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Dream Horse Press

For the 2004 Orphic Prize for Poetry guidelines, click here.

Titles currently available:

Adam & Eve Go To the Zoo

Jason Gray's Adam & Eve Go to the Zoo
Winner of the 2003 National Poetry Chapbook Prize
ISBN 0-9659307-7-7
$8.00
Frontispiece by Stephan Whittle

Praise for Adam & Eve Go to the Zoo

: "Jason Gray writes with great precision. The words precisely
chosen, the wit precisely incisive, the rhymes precisely
balanced or unbalanced, and all this precision takes us deeper
and deeper into a passion that is anything but precise, except
in its delineation. The pleasures of Adam & Eve Go to the Zoo
are the pleasures of a poet of great vision adjusting his
eyes to seeing, as best he can, in the dark that we all live in.
The book is a superb achievement."—Andrew Hudgins

"With excellent craft and a praiseful calm coupled with quietly
passionate hope for humanity's ever-raising conscience, Jason
Gray's lyrical verse delivers the reader into a place of bright
possibility. Like his 'Red Panda' balancing itself on a branch
as 'the wind sways and the landscape shifts,' this poet knows
the world's gravity and yet is not pulled down by it. Adam &
Eve Go to the Zoo
is an extraordinarily mature and striking
first collection."
—C. J. Sage

Author bio:

Jason Gray's poems have appeared in Poetry, The
Threepenny Review, Literary Imagination, The Sewanee
Theological Review,
and other magazines, and in the anthology
And We The Creatures (Dream Horse Press, 2003). His book
reviews appear regularly online at Smartish Pace.
He is the recipient of a Tennessee Williams Scholarship from the
Sewanee Writers' Conference and a grant from
the Maryland State Arts Council. He earned his MA from
the Writing Seminars of Johns Hopkins University.


And We The Creatures


edited by C. J. Sage

ISBN 0-9659307-5-0
103 pages, $15.95 + s/h
Frontispiece, "Der Stier," by Franz Marc
(courtesy of The Guggenheim Museum)


electronic check and credit card options available
(Or click on the book cover to purchase through Amazon.com.)

"It is rare to find a collection of poems devoted to animals, so it gives me pleasure to be able to recommend this anthology featuring the work of well-known contemporary poets. It is a delight."
—Sir Paul McCartney

"I approached this book fully intending to experience a theme-anthology and maybe some pretty poems about our beloved pets. May I apologize to myself and to the publisher. Here is an anthology of nearly 90 poems that shift the view of the reader, with powerful writings, presenting poems that are a critique of our society, and become seeds in the heart that stay, days after the reading. We all know how poetry of an 'intended narrative' can become polemic. Not here. These poems struggle with questions of monumental size; they are not philosophical utterances; they are solid literary works that take into account the solitude of suffering - in this case, the suffering of animals. The spirit of compassion that fills this book tilts the scale of humankind and, while illuminating the wrenching conditions that animals endure, the poems are masterpieces of the spirit. I don't know how the publisher J.P. Dancing Bear, and editor CJ. Sage managed to gather these particular poems; I do not know how much time and attention it took, but let me say, patience was rewarded for this is as fine an anthology as is printed today....If you buy one anthology this year, let it be this one."

—Grace Cavalieri, The Montserrat Review

This collection is unlike anything that has ever before been published. A body of excellent poems by renowned and emerging American authors for animal rights and appreciation, it is not only the first of its kind but comprises the very best poetry on the topic. Beginning with Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Dunn's "The Animals of America," which imagines how animals view their human relations, and ending with the editor's dedication poem "For the Animal Rights Activists," the anthology moves gently from a concern for the welfare of traditional family pets—something to which most everyone can assent—through the situations of animals for food, clothing, hobby, beauty, science, labor, and the myriad industries of human profit—aspects of the topic which many of us might never have seriously considered—and finally to the celebration of non-human animals and the human animals who work for their safety and kind treatment. And We The Creatures is a book that everyone should read.

