Tag Archives: Gail King

Nualláin House So Far

HELLOLIFEjHello Life by Gail King
Poetry; The poems of Hello Life achieve their freshness in the particularity of experience. The poet surrenders herself to the moment and tenders that subtle cognition as a delighted welcome to life. The ease of her expression in dealing with the everyday communicates an uncommon wisdom. The poems present, through playful understatement and sly humor, the immediacy of spontaneous impressions. Maureen Owen, former artistic director for The Poetry Project in NYC and author of Edges of Water and Erosion’s Pull, says In Gail King’s poems the events of the day become transformative, the images of the temporary become immediate, and the mystery of being alive in the Now unfolds. “…time like a lake breeze” says the poet, and the wind rises.” Gail King’s poems have also won the praise of Andrei Codrescu, poet, novelist, essayist and NPR commentator, author of So Recent Rent A World, who said “Reading Gail King has always been one of my great poetry pleasures. Her inimitable voice narrates the world with humor and tenderness, a world of beauty and occasional sorrow. Her work has healing effects.”
December 2013  ~  $16.00  ~  64 pages ~ Paper  ~  ISBN 978-0-9840310-3-0

 

The Last ResortThe Last Resort, A Lee Malone Adventure by Pat Nolan
Meta Pulp– Pat Nolan has written a fast paced, tongue-in-cheek, pun filled comedy of errors, misunderstandings, and faux intuition in the mode of a 1930’s pulp thriller to talk about the pulp fiction of that era.  In doing so, The Last Resort presents an unlikely set of circumstances in which a worldly-wise female reporter must untangle herself from her past in order to deal with the puzzling events of her present.  Rather than the typical splinter-jawed, broken nosed, tobacco breathed tough guy hero, Nolan upends the stereotype by introducing a gorgeous internationally famous former fashion model whose super power is her beauty.  THE LAST RESORT, A Lee Malone Adventure, is a quirky, entertaining recreation of the lurid screed that once peopled pulp pages on newsstands everywhere.
August 2012 ~ $19.99 ~ 212 pages ~ Paper~ ISBN 978-0-9840310-2-3

“Has-been supermodel Lee Malone retains her drop-dead gorgeous looks—and haute couture wardrobe—and uses them every chance she gets to solve a murder mystery and live to write about it in The Last Resort: A Lee Malone Adventure. Author Pat Nolan sets this labyrinthine adventure in his home turf along the Russian River communities, renamed the Corkscrew River in the book. Having survived a botched kidnap attempt and a rescue by a secret female militia, Malone seeks the “quiet life” among the redwoods. She writes puff pieces for the Corkscrew County Grapevine, but stumbles into a deeper, more sinister story. Nolan weaves his heroine’s backstory throughout, touching on issues of homelessness, sex slavery, pornography and ever-changing relationships in river communities, while retaining a sense of humor and comic relief.”
— North Bay Bohemian, Fall Literary Issue, 2012

                  

ontheroadfront300On The Road To Las Cruces, Being A Novel Account of The Last Day In The Life of A Legendary Western Lawman by Pat Nolan
Historical Fiction; On The Road To Las Cruces, a work of fiction tethered loosely to historical fact, is the story of the relationship between two men, one garrulous, the other taciturn, the Mutt and Jeff of the old Southwest.  What is related on the road to Las Cruces is as much a retelling of some history as it is how such a retelling might come about, and is represented in the manner of a tall tale, the deadpan details of a crime story, melodrama, and a conspiracy to murder. The road to Las Cruces is full of twists and turns.  The sound of a door slamming like a gunshot brings us into the world of the old Southwest and the gun violence of that historical era.  More than just the tale of a legendary lawman who remains nameless to the end, it is a lesson in storytelling and an allegory for how lives were lived and how death was dealt.  As much a dusty tale of buffalo hunts and shoot-outs as a politically driven “whodunit,” On The Road To Las Cruces is the story of youthful bravado and an old man’s regret.
November, 2011 ~ $16.99 ~ 154 pages ~ paper ~ ISBN 978-0-9840310-1-6

   “. . . a real old-fashioned Western. Page-turner. There are all sorts of funny sly mixes in the story, good Nolan humor, great repartee. . . .” – Andrei Codrescu, NPR commentator and author of Whatever Gets You Through The Night.                              

“Pat Nolan is not only one of our finest living poets. . . but now surprises with a prose paean to the West. Whatever Pat writes deserves to be read and remembered.” – Barry Gifford, author of Wild At Heart and Sailor And Lula

                                                                                                                    

 

 

 

 

What is being said about Gail King

Gail King lives in a shed and has been getting away with murder for years.  This can be explained in part by quoting Hugh Kenner who said “American genius (in literature) cannot be distinguished by a casual glance from charlatanry. Purity of intention lies at the heart of American achievement.”  

Of her recent book of poems, Hello Life, Keith Kumasen Abbott, professor emeritus and author of numerous books of poetry, prose, and non-fiction, including Downstream from Trout Fishing In America, a Memoir, says In Hello Life Gail King often uses sleight of hand as she guides readers into a scene, a mood, a spiral, then disappears while events continue for us alone. Her art is beguiling, comic, candid and a pleasure.” 

Maureen Owen, former artistic director for The Poetry Project in NYC and author of many books of poems, including Edges of Water and Erosion’s Pull, says In Gail King’s poems the events of the day become transformative, the images of the temporary become immediate, and the mystery of being alive in the Now unfolds. “…time like a lake breeze” says the poet, and the wind rises.”

