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  • Furious Lullaby (Crab Orchard Series in Poetry)
    Furious Lullaby (Crab Orchard Series in Poetry)
  • Names Above Houses (Crab Orchard Series in Poetry)
    Names Above Houses (Crab Orchard Series in Poetry)
  • A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry
    A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry

  • Requiem for the Orchard (Akron Series in Poetry)
    Requiem for the Orchard (Akron Series in Poetry)

Anthologies

Oliver's work can also be found in the following anthologies.

  • Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Writing
    Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Writing
  • Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation
    Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation
  • Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond
    Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond
  • From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great
    From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great
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Oliver de la Paz’s Requiem for the Orchard is a love letter to memory and its ability to both sustain and shatter us beyond the “dust of ourselves,/ cold, decisive, and purely from the earth.” de la Paz renders in beautiful and exacting language the tenderness and ferocity of boyhood, alongside the enduring vulnerability of parenthood.  Out of such intimate recollection a generous wisdom blossoms.   

—Jon Pineda, author of
The Translator’s Diary

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What's on YOUR bedside table?

DateThursday, July 22, 2010 at 2:41PM

Just curious. This is my bedside table. I've got stacks of books, but you'll notice no poetry books. There's a simple reason for this . . . I can't read poetry before bedtime. It requires far too much concentration. All my poetry books are split between my office at work and my home office.

I've got a lot of fiction on the table because I tend to read fiction during the summer (the only time I really have any sustained amount of time for reading).

Also note the sippy cup. I'm still co-sleeping with the two-year-old. Parents with new babies, don't do this.

The ear plugs are a need. I started the habit in college and now I can't sleep without 'em. (If you must know, I had a roommate who snored heavily . . . now I wake up at the slightest sound.)

The "line" journal is something I always carry when I read something. I jot down lines, words, sentences, sometimes paragraphs that strike me. This particular line journal has multi-colored pages and a few drawings and mementos from a trip to Spain and Morrocco a few years ago.

**ADDENDUM: Under the sippy cup is the children's book, Ollie, by Olivier Dunbar. And the book mark under Benjamin Percy's book is from Changing Hands Bookstore in Arizona (where a large portion of my library was created).

Please also note the wall. Before, that wall was a wood panelled one. I did the drywall job and I'm quite proud of the work.

So . . . what's on your bedside table?

AuthorOliver | Comment3 Comments |

Reader Comments (3)

Antonya Nelson's The Expendables. (Summer is my fiction time, too, and I'm reading my way through all of Nelson's books. Highly recommended.) Hardback, flower covered Eco-Room spiral notebook with drafts of poems inside. White legal pad for scribbling lines, ideas, and notes, usually in the middle of the night. Three coasters. An itty-bitty book light for reading or writing by if the four-year old has snuck into bed. (Parents with older children, don't do this.) Clock that AD has had since college.
July 22, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterStacey Lynn Brown
There is nothing on my nightstand at the moment except bubble wrap as it is in a box, in Idaho.
July 22, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterJory M. Mickelson
I, too, can't read poetry before bed, although my husband can. Right now I'm working on Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, which lives either on the nightstand or the floor next to the bed when it slides off my dozing chest. I've also got a small travel alarm clock, a gift from a former student which has held up for a good four years now, despite having been dropped on hard floors a bajillion times (I also use this clock in classrooms without their own clocks). There's also a pile of New Yorkers for when I'm between books. Also a small squirt bottle for when the cat gets rowdy at night--he likes to claw at the mirror. And a bedside lamp from CB2 that can be turned on/off by touching its base--very handy for folks who prefer to fall asleep reading.
July 23, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterNicky Beer

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