WINONA, Minn. — Winona’s first poet laureate, James Armstrong, has published anther book of poetry, “Empire,” and has a pubic reading Friday at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum. Time: 5 p.m. Armstrong retired from the English faculty at Winona State University this spring. He was named the city’s poet laurate in 2007. The book, 110 pages, was published by Shipwreckt Books of Winona. Appropriatel the reading is in the context of the museum’s current marine art collection. His earlier works were Armstrong is the author of two previous poetry collections, “Monument in a Summer Hat,” from New Issues Press of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and “Blue Lash,” from Milkweed Editions of Minneapolis. Poems from his term as poet laureate are included in the anthology “Crossings: An Anthology of the Poets Laureate of Winona,” also published by Shipwreckt.
Publisher. Issued by Winona pulisher Shipwreckt Books in March. Price: $19.
Armstrong. Retired after a career teaching poetry and creative writing.
Among reviews
Kimberly Blaeser, Wisconsin poet laureate: “‘Empire’ lays bare truths of our oldest plagues — human greed and settler colonialism. In an America where ‘television is our forever’ and ‘this night is as dark as it is going to get,’ and ‘sorrow is a door that keeps opening.’”
Albert Goldbarth, two-time National Book Critics Circle winner: “Armstrong’s poems demonstrate the ability to be photographically exact and wildly imaginative at once with an ability to compact large-scale ideas in deft phrases. These are tomorrow’s adages in the making.”