A Life Lived Differently
A poignant portrait of autism in verse and prose. The poet speaks in the voice of the autistic child, whose name is Dan. The prosaist speaks in the voice of the parent. This is a unique interpretation of the experience of living on the spectrum.
Although Dan is fictional, he is based on real people. Kathryn Jacobs, who identifies as autistic, writes his viewpoint in poetry which is both lyrical and down to earth. She is Dan, in writing and sometimes in emotional reality also. Rachel Jacobs writes as the mom and Dan’s primary caregiver. Dan has a brother. His father is absent from the narrative. Dan's parents seem to be divorced and the pressure of parenting a special-needs child was part of it.
Dan may be fictional but there is no question that the portrayal of autism is real. Readers with firsthand experience ‘feel seen’. Dan is loved. Perhaps this is why we are granted the privilege of entering his world.
This articulate portrayal of autism opens a door to the world and experiences of a child who faces the challenges we all do but sees and understands in a different way. At times amusing, sometimes wry, often surprising, this account offers an unparalleled view into living on the spectrum. This collection of poetry and prose is being enthusiastically welcomed by autists, their caregivers, families, friends, and by teachers.
You don’t have to have autism or have personal experience with it to enjoy the poetry and prose in this book. All you need is an interest in A Life Lived Differently. Understanding related behaviors such as masking, stimming, and being overwhelmed by sensory stimulation will uncover further layers in the book’s contents, but the poems and stories are also beautifully written from a literary perspective.
This book celebrates the strength and beauty of a unique individual living with neurodiversity/Autism and offers sometimes startling and often heartwarming insights into one such life.
Knives on a Table
Knives on a Table
by Peter Mladinic
6” x 9” 99 pages
Publication date: November 15th, 2021
“I have been an admirer of Peter Mladinic’s poetry for forty years. The narrative elements appeal to me, and many of these poems are inherently dramatic. But what excites me even more is his beguiling language and imagery, the unpredictable nature of his fertile, mysterious imagination. This rich collection represents a first-rate poet at his absolute best. What a beautiful book.”
— Steve Yarbrough, author of The Unmade World, winner of the 2019 Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction.
The title says it all. This is a book of poems by a poet who is a skilled storyteller, but where the poet takes us in the poetry of this book is not necessarily where we expected to go. Knives and tables are commonplace facts of daily life and Mladinic takes us into the lives of ordinary people who become extraordinary in moments and happenings. Just as knives on a table are rife with metaphor and edgy multi-connotations, so too are the narratives Mladnic has crafted into the fine poems of this substantial volume.
— Glen Sorestad, Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan 2000-2004, and author of over twenty volumes of poetry.
In this richly varied collection, Peter Mladinic’s myriad voices reveal his extraordinary gift for lyric storytelling. The speakers in his fresh and unexpected dramatic monologues populate a universe of recognizably American experience, telling of joys and horrors, childhood memories, murders committed, lovers desired and lost, lives fractured, heartbreak endured and survived (or not). An always believable surrealism of the everyday sometimes takes us into the dream life of families, births and deaths, moments full of illumination and love, sorrow and exhilaration. Mladinic’s poems are all about the inescapable reality of others whom he fully imagines in all their unforgettable poignance and irrepressible vitality. His disciplined, energetic, highly pressured free verse and brilliant attention to local detail celebrate life — its tragedy, its comedy, its romance and abundance — all the while taking into account, with the deepest compassion, the relentless passage of time.
— Elizabeth Frank, Pulitzer Prize winner in 1986 for her biography Louise Bogan: A Portrait.
Law of the Jungle
Rowena Aldus is a British scientist living in the Amazonian jungle of Venezuela where she is studying spider venom which may prove a cure for ED. She meets an angel investor and falls in love, only to have her dreams and her life shattered.
The secrets of the South American jungle are worth millions to the right person. Christina Hoag’s riveting, atmospheric narrative reveals a twisty tale of betrayal reminding us where the seeds of greed are sown, revenge grows. A thrilling, captivating read.
— James L’Etoile, author of Black Label, At What Cost, and Bury the Past.
A sweet tale of revenge, set in the jungle, and served up like a tropical drink. Rowena Aldus is everything you could want in a heroine — smart, bold, and coming into her own. Readers will root for her as she takes on start-ups, junk science, and a villain slimier than an Amazonian slug.
— Jenny Milchman, Mary Higgins Clark award winning author of Cover of Snow and The Second Mother.
A brilliant, flawed protagonist, exotic locations, and a compelling plotline, Law of the Jungle will crawl under your skin and set up camp until an ending that you won’t see coming.
— Elena Taylor, author of All We Buried and the Eddie Shoes Mystery Series.
This gripping tale of betrayal set in the Amazon jungle of Venezuela features a British scientist, an American venture capitalist, cocaine production, and natural remedies The protagonist's journey will keep you on the edge of your seat..
6” x 9” 114 pages
Perfect bound paperback $12.00
eBook $3
When Correlation is Causation
It seems that Heikki Huotari’s poetry knows no boundaries. I come across poems that remind me of those old Rube Goldberg contraptions. Others have a keen intimacy with nature like the illustrations in Sibley’s bird guides. A poem of Huotari’s can seem to lead me on a wild goose chase with no purpose other than to confuse me, then, pow, a line slams into my heart and puts me deeply in touch with myself and my place in the universe, whether either exists or not. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Descartes!
—Stefanie Marlis, author of Slow Joy.
Heikki Huotari’s poems oscillate between intense moments of scientific clarity and absurdist pirouettes that remind us that, while the world may be a dance of entropic chaos screened by a thin veneer of rational apology, the universe is “largely laughing matter.” His work is absolute proof that Surrealism is not dead.
—Chris Howell
80 experimental poems by Heikki Huotari
6” x 9” 95 pages
$15.00