In Upbringing: poems, veteran poet Marian Kaplun Shapiro uses speech bubbles and visual illustrations to explore the parent-child relationship and confront the innocence and confusion of a child growing up and maneuvering in an adult world.
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Austin, Texas, 10 January, 2023 - Plain View Press announces the publication of Upbringing: poems, a book of visual poetry, hitting bookstores and Amazon on January 10, 2023. In Upbringing: poems, veteran poet Marian Kaplun Shapiro uses speech bubbles and visual illustrations to explore the parent-child relationship and confront the innocence and confusion of a child growing up and maneuvering in an adult world.
With graduate studies in English, music, writing, teaching, and psychology, Shapiro works as a practicing psychologist in Lexington, Massachusetts, where she also creates art as a poet and lives as a free spirit with her view of woods, flowers, birds, and an unpolluted sky. Now 80-something, she adores her husband and family, and sees life as one long experiment that has turned out amazingly well. This is her third collection of poetry, following At the Edge of the Cliff: poems in 2021 and Players In The Dream, Dreamers In The Play in 2007.
“Shapiro, a psychologist, explores the disconnect between kids and their parents in this collection. In this volume, tense dialogue ensues between parents and children as the former befuddle the latter with hypocrisy. Contradictory lessons regarding truth and lies abound.” —Kirkus Reviews
“… a “Bill of Rights for New Parents,” …reads like a distilled guide to parenting: “It’s ok / that you don’t know. / Learn from the one who knows what your baby needs. / You know who that is. / Listen. Look. / When you can, sleep.” An unproductive conversation between a wannabe helper and an angry father is the basis of “Daddy.” A child learns to describe her alcoholic father’s hangovers as “sleeping” in “Introduction to Euphemism.”” —Kirkus Reviews
“A parent struggles to understand her 3-year-old child’s upset at the news that a new baby is usurping her crib in “Welcome.” A parent tells a daughter she is adopted and is surprised by her nonchalance in “Timing.” A kid fails three times to get mom the perfect Mother’s Day gift in “Three Strikes Is Out: Strike One” while another child grapples with the news of the death of a friend’s pet gerbil in “NOT Happily Ever After.” Children grapple with understanding race and religion as well as icons like Jesus and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. … “O Freedom,” skillfully hints at forthcoming wisdom in lines like “Our children come along, another generation, / tiny prisoners of whom we have become the guards. / Are there little spaces in which some weeds might grow? / Weeds we can call wildflowers?”” —Kirkus Reviews
Copies of Upbringing: poems, 98 page paperback (ISBN: 9781632100979), can be purchased through Amazon, retail bookstores, or ordered in quantity from Plain View Press. Publisher Plain View Press is a 45-year-old issue-based literary publishing house, a far-flung community of humane and highly creative writers, artists and activists, whose energies bring humanitarian enlightenment and hope to individuals and communities grappling with the issues of our time—peace, justice, the environment, education and gender.
Contact Info:
Name: Pam Knight
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Organization: Plain View Press
Address: 1101 W 34th Street, STE 404, Austin, TX 78705, United States
Website: https://plainviewpress.com
Source: PressCable
Release ID: 89088496
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