On June 2, KITTY BEER read from What Love Can't Do, recently published by Plain View Press, at Porter Square Books in Somerville, Massachusetts. A longtime environmental journalist, Beer brings a depth and breadth of knowledge to her book about love and family in the wake of global warming. She praised Facets, where she found a place for three chapters of her novel while she was writing it, for its commitment to "subversive excellence."

Frequent contributor MARION COHEN has a new Web site: http://marioncohen.com, which contains three books for which she is seeking publishers: CRUEL AND UNUSUAL, her new well spouse prose book; PROGRESSIVE, her last well-spouse book, and OAKTAG AND EYEBALLS: THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN, EDUCATION, AND SOCIETY, which grew out her experience of eight years of home-schooling. Her book of highly original math poems, CROSSING THE EQUAL SIGN, is forthcoming from Plain View Press.

On April 27, 2006, New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, hosted a symposium entitled "The Place of the Artist in the World." MAURA GREENE, whose short story, "Silvio and Alfredo," was nominated by Facets for the Pushcart Prize in 2005, was one of four artists representing visual arts, music, and literature. The symposium was an opportunity to reflect on some of the larger questions of the artist in society and how the arts nourish our humanity.
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DOUG HOLDER's poetry collection, Wrestling With My Father, was released in the Fall of 2005 by the Yellow Pepper Press of Pittsburg and reviewed in Pen Himalaya. He is also one of thirteen poets featured in the review of avant garde writers, Inside the Outside, recently released by Presa Press.

Archway in Gruyeres, Switzerland  Photograph by Rinat Harel

ZYSKANDAR JAIMOT's long poem, Life of Michelangelo, orginally published in Facets under a different title in October 2002, has been published as a book. It is available directly from Bull Thistle Press, P. O. Box 184, Jamaica, Vermont 05343. He also has a book of poems out, Take Me Home to Pringus by Multicultural Books. 307 Birchwood Court, 6311 Gilbert Rd., Richmond, British Columbia, Canada V7C 3V7 (jrmbooks@hotmail.com, (604) 277-3864).

JESSY RANDALL ("Phone Words," October 2003) has a chapbook out from Unicorn Press, Slumber Party at the Aquarium. Read more about her and the book at
http://personalwebs.coloradocollege.edu/~jrandall/.

LYNN STRONGIN's anthology, The Sorrow Psalms: A Book of Twentieth Century Elegy, was published by the University of Iowa Press in June 2006. A descriptive flyer including information about ordering this book can be downloaded here.