The Actual Moon, the Actual Stars

By Chris Forhan

From the publisher: Chris Forhan was raised in Seattle and educated at Washington State University (B.A.), the University of New Hampshire (M.A.), and the University of Virginia (M.F.A.). His first book, Forgive Us Our Happiness, won the Bakeless Prize. He has also published two chapbooks, x and Crumbs of Bread. His poetry has won a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, New England Review, Parnassus, and other magazines. He teaches at Auburn University and in the Warren Wilson M.F.A. Program. He lives in Auburn, Alabama.

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And Howls for Us to Follow: A Book of Poems

By Kenny Rose Butts

Reader review: “Reading these poems provides liberation for the spirit, power for the mind and hope, the essential fuel for motivation. This is literature that one can enjoy reading time and again, each survey presenting more information than the last and uncovering useful information that can be applied to one’s own experience of life.”

The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems

By Sherman Alexie ’94

Kirkus Reviews: A terrific second novel by the talented young Native American author whose highly praised fiction (The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, 1993; Reservation Blues, 1995) has already moved him on to the short list of the country's best young writers. . . . It's a rich, panoramic portrayal of contemporary Seattle that uses the form of the mystery to tell some uncomfortable home truths about Indian-white relations, and indeed racism in all its forms. . . . Both a splendidly constructed and wonderfully readable thriller—and a haunting, challenging articulation of the plight and the pride of contemporary Native Americans.

Down Along the Sunset

By Benner Cummings
Blue Wave Press, San Clemente, California

In this book of poems Benner Cummings pays homage to the romance of surfing. Based upon his years as surfing and swimming coach at San Clemente High School, the poems celebrate the beauty, grace, daring, and freedom inherent in the pursuit of surfing.

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Hiding from Salesmen

By Scott Poole ’92, ’95
Lost Horse Press, Sandpoint, Idaho, 2003

If one has a sense of humor—preferably of the absurd as well—it’s hard not to like most of the 43 poems that comprise this book.

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In Praise of Fertile Land

Ed. by Claudia Mauro
Whit Press, Seattle, 2003

There aren’t many anthologies that juxtapose poems by the likes of Robert Frost with those of elementary school kids. In Praise of Fertile Land does, and it works.

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