Pre-release April 2012

July 2012, 6 x 9, 78 pages, $10.95 paper

978-0-913785-38-6

What poets are saying about Night of the Grizzly:

Night of the Grizzly, Michael Burns’s last book, was a finished manuscript at the time of his passing and reflects an incisive poet at the height of his powers. Burns has an ear for language as satisfying as Robert Frost’s and a knack for storytelling Robert Penn Warren would envy. His deep image poems evoke primal experiences that take us beyond the dulling influence of this life.

Twenty-one of the thirty-six poems printed here have appeared in such distinguished venues as The Paris Review, The Southern Review,Western Humanities Review, The Laurel Review, and Moon City Review.

Michael Burns helped found the Creative Writing Program at Missouri State University, where he taught for twenty-five years. A graduate of the University of Arkansas Creative Writing Program, he published two chapbooks, When All Else Failed and And As for Darkness, and two books of poetry, The Secret Names and It Will Be All Right in the Morning. He also edited two books of critical essays. Born June 3, 1953 in Egypt, Arkansas, Burns retired to Louisville, Kentucky, where he passed away on October 27, 2011.

Marcus Cafagña is professor of English at Missouri State University, where he teaches creative writing. He has authored two books of poetry:The Broken World (a National Poetry Series selection) and Roman Fever. His poems have appeared in The Harvard Review, Ploughshares, Southern Poetry Review, and Quarterly West.

December 2011
6×9, 320 pages
$19.95 paper

Blue Sabine is a story of five generations of women in the same family, told in their voices, along with those of some men of Holt blood. It is set along the Sabine River, which divides the state of Texas from Louisiana and the Deep South. From 1867 (when the Holts first came to Texas) to the present, the novel chronicles the emotional lives of grandmothers, mothers, daughters, and nieces, all bound by kinship and history. Each comes to terms with being a woman in the West, in Texas, and in her own way and her own time. In its flow and its setting of boundaries, the Sabine River comes to reflect what remains and what changes in the way the Holt women see their world and themselves.

“The river forever flows, and it pulls at all it touches,” one of the characters says, “yet it
never leaves, and it never stays.” Two twenty-first century descendants give the narrative its overall shape and connection: Clement, an award-winning movie director, and his cousin Kay-Phuong, a woman of Vietnamese and Holt lineage, who has made herself into a fashion model and actress. They have returned to the Valley of the Sabine, where the Holts have lived for almost two hundred years, to hear once more the old stories and to confirm their own part in the saga. They seek to understand and to play their role in the continuing telling and retelling of the narratives that bind them to their family and to the past.

“Blue Sabine is a big, spellbinding novel, as deep and complex as the Texas river for which it’s named. The mystery and relevance of the past is Gerald Duff’s great theme, as he masterfully traces one family’s history from the Civil War to the present day. His great characters are all astonishing storytellers, with true and compelling voices that will ring in my head forever.”
—Lee Smith, author of Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger and On Agate Hill

“Blue Sabine [is] a veritable saga of insights, intimacies and intimations. The characters are obsessed with their family, and the reader iscompletely caught up in this American story set in the historic valley of the Sabine.”
—Roy Blount Jr., author of Alphabetter Juice: The Joy of Text

Gerald Duff grew up in the petro-chemical area of the Gulf Coast and the pine barrens of Deep East Texas. He worked as a hand in the oil fields and the cotton fields, as a janitor, as a TV cameraman, as a professor of English, as a college dean, and as a bit actor in television drama. Blue Sabine is his seventh novel. His other titles include Indian Giver; That’s All Right, Mama: The Unauthorized Life of Elvis’s Twin; Memphis Ribs, and Coasters.

“Folk art can help you to lead a halfway decent life,” Robert E. Smith (1927-2010) was heard to say; but Springfield, Missouri’s most famous, eccentric, and beloved painter pushed his work into the realm of outsider art. Self-taught, Smith began painting while a young man: forcibly institutionalized following a nervous breakdown, he retreated into his art. Unsurprisingly, his art brut is unbounded by logic, time, and space, brilliantly colored, at once childlike and troubling.