Contributors:

Austin Alexis, David Baker, Will M. Baker, Ellen Bass, Randy Blasing, William Borden, Grace Butcher, Scott Cairns, Ashley Capps, Robert M. Chute, Tom Crawford, Deborah Cummins, J. P. Dancing Bear, Gregory Djanikian, Joseph Duemer, Stephen Dunn, Karl Elder, Sally Fisher, Lisa Fishman, Stuart Friebert, Dan Gerber, Jason Gray, Bob Hicok, Jane Hirshfield, Amy Holman, Tina Kelley, John Kennedy, Ted Kooser, Richard Levine, Sarah Lindsay, Edward C. Lynskey, Wesley McNair, Jane Mead, Alyce Miller, Robert S. Pesich, Kenneth Pobo, Lawrence Raab, Carl Rakosi, David Roderick, C. J. Sage, Gary Short, Thomas R. Smith, Gabriel Spera, Hannah Stein, Ira Sukrungruang, Arthur Sze, Diane Thiel, Chase Twichell, David Wagoner, Charles Harper Webb, & Alice Ahrens Williams


New Fables, Old Songs
Winner of the 2002 National Poetry Chapbook Prize


Rob Carney

ISBN 0-9659307-6-9
28 pages
$8.00 + s/h
limited edition
Artwork by Bob Dornberg

(electronic check and credit card options available)

Or, to purchase via Amazon.com, click on the book cover.

Praise for New Fables, Old Songs:

"Rob Carney's New Fables, Old Songs is a great
chapbook. Fables are the stories of our bones; their
marrow-wisdom of metaphor and symbol allows us to
make sense of the world. Song is the sensual music of
the same, the syncopation in our skeletons. These
poems have both—the marrow of myth coupled
with a contemporary playfulness that beats the bones
together and sings. I highly recommend this book."

— Tod Marshall

"Mixing his own signal styles of myth and music,
with New Fables, Old Songs Rob Carney
treats the reader to a poetry unique and entirely
captivating, rapturous even in the midst of
unhappiness. His rhyme is internal, his rhythm
is native, his representations are raw. Just the
right sense of the strange, an attention to sound,
and homage to both oral and written traditions
distinguish this fine collection. To borrow the title
line from one of the most wonderful poems in the
book: the man has a heart like a kite. But no
matter how many crashes and rips, ties and
retries, still he fights to launch beautiful letters,
even if only to the wind. So grab the string and
hang on tight for a lively new view of old lands."

— C. J. Sage

"This is a charming book. I feel as if I have been listening to Yehudi Menuhin playing wildly voracious, but passionately tender, music....Order your copy today."

— Joyce Metzger

Author bio:
Rob Carney is originally from Washington State. He received a BA from Pacific Lutheran University (1990), an MFA from Eastern Washington University (1992), and a PhD from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (1997) with major emphases in 20th-century American Literature and Creative Writing. In addition to poems, he has published flash fiction and one-act plays in journals such as Mid American Review, Northwest Review, Poetry Northwest, Quarterly West, River Styx, Willow Springs, ZYZZYVA, and many others. A full-length collection just won the Pinyon Poetry Prize and will be published later in 2003. Currently he teaches at Utah Valley State College (Orem, Utah) and lives in Salt Lake City.

      Let's Not Sleep


             C. J. Sage

ISBN 0-9659307-3-4
60 pages, perfect bound
$12.95 + s/h
limited edition

(electronic check and credit card options available)

Or, to purchase via Amazon.com, click on the book cover.

Artwork by Bob Dornberg

Praise for Let's Not Sleep:

"Through sinewy yet delicate lines, Sage unlocks experience and memory in a meditative exploration of the world, pointing to those truths which can never be fully captured, only illuminated through the radiance of language. Her poems are arresting, gratifying."

— Ryan G. Van Cleave

"I had a sense all through this book that I was reading something extraordinary....Let's Not Sleep is as close to being a perfect first book as I can imagine....Recommendation: Buy this book."

The Adirondack Review

"The book is filled with beautiful poems and one wants to quote line after line, poem after poem.... [Bridge Ghazal] is a wonderful example of how formal poetry can enrich itself, how a modern poet can still write a lyric which extends the form, instead of abandoning it.... Ms. Sage's gifts are immense.... Her formal skills are very strong and varied in their scope. Her voice is both playful and revelatory. "

The In Posse Review

"In this strong debut, C.J. Sage offers us poems where 'Yes and No chase each other round the props of any bridge.' The work in this book affords a subtle command of irony and eroticism .... Read such poems as 'How the Other Half,' 'Say You Love Your Husband,' 'Bridge Ghazal,' 'How to Tell a God,' 'You Are Not a Poet,' or 'She Was Like Persephone' in the bookstore and you will want to buy this book!"

