ragged sky press launches new series

Princeton, New Jersey: On Friday, February 3, at the Princeton Public Library, poet and publisher Ellen Foos will host the simultaneous launch of five books: the Ragged Sky Poetry (RSP) Series. This free event begins at 7 p.m., celebrating new work by poets Elizabeth (Mimi) Danson, Ellen Foos, Carlos Hernández Peña, Elizabeth Anne Socolow, and Arlene Weiner.

In 2005, the five poets began monthly meetings to inspire and critique each other’s work. The idea emerged to publish together, to give public readings as a unit. Much published individually, the Ragged Sky Poets are widely known as producers and nurturers of memorable poetry and poetic events. Foos initiated and hosts monthly “U.S. 1 Poets Invite” readings at Princeton Public Library. She also produces poetry slams at the Arts Council of Princeton. Hernández Peña produces “Voices,” those recent electrifying Princeton Public Library readings headlining poetry of many lands, eras and languages--including cuneiform tablets. Socolow co-founded Princeton’s U.S. 1 Poets’ Cooperative. America’s longest-running such gathering, this group has been meeting weekly to critique for more than thirty years. All five energetically participate in the Cooperative, as well as in publishing its annual journal.

Ragged Sky Poetry Series’ cover paintings are similarly related, yet unique. The books were designed by Jean Foos (Ellen’s sister) and Dirk Rowntree, who have worked with Ellen for over 20 years on book covers for Graywolf and Ecco Press. Cover images are details of oil paintings by Jean Foos, who is a painter and graphic designer. She has exhibited paintings in Newark, Rome, the East Village, and Berlin. Dirk Rowntree is a Creative Director at New York University. The paintings will be displayed at the launch.

Ellen Foos formed Ragged Sky Press in 1992, when a parish priest requested assistance in publishing his memoir, The Ore and the Dross. That successful venture led to further titles, the most recent being Michael R. Brown’s poetry collection, Susquehanna. Her intention with this series is to “give import to five distinct and solid poets.” The Ragged Sky Series is available on-line at many vendors, including Amazon. and at local bookstores. (Price per volume $10; discount at launch party for purchase of all five.) raggedsky@hotmail.com

[The library is handicapped-accessible; ample parking available in adjacent parking garage. For further information: Sue Roth, Readers’ Services Coordinator, Princeton Public Library, 65 Witherspoon Street, Princeton: 609-924-9259, x257.]

Princeton University’s James Richardson praises Elizabeth Danson’s poems for “mus[ing] on the scribble of landscapes and lives.” He delights in their “legibility, as much as in their mystery.” Richardson finds Danson’s work “wry and fond, sensuous and restrained, luxurious and clear.”

Poet Michael R. Brown treasures Ellen Foos’ work for “open[ing] with the relentless push of small flowers.” He particularly honors their “brave truth.” Poet Elaine Equi exults, “I simply can't resist a poet whose prayer is ‘Give us this day our daily bread/in the form of toast.’” Equi is especially impressed by Foos’ “startling candor, effervescent wit.”

Cool Woman poet Lois Marie Harrod marvels that Carlos Hernández Peña relinquishes his native Spanish, creating poetry in English, “’from another side of the world: aquellos ojos verdes.’” Harrod (known for her own untrammeled lines) honors Hernández Peña’s “wild new language.” She is especially riveted by his “‘quetzal morning’ and ‘cold walrus, … the riddle between birth and death.’”

Evelyn Witkin, Geneticist, Director-at-Large, New York Browning Society, asserts that “Elizabeth Socolow’s graceful, provocative poetry… reminds me of Robert Browning’s fascination with the ‘moment one and infinite.’” (And she should know!) Michigan poet Terry Blackhawk, Director of the Detroit Inside/Out Project of Poetry in the Schools, admires Socolow for her “lovely, devotional reflections, … [effecting the] repair of aging, loss and loneliness.”

Poet Joy Katz describes Arlene Weiner as being “clear-eyed as Elizabeth Bishop,… a conjurer.” Katz singles out Weiner’s arresting poem, “Outplacement,” advice on what to do if you are set onto an ice floe with just ”a purse of dried codfish and an oar.” Katz would “keep my favorite of these beautifully alert, surprising poems with me as I grow old.”

