When the pandemic hit in March, Gregory Joseph Firlotte decided it was time to sort through a lifetime of poetry he had written for his own reading and publish a book about his beloved New England. The aptly-named In This New England features poems in rhyme and free verse about the people, places, events and iconic foods of the region. A native of Gardiner, Maine — home to one of his poetic heroes Edwin Arlington Robinson — Firlotte grew up surrounded by history at almost every turn (he’s a descendant of two Mayflowerpassengers on his mother’s side) and thus had lots of memories and experiences throughout New England to draw upon. Though now living in Los Angeles, Firlotte has traveled to New England off and on over the years, staying in touch with his roots and finding more poetic inspiration along the way.
“The book has come out at a time when many people cannot travel here. So, I hope my poems provide a few moments of pure escape and bring back some memories as well,” notes Firlotte. In the book, one will find poems about such places as Boston, Salem, Franconia Notch, Vermont’s Craftsbury Common, the Longfellow Statue in Portland and there are also photos taken by Firlotte and his brother sprinkled throughout which provide a visual connection for those not familiar with the region, its landmarks, place names or foods.

“If my book can generate interest in New England in any way, then it has been successful,” he remarks. “There is so much to explore and savor within these six states that one can spend a lifetime enjoying and never tire of it — even if it’s only the scenic beauty and distinctive foods that have defined New England over the centuries.”
The 180-page softcover book was released September 21 on Amazon and is being followed up by another book, also with the theme of New England, scheduled for early Spring 2021.

About the Author
Gregory Joseph Firlotte grew up in Gardiner, Maine in a very creative household — his mother was a poet and writer and his father an artist and musician. At high school graduation in 1971, he received First Prize for his essay on freedom; and later in 1981, his interview with famed, but then-reclusive, Maine senator Margaret Chase Smith was published in the Maine Sunday Telegram and he has been writing publicly ever since. Over the years, his feature stories and photography on art, interior design and architecture have appeared worldwide in such publications as Architectural Digest, The Los Angeles Times, World of Interior Magazine, Veranda Magazine and LA Design Magazine to name a few. In This New England is the first time his poetry has been presented to the public

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Owen Lewis, owlewismd@gmail.com

              Justin Hargett, justin@kickflippr.com (publicity)

Owen Lewis receives national recognition through the NEW YORK CITY BIG BOOK AWARD®!

The NYC BIG BOOK AWARD recognized Field Light in the category of poetry as a DistinguishedFavorite.

The competition is judged by experts from different aspects of the book industry, including publishers, writers, editors, book cover designers and professional copywriters. Selected award winners and distinguished favorites are based on overall excellence.

Field Light (Dos Madres Press) is a book of and about the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. Written as a unified work, with some sections is prose and dramatic formats, it encompasses the social, cultural, and political histories of an area known for its artists and social justice. The voices of W.E.B. Du Bois, Elizabeth Mumbet (first slave freed in Massachusetts in 1781), Daniel Chester French (sculptor of the Lincoln memorial), Norman Rockwell and his last political paintings, Hawthorne, Melville, and nearby writers such as Stanley Kunitz and Chris Gilbert form parts of this collage-like work that asks how we can know can know and enter history, how the self expands when personal and public history meet.

Julie Danho’s first full-length collection, Those Who Keep Arriving, won the 2018 Gerald Cable Book Award from Silverfish Review Press and was published on September 15, 2020. Poems from the book have appeared in journals such as Pleiades, Alaska Quarterly Review, Blackbird, and New Ohio Review as well as featured on The Writer’s Almanac, Poetry Daily, and Verse Daily. Her chapbook, Six Portraits, received the 2013 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Award, and she has been awarded fellowships from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts and the MacColl Johnson Fund. Julie has an M.F.A. from Ohio State University and works as an editor in Providence, Rhode Island.

“In Julie Danho’s Those Who Keep Arriving, the personal is political and the political is terrifying. Danho faces this terror and transcends it to make stunning poems about creating a home and family. She often employs the ekphrasis mode, seeing well-known visual pieces anew, using them as vehicles for exploration. She also writes her own character studies in American Landscape and other forms. In “Abstraction,” a sonogram is imagined as art on a wall called “Moon, Clouds, / Volcano Taken From Above.” The glittering surfaces of her elegant poems are as fascinating as their substance.”

—Denise Duhamel

“A first full-length collection in name only, this is mature, polished work that consistently moves past the anticipated ending and discovers, in that excavated place or moment, where the significant truth so often lies. From the small pleasures of donut pajamas and pink bathrooms to the anxieties of “It’s Terrible What’s Happening There” and “When the First Father Dies,” Julie Danho shows range and depth. It’s been a pleasure to be among the first to read these moving poems.”

 —Gary Fincke

Those Who Keep Arriving is available at Amazon and Small Press Distribution, among other booksellers. To request a virtual reading or a review copy, please contact Julie Danho at https://www.juliedanho.com.