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SWIMMING THROUGH WATER
New Book of Poems by George Wallace
Italian translations by Anny Ballardini, CD with David Amram
BOOK RELEASE DATE: January 1, 2003

"...one of Long Island's most prolific and talented poets...may be a frontrunner for Suffolk County Poet Laureate..." Ron DeGennaro, New York Times
"A Masterpiece Collection" Richard Schiff, NYC NY, Greenwich Village Gazette

Swimming Through Water, a 420-page book of poems by American author

George Wallace published by La Finestra Editrice, Trento Italy, will be released to the general public on January 1, 2003. The book features 181 poems by Wallace with accompanying translations into Italian by Anny Ballardini. An interview with Wallace - as well as introductions to the collection by Paolo Ruffilli, Marco Albertazzi, David Amram, Mary de Rachewiltz and Ballardini - is also included in the handsomely produced full-length book.

In the deluxe edition, available in America through Writers Unlimited (email writersunlimitedagency@yahoo.com), and on the Italian market in the best book-shops, is a ten-cut CD of Wallace reading poems from the collection accompanied by world renowned composer Amram. The text has already received high praise in pre-publication review and has been selected for classroom use at Oxford College, England and in provincial school libraries in South Tyrol.

Neeli Cherkovski, biographer of Charles Bukowski, calls Wallace's poetry "Quite simply beautiful... interior lyric rides the waves and wave lengths of his consciousness." Mary de Rachewiltz, daughter of Ezra Pound and a noted literature scholar, calls the work "literature in the right sense, 'news that stay news,' and compares Wallace's reading style to e e cummings. "He tweaks the Enigma in his stop-anywhere approach," notes Charles Plymell, Bohemian author and publisher of the original Zap magazines. "(Wallace is) a Max Ernst stuck on the elevator of up and down history. A Post-Existential Enigmast." And Marzio Pieri, Italian Philology Chair at Parma, calls Wallace "a necessary poet today, as few, as maybe no other."

    George Wallace is an award winning poet and journalist living and working in Huntington NY. Winner of the CW Post Poetry Prize, Wallace is a primary force behind numerous poetry journals, anthologies, reading series, radio and television poetry programs. He is the author of six chapbooks of poetry and serves on the editorial boards of Poetrybay, Polarity, Xanadu, Long Island Quarterly.
    His fifth chapbook of poems, The Poems of Augie Prime was published by Writers Ink in the summer of 1999, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. In 2001 his poetry was selected and published in booklet form for the State of California 150th anniversary sesquicentennial program. He is co-host of the Poetrybrook USA Radio Show (www.wusb.org), and organizer of the 4-city marathon reading of Jack Kerouac's Big Sur.
    A nationwide tour of Swimming Through Water will commence in the United States this month with appearances at the Bowery Poetry Club, January 5th, in New York City; and Book Revue in Huntington NY, January 29th.

Anny Ballardini, translator, poet and journalist is active with several publications both in English and in Italian. From Mary de Rachewiltz's comment: "(Ballardini) has understood that in the verses by Wallace there is always something which is - going to happen - and she alerts the reader to keep eyes and ears well open..."

SWIMMING THROUGH WATER Poems by George Wallace with Italian translations by Anny Ballardini ISBN 88-88097-17-1
PUBLISHER: La Finestra, Trento Italy DISTRIBUTOR: Writers Unlimited (www.poetrydoctor.org PO Box 2344 Selden NY 11734-0749)
420 pp, deluxe edition with cd, LIST PRICE $36
For interviews, review copies, or booking information contact poetrybay@aol.com

For More Information Contact:

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