Kiss Now Available!
We are pleased to announce that Kiss: Poems by Alison Hicks is now available!
Here’s some early praise for Alison’s work:
“With her keen eye, with her precise ear for just the right descriptive word, Alison Hicks’s poems enlarge daily life. Whether running into the father of a childhood friend who committed suicide, or meditating on Chekhov, or reciting the mantra of drugs used to treat migraines, Hicks transforms daily experience into something larger, and more transcendent. Her poems glow.” — Kim Roberts, author of Animal Magnetism, The Kimnama, and The Wishbone Galaxy and editor of Beltway Poetry Quarterly.
“In their provocative discontinuities, their subtle fracturings, their stops and starts, Alison Hicks’ poems often evoke a provisionality which is the essence of embodied thought, as we squint to apprehend it, as we stutter to parse it out, as we stagger into its illuminations. How men and women surface out of their childhoods; how longing extends itself to the friend on the telephone, the man glimpsed in the street; how our bodies and our minds betray us inexorably into loss – these are mysteries, and Hicks acknowledges their occultation even as she presses us to perceive their complex significance. One poem here poses ‘accuracy’ against ‘clarity’ – a fine distinction – but Alison Hicks’ strong vision offers us both.” — Nathalie Anderson, author of Quiver, Crawlers, and Following Fred Astaire
Catalog Now Available Direct from Lulu
We’re pleased to announce that PS Books has expanded its web presence to include a Lulu.com storefront. Drop by sometime to see the titles we have on offer — and keep checking back as our catalog continues to grow and we continue to showcase the work of our favorite Philadelphia writers!
Coming Soon: Poetry by Alison Hicks
Just a quick note to say that we at PS Books are pleased to announce that our next title, Kiss: Poems by Alison Hicks should be available in early October. We’re very excited to be publishing this collection, as we’re huge fans of Alison’s work both as the leader of the Greater Philadelphia Wordshop Studio and as the editor of our 2010 volume of stories, poetry, and essays, Prompted.
New Flash Fiction: Mad to Live (Deluxe Edition w/Bonus Tracks!)
Originally published in a limited edition by Flume Press in 2008, Randall Brown’s award-winning (very) short fiction collection, Mad To Live, sold out almost immediately. Fortunately for Brown’s fans (and soon-to-be fans), PS Books has published this deluxe edition of Mad To Live — complete with new cover art and four “bonus tracks” not included in the Flume edition!
“He proves on every page that he knows what it means to be human.”
-Barry Graham, The Short Review
“Randall Brown’s stories leave readers feeling they too have lived many childhoods. Readers close his chapbook more aware of the dangers of family, but also the absolute necessity for it, and for fiction. Life and life represented.”
-Heather Bergstrom, Word Riot
New for 2011: To Befriend a Fox
The late Richard Pearce was a poet’s poet. The content of his work runs the gamut — one minute meditating on the paintings of Edward Hopper, the next playfully recalling a time he made “sidewalk angels” in wet cement. Yet Pearce also had a dark side, as chronicled in much of his later work. Though by no means “complete,” To Befriend a Fox represents the first time a good portion of Pearce’s poetry has been collected in a single anthology.
“That the man could work a crowd with the ease of a standup comic concealed, or at least mitigated, the pain inherent in much of his work. He was a performer, but, more than that, he was a poet — one who loved his audience and wanted nothing more than to connect on the most human of levels.” – Marc Schuster
Prompted
PS Books, a division of Philadelphia Stories, in partnership with the Greater Philadelphia Wordshop Studio, presents Prompted, an anthology that explores the human condition via poetry, personal essays, and fiction (Spring 2010, ISBN 97809793350510).
From internationally published author Julie Compton (Tell No Lies, Rescuing Olivia) to first-time poet Marsha Pincus, Prompted’s connective tissue lies in a deep love and respect for the craft of writing. Prompted is edited by Greater Philadelphia Wordshop Studio Director Alison Hicks, the author of the novella, Love: A Story of Images, and Falling Dreams, a volume of poetry.
Hicks began the Greater Philadelphia Wordshop Studio (GPWS) in October1996 with five people who met for three hours once a week in a church in Center City, Philadelphia. The process was the same then as it is today, and the Center City workshop still meets in that same church. Hicks began a similar workshop in the Delaware County/Main Line in 1999.
“I did not create the process,” Hicks says of the GPWS method. “It is the Amherst Writers & Artists method, brainchild of Pat Schneider, with whom I studied in the early 1980s. The core beliefs underlying it are simple and true: everyone has creative genius and a unique voice and vision to offer the world. The workshops aim to cultivate that voice.”
The anthology is available for purchase through PS Books, Amazon, and all major bookstores.
The Best of Philadelphia Stories: Volume 2
The Best of Philadelphia Stories: Volume 2 includes the best of the magazine and online content from Spring 2007-Summer 2009. Encompassing fiction, poetry, and personal essays, Volume 1 garnered glowing reviews from all of Philadelphia’s newspapers of record, and was described by The Philadelphia Inquirer as “A Collection That Loves You Back.” Following in the first volume’s footsteps, Volume 2 includes work by David Sanders, Autumn Konopka, and Helen Mallon, the winner of the 2008 Philadelphia Stories essay contest.
Coming this spring: a new anthology from Alison Hicks’ Greater Philadelphia Wordship Studio, which has worked with nearly 200 Delaware Valley writers. This first anthology showcases the best of the varied and diverse voices that have enriched and delighted the workshop over the past 13 years.