Gail King’s previous book of poems, Boxes & Chair (What Leaf Press, 2006) won the praise of Andrei Codrescu, poet, novelist, essayist and NPR commentator, author of So Recent Rent A World, who said “Reading Gail King has always been one of my great poetry pleasures. Her inimitable voice narrates the world with humor and tenderness, a world of beauty and occasional sorrow. Her work has healing effects.”

Joanne Kyger, author of more than twenty books of poetry and prose, including About Now: Collected Poems, and recipient of the 2008 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles National Literary Award for Poetry said of Boxes & Chairs “. . .a lovely lovely book. . .with direct beauty of what actually happens. [The poems] are all about SOMETHING, not just states of mind mired in ‘language’.”

Gail King, a Bay Area native, has lived in the Northern California town of Monte Rio for over 40 years. She has written poetry all her adult life and was the publisher of Doris Green Editions, a small literary press active in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s.  Boxes & Chairs, her third selection of poems, was published by What Leaf Press in 2006. Many of the poems featured in that selection are included in Hello Life.

 

 

HELLOLIFEj

December 2013  ~  $16.00  ~  64 pages ~ Paper  ~  ISBN 978-0-9840310-3-0

 now available from
Nualláin House, Publishers
Box 798 Monte Rio,California, 95462
(free shipping through December 31st, 2013)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Life, Poems by Gail King

Coming in December!
New from Nualláin House, Publishers!!!
Order now and get free shipping!!
(offer good through December 31st, 2013)

HELLO LIFE

Poems by Gail King

The poems of Hello Life achieve their freshness in the particularity of experience. The poet surrenders herself to the moment and tenders that subtle cognition as a delighted welcome to life. The ease of her expression in dealing with the everyday communicates an uncommon wisdom. The poems present, through playful understatement and sly humor, the immediacy of spontaneous impressions.
  

SOME DAYSHELLOLIFEj

Some days
there is fog
that rolls
down the hills
and pours
like great waterfalls
off the land
to disappear into the sea
and you can drive
in and out of fog streams
and see a line in the air
where sunlight turns to shadow
behind hills

In Hello Life Gail King often uses sleight of hand as she guides readers into a scene, a mood, a spiral, then disappears while events continue for us alone. During Flood of 95 she directs our camera eyes through wreckage and despair − then fades away; and each reader is morphing through slippery endings. “ inside we walk on cardboard/ make ourselves tough to stand it/ months down the road our anger will/ burst upon us/ now the green is good and there are/  plum blossoms”  Her art is beguiling, comic, candid and a pleasure. −Keith Abbott, author of Downstream from Trout Fishing in America, A Memoir and The First Thing Coming

Gail King, a Bay Area native, has lived in the Northern California town of Monte Rio for over 40 years. She has written poetry all her adult life and was the publisher of Doris Green Editions, a small literary press active in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s.  Boxes & Chairs, her third selection of poems, was published by What Leaf Press in 2006. Many of the poems featured in that selection are included in Hello Life.

December 2013  ~  $16.00  ~  64 pages ~ Paper  ~  ISBN 978-0-9840310-3-0

Praise for Boxes & Chairs

“Reading Gail King has always been one of my great poetry pleasures. Her inimitable voice narrates the world with humor and tenderness, a world of beauty and occasional sorrow. Her work has healing effects.” − Andrei Codrescu, NPR commentator and author of So Recently Rent A World 

“. . .a lovely lovely book. . .with direct beauty of what actually happens. [The poems] are all about SOMETHING, not just states of mind mired in ‘language’.”   − Joanne Kyger, poet, author of About Now, Collected Poems

To be the first on your block to get a copy of Hello Life click on How To Order on the menu line above


 

 

 

Limited Edition: Boxes & Chairs

Boxes & Chairs

By Gail King

BCFBoxes & Chairs was originally published in 2006 as a handmade limited gift edition of twenty five for family and friends. The covers were printed on heavy weight Reeves print stock with Japanese silkscreen end papers and binding strips. The book was bound in the traditional Japanese four-hole binding style. Illustrations accompanying the poems are reproductions of kuchi-e, woodblock prints that were used to illustrate short stories in Meiji era magazines and journals of late 19th Century Japan.

Subsequently an unlimited ‘people’s’ edition was issued with a plain cover but with the original text and illustrations intact.

People's Edition
People’s Edition

Gail King has been active in writing and publishing in the Russian River area since the mid 70’s. A Northern California native, she writes stories of growing up in the East Bay (Oakland/ San Leandro) as well as poetry focusing on the California landscape. She was the publisher of Doris Green Editions, a small literary press active in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. Boxes & Chairs, published by What Leaf Press, is her second collection of poems. A more comprehensive selection of her poems is slated for publication by Nualláin House, Publishers, in the Fall of 2013 which will include the entirety of Boxes & Chairs.

Praise for Boxes & Chairs:

“Gail King’s poems celebrate the change and deep pleasures in tracking transformation. With a sinuous and penetrating wit King remembers her life via alarm, humor and love: a night ago the wind/ and rain let us in on a secret/ our forts are temporary/ no rest inside the box.”
— Keith Kumasen Abbott

“Reading Gail King has always been one of my great poetry pleasures. Her inimitable voice narrates the world with humor and tenderness, a world of beauty and occasional sorrow. Her work has healing effects.”
— Andrei Codrescu

“. . .a lovely lovely book. . .with direct beauty of what actually happens. [The poems] are all about SOMETHING, not just states of mind mired in ‘language’.”
— Joanne Kyger

Click to view a pdf facsimile of the limited gift edition of  Boxes & Chairs