Stubborn Pine in a Stiff Wind

“Fueled with superabundant vitality, a driving cadence and a trunkful of allusions, historical and literary, Earl Coleman guides us on a jeep tour of the rough terrain of more than half a century. We make stops in bedrooms, bars, churches, war zones and social arenas where ritual struggles are in progress. His pungent, often mordant wit spares no one, least of all himself. With a quick finger he points to areas of privation, pain and vulnerability which we attempt to skirt or camouflage. An exhilarating trip!” – Carolyn Stoloff, poet and artist

“What makes A Stubborn Pine in a Stiff Wind important, is an earned language. What impresses me in Coleman’s poetry is that through it he has given us himself – a tough, realistic, romantic, aware lover of the constant life around him. He breathes, the poems breathe, we breathe.” – Eric Blau, author of The Hero of the Slocum Disaster

About the poet: Born in New York City in 1916, Earl Coleman has spent his life with words, in the fields of publishing and creative writing. His fiction-writing career began with the publication of a story in Esquire in 1948. He co-founded and served as CEO/President of Plenum Publishing Corporation, which became a major sci-tech publisher. He also founded Da Capo Press, which developed into a major reprint house and publisher in the humanities. A selection of his stories and poetry appeared in New Writers (10) published by Calder and Boyars. After 40+ years in the publishing field, he returned to writing full-time. Over the past 10 years he has published over a dozen short stories and more than 300 poems in journals such as Green Hill Literary Lantern, Chattahoochee Review, Hellas, and Friends Journal. He also now teaches writing to gifted young writers.