Publisher Description

The poems in Smugglers move through rapid historical shifts and meditations on personal experience, exploring the depths and limits of comprehension through the people and geography of the Balkans. Ultimately, Ale Debeljak's urban imagination creates a mosaic-intimate and historical-of a vanished people and their country. Every poem in Smugglers is sixteen lines long-four quatrains, a common form for Debeljak. This structural regularity is reinforced by a commitment to visual balance, with each poem working as a kind of grid into which the poet pours memories and associative riffs.From "Bookstore":At least you are blessed. Winter's here. In darkness, awake
since yesterday, I came to browse again through the titles of old
books, wobbly skyscrapers, writers of my youth and stiffened honey.
No opening hours on the door, a minor poet with no womansits behind files in the front. I know him from when
we all shouted in one loyal voice, collected works on sale
for a handful of cents, read the holy Kapital
like zealots. Well, okay: not exactly all. Some of us tookanother road . . .Ale Debeljak's books have appeared in English, Japanese, German, Croatian, Serbian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Spanish, Slovak, Finnish, Lithuanian, and Italian translations. He teaches in the department of Cultural Studies at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.Brian Henry is the author of ten books of poetry and won the 2011 Best Translated Book Award. He teaches at University of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia.

Author Biography

Ale Debeljak has published eight books of poetry and twelve books of essays in Slovenian. His books have appeared in English, Japanese, German, Croatian, Serbian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Spanish, Slovak, Finnish, Lithuanian, and Italian translation. Without Anesthesia: New and Selected Poems appeared from Persea Books in 2010. He has won the Preseren Foundation Prize, the Miriam Lindberg Israel Poetry for Peace Prize, the Chiqyu Poetry Prize in Japan, and the Jenko Prize. Debeljak teaches in the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.

Brian Henry is the author of ten books of poetry, most recently Brother No One (Salt Publishing, 2013). His translation of Toma alamun's Woods and Chalices appeared from Harcourt in 2008, and his translation of Ale teger's The Book of Things appeared from BOA Editions in 2010 and won the 2011 Best Translated Book Award. He has received numerous awards for his poetry and translations, including fellowships from the NEA, the Howard Foundation, and the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences. He lives in Richmond, VA.

Table of Contents

CONTENTSAcknowledgments4HereHome7Yesterday a House, Today Nothing8Bookstore9Bocce Court10Graceful Arch11Botanical Garden12Under the Chestnuts13Turkish Restaurant14Empty HandedSmugglers16Paperboy17Advice to a Young Poet18The Living and the Dead19On the Deck20Arrest Warrant21The Castle Avenue With Trees22The Tree of Love23In the Inner CircleThe Balkan Bridge25The Woman Who Isn't There26Once Upon a Time in America27Jazz Club28Presidential Palace29Anchor30Statue of Anti-Fascist Activist31Failed Encounter32Mandatory ExercisesA Fool or a Baker34Tightrope Walker35When You Get Out of Prison36Old Factory37Essential Equipment38Insomniacs Society39Holidays40Moskito Bar41On the Wrong SideUnder Your Window, Lili Novy43The Robba Fountain44Under the Basket45Speedway Racetrack46Schoolboy's Blues47Festival Hall48Lightbulb49James Joyce Slept Here50About the Author51About the Translator52

Review

"Debeljak's insistence on formal consistency, humor, and adherence to his subject, along with translator Henry's efforts at retaining his syntactical and cultural idiosyncrasies, put the personal, and traditional, experience of those historical events at the forefront of this collection. A troubled national history and the continuing traumas of a young nation may well strike readers as the heart of the collection." -Publishers Weekly "Ales Debeljak's Smugglers is the type of poetry book that, once the reader establishes a relationship with it, is difficult to lend out or give away. I suggest this because not every book of poems is immediately understood, not every book is instantly appreciated. But Smugglers has a quiet, dazzling nature to it that I find palpable. And so a reluctance to share it is an act to protect its artistry, as if to say, 'You may read it if only you promise to attempt feeling what I feel.' A selfish notion, sure, but this is one of those books that came along (for me) when needed. I recommend Smugglers without question. I just can't quite let you see my copy." -Damon Marbut, The Rumpus "The unique tone of the collection approaches prose diction, with lightning-like associative leaps characteristic of Debeljak's use of poetic images...The lyrical voice intuitively summons it as a witness of the moments that link the poet's childhood, adolescence, and adulthood to the present era...Nostalgia for a former life thus turns into nostalgia for all such persons, places, and situations that shaped the poet's personal identity but also the anguish and trauma over a forever-changed people in the region...Although at first glance it may not seem so, this is perhaps one of Debeljak's most intimate and exciting collections. The picturesque architecture of Ljubljana evokes the timeless beauty of baroque art and the poet's attachment to it. At the same time, in the dark deserted interiors reside the ghosts of the past, a past that is unfortunately more powerful than the future." -Bojana Stojanovic Pantovic, World Literature Today "Clear images, conversational pacing, and declarative statements provide Smugglers with numerous entry points for a variety of readers. Each of the forty poems consists of four stanzas of four lines each. Such uniformity is undeniably pleasing in that it provides a sense of surety and orientation. It also provides an emotional cushion for the wild, imaginative project Debeljak is quietly at work on ... Highly recommended!" -Mid-America Review

