John Ash
THE PARTHIAN STATIONS

Talisman House, Publishers
ISBN 10: 1-58498-051-6
ISBN 13: 978-1-58498-051-3
Paper, 110 pp, 6x9
$12.95

“Back in the days when John Ash was a rising English poet of the New York School, critics either loved his stiletto wit or loathed it as ‘camp disdain’. Mr Ash’s new book, ‘The Parthian Stations’, shows how a decade of living in Istanbul, studying the heritage of Byzantium and traveling in the Middle East has sharpened both his eye and the claws of his feline black comedy. Meanwhile, any disdain he may have felt in the past at the politics he observes around him has matured into a deep and incisive anger.” —The Economist
“John Ash could be the best English poet of his generation. Yet somehow it seems inappropriate to play the old rating game with him. Ash lives as an expatriate in Istanbul, a vantage point from which the machinations of ‘po-biz’ must seem very far away. And that distance isn’t merely a geographical fact but a condition of his work.” —Poetry

“Engaging, entertaining, thoughtful and thought- provoking.” —Midwest Book Review

Born in Manchester, England, John Ash moved to New York in 1985 and to Istanbul in 1996. His most recent books include Disbelief (1987), The Burnt Pages (1991), A Byzantine Journey (1995), Selected Poems (1996),  The Anatolikon (2000), Turkey: The Other Guide (2001), and To the City (2004) His poetry has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Paris Review.

POETRY