Echoes of Tattered Tongues: Memory Unfolded (Aquila Polonica Publishing, March 2016) has just been named as a finalist for the 2017 Benjamin Franklin Award in the category of Poetry/Literary Criticism.
The winner will be announced in a ceremony held in Portland, Oregon, the evening of April 7, 2017. Now in its 29th year, the Benjamin Franklin Award, sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), is the premier awards competition in independent publishing, recognizing excellence in independent publishing. There were nearly 1,400 entries this year.
In this major tour de force, author John Z. Guzlowski traces the arc of one of the millions of immigrant families of America, in this case, survivors of the maelstrom of World War II.
Publishers Weekly describes it as "gut-wrenching, narrative lyric poems," and Foreword Reviews called the book a "devastating, one-of-a-kind collection." "A searing memoir," said Shelf Awareness, naming the Echoes of Tattered Tongues book trailer its Book Trailer of the Day.
Kelly Cherry, Poet Laureate of Virginia (2010-2012) said about this book: "Deeply moving. A powerful, lasting, and sometimes shocking book. Superb."
Using an innovative weave of poetry and prose, Guzlowski unfolds the story of his own family backwards through time. His parents, young Christian Poles, were taken by Germans to work as slave laborers in German concentration camps, and barely survived. The author and his sister were born in refugee camps in Germany after the war. The family was finally able to immigrate to the United States in 1951 as Displaced Persons, and settled in an immigrant neighborhood in Chicago.
"It was a tough neighborhood, where I grew up, and our lives were hard," Guzlowski writes in his Preface. "America then - like now - didn't much want to see a lot of immigrants coming over and taking American jobs, sharing apartments with two or three other immigrant families, getting into the kinds of trouble immigrants get into. We were regarded as Polacks - dirty, dumb, lazy, dishonest, immoral, licentious, drunken Polacks. I felt hobbled by being a DP, Displaced Person. It was hard karma."
To learn more: www.polww2.com/AboutEchoes. Watch the book trailer: www.polww2.com/EchoesTrailer
"We're excited to learn that Echoes of Tattered Tongues is a finalist in the 2017 Ben Franklin Awards," said Aquila Polonica president Terry Tegnazian. "This is a haunting look at a virtually unknown aspect of World War II, with impacts that echo through generations and reflections relevant to today's refugee situation. Guzlowski's writing, with its powerful imagery, will stay with you long after you close the book."
About John Guzlowski: Guzlowski is Professor Emeritus of English Literature at Eastern Illinois University, and currently lives in Lynchburg, Virginia. He received his B.A. in English Literature from the University of Illinois, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Purdue University.
Over a writing career that spans more than 40 years, Guzlowski has amassed a significant body of published work in a wide range of genres: poetry, prose, literary criticism, reviews, fiction and nonfiction. His work has appeared in numerous national journals and anthologies, and in four prior books. Guzlowski's work has garnered high praise, including from Nobel Laureate Czes?aw Mi?osz, who called Guzlowski's poetry "exceptional."
Aquila Polonica Publishing, www.AquilaPolonica.com, is an award-winning independent publisher based in Los Angeles, specializing in publishing the Polish WWII experience in English. The company is a member of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). Aquila Polonica's titles are distributed to the trade in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Europe, Australia and New Zealand by National Book Network, www.nbnbooks.com, and are available from fine bookstores, online retailers, and all major wholesalers.
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