Richard Jackson

Richard Jackson is the author of ten books of poems, most recently Resonance (Ashland Poetry Press, 2010), Half Lives: Petrarchan Poems (Autumn House, 2004), Unauthorized Autobiography: New and Selected Poems (Ashland, 2003), Heartwall (University of Massachusetts, 2000 Juniper Prize), and Svetovi Narazen (Slovenia, 2001). His own poems have been translated into fifteen languages. He has edited two anthologies of Slovene poetry, the Selected Poems of Iztok Osojnik (Slovenia), and Poetry Miscellany. In 2000, he was awarded the Order of Freedom Medal for literary and humanitarian work in the Balkans by the President of Slovenia and has received a Guggenheim, NEA, NEH, two Witter-Bynner and Fulbright Fellowships, and five Pushcart Prizes. He has won two teaching awards at UT-Chattanooga and the Vermont College MFA program. His previous book of translation is Alexander Persolja’s, Potovanje Sonca (Journey of the Sun) from Slovene, 2008.


All Books

Last Voyage

Richard Jackson, Deborah Brown, Susan Thomas

Publication Date: October 1, 2010

$22.95 Tradepaper

ISBN: 978-1-59709-487-0

Description:

This first appearance of Pascoli’s poems in English translation provides an introduction to his work for the English-speaking reader. The first section of the book includes some of Pascoli’s brief lyric poems, many of them displaying his innovative use of image narrative. We see scenes of country life in his village near Barga, Italy, in the Apuan Alps, at the end of the 19th century. We see the aurora borealis, chickens, donkeys, women hanging laundry, the new railway and men crushing wheat.


The second part of the book consists of three somewhat formal narrative poems set in classical Rome and Greece.


The book ends with a long narrative sequence, an exciting and poignant re-imagining of Odysseus’ famous tale told from the perspective of an old man. The aging hero falls asleep by the fire with Penelope and dreams a final voyage, in which he reassembles his old crew and visits the scenes of his earlier adventures: Circe, the Sirens, the Cyclops, Lotus Eaters and Calypso.


—As this is the first time Pascoli has been translated into English, Last Voyage will be of great importance to all those interested in Italian poetry and modern poetry, as well as students of classical literature.


—Pascoli’s influence on Pavese and Montale is well known by students of Italian literature. He continues to be considered an important Italian poet, but has never been available to English readers.


—The reimagined voyage of Odysseus that comprises the book’s third part will also be of great interest to those who read classic literature and those interested in the workings of a modern imagination on classical narratives and forms.

News

Read “Marked” by Deborah A. Lott in The Writing Disorder!

My father’s hand shot up to his eyebrow, his finger poised there, as if he were about to stroke his brow. A gesture I’d always considered deeply imbued with his personality. The gesture he performed when pondering a problem. While reading a book or talking on the phone. Whenever he was thinking. Was he, or […]

Scoundrel Time Article, “MY CULTURAL APPROPRIATION” by Deborah A. Lott

“I recently saw photos of Instagram influencers who had darkened their faces in a misguided show of solidarity for Black Lives Matter. Their efforts made me cringe and reminded me of a time in my own life when what began as empathy resulted in an equally ignorant act of cultural appropriation. It started when I […]

KATU2: Don’t Go Crazy Without Me interview

Don’t Go Crazy Without Me tells the tragicomic coming of age story of a girl who grew up under the seductive sway of her outrageously eccentric father. He taught her how to have fun; he also taught her to fear food poisoning, other children’s infectious diseases, and the contaminating propensities of the world at large. […]

The Kathryn Zox Show: Ep. 1246: Childhood Trauma

Kathryn interviews Creative Writing and Literature teacher at Antioch University, Los Angeles Deborah Lott, author of “Don’t Go Crazy Without Me.” More than just the tragicomic coming-of-age story of a girl growing up under the magnetic spell of her outrageously eccentric father, she tells the story of an era. Lott’s memoirs, essays and reportage have […]

Jewish Journal: In ‘Don’t Go Crazy Without Me’ Deborah A. Lott Unpacks Being ‘Extraordinary’ Or Mentally Ill

The meaning of the intriguing title of Lott’s courageous and endearing memoir snaps into sharp focus. “My father and I were not ordinary,” she writes. “Oh no, we had formed an alliance around being extraordinary.” Even as a 4-year-old, she recalls, her mother used the Yiddish word tummel to describe “psychic commotion” that characterized her father, “noise […]

Spirit of Story: A Conversation with Deborah A. Lott

This spring the formidable Deborah A. Lott—author, editor and college instructor—will be visiting the Unlocking Your Story workshop. She’ll be offering us an inside view of the creative process behind writing her memoir Don’t Go Crazy Without Me, which just hit the shelves on April 7th! It’s a coming of age story of a girl who grows […]

How to Quiet the Inner Hypochondriac in the Era of Coronavirus

It’s hard not to read every throat tickle and stuffy nose as a possible foreshadowing of COVID-19, but a recovering hypochondriac helps to walk us back and separate true symptoms, from phantom ones. Deborah Lott, author of the New Book Don’t Go Crazy Without Me and author of the Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times titled I’m the […]

Reviews

DON’T GO CRAZY WITHOUT ME by Deborah A. Lott reviewed in Brevity!

Deborah A. Lott’s Don’t Go Crazy Without Me: A Tragicomic Memoir is the story of a young woman’s coming of age and how she separates her own identity from her family’s. She recalls comedic and painful situations from her young childhood to teenage years. Read the full review here!

Don’t Go Crazy With­out Me: A Tragi­com­ic Memoir

Read­ing Deb­o­rah Lott’s mem­oir of her dys­func­tion­al upbring­ing feels like the lit­er­ary equiv­a­lent of rub­ber­neck­ing: her child­hood was a series of train­wrecks, but some­how you can’t stop turn­ing around to watch. Lott was the youngest of three chil­dren; her moth­er was sta­ble, but her father, Ira, was exces­sive. A hypochon­dri­ac, a fan­ta­sist, a nar­cis­sist – the man knew no bound­aries, nei­ther […]