreal imagery in these poems is crafted with a deft hand and a sure ear. The author has put to fine use the strange emotional states wrung from the marriage of unexpected things, but this strangeness is never created for its own sake – to shock us – but instead to illuminate the darker corners of our longings. These are marvelous poems. Like fairy tales they conjure, bewitch, cast inescapable spells.”
– Dorothy Barresi (Bordighera Poetry Prize judge, American Book Award winner)
“In this millennial era it’s not common to find a black-belt sonneteer; or poems whose dance macabre phantasmagoria owes something to Baudelaire and Rimbaud; or work as witty and sardonic as it is learned; or a flair for startling tropes and jewel-like visual images; or docudramas on Metropolis. To find all these things in a debut volume, though, is a rare event, one sure to strike up its own best fanfare.”
– Alfred Corn
“The surprising juxtapositions in these poems give a sense of the mystery and drama of remembering strong feelings. As in poems by Hopkins and John Wheelwright, the crowding of sounds and images can also get very exciting. I think the density of the language wonderful.”
– Kenneth Koch (Van Rennselaer Prize judge)
“This was my winner, and by a pretty long shot. The sonnets were technically sophisticated, subtle in tone, wise in insight, vivid with the warmth of love and sad in their sense of its passing. I liked how few of the rhymes seemed obvious, and how often they had been softened by enjambment. I liked the careful back and forth between the sentence and the line.”
– John Burt (Grolier Prize judge)
“These intricate, handsome poems speak of anguish and joy, possession and loss with a strong verbal density that repays acquaintance. Memorable lines and images sparkle in the sky of Forty Floors from Yesterday, a formidable first collection.”
– Stephen Sandy
The Grolier Poetry Bookshop
Winner of the 2001 Grolier Poetry Prize
Sponsored by the Grolier Poetry Foundation
Later on Aiaia
“This was my winner, and by a pretty long shot. The sonnets were technically sophisticated, subtle in tone, wise in insight, vivid with the warmth of love and sad in their sense of its passing. I liked how few of the rhymes seemed obvious, and how often they had been softened by enjambment. I liked the careful back and forth between the sentence and the line. I like the subtlety with which the sonnet ‘Descent’ shifts from being a poem about snorkeling to one about a dangerous erotic temptation.”
– John Burt (Grolier Prize judge)
Critical Works
The Figure in the Tower, Google Books
Selected Anthologies
