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Meritage Press Release
FALL SPECIAL: LUIS H. FRANCIA’S RECENT POETRY BOOKS!
Meritage Press is pleased to
announce a FALL SPECIAL for Luis H.
Francia’s poetry books: Tattered Boat
(University of the Philippines, 2014) and Museum
of Absences (University of the Philippines and Meritage Press, 2003).
In addition to
Tattered Boat, Luis H. Francia is the
author of other poetry collections, including The Beauty of Ghosts, Museum of Absences, and The Arctic Archipelago and Other Poems. His poetry has appeared in
numerous journals and anthologies, including Language for a New Century and Love
Rise Up! His poems have been translated into Spanish, German, and Filipino.
His memoir, Eye of the Fish: A Personal
Archipelago, won both the 2002 PEN Open Book and the Asian American Writers
awards. He edited Brown River, White
Ocean: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Philippine Literature in English,
and co-edited the literary anthology Flippin’:
Filipinos on America and Vestiges of
War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream,
1899-1999. Included in the Library of America’s Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing, Francia is
on the faculty of Asian American Studies at New York University and Hunter
College, and teaches poetry and creative nonfiction at City University of Hong
Kong s MFA Program.
Tattered Boat usually sells for $20 and Museum
of Absences for $16. If you purchase
both books, your sale price would be $25.
If you wish to purchase just one book, your sale price would be $16 for Tattered Boat and $12 for Museum of Absences.
This Fall Special expires Oct. 31, 2014.
For each order, please add
$3 for a discounted rate on shipping/handling costs. You can order by sending a check made out to
“Meritage Press” to
E. Tabios
Publisher, Meritage Press
P.O. Box 361
St. Helena, CA 94574
Book information is
available at
Tattered Boat: http://uppress.com.ph/node/295
Museum of Absences: http://meritagepress.blogspot.com/2012/09/museum-of-absences-by-luis-francia.html
Some reader responses:
Tattered Boat: “In the Philippines, a
slang word for cool or bad meaning good or dope or fresh is wasak, which is
literally ruin. In Luis Francia's book, Tattered
Boat, he takes on ruin of the heart, spiritual wreckage, and the failing
body. I love his sense of play—so much good music in these poems (his internal
inverted consonance reminds me of his old mentor Jose Garcia Villa, so does his
penchant for the metaphysical—and full disclosure that Luis is a friend and
former teacher of mine). I do sense strong reverberations from La Generación de
'27, a literary lineage that many living writers pay homage to, but few feel
that lyric intensity in their bodies and shape that energy on the page. Francia
does--especially with this book. There's a lot of craft happening in the
current scene, but I'm happy for a ship that's been through some rough waters
and still sails. There's wisdom in that.” – Patrick Rosal
Museum of Absences: Luis H. Francia calls
his life (and himself) a "tale of two cities--Manila and New York,” and
that is the essence of this book, an exploration of rootlessness, geographical
as well as metaphysically. In one of the poems, a manong—older brother in
Filipino, a term applied to the generation of immigrants from early to
mid-twentieth century—a manong speaks: "Where in a white world can / This
grain of unhusked rice spin?" Cinderella, at age fifty, "would like
to / think it was all a bad dream, but for / the slipper ... glass encased in
glass." The most powerful poem is "New York Mythologies" (on
9/11): "Our bones are marrow'd with hope / Our childhood gods and duendes in
tow / Cradles and graves on our backs." Francia's signature hero is Jimi
Hendrix: "Think of him as Odysseus on / guitar ... he navigates wild riffs
/ with a sense of sin, but not regret." Hope, art, and love abide. – Vince
Gotera, North American Review
FOR MORE INFORMATION: MeritagePress@aol.com
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