Bøker av Steve Gerson

"Steve Gerson delivers brilliantly etched vignettes of America's psyche, soul, and temperament in his fourth collection of lyrical poetry and poetic prose. Once more, in unsurpassed fashion, he captures the essence of the nation's too little remembered, easily forgotten, readily ignored, continuously ignored heartland. His elegant writings touch on abuse and enduring love, shattered hopes and dashed expectations, stunted dreams and steely determination to weather the storm, both literally and otherwise. But even Gerson's darkest representations are, happily, leavened by the beauty of their delivery-which includes wonderfully apt titles--stitched together in seamless fashion with a fluidity seldom attained by other chroniclers of Americana. One fortunate enough to devour Gerson's written words experiences a multitude of emotions, ranging from anguish and remembrance to hopefulness and sheer delight. More than matching his earlier rich offerings, And the Land Dreams Darkly further cements Steve Gerson's standing as a leading 21st century poet-artist. Its creative entries skillfully explore a fitting arc of yearnings, life transformations, and, in characteristic fashion for the author, love and loss." -Dr. Robert C. Cottrell, The Year Without a World Series: Major League Baseball and the Road to the 1994 Players' Strike."Steve's poetry and short stories make you think, make you feel, make you despair, and make you hope. Steve's vignettes bring each character and the places they inhabit to life in the span of a few words or phrases, fully realized in your mind's eye. His evocative writing creates snapshots of human existence, spanning all its highs and lows. From the humble and downtrodden, to those hopefully in love, and to those despondent in the face of their loss, Steve carries you through on a wave of emotion. His writing makes you think about your own place in the world." -Stacy Harken, JD, Information Architect/Technical Writer, Garmin Industries"Steve Gerson's latest collection And the Land Dreams Darkly is his best to date. In this offering from Spartan Press, Gerson plays with genre from Japanese form poetry to micro plays, narrative poetry to short-short fiction. Most memorable are the sensory snapshots in time like the scene in 'The Moment' where kids are drinking cider and hoping Jim might play the fiddle. Or the creak in the floor from 'The Life of Grandpa's House.' Readers are won over by the characters who are 'planting in dry land' and 'charting a life' across the middle section of the country. This collection is for anyone who would like to sit with someone else's experience for a while." -Dr. Beth Gulley, English professor, author of Dragon Eggs and Frog Joy.

"Among America's most prolific, penetrating, and prescient poets, Steve Gerson deftly delivers yet again with his latest volume, The 13th Floor: Step into Anxiety with Jeremiah-like lamentations. Brilliantly, even luminously drawn, this collection contains Gerson's typically elegant verses but also masterful flash stories and abbreviated musings. Subject matters are of the micro and macro level, intimate and not, pertaining to personal or global occurrences, which exude permanence or evanescence. In trademark fashion, Gerson artfully explores cutting-edge events ranging from the pandemic to endless tumult in the Near East and Putin's war in Ukraine to Americana at its most moving, poignant, wistful, terrifying, and, yes, hopeful. Thus, the reader encounters the rapidly transmuting virus but also another deadly epidemic: that of random shootings with far-too-young victims. Included too are meaningful stories of loss pertaining to relationships, economic distress, and the human condition itself, imperiled by climatic catastrophe. Dr. Robert C. Cottrell's most recent book, The Activist 1960s: Striving for Political and Social Empowerment in America, will soon be released. "In these troubling times, it helps to feel less alone, more connected, and seen by others. Steve Gerson's chapbook does that - his depictions of anxiety, depression, loss, and fear help give the fleeting emotions that drift through your thoughts a space to breathe. In a series of vignettes, his attention to time's inexorable march forward allows you to step out of your own world and step into a very real depiction of the unreal. Take this pause as a way to reflect on your own experience. Let his torment lessen your own. Steve's beautiful, sometimes haunting, sometimes humorous depictions of other lives each transport you to another space, another time, and another existence. His artistic and evocative expressions of feeling and emotion leave you thoughtful and more fulfilled." Stacy Harken, JD, Information Architect/Technical Writer, Garmin Industries "The 13th Floor by Steve Gerson is a book of poems, flash stories, and musings that tackles the modern paradox of loneliness in modern life, with all its opulence. Depression is rampant with undercurrents of latent anxiety. This work cuts though all the noise that comes with existing in a fast-paced society. And in this exploration, Gerson takes the reader on a hilarious ride that is pure schadenfreude. The genius of this work is that it is not an attack. Gerson does not preach. Rather, it is a feel-good rollick through everyday musings that will leave the reader smiling and pausing to connect intensely with Gerson's imagery. This book is a meditation on what we need to laugh at in these anxious times. 13th Floor is the magic bullet to smile and deserves a permanent seat on the coffee table with the iPhone and the laptop." Rob Titus, JD, Titus Law Firm "'So I turn on my smartphone to mute distraction.' 'Want to eat some stress?' Could there be a more accurate statement and subsequent question (approximately 20 pages apart) summarizing today's society and our hyperfocus on the constant flood of information? Although sad but true, Gerson calls to attention the innumerable factors in life that can and do lead to anxiety. Even for those of us who are privileged, the world in which we live is challenging. The demands of life are simply ongoing and often unpredictable. In reading Gerson's Chapbook, we learn that at least we're not alone."Dr. Stefani Buchwitz, Director, Self Graduate Programs, University of Kansas

