Yosemite Dawning: Poems of The Sierra Nevada by Shauna Potocky

Yosemite Dawning by Shauna Potocky
Editions:Paperback: $ 18.00
ISBN: 979-8888953150
Size: 6.00 x 9.00 in
Pages: 115

"Shauna Potocky’s book calls us to join her travels through public lands that await us, know us and are part of us—trails, crevices, rivers, animals and mountain peaks. The fauna and the flora in each poem are a discovery, a relationship, a new life and an enlightenment. You will breathe deeply as you trek through her poems and drawings. You will become part of the earth’s true life, you will want to leave behind the manufactured freeze-dried urban-scapes. You will be at peace. Every poem is a new height, an unexpected vista, proof of her deep knowledge and love for the environment and its wiggly lives and grand miracles. The poems and drawings, the trails and compassion all lead us to a magnificent dawn indeed. This is a most necessary collection and a sure prize-winner."

—Juan Felipe Herrera, Poet Laureate of the United States, Emeritus

"Yosemite Dawning is an epic love poem for Yosemite National Park. These are not sentimental lines but rather a caretaker’s loving astonishment of Nature with one eye towards environmental despair and the other towards hope. The poet finds a legacy among the park’s jagged peaks: “Every route, they say, is a signature line.”"

—Tawhida Tanya Evanson, author of Book of Wings

"Shauna Potocky’s new collection, Yosemite Dawning, brims with lyrical descriptions of one of the nation’s greatest treasures, its imagery blessing both those who have experienced Yosemite firsthand and those who may now do so by reading this exquisite book of poetry. At once an accomplished collection and a call to environmental awareness and appreciation for the natural world, Yosemite Dawning will enjoin readers in newfound appreciation for this particular treasure as well as all our natural wonders."

— Marcia Meier, New Mexico-Arizona Book Award winner and author of Face, A Memoir

Shauna Potocky’s debut book of poetry takes us from the edge of the Central Valley, California with its wildlife refuges and agricultural fields, through foothills and into the realm of summits within the Sierra Nevada, including colorful and scent filled meanderings on the Eastside of this spectacular range. It is a journey of landscapes and time—cultural connections, histories, climbing and contemporary questions. The poet connects us to the unseen, to the tangible, to textures and tales, from the dusty past to today, and thoughtfully asks us how we will forge the future.

Book includes color drawings by Shauna Potocky

Cover Art "Seeing is Believing" by Penny Otwell

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Publisher: Sandra Kleven
Imprint: Cirque Press
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Cirque Press Author — Shauna Potocky

shauna potockyShauna Potocky has a deep love of high peaks, jagged ridgelines and ice. She has a strong connection to the natural world—including both landscapes and seascapes with their rough or subtle edges where life unfolds; her writing has been described as poetic memoir and powerful witnessing. Her poetry has appeared in a variety of publications and journals both at home and internationally; her forth coming book of poetry Sea Smoke, Spindrift and Other Spells is scheduled to be published by Cirque Press. Shauna Potocky is a poet and painter who lives in Seward, Alaska located within the traditional homelands of the Sugpiaq people.

 

Miss Bebe Comes to America ~ La Bebé Llega a Estados Unidos by Linda Humphrey

Miss Bebe Comes to America
Editions:Paperback: $ 20.00
ISBN: 979-8888311875
Size: 8.50 x 11.00 in
Pages: 44

"Lynda Humphrey has given us a very sweet account of Miss Bebe's immigration experience. Since Miss Bebe is bilingual, she tells her story in both Spanish and English. Cat lovers everywhere will love it, and it will become a favorite read-to-me-book for children of all ages in both languages. The charming illustrations make it a book everyone will want to have displayed on their coffee tables. Also makes a wonderful gift for the other cat lovers in your life. Do yourself a favor and pick up this wonderful book."

— Jeanne Anne Craig PhD, School Psychologist

 

"A heartwarming true story of Bebe, a cat rescued in Mexico and her compelling journey to her new home in America. Charming illustrations that bring the story alive. A delightful “feel-good” read for any child."