Promotional

Galleys available: national mailing to key review/media outlets 4-5 months prior to publication.National print campaign: 100 finished books will be mailed to key review outlets, specifically targeting Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, The New York Time Book Review, The New Yorker, Poets & Writers Magazine, The Rumpus, Huffington Post Poetry, Poetry International, The Kenyon Review, World Literature Today, etc.National advertising in Poets & Writers magazine, American Poet magazine, the Academy of American Poets newsletter, Rain Taxi, and Redactions.Spring announcements will be submitted to Publishers Weekly.Extensive promotion through BOA's website and blog; Facebook (6,200+ contacts), Twitter (4,000 followers), Instagram, and Pinterest accounts; print and e-postcards; print and e-materials; and print and e-catalogs.Electronic postcards to announce book publication will be sent to Henry's and Debeljak's academic contacts, bookstore contacts, and literary bloggers.Electronic newsletter feature will be emailed to BOA's database of 3,000+ contacts.Attendance at the AWP Conference in Minneapolis, with possible author/translator signing.Ebook will be available at the same time as print publication to maximize sales. Ebook ISBN will be included on all press materials, author and publisher websites, and whenever print ISBN is listed. Publisher and author will be promoting both e and p through social media.

Long Description

The poems in Smugglers move through rapid historical shifts and meditations on personal experience, exploring the depths and limits of comprehension through the people and geography of the Balkans. Ultimately, Ales Debeljak's urban imagination creates a mosaic--intimate and historical--of a vanished people and their country. Every poem in Smugglers is sixteen lines long--four quatrains, a common form for Debeljak. This structural regularity is reinforced by a commitment to visual balance, with each poem working as a kind of grid into which the poet pours memories and associative riffs. From "Bookstore": At least you are blessed. Winter's here. In darkness, awake since yesterday, I came to browse again through the titles of old books, wobbly skyscrapers, writers of my youth and stiffened honey. No opening hours on the door, a minor poet with no woman sits behind files in the front. I know him from when we all shouted in one loyal voice, collected works on sale for a handful of cents, read the holy Kapital like zealots. Well, okay: not exactly all. Some of us took another road . . . Ales Debeljak 's books have appeared in English, Japanese, German, Croatian, Serbian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Spanish, Slovak, Finnish, Lithuanian, and Italian translations. He teaches in the department of Cultural Studies at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. Brian Henry is the author of ten books of poetry and won the 2011 Best Translated Book Award. He teaches at University of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia.

Review Quote

"Debeljak's insistence on formal consistency, humor, and adherence to his subject, along with translator Henry's efforts at retaining his syntactical and cultural idiosyncrasies, put the personal, and traditional, experience of those historical events at the forefront of this collection. A troubled national history and the continuing traumas of a young nation may well strike readers as the heart of the collection." -- Publishers Weekly "Aleš Debeljak's Smugglers is the type of poetry book that, once the reader establishes a relationship with it, is difficult to lend out or give away. I suggest this because not every book of poems is immediately understood, not every book is instantly appreciated. But Smugglers has a quiet, dazzling nature to it that I find palpable. And so a reluctance to share it is an act to protect its artistry, as if to say, 'You may read it if only you promise to attempt feeling what I feel.' A selfish notion, sure, but this is one of those books that came along (for me) when needed. I recommend Smugglers without question. I just can't quite let you see my copy." --Damon Marbut, The Rumpus "The unique tone of the collection approaches prose diction, with lightning-like associative leaps characteristic of Debeljak's use of poetic images....The lyrical voice intuitively summons it as a witness of the moments that link the poet's childhood, adolescence, and adulthood to the present era....Nostalgia for a former life thus turns into nostalgia for all such persons, places, and situations that shaped the poet's personal identity but also the anguish and trauma over a forever-changed people in the region....Although at first glance it may not seem so, this is perhaps one of Debeljak's most intimate and exciting collections. The picturesque architecture of Ljubljana evokes the timeless beauty of baroque art and the poet's attachment to it. At the same time, in the dark deserted interiors reside the ghosts of the past, a past that is unfortunately more powerful than the future." --Bojana Stojanovic Pantovic, World Literature Today "Clear images, conversational pacing, and declarative statements provide Smugglers with numerous entry points for a variety of readers. Each of the forty poems consists of four stanzas of four lines each. Such uniformity is undeniably pleasing in that it provides a sense of surety and orientation. It also provides an emotional cushion for the wild, imaginative project Debeljak is quietly at work on . . . Highly recommended!" -- Mid-America Review

Competing Titles

The Book of Things Ales Steger 9781934414415 16.00 BOA Editions, Ltd. 10/19/2010 1000 The World Shared Dariusz Sosnicki 9781938160349 16.00 BOA Editions, Ltd. 06/10/2014 500 The Oasis of Now Sohrab Sepehri 9781938160226 16.00 BOA Editions, Ltd. 11/05/2013 750

Description for Sales People

Brian Henry's 2010 BOA translation of Slovenian poet Ales Steger, The Book of Things, won the 2011 Best Translated Book Award (BTBA) from Three Percent. In 2014, the BTBA won the International Literary Translation Initiative Award at the inaugural International Book Industry Excellence Awards. Debeljak is an extremely prolific writer. Since the mid-1980s, he has taken an active part in civil society movements. He has been one of the co-editors of the critical alternative journal Nova revija. He has also participated in the social liberal think tank Forum 21, led by the former President of Slovenia Milan Kucan. Debeljak's first collection of poetry was very well received by the poet Tomaz Salamun, who declared Debeljak as the best poet of the young generation of Slovene authors. Debeljak's poetry is noted for its melancholy and a new reaffirmation of traditional values such as family and God. An opponent to the everything-goes schools of modern thought, such as Post-Modernism, Debeljak's work is informed by an "Enlightenment" ideal of right and wrong, good and bad. Having graduated from the University of Ljubljana in 1985, Debeljak continued his studies in the United States, obtaining a PhD in sociology of culture at Syracuse University in 1989.

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