STAGE PRESENCE HAS ... PRESENCE!

Bluntly, I have as great a taste as a publisher as I do with wines....and it's not my fault that Poetry's payments rarely include cash. But because I do have great taste (preen), when I publish a non-poetry book -- STAGE PRESENCE, Ed. by Theo Gonsalvez -- it starts making a profit in a matter of weeks from its release. Enviable, eh poets? And now, here's the first of what looks to be many reviews or press about it coming our way, viz GLOBAL NATION -- click on excerpt below for the whole thing:

...the artists featured in the book all drew from their Filipinoness to do their work as artists, but not just that. “They also have been at the cutting edges of giving us new ways to think about what it could mean to be Filipino in the world today,” Theo said. “They experiment with while extending traditions.”

“They insist on looking and turning to Filipino histories not because it's a comfortable place to go back to but rather because they want to remind us that lessons from the past still have to learned -- about the Philippine American war, migration from the country, and so much more,” Theo added. “But their work is not just about playing histories out on stages. I've been enjoying their work because they produce outstanding, fun, heartbreaking and vital work. It's truly alive.”

Y'all really should check it out HERE and HERE.

And let's see. Due to STAGE PRESENCE's financial success, at least one poetry book I release in 2008 will owe its print-life to it. Well isn't that speeee...cial!