Robert Alexander

From Richmond. Virginia, to Madison, Wisconsin, to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, this new collection by Robert Alexander spans both physical and emotional distances. Comprising prose poems and flash fiction written over the course of a 45-year career, Finding Token Creek reveals an imaginative and deeply felt connection both with other human beings and with the natural world. Jim Harrison called Alexander's work "lucid and lovely."

"Robert Alexander has long been in my 'top ten' living poets. There is a decided uniqueness in Alexander's work that puts him in that rare category of a memorable poet."

Passed by Congress in July 1787, the Northwest Ordinance laid out the basic form of government for all territory owned by the United States north of the Ohio River. That summer, the Constitutional Convention drafted the defining document of the American Republic. A bargain struck between both bodies outlawed slavery north of the Ohio River, at the same time giving Southern states Congressional and Electoral College representation based on population figures that included slaves—valued at three-fifths of a free white citizen.

Because of this agreement, the western lands acquired from Great Britain after the Revolutionary War were divided into slave and free states—a compromise which, when it failed, precipitated the Civil War 74 years later. For years most historians denied that this political deal took place. Drawing on contemporary letters and documents, this detailed analysis re-examines the Ordinance and how Congress silently permitted the South's “peculiar institution” to move westward.

“I have read a range of work from Hart Crane and Walt Whitman to contemporary writers. Five Forks stands with the best of them, an original and imaginative creation the structure of which (part narrative, part poetry, part history, part journal) sets it apart and heightens its appeal.”

A collection of prose poems and flash fiction, from William Blake to Kate Chopin.

A ground-breaking anthology of cross-genre work with a unique focus—the flash sequence, defined as an “accumulation of two or more prose pieces, with each segment not to exceed 500 words”—this collection brings together over fifty of America’s most compelling writers with their own vision of the form, including linked prose poems, narrative sequences, lyrical essays, koans, fairy tales, and epistolary addresses.

A collection of prose poems and flash fiction by American Modernist authors, both well-known and nearly-forgotten. Contains work by thirty authors, including Sherwood Anderson, Paul Bowles, Kay Boyle, Harry Crosby, H. D., T. S. Eliot, Kenneth Patchen, Gertrude Stein, and William Carlos Williams. Introduction by Margueritte S. Murphy, and an afterword by the editor.

"Anyone interested in the roots of the prose poem will find this anthology a major contribution to the field. . . . Family Portrait brings many new members into the prose poem genealogy and challenges our assumptions about this simple yet profound literary form. " —Rain Taxi

Over three hundred prose poems by 144 authors, including a short historical section and introductory essays by each of the three editors: Robert Alexander, Mark Vinz, and C. W. Truesdale.