There's a Ghost in this Machine of Air, Poems by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

History, both public and private, and the land are the strong focus of Iris Jamahl Dunkle's There's a Ghost in this Machine of Air.

Sample Poems by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

"There truly are 'ghosts' in Iris Jamahl Dunkle's new collection. Her poetic endeavors translate into the old stories of the West County into verse as pure as the joy she derives from being there. From the train down main in the love song she titles 'Dear Sebastopol,' to her righteous laments about the abuse of the Laguna, Dunkle's poems are the very essence of that 'sense of place' we're always talking about and striving to discover. The soil here hums, electric and weeps with us for the vanishing orchards, the demos of change. She has undertaken a considerable task and done it well."--Gaye LeBaron

"There's a Ghost in this Machine of Air is a sustained, complex, clear-eyed and heart-full love song to a remarkable landscape. Iris Jamahl Dunkle has brought history to life. When this Sonoma County native describes the land as it was when the Pomo cultivated sedge for basket weaving, or the arrival and hardships of the early European settlers, or the husbandry of the Gravenstein Apple on which the local ecoonomy came to depend, it is always enriched by the spirit of the place as she knows it. And when she describes, for example, the use of Laguna de Santa Rosa as a cesspool in the 20th century, it's within the context of 150 years of disgregard for the health of the land,a context which make sall the more remarkable the recent recovery efforts. This is an unusual, beautiful and powerful book."--Jane Mead

"Part historical journey through Northern California's loaded past, part deep praise of the land (what has come before us and what has survived), There's a Ghost in this Machine of Air is a book of solitude, longing, landscape, and myth-making. Traveling back through time, the reader is invited into a world where the legendary coastal setting first becomes both master and servant. In the end, we are left with the bright images of a lush natural world and a longing to, like Dunkle, bow down to the earth that has given us this moment."--Ada Limon

Iris Jamahl Dunkle's debut poetry collection, Gold Passage, won the Trio Award and was published by Trio House Press in 2013. Her chapbooks Inheritance and The Flying Trolley were published by Finishing Line Press in 2010 and 2013. Her poetry, essays and creative non-fiction have been published widely. Dunkle teaches writing and literature at Napa Valley College.She received her B.A. from the George Washington University, her M.F.A. in Poetry from New York University, and her Ph.D. in American Literature from Case Western Reserve University. She is on the staff of the Napa Valley Writers conference and is the managing editor of Volt. Visit irisjamahldunkle.com for recent publications and upcoming readings.

ISBN: 978-1625491619, 96 pages, $18

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