FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: A WOMAN’S RAGE, LOVE, IDENTITY: MEDUSA’S COUNTRY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:A WOMAN’S RAGE, LOVE, IDENTITY: MEDUSA’S COUNTRY

Contact:    Marc Vincenz 
               Marc.l.vincenz@gmail.com (617) 821-1915              

or
               Larissa Shmailo
               larissa@larissashmailo.com, (212) 712-9865

Poet, novelist, translator, editor, and critic Larissa Shmailo presents her third book of poetry, Medusa’s Country. Channeling the powerful female monster Medusa, she sings about addiction, toxic relationships, real love, and the path to finding one’s identity: From “To the Thanatos within Me”:

What catharsis there is in the dive,
the gesture, the infinite jest,

the slash, the brush (its own fire),
the dance with death?

Larissa Shmailo’s translations from Russian include the iconic avant-garde opera Victory over the Sun; her latest novel is Patient Women. For more information please see Ms. Shmailo’s Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larissa_Shmailo and her website at www.LarissaShmailo.com, including the Electronic Press Kit (with high-resolution photos) at www.larissashmailo.com/sites/default/files/larissa_shmailo_electronic_press_kit.pdf. Ms. Shmailo is available for booking at (212) 712-9865. Medusa’s Country is available for purchase through Amazon, www.madhat-press.com, and at major distributors and bookstores. Review copies are available upon request.

Praise for Medusa’s Country

“Gut-wrenching honesty, spiritual courage, and unflinching vision are what it takes to visit Medusa’s Country. [Larissa draws] on the experience of her immense challenges—prostitution, alcoholism, drugs and insanity—and her immense advantages—a gift for poetic form, a razor-sharp mind, the spirit of a mystic, and a deep intimacy with world literature and culture— to share with us precious and hard-learned lessons: the necessity not only to survive but to triumph, and the crucial place of art and culture in that achievement.”

—Annie Finch, author of A Poet’s Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Sharing Your Poetry

“Medusa peels herself from the pages of mythology to become a denizen of New York City’s margins. . . Along the way, the gorgon assumes other personae, including a whore named Nora. These poems lead the reader through histories of misogyny and sexual abuse. Convinced of her prowess, this Medusa stares into the mirror, where she confronts distorted notions of normalcy. Despite landing on a psychiatric ward, she frees herself with sardonic wit and blade-sharp language. With verve, with chutzpah, with urgency, Larissa Shmailo’s poems are spells, transforming stone into flesh and death into an affirmation of life.”

—Dean Kostos, author of This Is Not a Skyscraper

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