The Summer of Black Widows

In 1992, Hanging Loose Press introduced the poetry of Sherman Alexie. His first collection, The Business of Fancydancing, was selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. "Mr. Alexie's is one of the major lyric voices of our time, " wrote reviewer James R. Kincaid. Since then, Alexie's poems, stories and novels have brought him many honors and an international following of readers.

A Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, now living in Seattle, Alexie covers a territory that starts with the minute details of reservation life and reaches out to encompass the world in all its variety.

"Sherman Alexie's recent success as a novelist overshadows the fact that he is one of the best young poets writing in America today... his poems resonate with brutal honesty and tie the reader into knots. (This book) proves Alexie is a poet first and a fiction writer second."

."..an impressive mosaic of emotions and subjects, deployed with wit, intelligence and haunting insights... Alexie's vision is Whitmanic in his all-embracing love of humanity."