Moonrise Press Books at Book Expo America in Chicago, May 2016

BookExpo America (BEA), the largest book show in the U.S., wa in Chicago this year, and Poland was the featured country! Aquila Polonica shared booth space with the official exhibit by the Polish Book Institute, booth 1504/1505. Since Poland was featured, Aquila Polonica conceived and organized a "Books in English" display as part of the official Polish Book Institute booth, curating a selection of more than 100 books in English about Poland—including works of fiction, history, cookery, music, and much more—by a variety of publishers and authors.

Moonrise Press and its founder Dr. Maja Trochimczyk greatly appreciated this opportunity to present their books in English on Polish and Polish American topics.  Below you will find pages from the catalog with links to where the books can be found.

Right on the first page of the book list, heading the section on Biography, Autobiography and Memoir, is the biography of Joseph and Ben Adamowicz, Polish pilots who crossed the Altantic in 1934, as the first Poles to do so (in Northern Atlantic, from New York to Warsaw). The study Across The Atlantic: The Adamowicz Brothers, Polish Aviation Pioneers, by Zofia Reklewska-Braun and Kazimierz Braun was published in 2015. It can be ordered here:

 ISBN 978-0-9963981-2-1, paperback, ISBN 978-0-9963981-3-8, e-Book (ePub format).   

The sixth page of the catalogue features the 2010 acclaimed poetry anthology edited by Maja Trochimczyk, Chopin with Cherries: A Tribute in Verse. The anthology includes 123 poems by 92 poets, including an English translation of the classic by Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Chopin's Piano, in a masterful rendition by Leonard Kress. The book can be found here:  Paperback Edition ($23.00) or PDF Download ($10.00). ISBN 978-0-9819693-0-5. 256 pages.Read more about this anthology. 

The next page in the section on Fiction, Literature and Poetry includes Slicing the Bread: Children's Survival Manual in 25 Poems by Maja Trochimczyk, published in 2014 by the Finishing Line Press.

More information can be found here, and the book can be ordered from the publisher

or from Amazon.com.

A section on History on page 8 features East Central Europe in Exile, a two volume set edited by Anna Mazurkiewicz and issued by the Cambridge Publishers in 2013, with an article on Polish emigre composers in America by Maja Trochimczyk found in Volume 1, Transatlantic Migrations). 

This book can be ordered on Amazon.

The first title in the series on Music, is After Chopin: Essays on Polish Music, edited by Maja Trochimczyk, and published by the Polish Music Center at the University of Southern California, in 2001. The book consists of translations of essays by Polish composers about Chopin, and winning papers in the Wilk Research Prize in Polish Music. This book can be ordered from the Polish Music Center's website, it is not available on Amazon.

The next page 12 of the Catalogue includes two titles with major contributions by Maja Trochimczyk, and the third that she edited and prepared for publication without putting her name on it.  The most recent book,published in June 2015 is the second revised and expanded edition of Frederic Chopin: A Research and Information Guide, co-edited with William Smialek and issued by Routledge.  It can be ordered here.

The biography of Maria Szymanowska by Slawomir Dobrzanski, published by Polish Music Center in 2004, includes a chapter by Maja Trochimczyk on Szymanowska's songs. More information about this book is found on Polish Music Center's website. Finally, the biography of Poland's first 12-tone composer, Jozef Koffler by Maciej Golab was prepared under the supervision of Dr. Trochimczyk in 2003.  More information is on PMC Website.

Moonrise Press is proud of having two titles included in the display, along with four other titles written by Dr. Maja Trochimczyk or with important contributions that she penned. The catalog featured many other worthy books, thanks to the efforts of Aquila Polonica in publicizing books in English about Polish subjects.  