— Ilya Kaminsky
    2001-2002 Ruth Lilly/Poetry magazine Fellow
    1999-2000 Writer In Residence, Phillips Exeter Academy

"C. J. Sage's new poetry collection, Let's Not Sleep, is a sensual delight—an urgent celebration of our place in nature—and an honest revelation of our arrogance in setting ourselves above and apart—and away—from the natural world of animals, all lovingly trounced in this musical miscellany.... These poems lack all polemics; they reveal that human sorrow, despair, desire, and evil can be seen through engagement in the lives of all creatures, both when they suffer from human misuses and insensitivity and when they don't....As their collective title suggests, these poems sing, dance, and cry with eyes wide open. They resonate with humbling humanity; navigate tirelessly troubled waters; and pulsate sublimely with libidinal energy."

— Ben Bennani, Paintbrush magazine

Author bio:
C. J. Sage's poems have appeared in numerous international and national magazines including The Threepenny Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Smartish Pace, The Seattle Review, Light Quarterly, The Bitter Oleander and many others, and have won several literary awards including the Academy of American Poets Prize, several Phelans, and the Folendorf award for outstanding achievement in creative writing. Ms. Sage is also the editor of a new poetry anthology, And We The Creatures, featuring the work of fifty excellent contemporary American poets including David Baker, Scott Cairns, Stephen Dunn, Stuart Friebert, Bob Hicok, Jane Hirshfield, Ted Kooser, Sarah Lindsay, Wesley McNair, Jane Mead, Lawrence Raab, Diane Thiel, David Wagoner, and Charles Harper Webb.


Ryan G. Van Cleave


The Florida Letters
ISBN 0-9659307-2-6
  $6.00 + s/h
limited edition

(electronic check and credit card options available)

Or, to purchase via Amazon.com, click on the book cover.

Artwork by Bob Dornberg


Praise for The Florida Letters:

"This is a supple, lyrical, and smart collection of poems.
I'm impressed by Mr. Van Cleave's lean but muscular line.
In The Florida Letters, the author assumes his place
among a continuum of poetic voices and its reciproca
l correspondence between the living and the dead, and
he convinces us he belongs there."

— Gaylord Brewer

"Perhaps every lover of poetry has felt a strangeness, an
alienation both painful and exciting, that occurs after one
senses that only the voice of the poem will ever be as close
to one's private ear as the voice of another can be.
Ryan G. Van Cleave has given us a sequence of poems
... that gives flesh to the abstract intimacy between reader
and writer by imagining that intimacy to be a dialogue in
which the reader is not passive, but is answering in a language
beautiful and necessary....'"

— Christopher Davis

"The Florida Letters is a lush, graceful, and imaginative
work. Van Cleave is a fine poet."

— C. J. Sage

"This supple, lyrical book set my toes tingling.
Ryan G. Van Cleave's alert intelligence executes poetic
movement as carefully choreographed verses....the reader
can sit back and enjoy the exceptional, for Van Cleave
inspires our senses in every way....Ryan G. Van Cleave's
versifying opens eyes. His vision is generous in giving,
readily accessible....If you only order one book in six
months, you should inquire about this slender volume
from the publisher. Excellent!"

— Joyce Metzger

Author bio:
Ryan G. Van Cleave's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Arts & Letters, The Indiana Review, The Iowa Review, Ploughshares, Quarterly West, TriQuarterly, and many other magazines. Mr. Van Cleave was the Anastasia C. Hoffman Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Institute for Creative Writing.





Also still available from Dream Horse Press:

Situational Reality


by Michael McNeilley


It was recently ruled deceptive
to make an eraser in the shape
of a heart.

from "How Erasers are Made"
copyright 1998 Michael McNeilley

ISBN #9-9659307-0-X
80 pages, perfect bound. $10.95 + s/h

(electronic check and credit card options available)
Artwork by Larry Oberc


For more information about Dream Horse Press books, or for distribution, please contact the publisher.
Dream Horse Press titles are available at Amazon.com / Barnes&Noble.com and direct from the publisher: JP Dancing Bear, PO Box 640746, San Jose, Ca 95164-0746. (No submissions outside of the yearly awards, please.)