Reading in Defense of Human Rights

Lost Horse Press, a nonprofit independent press based in Sandpoint, Idaho, recently published an anothology of poems in defense of human rights: I Go to the Ruined Place: Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human Rights. The press received both first-hand accounts of violations and writings by people disturbed by the blows enacted on others. "We were surprised at the range of issues spoken to by the poets. While torture remained a critical topic, as well as issues at stake in the Iraq War, there were also poems that addressed immigrant rights, prisoners’ rights, the Holocaust, the wars in Cambodia, Vietnam, Serbia, South America, Palestine and Israel. We received poems that spoke of suicide bombing, violence against women, the aftermath of 9/11, and outlawing marriage for gay Americans."

The collection is edited by Melissa Kwasny and M.L. "Mandy" Stoker. One of the many contributors to the anthology, Portland poet Willa Schneberg, will read from I Go to the Ruined Place at Broadway Books on Tuesday, April 20th, at 7 pm. Willa will be joined by several other writers, including Fraces Payne Adler, Patricia Bollin, Edith Mirante, John Paisley, Kirsten Rian, and Sandy Polishuk, who will read poems from the anthology and perhaps a poem or prose piece of his or her own.

For each book sold, the publisher will donate $2 to the Bonner County (Idaho) Human Rights Task Force. We hope you can join us for this important event.