Say Anything, the fifth book of poetry and prose from Lee Rossi, captures insights and unresolvable contradictions as he shifts from a social exterior reality to an inner psychological reality; from a world of fact and idea, to a world of nuance and shadow. Filled with oxymoron and paradox, the poems and prose gleam like pieces of colored glass in a kaleidoscope, with changing facets and shifting viewpoints.
In Coming Home, Kay Tobler Liss’s second novel, four generations of a family return to cherished places in nature from their youth and uncover buried secrets about themselves. From the coast of North Carolina to New York, from Savannah, Georgia to Switzerland, the places include a meadow, a pine grove, a river, and mountain valley. Their journeys begin after a Christmas dinner together and end a year later when they share their healing journeys with each other, and thus start to heal as a family. One of the pivotal events in the life of the family is the death of a sibling and son. The most valuable lesson they learn is that nature can not only be a source of beauty and solace but of personal transformation and expanding one’s compassion for all life.
Notes From Paradise takes you on a journey through several decades of musical, social and personal events in the life of veteran poet Elaine Heveron. Notes from Paradise reminds us that the height of the day, like laughter, tears, or falling hard for someone new, always comes unexpectedly. Elaine uses what her family knows as “Heveron humor” to see things from the side door you almost forgot was there. She shares her love of music, being in love, and being alive like a feast. So help yourself. There’s always a chance it’s not what the promoters are selling that will steal your heart, but something right in front of you now
This latest work of veteran poet Marian Kaplun Shapiro is titled Upbringing because it confronts and explores issues surrounding being a child and growing up. Many poems present a moment in time through the eyes of a child, showing the innocence and confusion of children maneuvering in an adult world. What is most unique is the presentation of ideas through a preponderance of visuals intermixed with words to create a new era of visual poetry. Sometimes the images carry the message; sometimes speech bubbles talk to each other. The combination creates poetic illustration with a lasting impact.
Standing in the Shadows of Freedom presents the poetic work of Nicole Lanier Montez, highlighting current emotional and social issues. This passionate expression is into three parts: Tears in the Wind, Letters from the Heart, and No Time to Waste. A poem may beckon the reader to complete a page, reflect on the unresolved past, be active in the present, or reach into the future. Unique and timely, her perspective gives insight into where we stand as a society.
After many years of leading efforts to prevent homelessness, Richard R. Troxell’s Short Stories in a Long Journey took form in 278 printed pages. The book blends his personal story with the life of an activist for ending and preventing homelessness. This book highlights the structural defects in our system and laws and proposes common-sense economic solutions to the problems of homelessness and substance abuse, such as the Universal Living Wage to address income inequality, a modest liquor surcharge to finance substance treatment, and a bronze statue to memorialize the struggle.
Marriages and Other Dilemmas: Collected Stories and a Memoir paperback by Kitty Beer was released April 15, 2022. This book balances 16 short stories with a 50 page memoir. With heroines of every age, the stories are dynamic, dark, sexy, and humorous, and the frank and open memoir adds insight to the experience. In the stories, she explores consequential events in the lives of ordinary people, revealing her love for life and the idiosyncrasies that make life profoundly interesting. Crisp writing and a jaunty tone take the reader on a journey to the outer edges of desire, love and revenge. In her memoir, Beer takes an honest and insightful look back on her life, filled with “mistakes, thrills, fears, bliss, and delusion,” overcoming the grief of misfortune with good nature and resoluteness. While Beer’s trio of thriller novels reflect on her passion for the environment, Marriages and Other Dilemmas skillfully reflects on her personal life and observations of the world around her.
Austin, Texas, 14 Feb 2022 – After a career in academia, Maria Wells of Austin, Texas presents her poems and art in her first poetry book, Images in the Clouds: reading the sky, published by Plain View Press and hitting bookstores everywhere on February 14, 2022..
With 60 poems and 10 color photos and art, Images in the Clouds carries the reader forward and back in time, to inner and outer worlds. Taken from Wells’ treasure trunk of a life of adventure and world travel, some verses share memories of places and people, while some delight with pure fantasy and imagination.
