tales retold
August 2017 review of tales retold
"a poetry collection touching on every emotion one can feel, often all in one poem" writes Simran P. Gupta in The Fictional Cafe's review of tales retold, and says of "Waking from a Nightmare" that "Bonnell seamlessly weaves together the terror of being stuck in a nightmare with reality, blurring the lines for the reader while creating vivid imagery for the crossover from the nightmare into reality."
In the course of giving her reaction to tales retold as a whole, she offers a close reading of "What the Sirens Sang" in which she backs up her conclusion that "Form and content are perfectly balanced" by an interesting discussion of the interplay of the two elements in the poem.
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The poems in tales retold give new takes on characters from stories you'll recognize.
Be they heroic or villainous, bit-part players or protagonists, female, male, or something of both, human or animal, bystander, witness, or perpetrator, the reader can look out the eyes of each of them and see how it looks from there.
BUY YOUR AUTOGRAPHED COPY/IES NOW!
Celebrate New England's drought-relieving spring by ordering an autographed copy (or copies) of tales retold direct from the author today -- cost per copy (including shipping) is $16. Mail your check or money order to Paula Bonnell, PO Box 51860, Boston, MA 02205, and count yourself a patron of the arts.
The cover design at the right is from a drawing by New England abstract artist Sarah Sutro. One of the readers of tales retold said of this image, "It invites the eye in."
"In this remarkable collection Bonnell enters sideways, as it were,
stories and histories that we thought we knew well. Lucid and lithe, her words tilt us into new regions of possibility. Her "Mama Bear" makes us privy to a new perspective on Goldilocks, and "The Ant's Love Song to the Grasshopper" turns the moralizing fable into an exquisite, poignant villanelle. These and others claim a space of silence from the reader in which their reverberations may unfold."
-- Peter Schwenger, author of At the Borders of Sleep: On Liminal Literature
"In tales retold, Paula Bonnell burrows inside familiar tales
from myth, legend, and popular culture,
reimagining them to reveal insights that often amuse and always surprise.
I admire Bonnell's subtlety . . . These are poems worth pondering."
-- Elaine Ford, author of The American Wife: Stories
Readings?
and you'd like to hear Paula Bonnell read from tales retold
OR work with actors or students or a theatre department
to present a program of dramatic monologues or soliloquys from tales retold,
please suggest it to the people there.
Any time from from July 2017 on would be include good dates for such readings. Please e-mail paulabonnell@gmail.com to discuss details.
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