Don't adjust your monitor. What you see is what you get.
Four years in the making, this new collection represents fresh terrain for Ransick as he explores the often permeable membrane dividing the conscious and subconscious worlds. From the narrow lanes of the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise to suburban alleys where laughing children sprout wings and fly away, the strange becomes familiar and the familiar, strange.
These shape-shifting landscapes where anything can happen—and does—are bold, evocative, even risky as they pull the reader toward difficult truths and the deeper questions they suggest, flitting at the edge of vision. Throughout it all, the poet translates a rich panoply of imagery into language both precise and surprising, creating a music that will haunt the reader long after the back cover closes.
In the words of centenarian poet Stanley Kunitz, "What is [poetry] about? That's a hard question. It's about anything the human mind and unconscious can produce. And that's infinite." Come along to that place. Fall for, and fall Asleep Beneath the Hill of Dreams.
Available Nov. 10, 2009. Order a signed copy via the contact form at right.
*
To read the superb poetry of Chris Ransick is to step outside and take a deep breath of Colorado mountain air.
Rocky Mountain News
image: Don Cudney Photo
Denver Poet Laureate Chris Ransick has won awards for his books of poetry and fiction, as well as recognition for his workshops and speaking appearances. A recent participant in one of his seminars remarked, "Chris offers ringing insight and clarity in his work, both on the page and at the front of the room."
Many of his poems and stories have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies in the United States and Canada. Chris’ first book, Never Summer, won a 2003 Colorado Book Award for Poetry and was released in a second edition in 2005. His collection of short fiction, A Return to Emptiness, was a finalist for the 2005 Colorado Book Award, and he followed that with two additional collections of poetry: Lost Songs & Last Chances in 2006 and most recently, Asleep Beneath the Hill of Dreams. He received a planning grant in 2009 from Colorado Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities to begin work on assembling a comprehensive anthology of Colorado literature.
Chris currently teaches at Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Denver's award-winning independent creative writing program.