A Fulbright Scholar and Doctoral graduate from the University of Pisa, Maria Xenia Wells Zevelechi spent her academic career at the University of Texas at Austin. After retiring, she embraced poetry when a friend’s painting inspired her first poem, “Memories in Silver,” written in Paris at a meeting of Poets and Writers. A member of the Austin Poetry Society, she gives readings in Austin, Paris and Greece. With two daughters, five grandchildren and the memory of a loving husband, she lives in Austin, Texas.
“‘Memories in Silver’ is a wonderful piece of writing—a simple idea, simply done and beautifully sustained. It is full of emotion, yet not over-wrought. Every image, every phrase, every recollection rings true.” —Andrew Lycett, London Author / Biographer
“These poems have personal integrity and are both deeply felt and clearly voiced, always welcome in any art.” —Kurt Heinzelman, Professor Emeritus of Poetry and Poetics, The University of Texas at Austin
“‘In Trieste by the Sea’ has fine details, good suspense throughout, sense of being there, in that place, that moment…good with mood, tone, emotions quietly expressed.” —David Wevill, Poet
“Maria Wells is a natural poet. She weaves details that invite the reader to share in the moment as if they were standing beside her. Her work reflects her travels, culture, and knowledge without being lofty and her observations reveal parts of the human psyche with wisdom, clarity, and sometimes humor.” —Cathy Sydlo Wilkes, Author / Poet, New Braunfels Creative Writers
Images in the Clouds: reading the sky, ISBN 9781632100948, can be purchased on Amazon.com, or in bulk by contacting the publisher. Publisher Plain View Press is a 45-year-old issue-based literary publishing house, a far-flung community of humane and highly creative writers, artists and activists, whose energies bring humanitarian enlightenment and hope to individuals and communities grappling with the issues of our time—peace, justice, the environment, homelessness, education and gender.
Austin, Texas, 02 Sept, 2021 – Plain View Press announces the new release of Blink Factor, a crime thriller by Steve Barry, to bookstores and Amazon on September 2, 2021.
With two identities, artist David Asher can forever capture what he sees in the blink of an eye. As he tries to solve the mystery of his abusive father, his father hunts him down, and he faces the looming threat of the Manhattan Crime Boss and the wrath of inquisitive FBI and CIA operatives.
Born in Manhattan, Steve Barry studied painting at Boston University, the Boston Museum School and the Art Students League of New York. He left an early career in advertising on Madison Avenue for the Southwest and worked as Creative Director for the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper Gaining recognition as a painter, he taught art at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe before moving to Texas with his wife. Always attracted to the creative process, Blink Factor is his first novel.
Copies of Blink Factor (ISBN: 978-1632100917) can be purchased on Amazon or in quantity from Plain View Press.
Austin, Texas, 07 July, 2021 – Plain View Press announces the release of Deadly Discrimination, a Fr. Jake Mystery by Albert Noyer, hitting bookstores and Amazon on July 7, 2021.
When the local store in Providencia, New Mexico is sold to a Muslim, Fr. Jake encourages tolerance but a white supremacist attempts to blow it up by crashing into the gas pump. The Archbishop later visits and tells Fr. Jake he is wanted back in Michigan at his old parish, setting things in turmoil. Complete with maps and historical references, this is the third book in the Fr. Jake Mystery series.
A Swiss-born artist and writer, Albert Noyer was raised in Detroit, Michigan. After the Army and degrees in art, art education, and teaching humanities, he worked as a commercial artist and taught art in public schools and art history at a private college. Noyer retired to New Mexico with his wife, Jennifer, where he exhibits watercolor paintings and woodcut prints in galleries and regional exhibits. Also a writer, his contemporary Fr. Jake Mysteries, The Ghosts of Glorieta; One for the Money, Two for the Sluice; and Deadly Discrimination are published by Plain View Press, along with the two volume Alberix the Celt, a historical retelling of Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul from the viewpoint of a Celtic youth caught up in the Romanization of the country now called France. Noyer also published the A.D. fifth century novels, the Getorius and Arcadia mysteries, set in an era critical in creating the political, religious, and cultural institutions that survive into modern times. Copies of Deadly Discrimination (ISBN: 978-1632100931) can be purchased on Amazon or in quantity from Plain View Press.