(Vocal Collection). A 23 minute song cycle based on poems of American women poets, commissioned for Marilyn Horne in honor of the Carnegie Hall Centennial. Also recorded by Miss Horne.

Often compared to the works of E.E. Cummings and Elizabeth Bishop, these poems are a free-ranging exploration of outer and inner worlds, of nature and the human mind In celebration of the centenary of May Swenson’s birth, The Library of America presents a one-volume edition of all of the poems that Swenson published in her lifetime—from her first collection Another Animal (1954) to the innovative shaped poems of Iconographs (1970) to her final work In Other Words (1987)—as well as a selection of previously uncollected work. The collection reveals the sweeping compass of Swenson’s curiosity: nature poems display her keen observation of wildlife; exuberant and erotic love poems celebrate beauty and passion; place poems record her travels to the American Southwest, France, and Italy and her residence in New York City and Sea Cliff, Long Island; verse “analyses” investigate baseball, wave motion, the DNA molecule, bronco busting, James Bond movies, and the first walk on the moon. Swenson was an inveterate reviser: poems in earlier volumes were frequently reworked for inclusion in later volumes, such as To Mix with Time (1963) and New and Selected Things Taking Place (1978). While preserving the order of publication, this volume presents the author’s final or definitive version. Substantive textual variants and title changes are detailed in the notes to the volume. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Recent American Art Song: A Guide is a reference source devoted to songs with English texts by American composers, written for solo voice and piano. The book focuses exclusively on art song since 1980, a substantial period largely ignored by scholars. This is the first study to examine this repertory in detail, and many of the songs and composers are discussed in print for the first time. Keith E. Clifton has examined approximately 1000 songs by nearly 200 composers. Many songs employ musical idioms well beyond traditional classical styles, including references to jazz, musical theater, rap, and rock & roll, and several songs blur the boundaries between recital and stage works. Organized alphabetically by composer, entries contain complete biographical and bibliographical information, with major works and links to print resources and composer websites when available. In addition, Clifton provides detailed information on the vocal range, musical style, and appropriate voice type for individual songs. The book concludes with a full discography and bibliography, as well as indexes listing the works by poet, song cycle, title, voice type, and level of difficulty.

Nineteen-year-old Cowney Sequoyah yearns to escape his hometown of Cherokee, North Carolina, in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. When a summer job at Asheville's luxurious Grove Park Inn and Resort brings him one step closer to escaping the hills that both cradle and suffocate him, he sees it as an opportunity. The experience introduces him to the beautiful and enigmatic Essie Stamper—a young Cherokee woman who is also working at the inn and dreaming of a better life. With World War II raging in Europe, the resort is the temporary home of Axis diplomats and their families, who are being held as prisoners of war. A secret room becomes a place where Cowney and Essie can escape the white world of the inn and imagine their futures free of the shadows of their families' pasts. Outside of this refuge, however, racism and prejudice are never far behind, and when the daughter of one of the residents goes missing, Cowney finds himself accused of abduction and murder. Even As We Breathe invokes the elements of bone, blood, and flesh as Cowney navigates difficult social, cultural, and ethnic divides. Betrayed by the friends he trusted, he begins to unearth deeper mysteries as he works to prove his innocence and clear his name. This richly written debut novel explores the immutable nature of the human spirit and the idea that physical existence, with all its strife and injustice, will not be humanity's lasting legacy.

This imaginative and colorful collection of more than 150 poems contains work by poets from many Pacific lands as well as from Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The poems were gathered especially but not exclusively for young readers. Most were written in English, but a few were translated from their original languages. Unlike conventional anthologies, Fire in the Sea places the rich traditional and contemporary poetry of Hawai‘i and the Pacific (often overlooked by anthologists) alongside better-known works from the East and West. Selected works of art from the collections of the Honolulu Academy of Arts accompany the poems.

Originally created as a teaching tool, this bibliography has taken on a second life as a research tool for various facets of American art song, including, in this edition, both current and historical discography.

(Book). Carol Kimball's comprehensive survey of art song literature has been the principal one-volume American source on the topic. Now back in print after an absence of several years, this newly revised edition includes biographies and discussions of the work of 150 composers of various nationalities, as well as articles on styles of various schools of composition.