The variety of poems and subject matter in The Views from Mount Hunger is as broad as the view from the top of poet Marjorie Ryerson’s favorite Vermont mountain. The summit of that mountain allows hikers to witness breathtaking views in all directions. Similarly, these poems look in a broad array of directions, with subject matter that covers topics ranging from the natural world to climate change, from reflections on the past to healing, hope, and humor about the present. Ryerson’s lyrical and articulate words ebb and flow musically, speaking for and reflecting the lives of many of us.
Advance Praise for The Views of Mount Hunger
“Marjorie Ryerson observes the natural world with bold scrutiny in The Views From Mount Hunger . . . As an unabashed witness to mortal consciousness, she reminds her readers with a manifold array of literal and figurative examples that “this present moment is all that we have.” —Chard deNiord, Poet Laureate of Vermont from 2015 to 2019, and the author of seven books of poetry
“The Views from Mount Hunger is a delight. Ryerson has a profound, intuitive understanding of the natural world . . . Music and musicians appear throughout: including several tributes to Mahler that evoke barn swallows, tides, winds, mist, and light. . . . It is a collection no thoughtful reader should miss.” —Reeve Lindbergh, author of Under a Wing; a Memoir and No More Words: A Journal of My Mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh
“Marjorie Ryerson is a thoughtful poet who finds beauty in nature and meaning in ordinary observations of daily life. The reader can find pleasure in opening up this rich collection of her work.” —Madeleine Kunin, former Vermont three-term governor and author of Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties and Red Kite, Blue Sky: Poems
Reviews and Interviews with the Poet
“The Views from Mount Hunger was published earlier this winter by Green Writers Press. The first printing sold out in 48 hours. The collection, which spans topics of the natural world and a lot of self-reflection, is made up of journeys not exclusive to Vermont. Ryerson crosses muddy waters in the South, and other points far afield. But she also takes us inside music and other unexpected spots.”
—The Rutland Herald (link)
About the Poet
Marjorie Ryerson is an award-winning book author, writing professor, journalist, photographer, and poet. From 1991 until 2005, she served as a tenured full professor of writing and photography for Castleton State College in Vermont. While teaching there, she won the best new teacher award, and, ten years later, was awarded the Faculty Fellow award—naming her the best teacher in the entire Vermont State College system. For more than 20 years during that same time, Marjorie also taught poetry for Middlebury College at its summer New England Young Writers Conference. She has taught numerous other poetry classes since then, most recently for Dartmouth College for the fall 2021 semester, where all the poems class members wrote were about climate change issues. Marjorie has also served as a First Wednesdays’ lecturer for the Vermont Humanities Council, sharing with Vermonters across the state her experiences gained while writing her 2005 book Companions for the Passage: Stories of the Intimate Privilege of Accompanying the Dying. Marjorie’s 2003 art photography book Water Music won both national and international recognition and awards, and for many years after that book was published, Marjorie ran the Water Music Project (www.water-music.org) and donated 100% of what she earned in that project, along with all her Water Music book royalties, to the United Nations, where it was used to protect the health of water and the availability of safe drinking water around the world. Most recently, Marjorie served as a Vermont State Representative. She has a graduate degree in poetry from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. She lives in Randolph, VT.
About the Cover Artist & Book Designer
After moving to Vermont in 1963, Mary Azarian taught in a one-room school for four years before starting a woodcut print studio. In addition to printing and selling woodcut prints, she has illustrated over 50 books, including A Farmer’s Alphabet and Snowflake Bentley.
Mason Singer is an award-winning graphic designer and publications consultant. For more than three decades his Montpelier, Vermont studio, Laughing Bear Associates, has provided design and production services to nonprofit organizations, publishers, businesses, government, academia, and individuals throughout the northeast. Mason has taught elements of graphic design for a number of schools and workshops, been a member of the faculty at the Governor’s Institute on the Arts, and has frequently spoken to groups about developments in design and communication and their social impact.
SPECS
POETRY
Price: $15.95
Page Count: 100 pages
Format: Softcover
Trim Size: 6 x 9
ISBN: 979-8-9865324-9-3
Publication Date: February 14, 2023
Distributor: IPG / Chicago
Rights sold: All rights available.
Rights & Publicity contact: Dede Cummings
dede@greenwriterspress.com
Distributor: IPG; also available through Ingram, Follett/Baker & Taylor, and other wholesalers.
Individuals can pre-order directly from Bookshop.org, Indiebound.org, online, or contact your local, independent bookstore.
Booksellers, libraries, colleges/universities, gift shops, etc., can order directly through IPG:
Independent Publishers Group
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Chicago, IL 60610
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Via email: orders@ipgbook.com
For a media review copy—digital or print—email dede@greenwriterspress.com