{"product_id":"mudfish-26-poetry-art-fiction","title":"Mudfish 26: Poetry, Art, Fiction","description":"\u003cp\u003eMudfish 26, a journal of poetry, art, and fiction, features 78 photographs by street\u003cbr\u003ephotographer, and portraitist, Lawrence Applebaum, whose candid shots of poets,\u003cbr\u003efriends, launch parties and Mudfish headquarters, provide an intimate glimpse into the\u003cbr\u003eworld and aura of Mudfish. This is the quintessential Mudfish: the founding fathers—cf.\u003cbr\u003ethe three on the cover—plus marvelous new talent. The whole issue takes on the\u003cbr\u003efamiliarity and intimate feel of a family album.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRenowned poet Billy Collins is the judge of the 19 th Mudfish Poetry Prize. The winning\u003cbr\u003epoem, Allen Brafman's \"Together on the Uptown 6,\" is a fitting companion to this\u003cbr\u003ephotographer, famous for his New York subway photos. All the poems that follow are a\u003cbr\u003efull-throated declaration of the American experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe photographs chronicle the story of Mudfish and the poems, in keeping with the\u003cbr\u003eMudfish aesthetic, all tell a story. They are personal and profound. And unforgettable.\u003cbr\u003eThe end of life is a theme and the way it relates to childhood. There are \"Mother\" poems\u003cbr\u003eand \"Father\" poems. Beautiful and moving poems. Cancer is a leitmotif. Nevertheless,\u003cbr\u003e\"always leave them laughing,\" is our goal.\u003cbr\u003eA new writer, Joshua Even Eisen, seems a contemporary Hemingway. Sophie Kohler, in\u003cbr\u003ean excerpt from a coming-of-age novel, is a delightful new voice. Stephanie Emily\u003cbr\u003eDickinson is featured once again with her exquisite, painful, medicinal prose. Her prose\u003cbr\u003ethat is poetry. In the first paragraph of \"Cancer in the Afternoon World\" she mentions the\u003cbr\u003e6 train:\u003cbr\u003e\"For years in bright sunshine, I marched on this sidewalk to the Astor Place subway to catch\u003cbr\u003ethe 6 Train to work, returning late. Those hurrying mornings a youngish homeless man shouted,\u003cbr\u003e'City Queen!' and would kiss my hand when I gave him a dollar.\"\u003cbr\u003eThe writing in Mudfish 26 knits itself together into a mysterious unity, as if all of these\u003cbr\u003eauthors were being guided by an invisible hand. The lone ant of Billy Collins' poem,\u003cbr\u003e\"Why I'm Incapable of Writing a Novel\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ea lone ant\u003cbr\u003ehauling a relatively enormous crumb\u003cbr\u003eabout half again its size, across the surface\u003cbr\u003eof the table on which he had been weeping\u003cbr\u003ehas wandered into Stephanie Dickinson's prose:\u003cbr\u003e\"Ants and flying mites had lost their way landing on a page of my open book. I took a deep\u003cbr\u003ebreath and exhaled them back into their world. When ants in pupa were sick they sent out\u003cbr\u003echemical messages alerting their brethren ants to come and destroy them. They began peeling\u003cbr\u003eoff their cocoon readying themselves to be bitten to death by adult ants. It was suicide to protect\u003cbr\u003eothers. My cancer, too, gave off messages.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDell Lemmon writes, in her poem \"50 th High School Reunion\": \"It all started with a\u003cbr\u003edream.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI never imagined living\u003cbr\u003ethis long and when you get this old,\u003cbr\u003eit's as if you are already dead\u003cbr\u003eand everything is a dream.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd as she says, \"Aren't we supposed to be everybody in our dreams?\"\u003cbr\u003eIt is as if we are all truly \"together on the Uptown 6.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Box Turtle Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":67722358718781,"sku":null,"price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/files\/9781893654402ita.jpg?v=1792176921","url":"https:\/\/itascabooks.com\/products\/mudfish-26-poetry-art-fiction","provider":"Itasca Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}