Finding the Edge - Softcover

Ortolani, Al

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0982875231 ISBN 13: 9780982875230

Publisher: Woodley Press, 2011

Synopsis

"Finding the Edge appeals with a wry, powerful combination of narrative and lyrical poems. The narratives are small novels, chiseled studies of human folly and vulnerability: You won't soon forget the reckless, highway-obsessed Wally or the hapless woman in "Copperhead." In his lyrical mode, Ortolani is beautifully expansive ("In the surrounding air, /the night spreads from my fingertips..."). Cinematic images abound to present a wondrous but never-sentimentalized world of nature. After reading Ortolani, you'll not look at coyotes, back roads, or your lover's face in the old, expected ways again." --Jo McDougall

About this title

About the Author

Al Ortolani was born in Huntington, New York in 1952. He was raised in Pittsburg, Kansas, attending Pittsburg State University where he received his B.S. in Education, M.A. in English and an Ed.S. in Higher Education. As a boy, he dreamed of playing second base for the New York Yankees. When the scouts failed to show, he began writing poetry. Ortolani is a career public school teacher in Kansas. His poetry and reviews have appeared in journals such as Prairie Schooner, New Letters, The Midwest Quarterly, The English Journal, and the New York Quarterly. He has five books of poetry, The Last Hippie of Camp 50 and Finding the Edge, published by Woodley Press at Washburn University, Wren's House, published by Coal City Press in Lawrence, Kansas, Cooking Chili on the Day of the Dead from Aldrich Press in California, and most recently, WAVING MUSTARD IN SURRENDER (NYQ Books, 2014). He is on the Board of Directors of the Kansas City Writers Place and is an editor with The Little Balkans Review. He currently lives in the Kansas City area with his wife Sherri.

Dennis Etzel Jr. lives with Carrie and the boys in Topeka, Kansas where he teaches English at Washburn University. He is the author of THE SUM OF TWO MOTHERS (ELJ Publications, 2013), and MY SECRET WARS OF 1984 (BlazeVOX, 2015), and his work has appeared in Denver Quarterly, Indiana Review, BlazeVOX, Fact- Simile, 1913: a journal of poetic forms, 3: AM, Tarpaulin Sky, DIAGRAM, and others. He is a TALK Scholar for the Kansas Humanities Council, and volunteers for the YWCA in Topeka, Bird Runner Wildlife Refuge, and other Kansas spaces.

Edition details

• Publisher: Woodley Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0982875231
• ISBN 13: 9780982875230
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 98
• Editor: Etzel Jr Dennis