"Chopin with Cherries" and "Across the Atlantic" to be Featured at Book Expo America (Chicago, May 2016)

Book Expo America (BEA), which is the largest book show in the US, will be held in Chicago this year in mid-May, and Poland is the featured country. The Poland exhibit is being managed by the Book Institute in Krakow and the Polish Cultural Institute in NYC.  Terry Tegnazian, publisher of Aquila Polonica (a Los Angeles small press specializing in Polish stories from World War II - in Poland and abroad) suggested that there is a “Books in English” section within the Poland exhibit. They have agreed, and asked Ms. Tegnazian to organize it. 

Our anthology, Chopin with Cherries and its editor's volume of poems, Slicing the Bread, were added to the list of suggested books, and have received the approval  from the Book Institute and Polish Cultural Institute to be included in the Books in English section. Both books got great reviews: Chopin and Bread. 

Edited by Dr. Maja Trochimczyk, and published in 2010, Chopin with Cherries celebrates the 200th birth anniversary of Polish pianist-composer, Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849). Ninety-one poets are represented here; they live in the U.S., England, France, Mexico, the Philippines and Poland - with family roots in Poland, Australia, China, France, India, Italy, Malta, Mexico, the Philippines, Serbia, and other countries. The anthology includes more than 122 poems in English, and one important Polish poem, Cyprian Kamil Norwid's Fortepian Szopena, in a new English translation by Leonard Kress (this is the first English translation of Norwid's masterpiece, considered too difficult even by the translator of his entire oeuvre, Adam Czerniawski). English-language classics include verse by T. S. Elliot, Emma Lazarus and Amy Lowell.

Slicing the Bread, published in 2014 by The Finishing Line Press, is a unique poetry collection that revisits the dark days of World War II and the post-war occupation of Poland by the Soviet Union that “liberated” the country from one foreign oppression to replace it with another. The point of view is that of children, raised by survivors, scarred by war, wary of politics. Maja Trochimczyk's poems, each inspired by a single object giving rise to memories like Proust’s madeleine (a spoon, a coat, the smell of incense) are divided into three sections, starting with snapshots of World War II in the Polish Borderlands (Kresy) and in central Poland. Reflections on the Germans’ brutal killings of Jews and Poles are followed by insights into the way the long shadow of THE war darkened a childhood spent behind the Iron Curtain. For poet Georgia Jones Davis, this book, “brings the experience of war into shocking, immediate focus” through Trochimczyk’s use of “her weapon: Language at its most precise and lyrical, understated and piercingly visual.” 

Additionally, Across the Atlantic: The Adamowicz Brothers, Polish Aviation Pioneers by Zofia Reklewska-Braun and Kazimierz Braun will be on display at Book Expo America - Poland section, within a Books in English subsection. 

Across the Atlantic recounts the adventures and misunventures of two Polish amateur-pilots, Joe (Józef) and Ben (Bolesław) Adamowicz, who immigrated to the US in the 1900s-1910s, and in the summer of 1934 flew over the Atlantic on a single-engine plane Bellanca. Their trip took them from New York to Warsaw; they were the first Poles to do so. They became instant celebrities, favorites of the journalists, photographers, and the public on both sides of the Atlantic. Alas, their triumph was short-lived, followed by a fall from grace, to imprisonment and bankruptcy. This richly illustrated book brings to life their forgotten story. Written by a historian, journalist and educator Zofia Reklewska-Braun and director, writer, scholar, and author of over 50 books, Dr. Kazimierz Braun, this book was originally published in Poland in 2011.

The Music and Poetry of Chopin's Raindrops

Rain Clouds in California.

The most famous piece of "rain" music in the classical canon is Fryderyk Chopin's Prelude in D-flat Major, Op. 28, No. 15.  Several contemporary poets wrote about this work for the anthology published in 2010, Chopin with Cherries: A Tribute in Verse.

To accompany the readers on their Chopin-inspired journey, here are some links to various pianists' interpretations of the Prelude:

• Artur Rubinstein (a classic)
• Martha Argerich (a classic)
• Valentina Igoshina (with the pianist as a romantic star)
• Yundi Li (fast, elegant, and delicate)
• Evgeny Kissin (with a romantic painting as a backdrop)
• Grigory Sokolov (extra slow and expressive)

Prelude in Majorca

Christine Klocek-Lim

The wet day carried rain into night

as he composed alone.

