The House of Your Dream

The House of Your Dream is an international collection of prose poetry drawn from over thirty years  of  prose poetry publications by White Pine Press. The anthology is unique in its diversity and includes voices from Europe, Asia, South America, and the U.S. including: Nin Andrews, Robert Bly, Ales Debeljak, Russell Edson, Marie Harris, Juan Ramon Jimenez, Peter Johnson, Kim Kwang Kyu, Morton Marcus, Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, Naomi Shihab Nye, Charles Simic, Tomas Transtromer, James Wright, and many others.

Dennis Maloney is the founding publisher and editor of White Pine Press, and Robert Alexander edits the Marie Alexander Poetry Series, available from White Pine Press, which focuses on single-author collections of prose poems.

“White Pine Press has published some of the best 20th-century poets–both foreign and domestic–for nearly 40 years. Tomas Tranströmer, Antonio Machado, Pablo Neruda, James Wright, Miguel Hernandez–these are only the tip of the tip of the White Pine iceberg. This is no small feat considering that Maloney and White Pine, much like Hamill (now Wiegers) and Copper Canyon, have managed to survive from revenues generated by hawking their poetry-only wares.

As its title suggests, this is a collection of that most enigmatic of poetic traditions, the prose poem. This collection represents Maloney’s history as both a publisher and editor, seeing as its roster of prose poets consists only of those whose poems have appeared in White Pine titles. It’s one thing to arrange and edit a good anthology, and quite another when that anthology must rely upon the publishing history of a single editor for its contents. And take it from us, this is an excellent anthology. Here are a few of this collection’s 90 featured writers: Paul Celan, René Char, Russell Edson, Jim Harrison, David Ignatow, Max Jacob, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Larry Levis, Morton Marcus, Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, Francis Ponge, Yannis Ritsos, Vern Rutsala, Charles Simic, Eva Ström, Tomas Tranströmer, James Wright, Gary Young.

At 181 pages, this anthology is long enough to be substantial and diverse, as well as representative of the prose poem tradition, yet short enough to be portable, readable, and enjoyable. The anthology is a tricky beast, and Alexander and Maloney appear to have tamed it. Ask yourself, when was the last time you picked up the Norton Anthology of Whatever? The House of Your Dream succeeds in both form and substance. If you’re searching to create a good section of prose poetry in your home library, then we recommend the combination of The House of Your Dream and Models of the Universe (Oberlin College Press, 1995). Models of the Universe is essential reading; and its table of contents is arranged by the year of the author’s birth, which allows the reader to experience the history and evolution of the prose poem with the turning of each page. Both of these titles are in print and should be ordered from your local independent bookseller.”

The Olives of Oblivion

Brief, experimental, varied pieces of writing; this collection represents the many writers that White Pine Press has published over the years. White Pine is a leading press for prose poetry, having published many of the leading American prose poets of different generations. If these names ring any bells, then I’m talking about Charles Simic, Russell Edson, Pablo Neruda, Robert Bly, David Ignatow, Nin Andrews, to name but a few.You can expect almost everything in The House of Your Dream: tiny vignettes, brief flash fictions, longer poetic prose. I Remember Clearly by Imre Oravecz is one sentence crossing onto two pages. The Sound by Maxine Chernoff is only dialogue. It is hard to define such vastly different pieces of writing, but perhaps short epiphanies is a good description; or “glimpses”; or the poetic musings of people who hone their writing down to the bare bones, yet give us insights that can leave us pondering for hours.   Annie Clarkson, The Short Review

Contributors include

Nin Andrews  Robert Bly  Magda Cârneci  Maxine Chernoff  Russell Edson  Maureen Gibbon  Marie Harris  Holly Iglesias  Juan Ramon Jiménez  Peter Johnson  Mary A. Koncel  Kim Kwang-Kyu  Kathleen McGookey  Chonggi Mah  Morton Marcus  Gabriela Mistral  Pablo Neruda  Naomi Shihab Nye  Vern Rutsala  Charles Simic  Madelon Sprengnether  Alison Townsend  Tomas Tranströmer  James Wright  . . . and many others.