The Family Bible By Bill Henderson, Black Mountain Press (With) Cover Image
$23.00
Out of Stock Indefinitely

Description


A heart- felt, plain- spoken distillation in poetry of Henderson’s lifelong struggle to maintain his faith.


The Family Bible is Henderson’s first collection of poetry and a rare statement of this pilgrim’s journey.  His 67 poems are both personal and universal.  They are funny, bitter, eloquent, tortured, touching, wise, blasphemous, and reverent.  From Genesis to Revelation, this is the Bible that we all recognize and debate and love.

About the Author


Bill Henderson is the founder and editor of the Pushcart Prize. He received the 2006 National Book Critic Circle’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Poets & Writers / Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award. He is also the author of several memoirs, including All My Dogs: A Life. The founder of the Lead Pencil Club, Henderson lives on Long Island and In Maine where he runs the Pushcart bookstore – “the world’s smallest bookstore.”

Established in 1994, the Black Mountain Press is dedicated to promoting work of emerging authors of literary poetry, novels and short stories. As cinema, art and story telling has plummeted in literary quality to appeal to the lowest common denominator in recent years, the Black Mountain Press strives to find and publish works that aspire to a higher ideal, many times written by unknown, first time authors, without agents representing them.

Praise For…


All I have is praise — praise for the life, the
good, rich, full life, in beautiful words.  For the sacred and the doubt
that go hand in hand, for the love, the joy, the pain transcended, for the
amazement, the sense of wonder…It’s wonderful
— Grace Schulman, author, & winner of The Frost Medal for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in American poetry

I am not much of a poetry reader these days because so much of what is published seems to me self-congratulatory and obscure all at once, as if written in some sort of private language, without shape or music. To the many readers who feel as I do, Bill Henderson's "The Family Bible" will come as a shock and a surprise. These poems, often no more than a dozen lines, never more than a couple of sparsely filled pages, carry a distinct punch, and are always crystal clear. They are funny, moving, occasionally bitter or blasphemous, but always intensely alive and communicative. Bill is a man of faith who sometimes struggles with it, but whose feelings for family, friends, even the human race, are transparent. I read the book straight through, almost unheard of in a poetry reader, and I think a lot  of people will want to do the same: it's that refreshing.

— John Baker, former editor-in-chief of Publisher’s Weekly

A rare statement of faith: bracing, astringent, cleansing and genuine…The Family Bible should be a companion volume to Bible classes all over the country, right next to Paine’s Age of Reason.

— Rev Rob McCall, Blue Hill ,Maine Congregational Church

Wielding irony with dexterity,  Henderson cuts through the claptrap, threats, and barbarity to uncover the quiet, compassionate God who got left behind.  This is a brave, illuminating, and highly engaging book.
— Joan Murray, author of Dancing on The Edge and other poetry collections


Product Details
ISBN: 9780960097777
ISBN-10: 0960097775
Publisher: Pushcart Press
Publication Date: December 7th, 2021
Pages: 87
Language: English