Mud River

About the Book

“Mud River is memorable…capable of telling a horror story…especially when plopping the thing into a basket of flowers.”—Black Water Review

“…fun—how often do we get to recommend poetry with that?...reckless rapture…works…Some quicker, wilder efforts are nearly inimitable…adventurous metaphors.”—Fred Chappell, author, Professor UNC

“…unforced and authentic, pretty rare today…It’s all in Ayyildiz’s diction—style, lyric sounds…taut lines, details, images, no false word choices…incisive…real…”—William Packard, NY Quarterly

"Mud River rests the same wondering, analytical eye on both past and present, drawing us into time and place so deftly that at certain moments we are the poet, remembering her grandfather, a small man full of opinions told with a slickikroned/flatstated tone and meant /to straighten out his world. Or an aunt, never known, dead at fourteen in a car wreck, but resurrected in family memory: I’ve always seen you/ like a skylark shot up/ in wide surprise/ spiraling in uneasy flight. In “Requiem, Auschwitz 1985,” past terror and present emptiness meet in a passionate lament: Three million/ candles cannot rekindle even one/ bright eye gone ash out of that furious/ tunnel into night. Ayyildiz also takes a wry look at the process of writing, not writing, going out for the mail instead. A poet who will drink at any well,/ mix it with almost anything, Ayyildiz watches what goes on, goes past, and reports it with unerring clarity. In “Halloween,” Winds/ iron down corn-vacant/ crow-scarce fields. These are the poems of a writer whose understanding of the world is visual as well as verbal. She sees, and then with a relentless and beautiful voice, makes us see, too." --Amanda Cockrell, poet, author of ten novels, Director of Children’s Literature Program at Hollins University, Managing Editor of The Hollins Critic Mud River, a fine volume (her third) of liquid gold by Judy Ayyildiz, is one of those books in my library that I go to for inspiration and sheer aesthetic pleasure. It is illustrated by her poet-artist son Kevin Kamal. Kamal. Judy Ayyildiz, the winner of many literary awards, is a founding member of the Blue Ridge Writers Conference and an editor of Artemis. Here is one of her shorter poems from Mud River: FARMER: maybe it's because the old man's thrown so many/burdens across the backs of beasts/in his gambles with the fields/flinging seeds like dice that/his eyes sag into pouches/slung like saddlebags/over the bruised/brim of his nose* * * Ugur Akinci, Turkish Torque “Mud River is a lot of fun--and how often do we get to recommend poetry with that engaging phrase?The reasons seem to be that she has fun writing poetry, and her pleasure in it carries over to her readers. In a poem called ‘Addicted,’ she speaks of the joy of composition. ‘I’ll get it any way I can,’ she says, ‘...and I care less/as long as there’s a hangover/from this week’s dive/into ink.’Ayyildiz tackles a number of extremely serious subjects: Auschwitz, the death of a friend, mental breakdown, conditions in Poland and so forth. The poem, ‘Palmistry’ is a wistful, even a sad poem, but the easiness of the language communicates deftly a woman’s foreboding when her lover departs momentarily: ‘I/feel your palms smeared/on my flesh. I can’t/read much, only that/ your heartline’s left/some hairline cuts.’...energy, wit, humor, variety, surprise and some unexpected profound feeling. The poet’s loyalties are especially admirable. It’s a good book to read and to own, and I hope that Judy is as proud of it as she ought to be. --Fred Chappell, Novelist, Poet, Essayist, Critic,NCU Professor

About the Author

Teacher, editor, speaker, conference founder with three degrees from Hollins and Marshall Universities, Judy’s books are First Recital, Smuggled Seeds, (winner Gusto Poet Discovery Prize) Mud River 1,2,& 3 editions,, Skyhooks, Creative Writing Across the Curriculum, Easy Ideas for Busy Teachers, Writer’s Express (co-written textbooks for teachers and students), Nothing but Time (memoir). and Forty Thorns (novel) (translated to Turkish) A 4th volume of poetry will be forthcoming (Intervals, Appalachia to Istanbul) in spring 2015. Judy is finishing a memoir about learning to be a feminist while growing up in WV in the 40s-60s, (The West Virginia Diet.) Featured widely in literary publications, prizes, awards, honors include an essay about her life with work samples in an international women’s anthology and an autobiographical feature in a book on outstanding people by a Turkish historian. www.judylightayyildiz.com