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 Amherst Writers & Artists Press publishes fine books of poetry and short fiction, books and other resources for writers, and resources for leaders of Amherst Writers & Artists and Amherst Writers & Artists Institute method workshops.
Amherst Writers & Artists Press is a nonprofit press
that publishes Peregrine, a literary
journal, and one or two books of poetry each year, totaling so far twenty-two
volumes, with five more forthcoming. All of our books are designed by Barbara
Werden, who has received both national and international prizes in book
design. Amherst Writers & Artists Press is a member of the Council of
Literary Magazines & Presses and the Small Press Center.
Newly published:
Poetry. Using familiar objects and shared stories, Steven evokes the tender, raw moments of childhood in which we begin to know ourselves and to know how others see us, and the distance between the two. He records the suddenly-opening angles of vision which in adulthood reunite our childhood experience with our adult realities, moments in which we discover the ever-shifting and rich ambiguity of who we are. "If Steven Riel were a window dresser instead of a poet his carefully placed objects in elegant proximities—as the words in the lines of these poems—would render tableaux with wry and tender precision so as to stir your spirit and stretch your heart." —Franklin Abbott, author of Mortal Love and editor of Boyhood, Growing Up Male
A collection of stories and poems. Dick Bentley's work achieves depth without heaviness, but rather with a quirky freshness that makes reading a delight. From the fusion of wildwood and wealth in "Rough Camp" to the voice of the tender, protective mother who is the narrator of "First Day of School," from the playful exactness and prickly aloneness of "In your Letter That You Did Not Write Me" to the voice of the justified maniac in "Health Care," Dick's ability to enter the lives of widely different characters, and to speak out of their experience, is extraordinary. This small book contains many worlds. Dick Bentley is a long time member of Pat Schneider's Wednesday night writing workshop, where all of the poems were first written, and the stories critiqued. Pat describes Dick's voice as "fresh, innovative, quirky, and wise." "If you've ever wondered what John Updike would read like on acid, trip out with Dick Bentley. He can take you far out and then surprise you by evoking ordinary life and feeling so unerringly. Flashbacks guaranteed." (Diane Lefer, author of Radiant Hunger, Very Much Like Desire, and The Circles I Move In) "What a mind is displayed in Richard Bentley's stories — especially the stunning, mysterious "Nighthawk Falls — Dusk" — what intelligence, what fun!" (Pamela Painter, author of Getting to Know the Weather and The Long and Short of It) "There seems to be no limit to where Bentley's writerly mind might take him: bar rooms, shabby-sad neighborhoods, radon-filled basements. Line after line leapt out at me, sometimes elegant as Fred Astaire, sometimes like a monkey mugging with huge teeth." (Sharon Sheehe Stark, author of The Dealer's Yard and A Wrestling Season) "Bentley has a really first-rate imagination. At times playful, at other times darkly satiric, at still other times empathetic, it's a talent that continually illuminates his work." (W.D.Wetherell, author of The Man Who Loved Levittown, Chekov's Sister, and Morning)
GOD, THE FLAG, AND How she always mixed 'em --Dick Bentley
Forthcoming:
Amherst Writers & Artists Press will soon be publishing The Clearing: Collected & New Poems, by Pat Schneider (expected in late Summer), and a new book by Daphne Slocombe & Kathryn Dunn.
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"He
should have either caved in or lashed out. I mean, what else do you do when
society says you can’t be who you are. Not just once, but twice. Because
you are Franco-American. Because you’re gay. But Steven Riel rejected
the obvious choices. Instead, he decided to explore, examine, exist. In
the process, he grew stronger and more comfortable in all of his identities.
Not just Franco and gay, but in all of the plural ways that link us all
together, in spite of the singularities. And somewhere along the way, he
decided to take us along. Readers who, like me, discover the beautifully
written—often breath-taking poems in this volume will most enthusiastically
applaud that decision." —playwright Gregoire Chabot
DICK
BENTLEY grew up in the Midwest, and attended Yale and the Vermont College
MFA Program. He served as Chief Planner for the Mayor's Office of Housing
in Boston, and now teaches at Western New England College and the University
of Massachusetts. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts and is husband of
Carolyn and the father of Nicholas and Julia. He was a prize-winner in
the Paris Review/ Paris Writers Workshop International Fiction Awards
for 1994.