With each note he wept

and music fell on the monastery,

each note a cry for breath

his lungs could barely hold.

Even as his world

dissolved around him

“into a terrible dejection,”

he played that old piano in Valldemosa

until tuberculosis didn’t matter;

until the interminable night

became more than a rainstorm,

more than one man sitting alone

at a piano, waiting

“in a kind of quiet desperation”

for his lover to come home

from Palma.

When Aurore finally returned

“in absolute dark”

she said his “wonderful Prelude,”

resounded on the tiles of the Charterhouse

like “tears falling upon his heart.”

Perhaps she is right.

Or perhaps Chopin “denied

having heard” the raindrops.

Perhaps in the alone

of that torrential night
he created his music simply

to hold himself inside life

for just one note longer.

Notes:

Prelude No.15 in D-flat Major, Op. 28. 

Quotes from Histoire de Ma Vie (History of My Life, vol. 4) by George Sand (Aurore, Baronne Dudevant).

(c) 2010 by Christine Klocek-Lim, published in Chopin with Cherries (Moonrise Press, 2010).

Chopin’s “Raindrop”

Cheryl M. Thatt

A steady rain

drop

drips down

insistent as the minutes

he looks out the window

cannot escape it.

He translates rain

drop

damp spirit

travels inward

passionate

notes whittle away the dreary

steady rain

drop

a clock

in the distance punctuates the gray day

wrestling with his own dark language

his soft fingers caress the keys to sanity

slowly he shapes adversary into ally…

pounds out melancholy

drop

by precious damn drop…

A steady rain

drop

dripped down

like the click of a shutter

slippery hours

captured forever.                                                                  

(c) 2010 by Cheryl M. Thatt, published in Chopin with Cherries (Moonrise Press, 2010).

Prelude in D-Flat Major, Opus 28, No. 15

by Carrie A. Purcell

You have to

my teacher said

think of that note like rain,

steady, but who,

my teacher said

wants to hear only that?

On Majorca in a monastery

incessant coughing

covered by incessant composition

and everywhere dripping

sotto voce

move the rain lower

let it fill the space left in your lungs

let it triumph

We die so often

we don’t call it dying anymore

(c) 2010 by Carrie A. Purcell, published in Chopin with Cherries (Moonrise Press, 2010).

A Gift to Share - Poetry Anthologies for Christmas

The time of giving, the time of sharing... Moonrise Press published two anthologies that are ideal gifts to be enjoyed under the Christmas tree, by the fireplace after skiing, or sitting on a patio watching the mist over mountains in Hawaii... What's so enjoyable about anthologies? The juxtaposition of different poetic voices, sharing common themes, but approaching them in completely different ways.

Meditations on Divine Names is an anthology of contemporary poetry on religious themes, featuring 140 poems by 64 poets, associated with diverse spiritual traditions. Their poems represent various branches of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Kabbalah, Wicca, Sukyo Mahikari, and ancient Greek, Egyptian, Hawaiian, and Slavic religions. The book, edited by Maja Trochimczyk, is divided into ten paired sections: Naming, Names, Earth, Water, Air, Fire, He, She, Being, and Loving. ISBN 978-0-9819693-8-1 - $21 (lulu.com)

