"Food of Gods and Starvelings," the selected poems of prominent 20th-century Montana writer Grace Stone Coates have been published by cultural nonprofit Drumlummon Institute of Helena, MT. Among the best-known poets west of the Mississippi before the Second World War, Coates, in the words of Caroline Patterson, "writes of the world around her from the small town of Martinsdale, Montana, and her poetry is at once as sweeping and as precise as the prairie she lived on.... Her voice rings clear, her eye is sharp, and her music is unerring."
Helena, Mont. (PRWEB) November 14, 2007 -- With the publication of "Food of Gods and Starvelings: The Selected Poems of Grace Stone Coates," Drumlummon Institute of Helena, Montana, brings back into print the poetic works of a leading 20th-century writer of the American West. Edited by Lee Rostad and Rick Newby, the substantial collection showcases more than 200 of Coates' "irresistible, poignant and authentic" poems.
Caroline Patterson, editor of "Montana Women Writers: A Geography of the Heart," says of "Food of Gods and Starvelings," "Like a twentieth-century Emily Dickinson, [Grace Stone Coates writes of the world around her from the small town of Martinsdale, Montana, and her poetry is at once as sweeping and as precise as the prairie she lived on. With startling imagery and philosophical acuity, she explores the emotional landscape between men and women, mothers and daughters, small-town neighbors, and between a lonely woman and the landscape she lives in. Her voice rings clear, her eye is sharp, and her music is unerring."
During her lifetime, Grace Stone Coates (1881-1976) published two critically acclaimed collections of poems, "Mead and Mangel-Wurzel" and "Portulacas in the Wheat," and the novel, "Black Cherries." Twenty of her short stories were cited in "Best American Short Stories," and she was among the most widely published American poets west of the Mississippi prior to World War II. She served as assistant editor for the regional literary journal, "Frontier and Midland," of The University of Montana, where she worked closely with legendary editor Harold G. Merriam.
"Food of Gods and Starvelings" contains the two collections Coates published during her lifetime, plus more than seventy uncollected poems drawn from literary journals and the poet's notebooks. Co-editor Lee Rostad is author of the award-winning biography, "Grace Stone Coates: Her Life in Letters" (Riverbend, 2004) and recipient of the Montana Governor's Award in the Humanities, and co-editor Rick Newby has edited many books, including "The New Montana Story: An Anthology" (Riverbend, 2003) and "A Most Desperate Situation: Frontier Adventures of a Young Scout, 1858-1864," by Walter Cooper (illustrations by Charles M. Russell).
"Food of Gods and Starvelings: The Selected Poems of Grace Stone Coates" is available in bookstores or by calling Riverbend Publishing, 1-866-787-2363. The 244-page softcover book is available for $15.95. To order a review copy or a copy signed by the two editors, write to Drumlummon Institute, 402 Dearborn Ave. #3, Helena, MT 59601, or visit Drumlummon Institute's website: http://www.drumlummon.org.
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