—Corinne Ludy, M.Ed., Elementary Librarian

    "La tierna y emotiva historia real de Bebé, una gatita rescatada en México, y su fascinante viaje a su nuevo hogar en los Estados Unidos. Sus encantadoras ilustraciones le dan vida a la historia. Es una lectura muy placentera para cualquier niño." —Corinne Ludy, M.Ed., Elementary Librarian

 

“This book brings joy and happiness to the reader as you go along with Miss Bebe who shares her story of coming to America.”

—Diane Gwynne, Parent & Elementary Educator

    "Este libro brinda gozo y felicidad al leer la historia que comparte La Bebé acerca de su llegada a Estados Unidos." —Diane Gwynne, Madre y Maestra de Primaria

 

“Miss Bebe is a delightful story from a new author. Miss Bebe, a lost Mexican cat, is found by an American family and is adopted and brought to a new life as a Mexican-American. Readers will enjoy her journey as told through her eyes and native language as well as her new tongue. The illustrations reflect her cultural heritage. A perfect bedtime read for young listeners. Could there be more adventures coming for Miss Bebe?”

—Bud Cudmore, Bibliotecario de Escuela Primaria retirado

    "La Bebé es una encantadora historia de una autora nueva. La Bebé, una gatita mexicana perdida, es encontrada por una familia americana, adoptada y llevada a una vida nueva como méxico-americana. Los lectores disfrutarán su viaje, contado a través de sus ojos en su lengua materna así como su nuevo idioma. Las ilustraciones reflejan su herencia cultural. Es una lectura ideal para los pequeños antes de acostarse a dormir. ¿Vendrán más aventuras para La Bebé?" —Bud Cudmore, Bibliotecario de Escuela Primaria retirado

 

“I loved this sweet Bebe story told from the perspective of an abandoned kitten in Mexico who finds a new home. Told in both English and Spanish, children learn the things to do to keep an animal healthy and happy and what it takes to take an animal to the US. Kids will love Ms. Bebe.”

—Tobe Jensen, Ph.D. Educator and Organizational Development Consultant Doctor en Educación y Consultor en Desarrollo Organizacional

    "Me encantó esta dulce historia de la Bebé, contada desde la perspectiva de una gatita abandonada en México que encuentra un nuevo hogar. Contada tanto en inglés como en español, los niños aprenden lo que hay que hacer para mantener a un animal sano y feliz, y lo que se requiere para llevar a un animal a los Estados Unidos. A los niños les encantará la Bebé." —Tobe Jensen, Ph.D. Educator and Organizational Development Consultant Doctor en Educación y Consultor en Desarrollo Organizacional

 

"I have travelled extensively throughout Mexico and witnessed the hardships of stray animals. Miss Bebé takes you on a trip of compassion, empathy and love.”

—Mariá Guadalupe López Peterson, Rocky Reach Discovery Center Tour Guide

    “Yo Hebiendo viajado extensamente por todo México y he presenciado las penurias de los animales callejeros, La Bebé te lleva en un viaje de compasión, empatía y amor.”—Mariá Guadalupe López Peterson, Rocky Reach Discovery Center Guia Turistico

 

Circles by Cirque Press

Circles by Cirque PressAnnouncing Circles, a new imprint of Cirque Press designed for illustrated books. Look to these engaging books for image and light, fun and fantasy, mystery and music. Circles focuses on the singing of the spheres, the clock of the seasons, the mirth of the hyena, and the renewal of legend and myth.

Full Color Interior and Illustrations

 

Miss Bebe Comes to America ~ La Bebé Llega a Estados Unidos is filled with beautiful hand-drawn illustrations by Illustrator Judi Nyerges with both English and Spanish translation by Patti Sosa Hands.

