Book blast party & reading for Annie Lanzillotto‘s book of poems, Schistsong with introduction by Rosette Imperato. Come toast the book.

Annie is joined by special guests: Emily Kunkel, Rose Imperato on Sax.

Members of Annie’s class, LITERARY OUTLAWS FOR LIBERATION, will also read.

ALL WELCOME
BRING YOUR FRIENDS
WE WILL SING AND DANCE

L IS FOR LION
and
SCHISTONG
will be available

SCHISTSONG

by Annie Rachele Lanzillotto

An urban songline of New York. From the author
of the memoir L is for Lion, comes a panegyric of
the geology of Manhattan. ese poems glitter.
Manhattan schist is rendered as a template for the
skyline and characters of New York. Grit and stardust
collide in this debut collection of poetry and song.
e book begins with the bright re ective quality of
Mica and ends with the gentri ed vision of the city
where “New York is nine millions doors, and you have
not one key.” In between are stories of urban icons:
iceman, sh peddler, heart butcher, meter maid, San
Gennaro, the magic of grandmothers’ hands, the
vision of the oldest living tree in the city, immigrants
who fell out windows and died in explosions, Italian
phrases that link the essence of the sun to a rose to a
heart, crushed tomatoes, sunsets, supermarkets, the
glory of hot tar, the lessons of marines and lesbians.
You will learn history and geology, Italian American
heroes, and spiritual imperatives, through the syllables
of this one poet’s soul.

“Stunning in its originality, Annie Lanzillotto’s poetic voice is musical, energetic, wise, and compassionate. In Schistsong, Annie Lanzillotto creates a rhythmic love letter to New York with vivid, evocative poems that showcase unforgettable people, while encompassing history, science, geography, medicine, and geology.”

— MARIA FAMÀ, Author of Mystics in the Family, and Looking For Cover

“Schistsong, Annie Lanzillotto’s astounding collection of poems is big and dense and speaks in a New York accent forged in the bedrock that predates the history of this great city, the metamorphic rock that is older than New York, older than Italy, many millions of years old. ‘Find your inner schist,’ your bedrock, this poet urges. Sprinkled with liberal handfuls of shiny mica, these poems are meant to kick and stomp and make sure you know they’re here. They come direct from the ‘heel of the boot’ as it was planted in the Bronx, New York.”

— ROSETTE CAPOTORTO, Author of Popbeads, and Bronx Italian

“A cacophony of bold urban verse, where we hear the barking fish vendors and shaky war veterans, the bitter iceworkers and lustful dykes looming on the docks. Lanzillotto’s witty slang cuts over the traffic, it whistles, sings; this is her testimony of a place and time where L’America beckons out immigrant Bronx soul windows, where words and rhythms are constructed of that glittering truth that makes the concrete mountains of Manhattan possible –schistpoetry!”

–TIM Z. HERNANDEZ, American Book Award winning poet and novelist, Author of Natural Takeover of Small Things

“Lanzillotto’s words’ skin can be tough as the leather used by immigrant shoemakers, and ring metallically as her father’s iceman tongs. At the core of it all is the tenderness of ripe, fresh crushed tomatoes. A seasoned performer as well as poet, Lanzillotto’s poetry appeals to the ear as well as the eye, intellect, and heart. These poems, all 15,164 words of them, are without a doubt among the finest I’ve ever read from any literary era.”

–ROSEMARY PETRACCA CAPPELLO, Poet, Writer, and Editor of Philadelphia Poets