from Kevin Murphy @ Dark Sky Books:

Dark Sky Books is proud to announce the publication of Stephen Sturgeon’s first collection of poems, Trees of the Twentieth Century.

Composed between 2005 and 2010, the poems in Trees of the Twentieth Century range in style from classically formalized stanzas on memory and vitality to allusive and lyrical free verses, and chronicle — among other subjects — the stories of lost friends, prophesies from a wandering head that speaks from a tree branch, and the experiences of a man as he pursues a curtain rod through the woods of Young Goodman Brown.

Stephen Sturgeon’s poems have appeared in Boston Review, Cannibal, Harp & Altar, Harvard Review, Jacket, Typo, Tuesday; an Art Project, and other venues.

Hear the poet recite his work, read a sample from the book, and place orders for Trees of the Twentieth Century at Dark Sky Books.

Praise for Stephen Sturgeon’s Trees of the Twentieth Century:

“Driven by synesthesia, Stephen Sturgeon’s magnificent poems affect the senses and embed themselves in the intellect, permanently.” — Philip Nikolayev, author of Letters from Aldenderry and co-founder of Fulcrum: an Annual of Poetry and Aesthetics

“There are poems in this collection that I consider to be among the finest poems in the English language, and they have made me shiver until I wept.” — Ben Mazer, author of Poems and January 2008

“Sturgeon illuminates the otherwise transparent impressions of memory and conscience, those opaque connections between our imaginations and each other, in music that sharpens the verse with thrilling uncertainty. His poems impress themselves upon the mind like an iron. He may be the first major poet of this generation.” — Daniel Pritchard, editor of The Critical Flame

Visit Dark Sky Books to order.