William Packard News

Poets' Choice Publishing is pleased to present Elisavietta Ritchie's twentieth collection, 'Babushka's Beads: A Geography of Genes,' new & selected poems. Paperback 120 Pages $18.95 ISBN 978-0-9909257-74 'Elisavietta Ritchie's rich autobiographical collection of poems leaves you wanting more. Here is a woman who has really lived. This verbal rumination on her heritage, people she loved, family recipes for borscht and cherry vodka, the suffering of her aunt and thousands of others during Russia's Civil War and the Siege of Leningrad, are filled with such exquisite, well-realized detail, a reader is drawn along with the force of a rip tide on a summer afternoon at the beach. It's all simply so interesting. And her conversations with the past and recently dead intrigue us...Here are poems that extol life, sing of its joy, despite the cruelty and entropy that threaten at every turn. Ritchie, whose work is widely published, translated, anthologized and has won a number of awards, is a person you would want to know, some of whose poetry you have here, life seen through her bright, intelligent, compassionate eyes, what poetry does at its best, give heart.' -From the Foreword by Richard Harteis, director, The William Meredith Foundation, Poets' Choice Publishing 'Elisavietta Ritchie's work is original, varied and exciting. The core of her poems is vitality. Grim, joyous, exuberant or erotic, they have a strong and vivid life.' -Josephine Jacobsen, US Poet Laureate, 1971-73 'Elisavietta Ritchie's poetry combines a Byzantine elegance with straight-forward plain style honesty. The extraordinary range of her interests: work, love, sensuality, and man's plight in a forlorn civilization - is reinforced by her exquisite regard for language and lively fascination with the possibilities of form.' -William Packard, late editor New York Quarterly 'Elisavietta Ritchie's Cormorant Beyond the Compost burns with eroticism and life. Reading some of her poems is akin to watching a wick sizzle down on a firecracker, waiting for the pop, the smoke, and final hiss...Whether looking through the scrim into death, or looking back at her own family, I imagine Ritchie to be some mad cheerleader for passion, stealing blackberries, loving a dying friend, or recuperating from a bad mushroom trip, all the while refusing to give up, to be satiated...Life and death. Passion and its opposite, her touchstones...give her voice power; after all 'like fire,/when we no longer burn, we die.' - Scott Whitaker, The Broadkill Review, National Book Critics Circle Poets' Choice Publishing 337 Kitemaug Road Uncasville, CT 06382 MarathonFilm@gmail.com 860-961-5138 Poets-Choice.com www.WilliamMeredithFoundation.org

Poets' Choice (www.Poets-Choice.com) is honored to publish Guy Wires, the latest collection of poetry by Elisavietta Ritchie. The newly established publishing house works closely with the William Meredith Foundation to support the arts and continue the legacy of a great American spirit. Recent annual Meredith Awards for Poetry include Poets David Fisher, Lyubomir Levchev and former US Poet Laureate, Natasha Trethewey. Poet, writer, editor, translator, journalist, photographer, Elisavietta Ritchie's award-winning work is widely published in the United States and abroad. Guy Wires is her seventeenth publication in a long and distinguished career. For three years, she served as President of the Washington Writers' Publishing House, and has involved herself with writers and poets in exile and immigration/emigration, translating poems from Russian, French, and Malay-Indonesian. Her own work has been translated into a dozen languages. Her recent chapbook, 'Feathers, Or, Love on the Wing' is a collaboration with visual artists Megan Richard and Suzanne Shelden (SheldenStudios.com) who designed the present collection. Ritchie's poetry is greatly admired by readers and critics alike: 'Elisavietta Ritchie's poetry combines a Byzantine elegance with straight-forward plain style honesty. The extraordinary range of her interests: work, love, sensuality, and man's plight in a forlorn civilization-is reinforced by her exquisite regard for language and lively fascination with the possibilities of form.' William Packard In the past, Ms. Ritchie has worked as a free-lance writer and photographer for the New York Times and The Christian Science Monitor. Presently, she continues to lead creative writing workshops for adults and school children and works as a photographer and journalist for The Bay Weekly. She lives in Washington and Southern Maryland with her husband Clyde Farnsworth. They have traveled widely together and recounted their life as citizens of the world in various genres. Contact: Press Director, Richard Harteis (860-961-5138) MarathonFilm@gmail.com www.WilliamMeredithFoundation.org

The 2014 Midtown International Theater Festival culminates its 15th anniversary celebration with the MITF Awards recognizing the best of this summer's MITF and the February 2014 Midwinter Madness Short Play Festival.

John Chatterton and The Midtown International Theatre Festival (MITF) have announced the Third Annual Midwinter Madness Short Play Festival, from Feb. 4 through 24, 2013. The Festival will take place at Roy Arias Studios' Stage 2, 300 W. 43rd St. 4th fl. Tickets (from $13 to $18, depending on a play's length; no discounts for seniors or students) are available at www.smartTix.com (search by play title or follow the link provided below) or by calling 212/868-4444.

Pacific Stages Ovation recommended production of "Lobby Hero," by award winning writer Kenneth Lonergan will end its run March 21st.

Pacific Stages Ovation recommended production of "Lobby Hero," by award winning writer Kenneth Lonergan has been extended through March 21.