Bruce Arlen Wasserman, Poet

No book has more to say about our times than W.S. Merwin’s, The Lice. I was honored to have the opportunity to review the Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, published by Copper Canyon Press, for the New York Journal of Books. Here is an excerpt of the review:

In this fiftieth anniversary edition, there exists the opportunity to access Merwin’s writings created in such tumultuous times, yet along with the reading of this volume is the eerie sense that his poems are particularly suited to the current condition of our world. So well-matched, in fact, that someone not familiar with the background of The Lice will see the poems’ statements as relevant to the unfolding of the political and socioeconomic dynamics that daily are unveiled across the media, worldwide. Look at the second stanza of Merwin’s poem, “The Last One”:

Well they cut everything because why not.

Everything was theirs because they thought so.

It fell into its shadows and they took both away.

Some to have some for burning.

Click here to read the review at NYJB.

“What is clear… is that the accepted, often imitated and venerated Route 66 of narrative verse need not fear finding deviation from the well-traveled path. In fact, the lyrical approach that is evident in Perillo’s poetry makes a more potent narrative because it travels so far from the route.” Read the entire review here at the New York Journal of Books site.

“Tomás Morín is a writer who understands time. He parcels it, plays with it, takes it down to its microscopic focus, reassembles it and his work sings to it in a way that is distinguished, telling, unique,” writes Bruce Arlen Wasserman, poet and book critic, in his recent review of Morín’s new book published by Copper Canyon Press. Click here to read the review.

I had the opportunity to review The Lyrics: 1961 – 2012, by Bob Dylan, for the New York Journal of Books. Access the review, as well as my other reviews for the NYJB, here.

Bruce’s poem, “The Wet on Milan Street,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016! You may find the poem in Kindred Literary Magazine’s 2016 Mason-Dixon Issue. Click to get to Anchor & Plume Press

The upcoming Mason-Dixon Issue of Kindred Magazine (Anchor & Plume Press issue #11, 2016) will feature two of Bruce’s poems:

“The Wet on Milan Street”

“Breathing In, Breathing Out”

These poems are part of a continuum of Bruce’s poetry about New Orleans and the South.

Click here to purchase Kindred Magazine Issue #11

Nikki is a masterful poet and Head Off and Split is like the cream that rises to the top of a glass bottle of unpasteurized milk… it’s just so darned good you want more and more. An amazing collection from a truly incredible poet, and a 2011 National Book Award winner.

An Undiscovered Country (Horace Simerman Literary Press, 2011) continues to expand in its reach worldwide. The collection of poetry by author Bruce Arlen Wasserman traveling through the length and breadth of love, exposes the core of this most common denominator of the human condition, crossing all political and cultural boundaries.

The perfect bound edition of An Undiscovered Country is now available in Canada, Australia (at numerous booksellers), New Zealand, South Africa, Poland and Croatia and has been extensively marketed in the UK, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Holland. It is available in the USA through independent booksellers as well as at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com.

An Undiscovered Country (Horace Simerman Press, 2011) is going further in its travels around the globe. The collection of poems by Bruce Arlen Wasserman exploring love in all its dimensions, is now being sold in Norway, Finland and Sweden and is being carried in the UK at Waterstones, which has nearly 300 shops in Britain and at Berkelouw Books in Australia, one of the country’s oldest booksellers.

These locations add to the expanding worldwide distribution network already in place for the collection. It is being marketed by booksellers in France, Germany, Australia, Japan and Croatia, as well as online in the USA at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com and at other locations worldwide through independent and online booksellers.

Wasserman’s work takes an in-depth look at love in a unique way, exposing the sedimentary layers of this topic that traverses cultures to cut right to the root of the human condition. In addition to its unique poetic point of view, the work is being touted as a pivotal new look at relationships.