Of Whiskey and Winter  (White Pine Press) is the first full-length prose poetry collection by Peter Conners. 

Click HERE to order the book at Amazon.com.

Click HERE for the official press release.

The Montserrat Review named Of Whiskey & Winter as a Best Book of Poetry for Fall Reading, 2007. Poems from the collection have appeared in numerous literary journals including Poetry International, Mississippi Review, Salt Hill, Sentence, Mid-American Review, Quick Fiction, and in the anthologies 100 Contemporary Prose Poems, Sudden Stories, and Introduction to the Prose Poem. One section of the book was published as the chapbook, The Names of Winter (FootHills Publishing, 2005).

In his Introduction to the collection, Peter Johnson writes, "Peter Conners' first prose poetry collection, Of Whiskey and Winter, joins the list of a few first books of prose poems (most notably Mary Koncel, David Shumate, and Lesle Lewis) that read like a selected or greatest hits."

Naomi Shihab Nye writes: "Peter Conners' stunning prose poems are packed with keen sensitivity, dreaminess and wit.I love his time travels, the vibrant layering of image and detail. Try taking walks as you are reading this book - the dazzle of landscapes, inner and outer, feel replenished and rich. This is language and  vision I want to come home to again and again." 

Peter is currently scheduling readings and talks in support of Of Whiskey and Winter.  To schedule a reading, contact Peter at phconners@hotmail.com

Of Whiskey and Winter is now available! 

ISBN: 978-1-893996-89-2. $15.00. 88 pages. 

REVIEWS

"Conners's language is gritty and visceral. Readers will feel cold seep through blown-open windows and smell spring earthworms churning debris. And yet, "The seasons hold us tight: the storms have betrayed our trust but they must be forgiven." Highly recommended for contemporary poetry collections." [Read complete review here]

--Karla Huston, for Library Journal  

"Having begun in winter, the book closes with autumn, the poems mirroring well the likely feelings of the reader: wiser, eyes more widely opened, aware simultaneously of great beauty and fragility. Peter Conners has offered a wonderful cycle and proof, for those of us who may need it, that prose poetry requires no more validation: It has arrived."

--Weston Cutter, from Mid-American Review

"In reading Peter Conners’ poetry collection, Of Whiskey and Winter, you come to understand the broad potential of the prose poem, both in subject and style. Thematically diverse, these poems cannot be pigeonholed – there are narratives and lyrics, letters and fabulist fables. Interwoven throughout the collection is an extraordinary sense of playfulness that exemplifies Conners’ ability to experiment and succeed in thwarting readers’ expectations of the prose poem genre." [Read complete review here]

--Bernadette Geyer, from The Montserrat Review

"Whether he is transforming ancient narratives into contemporary fictions or stripping away layers and layers of linguistic textures to reveal the naked truth of our aloneness, Conners's singular wisdom and deft musicality somehow make the process seem as effortless as breathing." [Read complete review here]

--Tony Leuzzi, from In Posse Review

"Of Whiskey & Winter is an excellent prose poem debut from someone who has clearly listened to the band before stepping up to the stage for his first solo."

--Steven Wingate, from Colorado Review

"Peter Conners' poems in Of Whiskey and Winter have a wonderful way of communicating strangeness, displacement, through precise yet unorthodox choice and placing of words within each poem.  His poems often have a remarkable stillness to them, giving the reader time to look around once inside their world, and really breathe the poems in.  He has a way in finding beauty in struggle, and at the same time celebrating being in the moment, whether in trying to survive a northern winter, or coming to terms with our own mortality." [Read the complete introduction here.]

--Glen Raucher, from his introduction at the Writers Voice Series of the West Side YMCA

"Peter Conners displays an amazing security in the various voices in these poems, even as those voices seek and explore the world in complex ways. His prose poems rely on more traditional tales from life lessons and realistic fables to get his points across. Conners seeks revelation from established truths and uses the prose poem to both unveil and dig for answers."

--Ray Gonzalez, The Bloomsbury Review