I
AM PLEASED TO WELCOME AUTHOR
Ken
Koprowski
TITLE: Fathers
(Collected Poems 1973-2015)
RELEASE DATE:
July 30, 2016
AUTHOR: Ken
Koprowski
KEYWORDS:
fathers, fatherhood, poetry, parenthood, wilderness, war, death and survival,
love, triumph
CATEGORIES:
Poetry/Family
PAGE COUNT: 66
ISBN:
978-0692734827
IMPRINT: Veritas
AUTHOR BIO:
Ken Koprowski is a
poet, writer, communications consultant, and educator. His collection of
poetry, Fathers – Collected Poems 1973-2015, is being published by Ravenswood
Publishing in the spring of 2016. In addition to being a prolific writer, he is
an award-winning creative director and producer, and photographer. He earned
his M.A. in Creative Writing with a specialization in poetry and completed his
doctoral coursework at Syracuse University before pursuing a career in public
relations. He is working on a second book of poetry and a collection of short
stories entitled Draft Dodgers.
He currently
teaches advanced public relations writing and a range of public relations
subjects in the Master’s programs at New York University, Iona College and
Manhattanville College. In addition, he teaches crisis communication and
reputation management – courses he designed -- in the MBA program and business
communications at UConn Stamford.
Ken has extensive
advertising, marketing and communication management experience. He served as
corporate spokesperson in diverse, complex and difficult situations. Ken has
written speeches for many well-known corporate leaders, annual and CSR reports,
OPEDs, communications plans, ads, video and audio scripts, websites, blogs, and
more. He recently edited, and wrote the introduction and chapter on using
digital and social media in crisis communications for a popular crisis
communications handbook.
Ken grew up in the
Midwest – in Chicago and central and northern Wisconsin. For the past 40 years,
he’s lived and worked in New York, southwestern Connecticut and southern Vermont.
He and his wife of 35 years have three sons and a daughter, and they in turn
have nine children of their own.
BANTER
– STUFF ABOUT YOU
Q: How would you
describe yourself as a color? Think personality here. Are you a light and airy
pastel person, or more of a deep, dark, sultry and mysterious color?
A: Green for most of
the year, then amber and grey-white when the snow comes. My eyes reflect this
-- they are blue-green-gray hazel. And as we know, they are the window to the
soul.
Q: Are you a morning
person, or a midnight candle burner?
A: Midnight for most
of my life, but as I age, I’m starting the day and ending it sooner. I’m
drinking less coffee, too.
Q: Tell me one thing
about each of the four seasons you like. It can be anything.
A: Winter = I love the outdoors and walking
in the snow is both invigorating and soothing.
Spring = The mystery of life repeats itself, earlier and
earlier each year. There are buds forming on the lilacs in mid-January and
forsythia is budding, too.
Summer = As above, green and the
scents of summer. (And, golf.)
Fall = The world winding down,
preparing for a long rest.
Q: Tell me something
you would like your readers (fans) to know about you.
A: I’ve trained as a photographer and worked as a photojournalist. This training helps me to see the world in a way that inspires my writing. Recall Christopher Isherwood’s words: “I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking. Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed.” ― Christopher Isherwood, Goodbye to Berlin
Q: If you could morph
into any creature what would it be?
A: Black standard poodle.
If you don’t mind me
asking, why?
A: Few creatures have
it as good as my black standard poodle, Hudson. Very few creatures have as good
a life as a dog that lives with a doting human. Of course, he’s a fabulous
friend and companion.
BOOKS
– ABOUT THE CRAFT
Q: When did you start
writing and why?
A: I recall my first
poem was a limerick about a boy name Farrell who went over Niagara in a barrel,
typewritten in a paper circle and posted on my fourth-grade bulletin board.
Q: Where do you get
your ideas?
A: From the cloth of
life and the electricity that it sparks in my mind.
Q: How did you come
to write your genre of choice?
A: Reading, which is
a great way to improve your craft and through the encouragement of other
writers and teachers. There is a performance aspect to poetry -- readings are
great fun -- and when you hear poetry read, you better appreciate the rhythms
created by the way the words appear on the page. One of my writing professors,
Philip Booth, explained punctuation as “the pauses between breaths as we read
aloud.” He is correct.
Q: What do you think
is the hardest part of writing a book?
A: Having enough time
or possibly the disciple to use the time I have productively.
Q: Which element of
book writing is most difficult for you?
A: Publishing.
Q: Have your
characters ever taken the story in a different direction than you had
originally planned? Do you have a for instance, for us?
A: A bit. But never a
complete surprise. The greatest surprises come with research, like learning
about the atrocities by the Germans in the Argonne during WW I. For example,
they would bomb an area that they expected the American to enter in a few days
with mustard gas knowing that it would remain dormant in the soil and when the
U.S. infantrymen arrived they would activate the gas without warning using
heavy explosive shells. This “technique” killed more than 500 daily, because the
men were tricked into not wearing their gas masks.
Q: What geographical
locations are your favorite and why?
A: Southern Vermont
and most of Italy.
BOOKS
- NOW LETS PROMOTE – STRUT YOUR STUFF
Q: What are you
working on now? Would you like to share anything about it?
A: My current
collection of poems, “Postcards to the living,” is about the messages the
departed “send” us when our memories are triggered by something in the
landscape or news or intersecting thoughts or even a calendar date or holiday.
It begins with a “message” from my late friend and golf partner -- he missed
our scheduled game because of an unexpected pulmonary embolism in Prague. I
played the round with my memories of him. The departed have ways of reminding
us of how we miss them and why. I’m also shaping a book - probably a series of
interrelated short stories about the Vietnam War era and its impact on
families.
Q: How can we find
you? Do you have a web page, Facebook page or any buy links?
A: Yes, I do. Here are the links.
AUTHOR LINKS:
http://www.koprowskicomm.com http://twitter.com/KenKoprowski
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kenkoprowski
Buy Links:
AMAZON US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HFMXHKA
AMAZON UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HFMXHKA
AMAZON CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01HFMXHKA
CREATESPACE: https://www.createspace.com/6328971
ONE LINER:
Fathers
is an inspiring, highly emotive collection of poems exploring fatherhood – its
mysteries, triumphs, magic, humor, pain, and loss. In it the poet illustrates that being a Dad
is perhaps the most rewarding aspect of living, and at times, one of the most
frustrating -- engaging all that is human in the reader.
SYNOPSIS:
Fathers
is an inspiring and highly emotive collection of poems spanning 40 years.
Fatherhood is the inspiration for much of this book – its mysteries, triumphs,
magic, humor, pain, and loss. In it the
poet – an acute observer and lyrical writer – explores fatherhood from the
perspective of a grandson, son, father, husband, and grandfather. His poems
illustrate that being a dad is perhaps the most rewarding aspect of living, and
at times, one of the most frustrating. The pages of this remarkable volume will
engage all that is human in the reader.
Excerpt/Sample
southern vermont symphony
throughout the night freezing rain
coats the mountainsides
every twig pine bough trunk rock ledge road
coated
by dawn, each weighed down with
crystalline coat
a tinkling concert begins
first ever so
softly
and as the sun rises
behind the clouds
andante patter with crescendos
as boughs spring free in rebellion
or self-preservation, sudden
crashes cymbals
in a wild arrangement now
vivace
rush of ice falling until
the middle March symphony suddenly ends
leaving a silvery carpet sparkling and
crackling underfoot
illuminating my walk
Copyright ã2016-2017 Kenneth M. Koprowski. All rights reserved.
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