"Steve Gerson's latest collection moves from light to dark. It begins with the kind of love poems that could only be written by someone who has loved for a long time. They are rife with powerful images that show us true love doesn't have to fade: "your hands in mine as small as birdsong" or "stay with me as long as ink and paper remember." In part two, Gerson shatters us with images of loss like "seawater salt, like acid rains, eroded her resolve into fissures" or "like planting corn in concrete." The final section of the book, "Lost," takes the reader through the experience of various speakers who suffer trauma. Throughout the book, Gerson experiments with form, most notably with the erasure poems in the "Lost" section. This book begins with bird song, but it ends with an AK 47 and the Apocalypse. This great collection of poems is a knockout."-Dr. Beth Gulley, author of I Am Your Fish Drowning In Air: Love Poems"Albeit an optimist, this poet writes truthfully about the trying times we have all been living through. Recently, we have been forced to make frequent pivots - pivots to plans, to rules, to procedures, to hopes, to change. Love and losing and loss are the felt arc of this chapbook. This poetic arc suggests continued inspiration for the next phase - finding peace and love and hopefully solutions beyond the madness. Gerson writes, "but overflowing onto pages into our future written" in Chapter 1. These words hint at a positive conclusion beyond Chapter 3."-Dr. Stefani G. Buchwitz, Director, Self Graduate Fellowship, University of Kansas"Steve Gerson's evocative poems immerse the reader in what it means to love in our unsettling times. The first of three sections, "Love," transitions from the enclosed and timeless world of the lover and his beloved to our present-day, digital world where a love letter, no longer handwritten, can be deleted in an instant. "Losing," the middle chapter, begins with classic impediments to love: unfaithfulness, lack of communication, illness. The intrusions in "Lost" switch from the personal to the world at large: homelessness, racism, climate change, 9/11, Covid, and hanging over it all, the digital world which we have embraced. Throughout, striking images highlight the progression from love to loss as the poems move from the beloved, "your hands ...as small as birdsong" to a bride wearing "toxic mascara" to a teacher, "a little lady wearing a reindeer sweater" and wielding a gun. Timely and thought-provoking, energetic and perceptive, Gerson's poems are a testament to the challenges love faces in our viral world." -Edie Cottrell Kreisler, Professor Emeritus of English, Merritt College, Oakland, CA."This second volume of rhythmic incantations cements Steve Gerson's standing as a foremost American poet. Exuding sensuousness, pathos, and prescience, Viral: Love and Losses in the Time of Insanity brilliantly captures the urban landscape amid the pandemic as expertly as its counterpart, Once Planed Straight, evokes enduring images of the heartland. Gracefully and poignantly etched, Viral contains fifty-two exquisitely drawn poems nested in the pristine arcs of "Love," "Losing," and "Lost." The braided themes range from enduring love to vaccine refuseniks to the national shame of school shootings involving 'another child another child,' as Gerson eloquently weeps."-Dr. Robert Cottrell, author of Izzy: A Biography of I.F. Stone