LisaLaTourette

buy the book!

welcome to everyone who cares about poetry!

(don't forget to check out the Links!)

NEWS: a forthcoming chapbook from TAINTED COFFEE PRESS! Brian Fugett, amazingly committed editor of Zygote in my Coffee is releasing a series of "Flipbook Chaps" called the "Zygote 69 Series". my chap, tentatively titled "the art of being a quitter", is being paired with writer/poet John Dorsey's new chapbook. John is an amazing poet, and if you don't believe me or haven't been exposed to his work yet, check him out here:

http://www.laurahird.com/showcase/johndorsey.html

http://www.undergroundvoices.com/UVDorsey.htm

http://www.the-hold.com/dorsey.html

and to buy his collection with S.A. Griffin and Scott Wannberg, "Harvey Keitel, Harvey Keitel, Harvey Keitel", please visit:

http://home.mindspring.com/~sunnyriviera/NewWordOrderOnTheRoad.html

Brian Fugett is not only a really great editor and cool guy, but he's a great poet as well. check out an interview with the good man and some samples of his work here:

http://www.laurahird.com/newreview/brianfugettinterview.html

and of course HERE:

http://www.zygoteinmycoffee.com/

Zygote in my Coffee Print Issue #3 for Spring, 2007 is currently available

featuring my poem 'another work day'.

the October issue of Underground Voices is online! Check out my story: 'Saga from a Third Ave. Walk-Up' here: http://undergroundvoices.com/UVLaTouretteLisa.htm

C. Allen Rearick's issue of remark features my poem 'the art of being a quitter'...for more information, please visit http://www.remarkpoetry.net/

following is the review from The Midwest Book Review of my 2005 collection, "Down These Narrow Alleys: Poems & Stories"

"Down These Narrow Alleys: Poems & Stories"

The Midwest Book Review

(review by Ben Jonjak)

Lisa LaTourette is a very talented author. Her stories are real and natural and there is never the sense of too much straining behind her words. "Down These Narrow Alleys" is a relatively short collection of stories and poems that deal mainly with the melancholy desperation that surrounds so many true-life situations. This is one of those rare books that you read and which pleases you because you see a part of yourself reflected that you didn't think anybody else could possibly understand. I only wish that it had been entirely short stories, but I've never been a huge fan of poetry anyway. "Down These Narrow Alleys" has stories which deal with everthing from drug abuse and obesity, to marital infedelity and community service. Although these are intense situations, this book does not exploit these moments, but rather explores them in a manner completely (and thankfully) different from how hollywood and television has groomed modern audiences to consider them. LaTourette has taken the human angle and approach to these scenarios, and the result is carefully considered and revealing. Consider the story "Black Sheep" which details a young woman's first experience with heroin. It would have been easy to glamorize the heroine in the sense of some MTV video, or to villify her and dismiss her as a junkie. But LaTourette approaches this hugely emotionaly charged moment not as an end, but as a snapshot of this woman's life. We learn that the girl has recently dropped out of college, and that she has always had disciplinary problems in the past. But you also get the sense that this woman is intelligent and artistic and may have just had the misfortune of being born into a scenario that does not fit her. At the end of "Black Sheep" nothing is resolved and you understand that a person should not necessarily be judged on the strength of one act as our society often unfairly does. Some of the stories end on a whimper rather than a bang, but Lisa LaTourette definately demonstrates that she knows what good narrative structure is. Her writing is light and not unnecessarily descriptive. As I mentioned before, I was not a huge fan of the poetry, but "Down These Narrow Alleys" has 6 short stories that I am sure compose more than half of the book's total word count. This is a collection that I couldn't more highly recommend. The End

i will be updating the "new stuff" pages on a regular basis, but if i start to

get lazy, just tell me in your email. i may need some prodding to pay proper

attention to these kinds of things.

any and all ideas are welcome.

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