9/1/12

AMERICAN BOY: Pushing Sixty in print and ereader

Anthony Buccino's new collection "American Boy: Pushing Sixty, working class verse about life and growing up in New Jersey" (Cherry Blossom Press, 68 pages, $14.95, ISBN 9780982567708) recalls the cold war, parochial school and simply playing with friends or with his "little men" in the Baby Boomer years.

"Much of the work collected here reflects on growing up in Belleville and growing old in Nutley," he said.

From the center of the Baby Boom, his verse views life and growing up in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and growing older in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

"Rumours of War" reflects on those air raid drills from Holy Family School, and "Caroms" recalls playing that game and losing a smallest puppy contest at Booth Park in the summer. "Games We Played" hints of those rounds of endless Monopoly games.

But like anyone born in Baby Boom years, from 1946 to 1964, the writing on the wall says some of us have already reached sixty and others, like Buccino are pushing sixty.

"Now's a good time to put a life in perspective," said Buccino. "The way things keep going, and medicines keep improving, sixty just might be middle age for many of us. But this collection stops to look at how life's been so far. The good times, though not a lot of poets write about the good times, and the heartaches and how we're doing so far."

A New York City financial news editor by day, Buccino has been called "New Jersey's 'Garrison Keillor'" or something to that effect.' He published three books of essays based in and around Nutley and Belleville. He published two books of biographies of the hundreds of men from his home towns who died while in service.

BUCCINO has published twelve books including six full-length poetry collections. His poem At The Vet, which appeared in Volume 55 of U.S. 1 Worksheets, has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2010.

His latest poetry collection, CANNED Booted, bumped, down-sized, fired, forced out, hated, hired, laid off, let go, out of work, out-sourced, pink-slipped, terminated, sacked, unemployed, was published in May.

He recently published Retrieving Labrador Days - Dog Tales In Prose And Verse. This was followed by the poetry collection Sixteen Inches On Center in April 2010. His poetry collections include, Voices On The Bus and One Morning In Jersey City.

His poem Something Tells Me You Went To Catholic School earned Honorable Mention in the 2010 Allen Ginsberg Awards. His poem Hands In Socks was named Editor’s Choice in the 2008 Allen Ginsberg Awards. His poem Ten Minutes earned Honorable Mention in the 2009 Allen Ginsberg Awards.

He has been published in Paterson Literary Review; Celebrating William Carlos Williams and The Poetry of Place: North Jersey in Poetry; Voices in Italian Americana; Edison Literary Review, and Journal of New Jersey Poets.

Bound copy in print

For your Kindle dReader

For your Nook

Buccino created and maintains the New Jersey Poets and Poetry blog at http://njpoetspoetry.blog-spot.com/ , a continuing listing of poets and poetry news and events.

For more information, visit http://www.anthonybuccino.com/.