But Smith’s art reveals more than an imagination unfettered. The work of an inveterate story-teller, his paintings present witty, savvy, complex visual narratives. Cartoon animals mingle with sidewalk preachers, movie stars, and U.S. Presidents; in busy street scenes, bicycles and trolley cars bustle below while blimps and airplanes and UFOs—and an occasional nuclear bomb—fly overhead. Smith’s painting revels in satire, revealing an eye for incongruity and an inherent love of life. Even a cursory view of his work reflects a man who led a rich, wondrous life and whose fanciful yearnings inspired the community that cherished him.

Born in St. Louis, Smith moved to Springfield in 1975. Drawn mainly from local, privately-owned collections, the present anthology features thirty full-color illustrations along with cartoons, poems, and stories by the artist.

Eric Pervukhin is Professor of Art and Design at Missouri State University. His paintings, drawings, and book illustrations have earned international acclaim.

Carla Stine is a designer, collage artist, and illustrator. She is an admirer of Robert’s work and life and honored to have been his friend.

The 2011 volume in the MCR book series focuses on alumni in the broadest sense of the word. Some of the best writers and artists in and from the Ozarks are featured, along with a generous mix of Missouri State students and faculty. Readers from the Ozarks may recognize some old friends, and other readers will get a better idea about “where we’re from.” Authors include former Missouri Poet Laureate Walter Bargen, Michael Burns, Kerry James Evans, Brian Shawver, Roland Sodowsky, Alexandra Teague, Laura Lee Washburn, and National Poet Laureate Ted Kooser, who offers a poem and an exclusive interview.

Marcus Cafagña is a professor of English at Missouri State University, where he teaches poetry. His publications include Roman Fever and The Broken World.

Joel Chaston is a professor of English at Missouri State University, where he teaches children’s/young adult literature. His publications include Lois Lowry and Bridges for the Young (with M. Sarah Smedman).

Bruce West is a professor of art at Missouri State University, where he teaches photography. His work has been exhibited worldwide and featured in such publications as Acts of Faith and Myst, Mistica e Mistero.

Coming in MCR 2012: Our featured section will be children’s literature, edited by Joel Chaston and Linda Trinh Moser.

Confederate Girlhoods: A Women’s History of Early Springfield, Missour

6 x 9, 360 pages, 48 early photographs. $24.95, paper. November 2010 release.

Confederate Girlhoods gathers materials from the Campbell-McCammon Collection, as preserved in The History Museum for Springfield-Greene County. One of Springfield, Missouri’s founding families, the Campbells were prodigious writers whose memoirs, correspondence, and fiction portray four generations of pioneer women. Focusing on writings from 1855 to 1905, Confederate Girlhoods presents these women’s view of Indians and early settling; of slavery and Southern patriotism; of war and its social, political, economic aftermath; of the railroad and Westward migration; of an Ozarks community’s early efforts at conservation and civic commemoration.

Confederate Girlhoods . . . is a treasure of historical significance, weaving the oft-told stories of America’s Civil War and its aftermath into a new pattern: as seen through the eyes of girls and women who lived through it. . . . I’m delighted that this record of local women’s voices has been preserved . . . and collected in this remarkable and important book.

—From the foreword by Roseann Bentley, Associate Commissioner District 2, Greene County, Missouri

Confederate Girlhoods makes an important contribution to the history of Springfield and the state of Missouri, as well as to gender history and the history of the American Civil War. The writings of the Campbell-McCammon family are both entertaining and revealing, and they have been expertly edited for this volume. This is a pleasure to read.

—William Garrett Piston, co-author of Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Missouri in the Civil War

Craig A. Meyer, Casey D. White, Adam C. Veile, and Amber V. Luce are graduates of the Missouri State University English Department; other contributors include Leah M. Wright, Priscilla J. Wilson, Liam Watts, Elspeth S. Rowley, Daniel R. Newell, Robert Neumann, Cynthia Moore, Annabeth R. Minx, Justin C. Kingery, Joan Hampton-Porter, D. Gilson, L. L. Fronterhouse, Sarah A. Detzel, Janell Haynes, John P. Campbell, Jacqueline Bonsee, and James S. Baumlin.

