Dining with War: Book Launch

Woodstock Poet Launches New Book: Dining with War

Woodstock poet Karen Warinsky will launch her new book, Dining with War, at three locations in November.

The book, published by Alien Buddha Press, is a deep look at how different types of warfare operate as a backdrop to everyday life. Warinsky says, “The idea for this project is built around the fact that I often take a meal while watching warfare on the news, and also memories of arguments and battles that took place around dinner tables (some more light-hearted than others). Poems about fights with parents, tricky salary negotiations in my 20s, a date gone wrong in Seattle, the night I was almost kidnapped in Japan, and a weekend at the Jersey shore with disgruntled dance moms are all here. Also in this book are pieces about the Civil War, Vietnam, Syria, George Floyd and our nation’s current civil strife. Several poems were previously published including “Be in the Yard,” “Nazi Breakfast,” “Snapshots of Your War,” and “Judy Woodruff Makes it Palatable.”

West Coast writer Scott Ferry calls it an “important book” and said in a review “ Warinsky… speaks with blinding precision about wars of all types: with the in-laws, with racism, with PTSD, with society itself. Every poem is a complete world…This book is unflinchingly honest, but also hopeful, “ensuring the future with careful harvest, / a covenant of reciprocity.” Host of Wednesday Night Poetry and Hot Springs Arkansas poet laureate Kai Coggin says, “Karen Warinsky’s new book is filled with cutting and thought-provoking language and imagery, with a masterful use of ironic juxtaposition to point out the almost surreal desensitization of American culture.”