Dust Bowl Venus, pandemic book baby
My second poetry collection, Dust Bowl Venus, was published on May 2, 2021. Any small-press author with a pub date in the year of our Lord two-thousand-twenty-pandemic knows the struggle: no one is doing in-person events, yet in-person readings are the best venues for small-press author sales.
Somehow, though—my theory is that my friends and community is super-sweet and supportive—DBV managed to land in Small Press Distribution’s Top 20 Poetry Bestsellers in both May and June. Pretty sure it’s not going to happen for July, since the needle hasn’t moved much for SPD sales during the month of July, but that is a-okay. I admit that the small part of me that is competitive would love to have a nice run of Top 20 appearances, but as my darling smart guy says, just be thankful I even made it there at all. And then I feel like a completely shallow fame-seeker. JUST FOR WANTING MORE.
Dust Bowl Venus, from a few places:
(If you are local to Stanislaus County, it will soon be available to purchase from the Great Valley Museum at MJC and the Mistlin Gallery in downtown Modesto).
It’s been described in ways that make me feel good (and also make me wonder whose poetry they’re talking about because imposter syndrome):
“…captures the spirit of the industrious, beautiful Central Valley…”
“…embraces, at times with great resignation, the bones of people and places and things. The Great Central Valley captured by Beratlis is a landscape of wonder where we practically bathe in the tenderness of its dust…”
And these blurbs from sweet, kind, generous poets whose work I love:
“The poems in Stella Beratlis’s Dust Bowl Venus ring with the clarity of a shovel strike against stone, each line cracking against the next, igniting spark after glorious spark.” —Erin Rodoni, author of Body, in Good Light and A Landscape for Loss
“Rooted not just in the city of Modesto but also in the music, legends, and community of the Central Valley, these poems brilliantly reflect a struggle to find beauty in the contradictions of our contemporary lives.” —July Halebsky, author of Sky=Empty, Tree Line, and Spring and a Thousand Years (Unabridged)
“Stella Beratlis’s Dust Bowl Venus animates California’s Central Valley as a postmodern Prometheus, an eco-sapient Frankenstein with whom we wrangle, wrestle, and fall madly in love.” —Rosa Lane, author of Chouteau’s Chalk and Tiller North
The cover art was painted by Merced-based artist, Jim Damron (IG @jimdamronstudio), a cool, sweet guy & self-taught artist who treats Central Valley landscapes and subjects in his work. He went to high school with me and my sister Dena, so this is some delightful full-circle shit that makes me super happy and adds an extra layer of tender history to this book.
The book designer for this project was Frank M. Young, a multitalented writer, editor, artist, designer, colorist, and artist. He coauthored the Eisner-winning graphic novel, Oregon Trail and The Carter Family (book plus CD). A friend recommended Frank to me for my book project because the book uses the figure of the Modesto-based country-gospel songwriter, Hazel Houser, to frame the poems—and Frank is SUPER into traditional music and would be perfect for this particular collection. And my friend was right.
