Founded by Carl Adamshick and Michael McGriff, Tavern Books is a publisher dedicated to “printing, promoting, and preserving works of literary vision.”
They are well aware that books are more than words and pay close attention to the design and printing in an effort to “create books that are exceptionally beautiful and a joy to hold. ”
They commission original artwork for every title they publish, and rightly believe that “the dialog between image and text is an essential, meaningful element of a reader’s experience.”
Both Adamshick and McGriff are accomplished poets in their own right who along with the Dickman twins, Michael and Matthew, make up the Portland 4 and are at the core of the blossoming poetry scene both here in the Northwest and across the country.
Here is a selection of titles from their Living Library series and a look at their The Honest Pint subscription series edited by Matthew Dickman where for the price of one pint of beer or an exotic espresso drink you can get real life prose written by a contemporary author that celebrates the work of a poet delivered straight to your door!
Enjoy.
Duino Elegies by Rainer Marie Rilke.Translated from the German by Gary Miranda.
Begun in 1912, interrupted by the Great War, and completed early in 1922, the ten meditations on love and death in Rilke’s Duino Elegies are perhaps the twentieth century’s most sustained outpouring of lyricism.
Six Minute Poems: The Last Poems by George Hitchcock
This collection showcases the most representative of Hitchcock’s final poems, some of which were scrawled into journals, others of which were spoken and recorded.
For the Living and the Dead by Tomas Tranströmer
John F. Deane’s translation of Tomas Tranströmer’s 1989 collection For the Living and the Dead (För levande och döda) originally appeared with The Dedalus Press (Ireland) in 1994. Published in the United States for the first time, this new edition contains a revised translation as well as a new introduction and translator’s note.
Buson : Haiku by Yosa Buson. Translated from the Japanese by Franz Wright
This collection of thirty-nine haiku from Yosa Buson showcases the mastery, delicacy, and mystery of one of Japan’s greatest and most deeply admired poets. With this publication, Pulitzer Prize winner Franz Wright offers readers a new avenue into one of poetry’s essential voices.
Skin by Tone Škrjanec, translated from the Slovene by Matthew Rohrer and Ana Pepelnik.
Originally published in Slovenia in 2006 as Koža, Skin is Tone Škrjanec’s first full-length collection to appear in English. This one is due out in June and worth keeping an eye out for.
and now for a look at The Honest Pint:
The first offering:
a sampler:
Previously:
Poetry from Portland – Part 1: Division Leap
Poetry from Seattle: Wessel & Lieberman and Wave Books