Although born in India, Elizabeth (Mimi) Danson spent her early childhood in China, ultimately was educated in England. During her adult (United States) life, Danson has taught, worked in publishing and administered an arts center. Her writing has been featured in U.S. 1 Worksheets, The New Review, Fourth Genre, Anon One, and other publications.

Ellen Foos left Rochester, New York to embark upon her publishing career. Foos currently serves as a Princeton University Press production editor. She founded Ragged Sky Press in 1992. For U.S. 1 Poets’ Cooperative, Foos leads the monthly reading series, “U.S. 1 Poets Invite,” at Princeton Public Library. She also organizes memorable poetry slams for The Arts Council of Princeton. Foos’s poetry has appeared in U.S. 1 Worksheets, The Kelsey Review, Edison Literary Review, and Sensations Magazine.

Carlos Hernández Peña grew up in Mexico, his birthplace. Hernández Peña has lived in various U.S. cities over the past fifteen years. He writes prose in his mother tongue and is currently at work on a collection of short stories in Spanish. Yet Hernández Peña crafts poetry in what he terms ”this alien language.” Recent examples have been published in U.S. 1 Worksheets and Sensations Magazine.

Elizabeth Anne Socolow, a native of New York City, has taught in many venues; currently with Rutgers University. A founding member of U.S. 1 Poets’ Cooperative, she was granted the Barnard Poetry Prize in 1987 for her first book, Laughing at Gravity: Conversations with Isaac Newton. Socolow’s poems have graced numerous publications, including Ploughshares, Nimrod, and Ms. Magazine. Socolow has frequently served as editor for U.S. 1 Worksheets.

Arlene Weiner has worked as college instructor, cardiology technician, research associate in educational software, and editor. Growing up in Inwood, near Manhattan’s northern tip, Weiner has lived in Massachusetts, California, Princeton, and Pittsburgh. Her poems--frequently galvanized by glimpses into the corporate world--have appeared in Louisville Review; Pleiades, a Journal of New Writing; Poet Lore; U.S. 1 Newsweekly; U.S. 1 Worksheets.

Local residents will recognize familiar scenes in Elizabeth (Mimi) Danson’s The Luxury of Obstacles, but the poet shows us that the familiar may be strange. Close observations of the shimmer of surfaces become openings to the patterns of meaning in nature. The poet aims for reflections “as startling as the sudden glimpse of unrecognition when we spot ourselves in a dark window or an unexpected mirror.“

Publisher Ellen Foos in Little Knitted Sister sees human foibles clearly, often from her literal window on the world at Princeton University Press. In spare, quick-moving narratives, Foos reveals flawed yet loving relationships, often with sharp wit, but always with compassion. In Foos’ world view, like the dog proudly bringing its owner an unwanted trophy, we are all “happy mutts,/looking for crowns for our efforts.”

Carlos Hernández Peña writes prose in his native Spanish, turning to English for the strong works collected in Moonmilk and Other Poems. Hernández Peña’s book is full of “short dances under the crescent moon, dreamy with perfume, where ancestors join tricksters.” Ancient Pre-Columbian family tales weave artfully throughout, “in stop-motion and flute-whistle.”

Elizabeth Anne Socolow’s Ragged Sky Press book, Between Silence and Praise, plunges into “the threshold of what is about to happen, or what might… the liminal moments.” This vivid poet is known for seeing into shadow, then recorded “as fully as the person who casts it.” Socolow’s vision is to stretch awareness of the luminous sufficiently “that we might envy our own lives.”

Arlene Weiner’s Escape Velocity opens by perceiving her ideal reader as lover, purring, “I’m going to run my fingers/along your lines. //Yes, I’m going to move my lips. //....I’m going to read you/like you've never been read before.” Her concluding poem observes dolphins in “intense play,” creatures that the military has turned into “harnessed weapons.” Weiner’s rapier wit flashes among her stanzas, as welcome as during intense U.S. 1 Poets’ weekly local critique session.

celebration / reading / signing: