Riverine is a contemporary anthology of memoir, short fiction, and poetry by over seventy Hudson Valley writers.
The memoirs reflect Hudson Valley life along with life outside the United States. Intriguing short stories, both dark and light, explore a wide range of fictional characters. Microfiction (or flash fiction) brings the reader the razor-sharp genre of the short-short story and thought-provoking prose poems. Two poetry sections offer a wide array of styles from a diverse group of poets. “Hudson Valley Views” focuses upon the landscape of the valley that these poets call home. “Other Realms” journeys to the inner mindscape and takes the reader to places both real and imaginary.
Riverine is the creation of writer and editor Laurence Carr along with Codhill publisher David Appelbaum, former editor of Parabola Magazine.
Riverine celebrates the words of those authors who breathe the air of the Hudson Valley, drink its water, eat the harvest from its rich soil and convert these gifts into the gift of words that reflects our individual and collective lives. As long as a healthy Hudson River continues to flow through this valley (and part of our lives must be committed to its good health), the words of its writers will also continue to flow from lips and pens and pencils and keyboards.
“…a cornucopia of poetry and prose gathers together a Who’s Who of Hudson Valley authors. River deep and mountain high, this bountiful book is a pleasure to read.” — Chronogram
“[Riverine] represents the wealth of our region, not only in its varied geographical and natural beauty, but also in the richness of artistic talent tucked in its hills and along its winding waters.” — Mary Holland, Works Cited, SUNY New Paltz
“Carr has assembled an anthology that goes a long ways toward capturing the literary spirit of the Hudson River Valley … this book is an excellent place to meet this diverse cadre of writers and genres.” — Dale Flynn, The Hudson River Valley Review
Laurence Carr teaches creative and dramatic writing at SUNY New Paltz where he created the SUNY Playwrights’ Project and was honored as a Teacher of the Year. Over thirty of his plays and theatre pieces have been produced in New York City, throughout the United States, and in Europe. His prose and poetry have been published and performed throughout the country.
Table of Contents
Preface Acknowledgments
Memoir
How Books Changed My Life Da Chen
Land Ho! Laurence Carr
Water Babies (published in Chronogram) Nina Shengold
The Perfect House (from A Place In the Country, Riverhead Books) Laura Shaine Cunningham
Sandcastles Werner Hengst
Short Story
Bones Like Ice James P. Othmer
The 3-Mile Run Anthony Robinson
Butterfly Kisses Annecy Baez
Waterloo Jacob Appel
Mision San Pablo (published in the LA Times Sunday magazine, West) Steven Lewis
Raised Hearts Hailing: The Poems of Francis Eamon Boyle (18741900) (published in Shawangunk Review) William Boyle
A Supermarket In Upstate New York: Shadowing Allen Ginsberg Barbara Adams
Hell On Earth; Heaven Comes; Give Peace A Chance Abigail Robin
Microfiction and Prose Poem
Stars Roberta Allen
Anneka (published in KGB Bar Lit) Roberta Allen
String Theory Guy Reed
Love, Death, Etc. (published in Eclectica) Howard Good
Imagine R.E. Rigolino
The God of Falling Objects (published in Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics) Christine Boyka Kluge
The Woman With The Video Camera Bruce Weber
Poetry: Hudson Valley Views
Swimming In The Hay Barn (from Hapax Legomena, Mellon Poetry Press) Barbara Adams
The Laws of What Happens (The Lefevre farmhouse, Route 32 North) Jacqueline Renée Ahl
The Carrion Eaters David Appelbaum
Rite of Passage David Appelbaum
Tree Watching Brenda Connor-Bey
Spring Walks, Mountain Views (published in Thought) James Finn Cotter
Farewell To Summer Lynne Digby
Designs (from The Bad Man, Ye Olde Font Shoppe Press) Dennis Doherty
Feet (from The Bad Man, Ye Olde Font Shoppe Press) Dennis Doherty
Summer Stage in Winter Allen C. Fischer
November Kill Mala Hoffman
Woodstock Mornings C.J. Krieger
My Hermit (published in Chronogram) Robert Leaver
Carpentry & Gardening Phillip Levine
Rt. 44/55 at night Nadine Lewis
Autumn Vintage Robert Milby
Sister Scarecrows Cottekill Fire House Community Garden (published in Wisconsin Review) Will Nixon
The Life of the Stag Catskills (published in The Café Review) Will Nixon
Heron Jo Pitkin
Stone House Jo Pitkin
The Dogs and I Walked Our Woods, Gretchen Primack
Helping My Parents’ Friends Get in Hay Matthew J. Spireng
Brook Matthew J. Spireng
Cutting the Oak Matthew J. Spireng
Ulster Heights, New York Christine Lilian Turczyn
The Boardwalk (from In The Salt Marsh, Knopf) Nancy Williard
Poetry: Other Realms
Stargazing Jay Albrecht
Mountain Laurel Children (published in Stonesthrow Review) Kat Alexander
Sometimes A Buddha Poem Jerrice Baptiste
Tapestry Lucia Cherciu
Can the Cactus Know the Salamander Samuel Claibourne
Magnificent Suzanne Cleary
Goddess Gone Fishing Teresa Marta Costa
Untenanted (from Anything You Don’t See, West End Press) Enid Dame
The Best Education (from SOMBER REUNION, Morning Star Press) Alec Emerson
Villard de Honnecourt Staats Fasoldt
The Concierge of Hell (published in Poetry Bay) Howard Good
Sorrow’s Rooms (published in The Rose and Thorn) Howard Good
Paris: Where All Thursdays Go to Die; after “Black Stone Lying on a White Stone” by César Vallejo (published in The Cortland Review) Anne Gorrick
Mad Evil Times Sari Grandstaff
Something Eamon Grennan
Innocence of Things Eamon Grennan
I Give You Birth (published in Southern Poetry Review) Carol Graser
The Weight of Snow Don Haynie
Books Mikhail Horowitz
Morgan Mikhail Horowitz
Konghuin (a tune for the lyre)
translated by Heinz Insu Fenkl
Grieving for Yin Yao; Wang Wei (701-761 A.D.)
translated from the Korean by Heinz Insu Fenkl
April 1968 Kate Hymes
The Seminar Kate Hymes
Barrier Canyon Style (published in The Literary Gazette) Mike Jurkovic
Cattle Map (published in The South Carolina Review) Mike Jurkovic
The Skies In Their Mouths (published in The Bloomsbury Review) Christine Boyka Kluge
Self-Improvement Frank LaRonca
The Ginger Jar Sharmagne Leland-St.John
Twilight (from Twilight, CRS Books) Donald Lev
Scene from a Marriage (from Yesterday’s News, Red Hill Outloudbooks) Donald Lev
Autistic Superkid (published in Chronogram) Brian Liston
What I Ate Valerie Martin
You Found Her Valerie Martin
Grand Central - Passing Through on the Way Home after a Long Day Karen Neuberg
Shooting Star (published in AGNI) Robert Polito
Three Horse Operas (published in AGNI) Robert Polito
Freight Trains Marilyn Reynolds
A Double Life (from My Night With the Language Thieves, Ye Olde Font Shoppe Press) Tad Richards
Conception Cheryl A. Rice
American Epitaphs William Seaton
Boca de Tomatlan (published in The Telluride Watch) William Seaton
The persistence of ashes (published in Front Range Review) Kenneth Salzmann
My Mother’s Owl Collection (published in Oxalis) Judith Saunders
The Weaver Jan Zlotnik Schmidt
A Photograph of my Parents in the Catskills, Circa 1937 (published in Shawangunk Review) Jan Zlotnik Schmidt
3 Poems Sparrow
Ascension (published in The Webster Review) Margo Stever
Conversation with Bertolt Brecht (published in The New England Review) Margo Stever
(excerpt from) THE BORROMEAN ISLANDS; For the Posse H. R. Stoneback
Untitled Christine Lilian Turczyn
Elements of Style Pauline Uchmanowicz
Five-Minute Hamlet Pauline Uchmanowicz
A Valentine in Green Pastures Bob Wright
Japanese Coasters Robert H. Waugh
Popinjay in the Japonica (published in Shawangunk Review) Sarah Wyman
Author Biographies