Books

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Sheboygan Occasions

The poetry in Sheboygan Occasions is rooted first of all in place—the city of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Many of the poems in this volume were requested for special occasions by city officials, arts organizations, and community groups. Vihos has also included poems that honor her own, more personal occasions. And like her official poet laureate poems, they ring true to the essence of the city she calls home.

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In The Lone Snake, Lisa Vihos brings Renaissance artist Sofonisba Anguissola to life as a woman yearning for recognition in a world not ready for her. Vihos’s portrait of life in the 16th century is a rich tapestry that blends art history, romance, and verse to tell a timeless tale of what it means to create.

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From Everywhere a Little: A Migration Anthology

(eds. Dawn Hogue and Lisa Vihos, Water’s Edge Press, 2019) is a collection of poems focused broadly on the topic of migration. What began as a 100 Thousand Poets for Change event in Sheboygan in September 2018 grew into a fine collection of voices from everywhere.

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The 34 poems in this chapbook from the Grand Avenue Poetry Collective will have you thinking about what it means to grow older.

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Such a delight [this book], a comedy of the most serious kind. Lisa Vihos reaches through time to connect in a casual, audacious, boundary-crossing way to sit with dead poets and engage as if they were on the porch, in the parlor, sitting at the kitchen table having a beer. She writes, “My beat, your beat, our shared refrain.” What a beautiful gift of poetic companionship. — Heather Derr-Smith

(Pebblebrook Press, 2011). The poetry of Lisa Vihos marries intelligence and passion–a rare and valuable combination–as well as elevates speech into song. Memory presides over many of these poems, but the effect is less nostalgia than the transformation of what seemed lost into the permanence of art. Vihos executes demanding forms with the insouciance of a master as she writes of the world with reverence and abiding care. [This book] bodes well for her extended history as a poet. — Philip Dacey

Compiled by Lisa Vihos (HenschelHAUS Publishing, 2018). Van Gogh Dreams is an anthology of poems by thirty-one poets that illuminate the life and art of Vincent van Gogh. Edited by Vihos in homage to her father, the collection presents an exploration of the power of art to inspire new creation. The foreword by art historian and Van Gogh scholar, Judy Sund, adds a contextual layer to this rich array of mainly, but not entirely, ekphrastic poetry. As Van Gogh himself once said, “poetry surrounds us everywhere.” Reading this book will certainly remind you of that truth.

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Lisa Vihos tackles the concerns of a woman in mid-life with wit, humor, and the word-play of a writer who is unafraid to take risks yet is enviably in control. Her subjects are the changing geography of the body, desire, sex, motherhood, loss, and grief. She approaches the inevitable march of time and its attendant complexities with hope and optimism. Underlying all is the belief beautifully articulated in the title poem that “even broken things announce new life.” — Stacey Harwood

Lisa Vihos tracks our collective search for consolation in the material world, making peace with the passage of time through poetry both memorable and moving. From childhood memories of flying kites and laugh tracks that resound long after sitcoms leave the air, to sunlit rural landscapes and airports vigilant about security, Vihos takes us on an uncanny tour–through public and domestic spaces, through the varied landscapes of women’s lives–alert to “all the measurable / and immeasurable frequencies.” —  Jane Satterfield