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Alan Catlin
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American Odyssey Kindle Edition

by Alan Catlin (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings
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American Odyssey is a poetic journey that began when Alan Catlin saw Mary Ellen Mark’s life study of three young girls standing by a Coney Island boardwalk. He was struck by how, through this powerful photo, we immediately know where these girls have been, where they are going, and where they will end up. Marks’ work focuses on the human element—the dispossessed, the children of the streets, the prostitutes here and aboard—with complete honesty and compassion. After first exploring Mark’s work, Catlin then travels across a series of canvasses—satiric, imaginary, exaggerated—that all focus on humans experiencing some sort of physical or psychic pain. By the end of the book, with the REQUIEM exhibit of photographs by photographers killed in Vietnam, humans are still present but dwarfed by the war that engulfs them. These poems address silence and pain, and they offer redemption. Maybe.
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  1. Print length
    79 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    March 15, 2016
  5. File size
    659 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alan Catlin has been publishing in small press, university and literary magazines since the days of the mimeo revolution in publishing. More recently, he has expanded his publishing efforts to include the internet where he has been published in scores of poetry blogs and literary-focused online journals. He is also the poetry editor of misfitmagazine.net. Among his many chapbooks and full length books are Stop Making Sense plus Self-Portrait as the Artist Afraid of His Self-Portrait (both from March Street Press), Effects of Sunlight in the Fog (Bright Hill Press), The Schenectady Chainsaw Massacre (Staplegun), Only the Dead Know Albany (sunnyoutside), and Last Man Standing (Lummox Press).

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01D1EQTFG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ FutureCycle Press (March 15, 2016)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 15, 2016
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 659 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 79 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings

About the author

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Alan Catlin

Alan Catlin

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Alan Catlin has been writing and publishing in the "littles" and not so "littles" since the days of the mimeo revolution. Mimeos are gone and the Internet is here and so is the poet after a demanding, but stimulating, in more ways than he cares to describe, career in the service industry, mostly as a professional barman. His many chapbooks and full length books deal with life experiences, which he considers on the job training, or as an advance degree in life studies. Since bailing from the job, you never retire from The Business, you get out while you can, he has indulged his lifelong interest in Art and Literature, branching out into different forms and subjects. While this departure may seem unusual, it was his barman profession he calls his, unchosen profession, the one that just sort of happened while pursuing his desired career as a scholar and a teacher in Graduate School.In recent years he has been the poetry editor of an online poetry journal: misfitmagazine.net. In keeping with his interest in preserving the obscure, the ephemeral and the unusual written word, he has been collecting and archiving a vast accumulation of rare printed material from well over thirty five years of publishing, with the State University of New York Buffalo.

Customer reviews

5 out of 5 stars
5 out of 5
3 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jennifer Lagier
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2016
Verified Purchase
Alan's work is both powerful and unique.
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Virginia
5.0 out of 5 stars Imaginative, lush, accessible poetry
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2020
As a fan of Alan Catlin's poetry, I've read quite a few of his books. This one has rocketed to the top of my list. Each poem takes the reader to a familiar place (a famous artwork, person, place or time in history), transforming it into something richer, more dreamlike, often dark, occasionally funny. His series of "dream dates" with the likes of Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Diane Arbus, and Virginia Woolf, among other notables, are worth the price of admission.
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Bruce Boston
5.0 out of 5 stars Rich in Emotions and Ideas
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2016
I can’t recall when I first encountered Alan Catlin’s poetry, but I’ve been a fan of his work for at least twenty years. I’ve read ten of his collections and enjoyed them all. Until now my favorite was probably Self-Portrait as the Artist Afraid of His Self-Portrait, but this latest, American Odyssey, ties that. The book begins with a series of ekphrastic poems inspired by the photographs of Mary Ellen Mark and Robert Mapplethorpe, and the art of Ralph Steadman. That segues into section that relates the author’s dream dates with the likes of Billie Holiday, the Bronte Sisters and more. The book concludes with a series of poems examining the American experience in Vietnam. Along the way you will also encounter such inspired oddities as “A Night of Serious Drinking as ‘Vertigo’” and “Winged Victory as Wagner Heroine in a Wild Wild Wild West Show.” All of these poems read like short fascinating road trips with a richly imaginative mind as your guide. Catlin’s sharp and telling visions, often amply laced with surrealism, come alive upon the page, rich in emotions and ideas. Highest recommendation.
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