Images copyright Cirque Press and Lynda Humphrey 2022

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Cirque Press Author — Lynda Whisman Humphrey

Lynda HumphreyLynda Whisman Humphrey is a retired Elementary Principal, former Reading Specialist, Central Office Administrator, and Administrator of a Teacher Education Program at the University of Washington. She and her husband spend their summers on their 68-acre ranch in the Methow Valley of Washington State, her winters in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and once in a while at the Seattle house. She loves seeing eyes light up with the “AHA” moment of learning. She describes herself as a “learning junkie” constantly seeking new information. She loves to travel and explore architecture, culture, music, food, traditions, and the people of different countries. She has a very fond place in her heart for Mexico and animals!

Between Promise and Sadness Poems by Joanne Townsend

Between Promise and Sadness by Joanne Townsend
Editions:Paperback: $ 20.00
ISBN: 979-8888627686
Size: 6.00 x 9.00 in
Pages: 115

Former Alaska Poet Laureate, Joanne Townsend, had a naturalist’s eye and a poet’s ability to convey her emotions and love of nature. Her poems speak of pleasure as well as the sorrow of losing of her only son. When Joanne died, only a large unsorted pile of poems in hard copy was found. Her friends and colleagues in Las Cruces, New Mexico: Ellen Roberts Young, Christine Eber and Joseph Somoza, with assistance from Peter Goodman, F. Richard Thomas and Frank Varela composed this book. Joanne Townsend's posthumous collection, Promise and Sadness, is a tribute to her life and legacy.

"When Joanne Townsend and I were introduced (by a poet, of course) over 45 years ago, we hit it off right away. After all, we had many things in common: a history with the Atlantic seaboard, raising sons, a reverence for history, flower gardening. But the most important thing we shared was a belief that poetry is a necessary component of civilization. Further, we weren't kidding around: each of us was deeply committed to writing the best poetry she could. In particular, Joanne focused on helping the elderly struggling to express themselves.

Her departure has left a big gap in my universe."

— Ann Chandonnet, author of Baby Abe: A Lullaby for Lincoln

"I didn't know Joanne Townsend well during the decades when she lived in Alaska, and if you know me at all that will not come as a surprise. Now, after reading her Between Promise and Sadness I wish I had. She had a naturalists' eye and a poet's ability to convey what she saw and felt to the reader. She knew joy and more than her share of suffering, including the death of her only son, but in the end, hers is a joyful voice, a kind and understanding one. As much as I admire her "nature" poems from her time in Alaska and her final decades in New Mexico, her cactus and lupine poems, it's her poems about growing up in an immigrant section of Boston that I will read again and again with envy and appreciation."

— Tom Sexton, author of For the Sake of the Light; New and Selected Poems, Li Bai Rides a Celestial Dolphin Home, and Cummiskey Alley: New and Selected Lowell Poems

"One of Joanne Townsend's lines, "from a life less clear," could have served as title. Juxtaposing Alaska and New Mexico, and different eras from her life, she sets us somewhere with concrete and evocative details, then shares her wonderfully pensive later reflections on people, places, and experiences. I like her mix of savoring the moment but also holding it and letting it grow and change in memory; her joy and her candor."

— Peter Goodman, Columnist for the Las Cruces Sun-News and the blog "Views from Soledad Canyon".

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About Joanne Townsend

Joanne Townsend
Joanne Townsend

Joanne Townsend was named Poet Laureate for Alaska by the state legislature in 1988. Collection description: The collection consists of papers regarding Joanne Townsend’s work as a poet and her relations with other Alaskan authors.

 

Transplanted by Birgit Lennertz Sarrimanolis

Transplanted by Birgit Lennertz Sarrimanolis
Editions:Paperback: $ 15.00
ISBN: 979-8888627549
Size: 6.00 x 9.00 in
Pages: 230

"Transplanted is an honest, frank and unsentimental memoir about a life-threatening leukemia diagnosis and an against-all-odds recovery. Birgit Lennertz Sarrimanolis is a skilled writer. She packs the pages with the kind of medical and logistical details anyone dealing with cancer in Alaska will appreciate, and yet this is no “how to” manual. Her story is deeply personal—and that is why it moved my heart and gave me hope."

