Ouch: Senryu That Bite by Alexis Rotella Published by Modern English Tanka Press

Alexis Rotella, also known as the Queen of Senryu, will not disappoint you in Ouch: Senryu That Bite, her new collection published by Modern English Tanka Press. This superstar poet, so well known for her humor and pathos, will take you on a journey you’ll never forget. You’ll be shocked, you’ll cackle, and you’ll wonder how anyone who weighs only 115 pounds can pack such a punch. To quote Cor van den Heuvel, she’ll still have you laughing your head off as it falls from the chopping block.

Baltimore, Maryland – August 30, 2007 – Modern English Tanka Press is pleased to announce the publication of Alexis Rotella’s Ouch: Senryu That Bite. Alexis Rotella has been writing haiku, senryu and tanka since her late 20’s. She is one of the most accomplished American writers and is able to write seemingly effortlessly in all three genres. She discovered haiku while working on an undergraduate thesis on zen at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Rotella is probably most well known for her senryu or psychological (serious) haiku. Her book LOOKING FOR A PRINCE (1991) took the haiku world by storm. Cor van den Heuvel calls Rotella “the witty, tender, funny, sad, sometimes MERCILESS younger sister of haiku . . . the . . . often-times absurd creature somersaulting through the universe somewhere between the angels and Donald Duck!” When asked where she gets her talent for senryu, she remarks, “From my father. He was a born psychologist who didn’t mince words. He saw right through people. No one could pretend around him.”

Praise for the book:

“I know I am not the only one who finds Alexis Rotella’s unerringly pithy senryu to be one of the remarkable phenomena of contemporary short form poetry. OUCH is part comedy, melodrama, family epic, burlesque, entertainment and, here and there, straight autobiography. The relationship between Rotella and the speakers in her poems is something like that which dramatists have with their characters. And what a citadel she has built here, of human foible and weakness, of sheep and wine, elaborated upon by the poet’s own genius for anecdote and descriptive detail. But for the compassion and empathy that underlie every page and every utterance found here, we might be more alarmed than delighted to see our neighbors and friends through such a provocateur’s gleeful, all-seeing pair of eyes.” — Michael McClintock, Contributing Editor, Modern English Tanka

“Beware! Alexis Rotella’s OUCH is a striking collection of senryu that will seize you with its teeth.” — Alan Pizzarelli, senryu editor of Simply Haiku

“Using puns, irony, wit, and a touch of venom these brutally funny, and sometimes sad and moving, poems about the human condition by Alexis Rotella might have come from a pen combining the talents of a Don Rickles, Dorothy Parker, and the Bard of Avon himself, except that they are more stinging and more hilarious and that they are all Rotella. Wince, squirm, and cry, but she’ll still have you laughing your head off as it falls from the chopping block. Ouch! Indeed.” — Cor van den Heuvel, Editor of The Haiku Anthology: Haiku and Senryu in English

About Author:

Alexis Rotella served as President of the Haiku Society of America (Japan House) in 1984 and edited Frogpond, Brussels Sprout and The Persimmon Tree. Her haiku, senryu and tanka have won many awards and recognition. Her work appears in numerous anthologies including Global Haiku (Twenty-five Poets World-wide), George Swede and Randy Brooks, Mosaic Press; How to Haiku, Haiku Moment, both by Bruce Ross, Tuttle; Beneath a Single Moon (Buddhism in Contemporary American Poetry), Johnson and Paulenich, Shambhala; The Haiku Anthology 3rd ed., Cor van den Heuvel, Norton; Haiku I (Poesies Anciennes et Modernes) Jackie Hardy, Editions Vega; Haiku for Lovers, Manu Bazzano (MQP); Czeslaw Milosz/ HAIKU (Krakow, Poland); Synesthesia in Haiku and Other Essays, Toshimi Horiuchi (University of Philippines Press) and Haiku in English, Hiroaki Sato (Simul Press, Japan).

Rotella’s longer work and Japanese related poems have appeared in hundreds of journals and magazines including The New York Times (Metropolitan Diary), Christian Science Monitor, Family Circle, Glamour, New Letters, The Paterson Literary Review , Chiron Review, Blue Mesa Review, The Madison Review, Lynx, Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Simply Haiku, Red Lights, and Bottle Rockets.

Rotella is author of the poem Purple which appeared in numerous publications including Chicken Soup for the Soul and Love, Magic and Mudpies by Bernie Siegel, M.D. (Rodale Press).

Alexis Rotella lives in Arnold, Maryland where she is a practitioner of Oriental Medicine.

For media inquiries or to arrange an interview with the author, contact: Alexis Rotella: by e-mail at a.rotella (at) att.net. Publisher information at: www.modernenglishtankapress.com.

This book is available from http://stores.lulu.com/modernenglishtanka and from major booksellers; or from the publisher. Complete information and mail order form are available online at www.modernenglishtankapress.com.

Price: $24.95 USD. ISBN 978-0-6151-6318-5. Trade paperback. (Also, $37.95 USD, ISBN 978-0-6151-6319-2. Hard cover with dust jacket.) 196 pages, 6.00" x 9.00", perfect binding, black and white interior ink, full-color exterior ink.

About Modern English Tanka Press:

Modern English Tanka Press is an independent equity publishing house in Baltimore, Maryland, dedicated to producing books and periodicals of lasting literary value. Our publications are produced using modern print-on-demand production and distribution methods. We publish the journals “Modern English Tanka” and “Atlas Poetica” and books of tanka, haiku, and other fine verse. We operate www.TankaCentral.com with its popular “Tanka News” blog, and the poetry web hub, www.ShortVerse.com.

Contact:

Denis M. Garrison, owner
Modern English Tanka Press
443-802-1249
Email to dmg (at) tankapress.com.
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