The following poets are represented: MJ Adams, Nicholas Alexander, Catherine Auman, Jon B., Marcielle Brandler, Sharon Chmielarz, Joe Decenzo, Carol Dorf, Kate Hallett Dayton, Carl Estrin, Amy Falvey, Elsa S. Frausto, Bill Gillard, Michael Graber, John Guzlowski, Peter J. Harris, Carl Hitchens, Marlene Hitt, G. Bennett Humphrey, Oriana Ivy, Mitch James, Roy Jacobstein, Lois P. Jones, James Levin, Terranda King, Alexis Krasilovsky, Leonard Kress, Sharmagne Leland-St.John, Rick Lupert, Radomir Voytech Luza, Czeslaw Milosz, Rajiv Mohabir, Geoshino Ollscia, Shirley Dunn Perry, Nils Peterson, Lenora Popa, Kate Robinson, Susan Rogers, Mary Kay Rummel, Nicholas Samaras, Peter Shefler, Marian Kaplun Shapiro, Dorothy Skiles, Lee M. Sloca, J.D. Smith, Barry Spacks, Odarka Polanskyj Stockert, Charles A. Swanson, Taoli-Ambika Talwar, Judith Terzi, Maja Trochimczyk, Ann Tweedy, Davi Walders, Martin Willitts Jr., and Kathabela Wilson.

Chopin with Cherries: A Tribute in Verse is an anthology of poetry edited by Maja Trochimczyk to celebrate the 200th birth anniversary of a Polish pianist-composer, Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849) with a selection of 123 poems by 92 poets. The hightlights include the first English translation of Norwid's Fortepian Szopena by Leonard Kress. Published in February 2010 and illustrated with vintage Chopin postcards and art.  ISBN 978-0-9819693-0-5. Available in Paperback Edition ($23.00) or PDF Download ($10.00).

"Maja Trochimczyk's Chopin with Cherries... is a masterful celebration of this composer and the complex range of emotions, impressions, memories, and dreams his music evokes... Finally, let me say that I cannot remember reading an anthology of poems centered around a single-theme that I liked more. The poems Maja Trochimczyk has gathered together to commemorate Chopin's 200th birthday are inspiring and exhilarating, as I have already noted, and - I don't know how else to say this - fun to read." John Z. Guzlowski in The Cosmopolitan Review 2 no. 1 (Spring 2010).

The poets in Chopin with Cherries include: Millicent Borges Accardi, Austin Alexis, Lucy Anderton, Sheila Black, George Bodmer, Lia Brooks, Kerri Buckley, Allison Campbell, Peggy Castro, Sharon Chmielarz, Victor Contoski, Clark Crouch, Beata Pozniak Daniels, Jessica Day, Diane Shipley DeCillis, Lori Desrosiers, Charlie Durrant, T. S. Eliot, David Ellis, Donna L. Emerson, Charles Ades Fishman, Jennifer S. Flescher, Gretchen Fletcher, Linda Nemec Foster, Emily Fragos, Jarek Gajewski, Helen Graziano, John Z. Guzlowski, Lola Haskins, Shayla Hawkins, Elizabyth A. Hiscox, Marlene Hitt, Roxanne Hoffman, Laura L. Mays Hoopes, Ben Humphrey, Carol J. Jennings, Charlotte Jones, Lois P. Jones, Georgia Jones-Davis, Christine Klocek-Lim, Jean L. Kreiling, Leonard Kress, Emma Lazarus, Marie Lecrivain, Jeffrey Levine, Amy Lowell, R. Romea Luminarias, Rick Lupert, Radomir V. Luza, Mira N. Mataric, Ryan McLellan, Anna Maria Mickiewicz, Elisabeth Murawski, Ruth Nolan, Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Rosemary O'Hara, Dean Pasch, Nils Peterson, Richard Pflum, William Pillin, Kenneth Pobo, Carrie A. Purcell, Marilyn N. Robertson, Susan Rogers, Alison Ross, Mary Rudge, Russell Salamon, Gabriel Shanks, Marian Kaplun Shapiro, Joseph Somoza, Lusia Slomkowska, Kathi Stafford, Maxine R. Syjuco, Fiona Sze-Lorrain, Margaret C. Szumowski, Katrin Talbot, Taoli-Ambika Talwar, Thom Tammaro, Mark Tardi, Cheryl M. Thatt, Tammy L. Tillotson, Maja Trochimczyk, Helen Vandepeer, Devi Walders, Erika Wilk, Martin Willitts, Jr., Kath Abela Wilson, Leonore Wilson, Meg Withers, Anne Harding Woodworth, and Marianne Worthington.