— Heather Lende, Alaska State Writer Laureate and author of Of Bears And Ballots and Find The Good

"An exhilarating read, Transplanted is a braided story chronicling the author’s excruciating battle with cancer against the backdrop of Alaska’s far northern landscape, a place of wild contradictions and inclement weather. Engulfed in a wilderness of her own, made up of multiple hospitalizations and the weight of exhaustion and pain, the author takes refuge in the healing powers of the hills, trees, sky and trails she has so vividly come to love...The author’s eloquent language and crisp attentiveness to place, shine, both lyrically and poetically. As sure as permafrost resists the melt, she fights long and hard to regain her health, though her life will never be the same again. Quiet triumph can be found in the fog of loss, and this author artfully shows us how."

— Monica Devine, Author of Water Mask

"One woman’s account - lyrical, moving, occasionally quite funny - of making her home in the Far North, only to find that the wilderness was inside her."

— Jennifer Brice, author of Unlearning To Fly

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Cirque Press Author — Birgit Lennertz Sarrimanolis

Birgit Lennertz Sarrimanolis holds a BA in art history and German studies, an MA in art history, and a PhD in art education. Her work has appeared in Cirque Journal, Five on the Fifth, 49 Writers, Shark Reef, and Medicine and Meaning. Her story “April Supermoon” aired on Juneau KTOO’s Community Connections series. She was a finalist in the 2020 Pacific Northwest Writers Association literary contest and won second place in the 2021 Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition. She regularly attends writing conferences, including the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference, the Seattle Writing Workshop, and the Kachemak Bay Writers Conference. She has lived in Indonesia, India, Chile, Argentina, Egypt, Germany, and Greece, but now calls Alaska home, where she writes overlooking the Tanana Valley. More information and her Alaskan blog can be found at her website: www.birgitsarrimanolis.com

Sky Changes On the Kuskokwim: A Novel by Clifton Bates

Sky Changes on the Kuskokwim
Editions:Paperback: $ 18.00
ISBN: 979-8887573380
Size: 6.00 x 9.00 in
Pages: 207

In the course of a lifetime, so much has changed in rural Alaska. Time has eroded the past ways of living; leaving in its place, a complicated straddling of the old and new.

The author takes us through the life and hard times of Kim-boy. From family loss to memories gained, Kim-boy struggles to find his way and make sense of both time and place. This is a story that could be told in many parts of Rural Alaska.

Kim-boy’s life is a story of changes and, perhaps, tragedy. His life was a sand bar as the tide rises. Smooth at first, seemingly endless, only to narrow and disappear with the incoming tide of an everchanging world.

—Samuel Crow, born and raised in Bethel, Alaska, retired educator, currently with AVCP (Assoc. of Village Council Presidents)

This is a story of cultural change through the character of Kim-boy who lives along the Kuskokwim River in Alaska. He experiences the advent of outsiders who come from the Lower 48 and disrupt his hunter-gatherer life of living off the land. Kim-boy’s world changes as his culture transitions from a barter to a cash economy. But Kim-boy is resilient. He overcomes the challenges as he is forced to adapt to an academic classroom, deal with the negative effects of alcohol abuse, experience the harsh reality of death and disease and the tearing down of his supportive, extended family.

Each chapter begins with an epigraph to remind the reader that the land of the Yup’ik on the Kuskokwim Delta is part of a larger world. And, prior to each chapter, a short poem by the author challenges the readers’ thinking. It is a gentle nudge to ponder the events happening on the Kuskokwim and what’s to come in the next part of the narrative.

I could very well have known Kim-boy. I grew up in a town on the Kuskokwim at about the same time period. I can attest that Sky Changes brings to the reader a sliver of the life among the Yup’ik during this time.

—John Weise, PhD, retired Alaskan educator

 

About Cirque Press

Cirque Press

Cirque Press was established in 2017, to publish the work of writers from Alaska and the Northwest.

It developed quite naturally from Cirque Journal, established in 2008.

Sandra Kleven and Michael Burwell are founders, editors and publishers.