5 x 7, 57 pages
$15.00 cloth

“I’m deeply moved that my own historical Quest and the poetic Quest of James Whitehead were so closely intertwined, even though they never intersected in time. . . . I hope that, through this beautiful book, the vision we shared can spread further. For as Whitehead’s Gabriel puts it to Panthera, ‘Your son in Galilee is magical!’ Surely he remains so to this day.”
—James Tabor, From the Introduction

Through a series of dramatic monologues (spoken by Mary, the Angel Gabriel, Paul of Tarsus, and the “Sidonian archer,” Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera), the fourteen poems gathered here give life to the Jewish-apocryphal legend of “Jesus, son of Pantera”—the story that Jesus was sired by a Roman soldier. Having learned of a tomb (unearthed in Germany) bearing the soldier’s name, Whitehead spent the last years of his life researching and writing about this fascinating, controversial tradition. In his introduction to the collection, renowned Biblical scholar James Tabor recounts the Scriptural, apocryphal, and archaeological evidence upon which the story is based.

Michael Burns is emeritus professor of English at Missouri State University, where he taught creative writing, and the author of a number of books, including the poetry collection, It Will Be All Right in the Morning

James Tabor is chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the author of The Jesus Dynasty.

For, From, About James T. Whitehead
: 

6 x 9, 156 pages, 16 photographs. 
$15.99 paper

“I have relished Jim’s poetry and consider Joiner to be one of the South’s best novels. He meant a lot to me, and I’m grateful for his friendship.”
—President Jimmy Carter

“I know Jim is more present in death than most people ever are in life. All those ways he had of feeding us—‘Fennelly, have you read Milton?’ he’d demand; ‘you of all people need Milton,’ and he of course was right—all of those ways he fed us have become part of us, embodied and alive in us. . . . He gave himself to us, and if we went on to become writers, he writes through us.”
—Beth Ann Fennelley, author of Unmentionables: Poems

When James T. Whitehead (or “Big Jim,” as friends knew him) passed away in 2003, Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas lost one of its finest poets and beloved teachers. In 1965, Whitehead joined with his friend William Harrison to found the University’s Creative Writing Program. He taught in that nationally prestigious program for the next thirty-four years, from 1965 to 1999. He was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a Robert Frost Fellowship in poetry. Whitehead’s novel, Joiner, was listed among the New York Times’ Noteworthy Books of 1971. His many poetry collections include Domains (1967), Local Men (1979), and Near at Hand (1993). With his untimely passing, Whitehead left a large body of work unpublished.
In this anthology of original poetry, short fiction, essays, and remembrances, twenty-four of Whitehead’s colleagues, students, and friends join in celebrating the man’s life and contribution to American letters. Included are posthumous works by Whitehead himself: six poems, an excerpt of creative nonfiction, and a draft-excerpt from Coldstream, projected sequel to Joiner.

Contributors: President Jimmy Carter, Miller Williams, Bill Harrison, Barry Hannah, Dave Smith, Beth Ann Fennelley, Lewis Nordan, C. D. Wright, Leon Stokesbury, R. S. Gwynn, John Dufresne, Jo McDougall, Michael Heffernan, Donald S. Hays, Van K. Brock, W. D. Blackmon, Josh Capps, Steve Yates, Nancy A. Williams, William Harrison, MD, Robert Pomeroy, Harold McDuffie, John N. Marr, and Kathleen W. Paulson, MD.

Michael Burns is emeritus professor of English at Missouri State University where he taught creative writing, and the author of a number of books, including the poetry collection, It Will Be All Right in the Morning.

Bruce West is professor in the Department of Art and Design at Missouri State University. For the past fourteen years, his photography has documented the rural landscape and culture of the Mississippi Delta.

