Description
Cooking. Poetry. THE IMMIGRANT’S TABLE is a beautiful collection of poems and recipes, an odd pairing until you read how Mary Lou Sanelli has managed it. In the hands of this adept poet, these seemingly disparate elements flow together like pasta sauce and garlic, like Chianti and cheese. Sanelli introduces her reader to her family in the most Italian of settings: around a table. And in introducing her family, she also reveals those long-held family recipes for a great meal as well as those for a strong and lively family. “In this collection, Mary Lou Sanelli brings poems out of the ivory tower, straight to the family dinner table. No fast-food substitutes here, as the poet re-creates a culture in which food preparation is a cherished ritual. Sanelli’s clear-eyed, yet loving, awareness of family members’ foibles, including her own, provides the reader with a menu that nourishes both body and spirit, a gourmet treat for the imagination”-Madeline Defrees.
Mary Lou Sanelli has earned a solid reputation in the literary and public-speaking community through a steady commitment to writing and through twenty years of successful public readings and presentations. She has published seven collections of poetry, three works of nonfiction, Among Friends, Falling Awake, and A Woman Writing. The Star Struck Dance Studio (of Yucca Springs) is her first novel (Chatwin Books). Her regular columns appear in Seattle’s City Living Magazine, Art Access magazine, The Queen Anne/Magnolia News, as well as Lilipoh magazine and Dance Teacher magazine. She has written for the Seattle Times, Seattle Metropolitan Magazine, Morning Edition, National Public Radio, Seattle’s NPR affiliate station KUOW FM, and many other publications and radio stations. Honorariums include an Artist Trust GAP Award, Poetry on the Buses, A Jack Straw Writers Award, A Seattle Bumbershoot Festival Book Award, The Skagit River Poetry Festival, A GoodReads Notable Book Award, and writing residencies in France, Costa Rica, and Spain. She presents her work at corporate events, conferences, literary venues, colleges and universities, book clubs, private events, and fundraising salons. Also a master teacher of Lyrical style contemporary dance, she teaches workshops throughout the world. This professional dance training and performance experience enables her to present with skills that surpass the average author reading. She lives with her husband in Seattle. “What Sanelli does in front of an audience is easier to recognize than it is to define.” -The Seattle Times. For more on Mary Lou Sanelli, please visit: marylousanelli.com
Madeline DeFrees –
Sanelli’s clear-eyed awareness of family members’ foibles provides the reader with a menu that nourishes body and spirit.
From former publisher, Jack Estes –
We’ve published Mary Lou Sanelli’s latest book just one year after publishing her earlier work, WOMEN IN THE GARDEN. We’ve chosen to do that for the simple reason that she writes quality poems and she connects to her readers. She has developed a following in the Northwest, and we’re feeling confident that the following will break out of that region and spread throughout the nation. Mary Lou Sanelli knows how to deliver a poem, both on paper and in person. And with this book, you’ll discover that she knows how to deliver a recipe, also.