A Family Album

In every family, love comes with costs that we pay for the rest of our lives. We can pay these costs blindly and repeatedly, to our great harm, or we can attempt an honest accounting of them. Dan Liberthson's poetry embodies this second, braver choice. With its quiet tone, spare language, and compelling imagery, his work confirms the mysterious capacity of poetry to hurt in order to heal, to push us from that dead zone of vague unease toward the kind of clarity that can move our lives forward. By avoiding the unhelpful fog of cheap sentiment and easy nostalgia, these poems offer keys--terrifyingly honest but strangely beautiful--to the reader's healing. --Jeffrey Hammond, George B. and Willma Reeves Distinguished Professor in the Liberal Arts and Professor of English, St. Mary's College of Maryland

This powerful poetry unflinchingly portrays the impact of a mentally ill sibling on a perfectionistic American Jewish family. Interwoven with word-portraits of charismatic relatives painted from charmig childhood and discerning adult viewpoints, the story of the struggle to survive and mature out of the cauldron of nuclear family tension will appeal to anyone who has suffered and surmounted a difficult early family life. --Deborah L. Radzwill, PsyD, Licensed Psychologist

Dan Liberthson's poems speak of grief and healing, of sadness and epiphany, in his connection with and disconnection from an extended family that leaves him both broken and whole. --Alice Rogoff, Editor, Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, San Francisco

Born in Rochester, NY, I attended Reed College, Northwestern University (BA, history) and SUNY at Buffalo (PhD, English), and now live in San Francisco. My poetry and writing are driven by a few core beliefs: the importance of telling a story, the need to tell it in a disciplined way, and a belief that the sound of the language, too often neglected, is a forceful agent of expression. Most of my books of poetry are illustrated, as I believe poetry is made stronger presented in combination with visual images. My work been published in small magazines, professional reviews, and newsletters. My newest book, A Poetry of Birds: Poems About Birds and the Photographs that Inspired Them (2017), comprises 38 poems about various bird species paired with photographs of the birds by naturalist and wildlife photographer Ron LeValley. The poems reflect on the beauty, lives, and behaviors of the birds, both in themselves and as they relate to human life. Prior books of poetry include Morning and Begin Again (2012), which explores ambiguity and ambivalence in human life, with sections on childhood, love, transience, depression, nature and art, places lived in and visited, and remembrances of loved ones lost. Animal Songs (2010) is a book of poetry that delves into the powerful presence of animals in our lives. Intimates in our homes, predators or prey in the wild, and inspirations in both worlds, they help us realize what it means to be alive. Other books of poetry include The Pitch is On the Way: Poems About Baseball and Life (2008), which explores baseball and what the game means to its fans, and A Family Album: Living with Schizophrenia (2006), poems about my childhood in and growth out of a passionate American Jewish family with a schizophrenic younger sister. I have also written The Golden Spider (2012), a fantasy/science fiction novel created primarily for children aged 9-14, but, because I don’t “dumb down” either the story or the vocabulary, also a good read for older kids and adults. The cosmic battle of good versus evil and life against death plays out in the adventures of Jeremy Taylor, his friends Sandy and Zack, his wise and telepathic cat, and the golden alien who leads them on a cosmic journey.