I was glad to hear that Helen Degen Cohen’s posthumous poetry collection My Life on Film is now out.
A founding editor of Rhino Poetry, Helen Degen Cohen was a central figure in the Chicago area poetry community. When she died in 2015, she left behind several projects-in-progress, including an almost-finished manuscript of poems highlighting her in-depth interest in film.
My Life on Film is published by Glass Lyre Press and the launch for it is Sunday, September 23rd from 2-4pm at the independent movie theatre Facets, located at 1517 W Fullerton Ave, Chicago, IL 60614. Helen’s daughter Laura Cohen will introduce the book and the local poets who will be reading a selection from it. Andrew Calhoun will provide music
My Life on Film will be available for purchase at the launch; you can also buy it directly through Glass Lyre Press as well as Amazon.
Here’s how Bill Yarrow, author of The Vig of Love, describes My Life on Film:
“Helen Degen Cohen was an authentic cineaste with an insatiable appetite for film, but especially the films of Fellini, Pasolini, Bresson, Ozu, Godard, Zhang Yimou, Bela Tarr, and Parajanov, all of whose work she celebrates, often ekphrastically, in My Life on Film, a posthumous collection of 53 poems. “My life on film,” she writes, “is everything / that has ever floated through me,” and we witness that parade in this volume that is truly an “insomnia of pictures.” Helen was passionate about art (both viewing it and creating it), but she also treasured life, and her love of life suffuses these beautifully crafted poems about the joy of watching great films.”
Leave a Reply