New & Selected Poems 1981 - 2013

Nola Perez's new collection contains selected poems from each of her twelve books. Notably, it contains poetry from two signature volumes, now out of print and not obtainable from any other source. Those two books would be her first book, Fernandina and Other Poems, written during the years she lived in Atlanta, and The Continent of Dreams, (a finalist in The National Poetry Series) a collection written in Paris, where she lived for four years. Her poetry in "New and Selected" represents a life story. Ms. Perez has been called a poet of place. She writes always from the experience of being born and raised on Florida's northernmost barrier Island, and brings this privilege and wealth of place to subsequent lives in Venezuela, Paris Brussels, and the wilds of North Miami Beach. A Southerner carries the Southern homeplace always within. Being Southern is a benign infection for which there is no antidote, nor is one wanted. In this compilation of poems written over a lifetime, the reader is privileged to share the arc of a poet who has come into her mature vision. Few poets have captured so relentlessly themes both large and small, and have done so with such passion. It is said a poet's themes are love and loss. Ms. Perez has fallen in love fearlessly with people, places and things, and the written word is a way of keeping them. There is no loss in the heart's assignation. This new collection is for all who consider poetry to be essential, and is a book to be returned to again and again.