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Cirque Press Author — Clifton Bates

Clifton Bates, Author

Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Clifton Bates moved to Alaska in 1977. He was employed as a secondary school teacher, a school district administrator, and a full-time university professor. He lived and worked for over three decades in the Kuskokwim Region in Western Alaska. He is now retired living at his home in Chugiak, Alaska.

Literary achievements include writing and producing with Alaska Public Television Somebody’s Taking Pictures, an historical documentary film aired statewide and dedicated to the people of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. His play entitled Witnesses concerning Yup’ik characters in the Kuskokwim region was presented on stage at the Western Region Playwrights Showcase in Denver, Colorado. With the Very Rev. Dr. Michael Oleksa, he co-authored a book on Alaska Native education: Conflicting Landscapes, American Schooling/Alaska Natives. This text remains the definitive resource for all educators working with Native students. Cirque Press also published his second book, Like Painted Kites & Collected Works. It contains essays, poetry, plays, and short stories about Asia, Alaska & Elsewhere; all of which had been previously published in various literary journals in Alaska/USA, Germany. France, England, and Malaysia.

On the Beach: Poems 2016-2021 by Alan Weltzien

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Editions:Paperback: $ 15.00
ISBN: 979-8887579009
Size: 6.00 x 9.00 in
Pages: 208

A scholar, memoirist, and biographer, Alan Weltzien, as On the Beach amply demonstrates, is also a major Montana poet. Just as Norman Maclean knew rivers and family, Weltzien knows mountains and shorelines (and rivers, too), knows steep pitches and snow, knows what it means to grow up and grow older, what it means to be a son, a husband, and a father; these are poems of work and books, history, friendship, and returning home. Deeply moving, and deeply felt, On the Beach stands with the finest poetry and nature writing ever produced in the Treasure State.

—Brady Harrison, author of The Term Between: Stories

I wish this poet was sitting at my kitchen table, wise-cracking and spinning tales. His eyes and his heart are wide open. His intellect, both electric and electrifying, strikes lightning poem by poem. He's humorous, humble, humane. Alan Weltzien's On the Beach, threads "decades of geographies" into a heartfelt collection of memories and conjectures, all offered to us by the generous professor who laughs at himself when "shat" upon mid-lecture by a bird in an outdoor classroom. At the height of his artistry, this poet winks and claims he's "ever more certain of what I don't know."

—Lowell Jaeger, Montana Poet Laureate 2017-2019

About Cirque Press

Cirque Press

Cirque Press was established in 2017, to publish the work of writers from Alaska and the Northwest.

It developed quite naturally from Cirque Journal, established in 2008.

Sandra Kleven and Michael Burwell are founders, editors and publishers.

 

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Cirque Press Author — O. Alan Weltzien

Alan WeltzienO. Alan Weltzien, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Montana Western, retired in May 2020, closing out forty years of full-time teaching. Weltzien has published ten books and four chapbooks, including The Norman Maclean Reader (University of Chicago Press, 2008); Savage West: The Life and Fiction of Thomas Savage (University of Nevada Press, 2020); A Father and an Island (Lewis-Clark Press, 2008); and Exceptional Mountains: A Cultural History of the Pacific Northwest Volcanoes (University of Nebraska Press, 2016)

Nothing Got Broke by Larry F. Slonaker

Nothing Got Broke
Editions:Paperback: $ 18.00
ISBN: 979-8886274622
Size: 6.00 x 9.00 in
Pages: 276

In Nothing Got Broke, Larry Slonaker does a remarkable thing: He puts you firmly on the Hi-Line of Montana, sends the ceaseless wind swirling around you, gives you a taste of the beer, and sets you up with a view down Main Street and into the hearts, hopes, and broken dreams of the people in that place. That he gets Montana comes shimmering off these pages.... Slonaker reveals it with appropriate measures of reverence and unflinching candor.

—Craig Lancaster, author of And It Will Be a Beautiful Life and 600 Hours of Edward

Doug Rossiter has a secret, and in the spirit of modern Western writers Kevin McCafferty and C. J. Box, Larry Slonaker roots us firmly in today’s Montana as that secret is slowly revealed. Along the way, Slonaker holds up a mirror for us, where we can ponder Rossiter’s ruminations on the truths of Manifest Destiny in the American West, and squirm because they cut so close to the bone.

