Eavesdropping is a book of well-crafted, quiet haiku that honor all the seasons. Written by a virtuoso of haiku, senryu and tanka, these poems are sure to not only delight but teach beginners and... More > well-seasoned poets how jewel-like and celebratory haiku can be. This book by Alexis Rotella is a must-have for all poets and spiritual seekers. Kazuo Sato has called Rotella one of the best haiku poets in America today.< Less
OUCH: Senryu That Bite - Alexis Rotella has been writing haiku, senryu and tanka since her late 20’s. She is one of the most accomplished American writers and is able to write seemingly... More > effortlessly in all three genres. She discovered haiku while working on an undergraduate thesis on zen at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Rotella is probably most well known for her senryu or psychological (serious) haiku. Her book LOOKING FOR A PRINCE (1991) took the haiku world by storm. Cor van den Heuvel calls Rotella “the witty, tender, funny, sad, sometimes MERCILESS younger sister of haiku . . . the . . . often-times absurd creature somersaulting through the universe somewhere between the angels and Donald Duck!” When asked where she gets her talent for senryu, she remarks, “From my father. He was a born psychologist who didn’t mince words. He saw right through people. No one could pretend around him.”< Less
OUCH: Senryu That Bite - Alexis Rotella has been writing haiku, senryu and tanka since her late 20’s. She is one of the most accomplished American writers and is able to write seemingly... More > effortlessly in all three genres. She discovered haiku while working on an undergraduate thesis on zen at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Rotella is probably most well known for her senryu or psychological (serious) haiku. Her book LOOKING FOR A PRINCE (1991) took the haiku world by storm. Cor van den Heuvel calls Rotella “the witty, tender, funny, sad, sometimes MERCILESS younger sister of haiku . . . the . . . often-times absurd creature somersaulting through the universe somewhere between the angels and Donald Duck!” When asked where she gets her talent for senryu, she remarks, “From my father. He was a born psychologist who didn’t mince words. He saw right through people. No one could pretend around him.”< Less
Selected for the "Best Books for Summer Reading, 2008" by The Montserrat Review.
Looking for a meaty book of tanka that will feed your soul? LIP PRINTS is it. Poet-scholar Michael... More > McClintock writes: “Sophisticated and witty, classical and contemporary, Lip Prints is a subtle and scintillating collection. ... Alexis Rotella is a poet of resilient and unblinking intelligence.” These poems will take your breath away and inspire you to write some of your own.< Less
Selected for the "Best Books for Summer Reading, 2008" by The Montserrat Review.
Looking for a meaty book of tanka that will feed your soul? LIP PRINTS is it. Poet-scholar Michael... More > McClintock writes: “Sophisticated and witty, classical and contemporary, Lip Prints is a subtle and scintillating collection. ... Alexis Rotella is a poet of resilient and unblinking intelligence.” These poems will take your breath away and inspire you to write some of your own.< Less
In Black Jack Judy and the Crisco Kids, Alexis Rotella writes her husband's autobiography as if she had lived it herself. Replete with moments both magical and tragic, she provides a portrait of... More > Italian American life at a time when there were still small farms in New York City, Italians were discriminated against, mothers plotted marriage, and all manner of relatives, friends, neighbors, and coworkers might appear at the dinner table. Each moment is rendered in tanka or kyoka, and occasionally prose or senryu. A piece of broken mirror the shape of Sicily, the curls from a little boy's haircut, a Christmas pizza with a star made of anchovies, and many other details paint a vivid picture of life long ago in a fairy tale country called the Bronx. —M. Kei, editor of Atlas Poetica: A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka< Less
“With just a few words, Alexis Rotella catches life’s revealing moments with an insight and depth that the movies—if they were able—would take millions of dollars and the... More > talents of hundreds to capture. Some of her poems throw off stars like a wand in a Disney cartoon, drawing pictures of the Cinderellas of this world as they try to balance their romantic dreams with reality. Others lay bare, as in a Capra comedy, the foibles of all kinds of people, .... She can create darker moods, too, reaching out a hand to open the curtain on psychological dramas of silence and repression like those found in Bergman. Or she may direct a love scene with such a bittersweet mixture of emotion and humor it rivals one of Chaplin’s. She opens our eyes to nature, too, with the kind of love of rain and sunlight that stains with beauty the films of a Kurosawa. You may even find a few Hitchcockian mysteries!” — Cor van den Heuvel, Editor, The Haiku Anthology (Simon and Schuster)< Less
“Alexis Rotella, with an expected mastery of insight and craft, opens a window into a young girl’s heart in these 28 kinetic portraits of revisited longing, desire and dream inspired by... More > the Pied Piper of an era gone, yet permanently etched on the American mind-scape. Skeptical of celebrity inspired literature, all I can say is: I read it. I loved it. Elvis in Black Leather—nothing like it before in tanka. You’ll be surprised. Trust me.” —Larry Kimmel, Editor of Winfred Press
“In these poetic encounters Alexis Rotella brings legend and reason together, showing us the emotional logic from which ‘gods’ are made. These poems are not elegies. They are deliciously alive.” —Grace Cavalieri, Producer/host “The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress”
“This is the most enjoyable collection of tanka I’ve read in a long time. . . . Alexis Rotella is pushing the boundaries of the genre . . . ” —Charles Christian, editor Ink, Sweat & Tears< Less