The Gillioz “Theatre Beautiful”
Celebrating Springfield’s Theatre History, 1926–2006
Edited by James S. Baumlin 
Preface by Roy Blunt 
Artwork and design by Eric Pervukhin

7 1/2 x 11, 96 pages, with 80 
historic colorized photographs and illustrations
. $22.95 paper. 2006 release.

“While written for a popular audience, this book is perhaps the most detailed study published to date on the subject of downtown Springfield (MO).”
—Congressman Roy Blunt, Missouri 7th District

“Written with verve and precision, energy and exactitude, style and wit, this contribution to our cultural heritage will inform and delight us all, whether we take the entire exhilarating journey from first chapter to last or merely dip in now and then for a few refreshing moments.”
—Mark Trevor Smith, author of “All Nature Is But Art”: The Coincidence of Opposites in English Romantic Literature

Recounting the many live vaudeville acts and films that graced the theatre’s stage and screen, The Gillioz “Theatre Beautiful” presents a social history of entertainment through the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, the Second World War, the Cold War, the Sixties and the Seventies. Of note is the Springfield theatre’s hosting of three movie world premieres—with future U. S. president Ronald Reagan appearing in each.

James S. Baumlin is professor of English at Missouri State University and has published widely in fields of criticism, rhetoric, and English renaissance poetry.

Eric Pervukhin is professor in the Department of Art and Design at Missouri State University. His book designs and varied artwork have won national awards and international recognition.

The Heroes Have Gone: Personal Essays on Sport, Popular Culture, and the American West
Written by Jim W. Corder
Edited with an Afterword by Keith D. Miller and James S. Baumlin

5 x 8, 183 pages with illustrations by the author. $15.00 paper. 2008 Release.

“Whether writing about cereal box icons, rock-kicking, Mickey Mantle, or the fantasy realm of Las Vegas, Jim Corder is always engaging, always entertaining, always illuminating. . . . [T]he late Corder, a giant in composition and rhetoric studies, was a first-rate social commentator whose keen eye into the American soul is sorely missed.”
—David L. Vanderwerken, Texas Christian University

Featuring work previously unpublished, The Heroes Have Gone shows off Jim W. Corder’s consummate skills as a memoirist, essayist, and cultural critic. Though the subjects are wide-ranging—West Texas, World War II, writing and teaching, TCU football—one looms above the rest: Corder’s lifetime love affair with America’s pastoral sport, baseball.

Keith D. Miller is professor of English at Arizona State University and the author of Voice of Deliverance: The Language of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Its Sources.

James S. Baumlin is professor of English at Missouri State University and has published widely in fields of criticism, rhetoric, and English renaissance poetry.

On Monday evening, April 23, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., Springfield’s Barnes & Noble Bookstore will host an event, “Remembering Michael Burns: A Reading from Night of the Grizzly.” Free and open to the public, the evening will begin with music by renowned local folk musician, Julie Henigan.  Clark Closser, Missouri State University emeritus professor of English, will give a brief remembrance of Burns’ life and work. The book’s editor, Marcus Cafagña, will then be joined by colleagues Jane Hoogestraat and Sara Burge, who will read from Burns’ posthumous collection.

The event coincides with a Barnes & Noble Bookfair to benefit the Springfield-Greene County Library Foundation. A portion of sales of the Burns book and all other items purchased in the store on April 23 or online April 23-28 will go to the Library Foundation for Library needs. The Library will get credit from the sales only if store shoppers present the paper Bookfair voucher (available at all library branches or downloadable through thelibrary.org, or if online shoppers provide the Bookfair ID, 10718690).

The Library is spearheading its own April “Big Read,” a month-long celebration of literacy and the book arts. “It is a pleasure to partner with Barnes & Noble and the Missouri State English Department,” says Kathleen O’Dell, Library spokeswoman.  “We share a common cause,” O’Dell adds, “which is to promote literacy and create a love of literature in our community.”

Michael Burns (1953-2011) helped found the creative writing program at MSU. And while his living voice has passed, his poetry remains: forthcoming from Moon City Press, “Night of the Grizzly” is Burns’ seventh, his last, and arguably his best book. It will be available by mid-April, in celebration of National Poetry Month.