Book Launch for the poetry book The Weird World Rolls On

A book launch for the poetry book, "The Weird World Rolls On" published by Vashon publisher Endicott and Hugh Books will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 18th at Vashon Community Care. The public is invited to attend the book launch and reading.

The collection includes haikus that have appeared on Hiway Haiku and poems by Vashon poets Jean Ameluxen, Jill Andrews, Dorothy Bauer, Kaj Wyn Berry, Jean Carpenter, Marta Cou, Hunter Davis, Michael Feinstein, Shirley Ferris, Margaret Heldring, Eric Horsting, Catherine Johnson, Lonny Kaneko, Cal Kinnear, Juli Morser, Edeen Parrish, Janice Randall, Helen Rusell, Mary Shackelford, Ron Simons, Ann Spiers, Ina Whitlock, and Sue Wiley. Nova Scotia poet Roger Davies, the collection’s featured poet, will read his poems along with the Vashon poets.

The book’s title, "The Weird World Rolls On" is taken from a line in a poem written in the late 1800’s by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The poems reflect diversity and the range of human experience and the poetic response to timeless subjects: love, death, grief, loss, aging, illness, suicide, divorce, racism, family, war and peace, nature, roots, longing, joy, and just trying to make sense of the world.

There are twenty-eight poets (the work of three of the poets is published posthumously—Helen Russell’s haiku having been dictated on the evening of her death at age 101.) The twenty-five living poets range in age from six years old to ninety. Some are nationally recognized published poets, and for others the poems in this collection are their first efforts. They all either live on Vashon or have a connection to Vashon. Proceeds from the sale of "The Weird World Rolls On" are donated to VCC. In addition to the launch on July 18th, the public is also invited to visit the VCC booth at Strawberry Festival where the books will be on sale.