One of the great pleasures of becoming acquainted with others in the writing field is hearing and celebrating their good news. Many of the Willows Bistro gang were on hand for the SRO reading by author/poet Paul Pines. Paul shared some wonderful news with me last week, and I want to share it with you here. His book "Last Call at the Tin Palace" was selected by Bob Holman as one of the "Best Books of 2009." See below (and linked below) some of the kudos for Paul's book. Find the book in Glens Falls at Red Fox. It may also be ordered on Amazon. To read more about Paul, see his bio below the press release here.

Poetry Picks — The Best Books of 2009
Selected by Bob Holman
By Bob Holman & Margery Snyder, About.com Guide

In the Spotlight

More of the Best Books of 2009

The 2009 poetry harvest was bountiful, and Poetry Guide Bob Holman is still sifting through his shelves to present the best of the year for your library. This week we've added notes on books by Ed Sanders, Craig Arnold, Breyten Breytenbach, Mahmoud Darwish, Rodrigo Toscano, Wednesday Kennedy, Elena Georgiou, Gil Fagiani, Robert Polito, Norma Cole, Paul Pines, Ed McClanahan, Edwin Torres, and the Belladonna Elders Series--and there are still more to come next week. Our list is the best place to find the new poetry book that suits your fancy!

"Last Call at the Tin Palace," by Paul Pines

(Marsh Hawk Press, 2009) Back in the day, 1970 say, Paul Pines, bartender/poet, decided that the thing to do was open a jazz/poetry club, genius, and for the next 18 years or so the Tin Palace was a beacon on the Bowery. If you were there, you knew. And if you weren’t, well, you can feel it in Last Call at the Tin Palace, poems that are stories that are jazz that are memories that are everlasting imprints of music on retinas and the truth from the other side of the bar. Some crazy surrealist collages and all—a gift.
http://www.marshhawkpress.org/Pines.html - Marsh Hawk Website

LAST CALL AT THE TIN PALACE—BRIAN GILMORE, JAZZ TIMES
http://jazztimes.com/articles/25393-last-call-at-the-tin-palace-paul-pines

About Paul Pines
Paul Pines grew up in Brooklyn around the corner from Ebbet’s Field and passed the early sixties on the Lower East Side of New York. He shipped out as a merchant seaman, spending 1965-66 in Vietnam, after which he drove a taxi and tended bar until he opened The Tin Palace in 1970, the setting for his novel, The Tin Angel (Wm Morrow, 1983). Redemption (Editions du Rocher, 1997), a second novel, is set against the genocide of Guatemalan Mayans. My Brother’s Madness (Curbstone, 2007) a memoir, has recently enjoyed wide critical acclaim. Pines has also published seven volumes of poetry: Onion, Hotel Madden Poems, Pines Songs, Breath, Adrift on Blinding Light, Taxidancing and Last call at the Tin Palace—selections set by composer Daniel Asia appear on the Summit label and in his 5th Symphony commissioned by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. He lives in Glens Falls, New York, where he practices as a psychotherapist and hosts the Lake George Jazz Weekend. High praise for Pines’s work include: The Tin Angel, “Superb” (The Washington Post); My Brother’s Madness, “great writing, no doubt about it” (NPR com