Jacob Hollifield Evening Post Books 90 Alexander St.
Charleston, SC 29403 jhollifield@eveningpostbooks.com
EMBARGOED UNTIL: 3 AUGUST 2024
Former SC Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth to release “One River, One Boat” with Evening Post Books August 12, 2024
The collection of poems and stories covers critical times in South Carolina’s history as well as milestones in Wentworth’s own life.
CHARLESTON, SC — July 3, 2024 — After being cut from Governor Nikki Haley’s inauguration in 2015, former South Carolina poet laureate Marjory Wentworth’s poem “One River, One Boat” serves as the titular piece for a collection of writings to be released by Evening Post Books on August 12, 2024. The book is available for preorders August 3.
This collection of occasional poems and essays includes those written about heartbreaking and joyous times in South Carolina’s history and Wentworth’s own life including the deaths of relatives, gubernatorial inaugurations, the Mother Emmanuel AME massacre, Hurricane Hugo, and more.
Congressman James Clyburn read Wentworth’s poem “One River, One Boat” into the Congressional record in 2015 after it was slashed from Haley’s inauguration, saying he “hope[s] the people of South Carolina, across the country, and peoples around the world are as touched by her words as I have been.”
The release of the book will be celebrated by a reading and book signing reception on September 12, 2024 at 6:00 in the evening at Circular Congregational Church, located at 150 Meeting St, Charleston, SC. The event is open to the public.
Marjory Wentworth is the New York Times bestselling co-author of Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets, and the author of the prizewinning children’s story Shackles. Celebrated for her significant contributions to literature and social justice, she served as the poet laureate of South Carolina from 2003–2020. During her tenure as poet laureate, she published 4 collections of poems and received seven Pushcart Prize nominations. She is also the co-writer with Juan Mendez of
Taking a Stand: The Evolution of Human Rights and We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel, with Herb Frazier and Dr. Bernard Powers, and co-editor with Kwame Dawes of Seeking: Poetry and Prose inspired by the Art of Jonathan Green.
After receiving a Bachelor of Arts from Mount Holyoke College and a Master of Art in Writing from New York University, she moved to South Carolina in 1989, where she taught courses in writing, social justice, and banned books at The College of Charleston. For further information about the author visit her website, marjorywentworth.com.
“One River, One Boat” will be available for purchase from customers online at eveningpostbooks.com, or, for bookstores, by order with assistant editor Alex Lanning (alanning@eveningpostbooks.com). Pre-sale is available through Buxton Books HERE starting August 3, 2024.Retail price is $19.95 plus SC sales tax and shipping charges. Marjory Wentworth is available for interviews and events. Contact Managing Editor Jacob Hollifield at jhollifield@eveningpostbooks.com for additional details. Digital review copies and high-res images are available upon request. Please find media assets, including high resolution cover images and a headshot of Marjory, HERE.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR ONE RIVER, ONE BOAT—
“I applaud Ms. Wentworth for her touching words and hope the people of South Carolina, across the country, and peoples around the world are as touched by her words as I have been.”
- CONGRESSMAN JAMES E. CLYBURN, 6th District of South Carolina, Congressional Record, January 14, 2015
“The scents, sounds and sights of Lowcountry South Carolina leap off the page as Wentworth tackles the “fault lines of our own making”—slavery, racial violence, political shenanigans—and examines our responses to natural disasters—earthquake, hurricanes, and the COVID pandemic. The poems and memoirs collected here jointly serve as a concise autobiography and history, all couched in Wentworth’s crystalline, accessible language.
- SIMON LEWIS, Editor, Illuminations, An International Magazine of Contemporary Writing
“Water flowing, wings in light, light illuminating the darkness. Marjory Wentworth is a poet of place, but her expansive imagination is ever asking us to think beyond the place and time—at times the darkness—in which we find ourselves. Wentworth describes Charleston as “a shrine to the past,” and over and over she captures how time and history get confused in a city like Charleston and a state like South Carolina, so bound to the past…History here may be distorted, but it may also be reimagined, restored. I linger over the poem Wentworth wrote in 2011 for students graduating from the Art Institute of Charleston…“Take time to hover at the still / mouth of this ancient harbor / then rise into the air, which holds // a place for you.” Rise into the air. This is a book of light and transformation, of stillness and light. Yes, there is a place for you here.”
- ED MADDEN, Author, A Pooka in Arkansas and A Story of the City; Poet Laureate, City of Columbia, SC (2015-2022)
“A poet is a historian. If they are tuned in to the community around them, their words can be important documents of an era. South Carolina is a complicated and beautiful place. If you want to know the nuance of the Palmetto State, read Marjory’s poems.”
- MARCUS AMAKER, Inaugural Poet Laureate of Charleston; Inductee, SC Literary Hall of Fame
Consumer Publications, LLC dba Evening Post Books began publishing titles in 2008 by SC authors with subject matter dedicated to the Lowcountry, and now publishes a range of titles and genres about the greater American South. Additional information may be found at eveningpostbooks.com.
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