—Doug Pope, author of The Way to Gaamaak Cove

Larry Slonaker knows the raw world he writes of, in this gritty narrative slashed with liberal dashes of noir. He demonstrates a sharp eye for details that count and a keen ear for dialogue inflected with regional accents.

—Ron McFarland, author of The Rockies in First Person and Appropriating Hemingway

About Cirque Press

Cirque Press

Cirque Press was established in 2017, to publish the work of writers from Alaska and the Northwest.

It developed quite naturally from Cirque Journal, established in 2008.

Sandra Kleven and Michael Burwell are founders, editors and publishers.

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Publisher: Cirque Press
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Cirque Press Author — Larry F. Slonaker

Larry F. Slonaker
Larry F. Slonaker

Larry F. Slonaker was born and raised in Great Falls, Montana, and graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He worked as a reporter and columnist at the San Jose Mercury News. He and his wife now live in California’s Central Coast, on a place just large enough to accommodate a few horses, a few dogs and several (fixed) feral cats.

Kettle Dance: A Big Sky Murder by Kerry Dean Feldman

Kettle Dance by Kerry Dean Feldman
Editions:Paperback: $ 15.00
ISBN: 979-8886274653
Size: 6.00 x 9.00 in
Pages: 145

“I felt like I was swept downstream in a fastmoving river, bounced off rocks, swirled into eddies, and spit out on the bank to dry. Feldman’s storytelling is expertly crafted, visceral and raw though he skillfully manages to squeeze in charm and tenderness to boot. In other words, this book has it all. A meaty, passionate, sexy mystery that will twist your gut. Take a big bite and chew a while on Feldman’s whodunit. It’s really, really good.”

—Monica Devine, author of Water Mask

“Crisp dialogue drives the action at high-speed in this short novel that takes place in a small town, where a local boy who left to become an LA detective returns from an Internal Affairs Group investigation as a suspect in a gruesome murder. Add romance and lust. What more could you want?”

—Ron McFarland, author of The Rockies in First Person, Subtle Thieves, and Stranger in Town

 

About Cirque Press

Cirque Press

Cirque Press was established in 2017, to publish the work of writers from Alaska and the Northwest.

It developed quite naturally from Cirque Journal, established in 2008.

Sandra Kleven and Michael Burwell are founders, editors and publishers.

Published:
Publisher: Cirque Press
Editors:
Genres:

Cirque Press Author — Kerry Dean Feldman

Kerry Dean Feldman
Kerry Dean Feldman

Kerry Dean Feldman is a Montana-born writer-anthropologist, currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

He is co-founder of the Alaska Anthropological Association (1973 – 74). Kerry is the author of Drunk on Love: Twelve Stories to Savor Responsibly (Cirque Press, 2019), and Alice’s Trading Post: A Novel of the West (Five Star/Cengage, 2022). He won national competition awards for short stories during his Montana teens, but he put publishing fiction aside until he experienced and “knew enough” about life to offer stories in genres that helped him understand his own life better.

Kettle Dance is his homage to noir mystery novel writers and filmmakers. He lives in Anchorage with his artist-wife, Tami Phelps (Cirque Press Author of Miss Tami, Is Today Tomorrow? Kindergarten in Alaska — Stories for Grown-Ups)

Salt & Roses by Buffy McKay

Buffy McKay is a poet of power. In Salt & Roses, she looks hard at life across a range of free verse, villanelles, and haikus, and leaves us with poignant and glimmering lines that can stop you dead in your tracks. When she captures the ethereal essence of inner and outer landscapes, you can imagine her with the likes of Mary Oliver and Elizabeth Bishop, sipping tea and swapping lines about fish.

