Join Tim Conroy early for pre-launch purchases
Tuesday at 5 pm at Immaculate Consumption
Festivities start at 6 pm
Chapin-based boutique publishing company, Muddy Ford Press, announces a new series of books, The Laureate Series, with the publication of Theologies of Terrain by Tim Conroy, edited by Columbia poet laureate, Ed Madden. There will be a launch party for the book on Tuesday, October 10th at 6 pm at Immaculate Consumption at 933 Main Street in Columbia, behind the SC State House, at which Conroy will read from the publication. The event is free and open to the public.
“The purpose of The Laureate Series is to celebrate the tradition of poetry that is born to South Carolinians and to promote and honor the relationship between mentor and protégé, advocate and postulant, poet and poet,” says publisher Dr. Robert Jolley. Poets laureate in South Carolina are invited to work independently with a poet of their choice who has not yet had a book of poetry published. Muddy Ford Press will publish the new author’s book and provide her or him with a number of copies of the book, as well as arrange for readings and promotion of the book.
Muddy Ford Press approached Madden, who is the publishing house’s poetry editor, about the new series earlier this year and he agreed to work with Conroy on this publication. The poets worked most of the year on Theologies of Terrain. “Working with Tim on this project was a joy,” Madden says. “His poems were lovely already, but it was such a pleasure to take this journey with him, thinking about how the poems might work together as a book. This is a beautiful collection, and these are poems we need -- the perfect inaugural book for the laureate series.”
Praise for Theologies of Terrain has been abundant.
“’In this dwelling of scars/the history of dirt is blood,’ Tim Conroy tells us in this excellent debut. There is sadness in these poems, vivid renderings of childhood abuse and of lives that ended too soon, but the beauty of the natural world is also acknowledged, as is the realization that memory offers consolation as well as sorrow, all of which leads to the poet’s hard-earned affirmation that ‘love has saved me.’ Bravo!” – Ron Rash – author of Serena, The World Made Street, The Risen, Saints at the River and more
“‘In the journey you inventory/all it is you carry,’ writes Tim Conroy early on in Theologies of Terrain. These fine poems map a complex and beautiful journey through loss, love, and, finally, revelation. They chart masterfully the complex hills and valleys of grief and memory. They probe at the edges of the mystery of family, maybe the landscape most full of hard, sometimes impassible terrain. There are many beautiful poems here, and we are lucky to have such a collection to map our own journeys.” – John Lane – author of Fate Moreland’s Widow, My Paddle to the Sea, and more
“There are so many lovely things in this book. There are poems that break me and poems that resonate long after I’ve turned the page. I am delighted to help bring this beautiful book into the world.” – Ed Madden – author of Signals, Ark, Prodigal: Variations, and more
Conroy is a former special education teacher, school administrator, and vice president of the South Carolina Autism Society. His poetry and short fiction have been published in literary journals, magazines, and compilations, including Fall Lines, Auntie Bellum, and Marked by the Water. A founding board member of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, established in his brother’s honor, Conroy lives and writes in Columbia, South Carolina. “Ed is a poet of incredible instinct, knowledge, skill, generosity and vision,” Conroy says. “He gives the poet the gift of immersion into their work. I was fortunate beyond belief to have him as my mentor and editor.”
Tim Conroy, author of Theologies of Terrain
Full disclosure: Muddy Ford Press was the underwriter for Jasper Magazine during the first five years of publication. Editor Cindi Boiter also serves as associate publisher for Muddy Ford Press.