Forty Miles North of Nowhere
Poems by
LeRoy Sorenson
"Here is America so American it’s almost Americana—soured by the hog plant’s exhaust and populated by suicides, preachers shouting Heal! and veterans facing double shots at a bar. Here’s a gallery of haunted characters living in a place of sweet whiskey and sudden fornication, quick damnation on the jukeboxes a slow future that’s been strangled by the roots of a life-long grief. Here are the blues, and boy do they sing!"
(Click book to read poetry samples)
– Tony Barnstone, author of
Tongues of War and
The Golem of Los Angeles
Bio
LeRoy Sorenson began writing when he was a teenager: essays, commentary pieces, short stories and poetry. He has worked as a child psychologist, political organizer and financial analyst. He was one of four poetry participants in the 2009—2010 Loft Mentor Series and graduated from the Loft’s Foreword program in December 2014.
He was a semi-finalist for the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry given annually by the Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry. His work has appeared in Briar Cliff Review, The Cider Press Review, Dr. T. J. Eckleburg Review, Nimrod, Pirene’s Fountain and other journals. He lives in St. Paul, MN with his wife,
a novelist.
In the Press
In LeRoy Sorenson’s poems we find
a protagonist who confronts, in a truly remarkable way, the people and communities of the American Prairie;
this is a protagonist who, having “escaped” the small towns he writes about, refuses to abandon them. And what more can we ask for? These are poems about family, religion (or lack of it), slaughterhouses, addiction, violence, difficult love, history and the enduring human desire for connection and tenderness against the odds.
– Jude Nutter, author of
The Curator of Silence and I Wish I Had a Heart Like Yours, Walt Whitman.
In a language of visceral accuracy made concise and memorable by narrative’s propulsion, LeRoy Sorenson tells the story of the living and the dead—an American story of the seldom-seen bedrock people of the Midwest, prayer on the edge of their tongue poised like the last amen. Articulating a wide range of expression from intimately confessional to grandly oracular, these poems are concise in the mind: tight and sinewy in the mouth.
– Juliet Patterson, author of Threnody and The Truant Lover
News & Events
20
Feb.
2016
Directions:
MEET LARRY SORENSON AT
DEBUT COLLECTION
My debut collection of poetry, Forty Miles North of Nowhere, will launch on Saturday, February 20, 2016 at the auditorium in the Northwestern Building on the campus of Luther Seminary, 1501 Fulham, Saint Paul. It is a joint launch, with Minneapolis poet, John Krumberger, whose collection, Because Autumn, along with North of Nowhere, were finalists for North Carolina-based Main Street Rag’s 2015 poetry contest, chosen from several hundred entries. Main Street Rag, in addition to producing a quarterly literary journal by the same name, publishes multiple books of poetry each year. The books are neither self-published nor produced by a vanity press.
The poems in North of Nowhere previously appeared in Nimrod, The Cider Press Review, Pirene’s Fountain, The Briar Cliff Review and other journals. Tony Barnstone, Jude Nutter and Juliet Patterson provided blurbs, as seen in the attached photo of the book cover.
Besides Because Autumn John Krumberger has published a volume of poems entitled The Language of Rain and Wind through Backwaters Press and a prize winner chapbook In A Jar Somewhere through Black Dirt Press
My debut collection of poetry, Forty Miles North of Nowhere, will launch on Saturday, February 20, 2016 at the auditorium in the Northwestern Building on the campus of Luther Seminary, 1501 Fulham, Saint Paul. It is a joint launch, with Minneapolis poet, John Krumberger, whose collection, Because Autumn, along with North of Nowhere, were finalists for North Carolina-based Main Street Rag’s 2015 poetry contest, chosen from several hundred entries. Main Street Rag, in addition to producing a quarterly literary journal by the same name, publishes multiple books of poetry each year. The books are neither self-published nor produced by a vanity press.
The poems in North of Nowhere previously appeared in Nimrod, The Cider Press Review, Pirene’s Fountain, The Briar Cliff Review and other journals. Tony Barnstone, Jude Nutter and Juliet Patterson provided blurbs, as seen in the attached photo of the book cover.
Besides Because Autumn John Krumberger has published a volume of poems entitled The Language of Rain and Wind through Backwaters Press and a prize winner chapbook In A Jar Somewhere through Black Dirt Press
MEET LARRY SORENSON AT
DEBUT COLLECTION
News
& Events
10
March
Meet LeRoy Sorenson
MY NEXT READING:
Midstream Reading Series
Thursday, March 10, 2016 7:30–8:30pm
Where: Blue Moon building, corner of 39th Avenue South
and (3820) East Lake. Upstairs.
Entrance just west of the Blue Moon coffee house; up the stairs and to the left. Not wheel-chair accessible. Plentiful street parking.
Best to arrive 10-20 minutes early to get coffee and food/dessert from the Blue Moon, and to be seated by 7:30 so we can begin on time.
And, the venue will easily hold about 30; after that, standing or floor-sitting room only. The early bird gets the seat. Please occupy the close seats first. Be an up-front person.
Original poems and stories read/performed by their creators:
Danny Klecko, LeRoy Sorenson, Madelon Sprengnether, Joyce Sutphen
Before and after: The Blue Moon, downstairs, has coffee, sandwiches, desserts. Merlin’s Rest, a bar/restaurant 3 blocks west, has a full bar, good food, a late hours kitchen, reserved seating.
My book 40 Miles North of Nowhere will be for sale.
The poems in North of Nowhere previously appeared in Nimrod,
The Cider Press Review, Pirene’s Fountain, The Briar Cliff Review
and other journals. Tony Barnstone, Jude Nutter and Juliet Patterson provided blurbs, as seen in the attached photo of the book cover.