— Doug Pope, author of The Way to Gaamaak Cove

The gorgeous poems in Buffy McKay’s Salt & Roses traverse the wilds of Alaska and comb the watery landscapes of Rhode Island and Scotland. McKay’s connection to each place runs deep, and these roots she shares in a generous and loving way. In one poem, she illustrates how ancestry lives in a smoked fish and her mother’s word for it: dunghnak. This collection sensually explores the lands dear to McKay, family homelands which nourish her body as well as her soul. She captures life’s beauty with a wide-angle lens. Yes, there are salt and roses within these pages, but also cancer, death, loss, and regret. More than a book of poems, Salt & Roses is a book of prayers.

— Martha Amore, author of In the Quiet Season and Other Stories

Pomace stubbles the pint glass
Buffy in Scotland
One day of sun, three of rain
Buffy in a cabin in Skagway, Alaska
My hand, fingers spread
Holds my chest
The river is the voice of always
Adept as the moon of your fingernail
Describes the skin on my body
October
Buffy practicing her regret
To her indigenous mother
Her spine creaks
She fiddles with words
To make this beautiful book

— James P. Sweeney, author of A Thousand Prayers: Alaska Climbing Expedition: Marine Life Solidarity

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Cirque Press Author — Roberta "Buffy" McKay

Salt & Roses by Buffy McKay
Roberta "Buffy" McKay

Roberta “Buffy” McKay is of Scottish and Inupiat descent. She enjoys writing about memory, time and place, and has written poems since age 3. First published in the We Alaskans section of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Anchorage Daily News in 1993, her work has appeared in various literary journals including Cirque. She has won scholarships to the Community of Writers, Olympic Valley, CA and Billy Collins’ master class at The Key West (FL) Literary Seminar and remains grateful for their value and life lessons.

“I’m inspired by my environment and geography and their effects on me. I’ve lived in some incredible places and had some amazing adventures so far in this life, and that seems to turn into poems.”

Currently, Buffy can be found beachcombing with a new dog, Benji, in New England and writing her autobiography, To Sir Sean Connery, With Love.

Growing Older: A Life in Alaska’s Rainforest by Margo Wasserman Waring

Book Cover:
Editions:Paperback: $ 15.00
ISBN: 979-8885897471
Size: 6.00 x 9.00 in
Pages: 91

Margo Waring’s poetry is tuned to the pitch and roll of the seasons. Just as spring returns cyclically to Southeast Alaska’s beaches, forest paths, and mountain peaks, youth too ebbs and flows in the present tense, permeating old age. In this, these poems teach us to let memory carry us forward with the same agility that it carries us back. I will listen to my stream, writes Waring. Hear it dissolve in the sea.

— Corinna Cook, author of Leavetakings

Margo Waring writes beautifully of place, time, memory, and aging. Her years of attention to the changing seasons and climate of southeast Alaska uncover, like March’s melting snows, her awareness of life’s gifts and the losses that come to us all.

— Nancy Lord, former Alaska writer laureate and author of Fishcamp, Beluga Days, and pH: A Novel

Cirque Press Author — Margo Wasserman Waring

Margo Wasserman Waring
Margo Wasserman Waring

A decision to move to Alaska for a year or two changed the direction of Margo Wasserman Waring’s life from an academic career path to something richer and more varied. Margo grew up in working class Brooklyn with her parents and twin brother and began an academic life (New York University, University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin) of study and teaching. Wanting to move to the West Coast, she and her then husband detoured to Alaska in 1969, anticipating an adventure for a year or so. She still lives in Juneau, Alaska where she worked as a legislative staffer, policy analyst and planner in state government in natural resources, environmental conservation and health services until her retirement. Post retirement gave her more time for public service and activism, serving on the local school board and focusing her activism on the League of Women Voters and climate emergency. She shares her life with her husband, Douglas Kemp Mertz, son, Edward Mertz, and several beloved dogs. Inspiration to write poetry came later in her life. Margo is forever grateful for the encouragement and support of her writers’ group. Margo’s poetry has been published in Cirque, Tidal Echoes, Alaska Women Speak, electronic venues, and locally at Bus Omnibus and Writers Weir.