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Take to the Highway
Take to the Highway

Take to the Highway

Arabesques for Travelers

POETRY

96 Pages, 6 x 9

Formats: EPUB, Mobipocket, PDF

PDF, $9.99 (US $9.99) (CA $11.99)

Publication Date: August 2016

ISBN 9781609405151

Rights: WOR

Wings Press (Aug 2016)

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Overview

TAKE TO THE HIGHWAY is a book about journeys and the intricate memory map of human consciousness. Mostly written while driving across the expanse of Texas, the poems embody family history, anticipate his mother’s coming death, and embody his reflections on a life lived along many roads within an interior landscape. Formal and yet deeply personal, the book dares to ask, in the words of reviewer Lorna Dee Cervantes, “Who are you again?” Juan Felipe Herrera, Poet Laureate of the United States, writes of TAKE TO THE HIGHWAY: "In this shifting play of perception, memory, fast long-line and prose fevers, we are given the “Hallelujah” of envisioning, which is the diamond-eyed gift of this superb collection. Tour de force, necessary materials for the the road ahead in these times."

Reviews

"In a new collection 'for travelers,' Milligan sometimes races and sometimes tools along; no matter the speed, it's a pleasing ride . . . . The poet divides his book into three parts; the first and third feature relatively short stanzas and clipped lines while the second is full of longer prose poems 'written at speed.' Most poets work well in one mode, either economy or abandon. Milligan can do both with grace . . . . Sure-handed verse work in multiple registers." —Kirkus Reviews

"Bryce Milligan, a prominent San Antonio writer, allows readers to join him in his journey of grief in his latest poetry collection, Take to the Highway, from West End Press. We meander with a speaker who has lost his mother, and we travel through both personal and communal loss, through memories, and through the landscape of both the mind and the Texas countryside. But these poems are more than a moving collection of personal elegies from this speaker to his mother. The personal loss opens up to the world's grieving, too, of a planet that seems to have seen its better days, which becomes a metaphor for the aging self. Part formal verse and part expertly crafted (though seemingly effortless) prose poems, part autobiography and part philosophy, part personal and part universal, this collection is a testament to poetry's timeless power to express the ineffable." —Katherine Hoerth, Pleiades Book Review

"Because the poems are steeped in movement that includes both place and time, it is not surprising to find the book's second section titled 'Take to the Highway' — with its intriguing subtitle, 'Prose poems written at speed.' In fact, these prose poems achieve a nearly mind-boggling momentum as words move back in memory, forward in time, and down the page . . . . Extraordinary. Take to the Highway resonates clearly in the words arranged on the page, whether executed with restraint or with what feels like the impossibility of ending a line -- creating in the reader exactly what Dotlich admires: the sense of having been there or else wanting to go." —Phebe Davidson, Asheville Poetry Review

Author Biography

Bryce Milligan is an author working in numerous genres, from children’s books to novels for young adults, to adult poetry and criticism. Bloomsbury Review once called him a “literary wizard.” Critic Paul Christensen wrote of Milligan as “one of the principal writers of the region and a force at the center of the literary art movements of Texas.” James Hoggard, past president of the Texas Institute of Letters once wrote of him as being “supremely successful in fostering both a public awareness and involvement in the humanities in Texas.” Milligan was the book columnist for the San Antonio Express-News and the San Antonio Light throughout the 1980s and early ’90s. A member of the National Book Critics Circle, PEN American Center, and the Texas Institute of Letters, his reviews and essays appeared in many journals and newspapers, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Dallas Morning News, et al.The founding editor of Pax: A Journal for Peace through Culture (1983-1987) and (with Roberto Bonazzi) Vortex: A Critical Review (1986-1990), he directed the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center’s literature program and its San Antonio Inter-American Book Fair and Latina Letters conferences for several years. Milligan has been the publisher, editor and book designer of Wings Press since 1995. Wings Press has been profiled in numerous publications, including Poets & Writers Magazine and the Huffington Post. Ramón Renteria, El Paso Times Book Editor, wrote that, “Without publishers like Milligan’s Wing Press, Latino and Chicano literature would remain in a deep well in America.” Milligan was the primary editor of Daughters of the Fifth Sun: A Collection of Latina Fiction and Poetry (Riverhead, 1995)—which was the first all-Latina anthology to be published by a major American publishing house—and Floricanto Si: A Collection of Latina Poetry (Penguin, 1998). He has edited several smaller anthologies and critical collections, and designed numerous books for other presses.Milligan is the author of four historical novels and short story collections for young adults. With the Wind, Kevin Dolan (1987) received the Texas Library Association’s Lone Star Book Award. One of his children’s books, Brigid’s Cloak, was a 2002 “Best of the Year” pick by both the Bank Street College and Publishers Weekly. Several of his gallery theater pieces have been produced weekly at the Witte Museum of Natural History in San Antonio for over 30 years.Milligan is also the author of six previous collections of poetry. His poetry and his song lyrics have appeared in numerous literary magazines, including Southwest Review, Asheville Poetry Review, Cutthroat, Clover, Texas Observer, among others.Once upon a time, he was a working luthier and a singer/songwriter. He has taught English and creative writing at every level, including workshops from California to Prague.In 2011, he received the Gemini Ink “Award for Literary Excellence.” In 2012, he received the St. Mary’s University President’s Peace Commission’s “Art of Peace Award” for “creating work that enhances human understanding through the arts.” In 2015 and 2016, the San Antonio Public Library and Bihl Haus Arts mounted exhibitions in celebration of Wings Press and Milligan’s book designs.More information at www.brycemilligan.com