Sleight Work

Poet W. Nick Hill claims that Sleight Work makes nothing happen; sleight but serious, he adds. What's more, it's up-to-date, handmade, and biodegradable, so it's the most sustainable nonfiction in its niche. Readers shouldn't look for pretty or gritty in these brief digital passages of sportive pixels. Instead some straight talking right during the bait and switch, wry counters to fake news, and valuable experiences with parts of language, all should help spread the wish you keep your eye on the pea even though you suspect it's not where you think under those shells.Like a busker with a sheaf of pages to hand out, the voice in the pages of this book will tell about magic in these times, give the insider view of manuals, how to have tea, what to do when you meet an Emperor, and how to survive. Among other things, little-known truths about the subjunctive, the history of style, tips on caring for the roots of gratitude. Walter Nickerson Hill, born in Chicago, raised in São Paulo, Brazil, Ph.D. from Iowa, Emeritus professor of Spanish at Fairfield University, now lives in Port Townsend, Washington, where he was the farmers' market manager for two years. He has traveled to and in Mexico, principally to Oaxaca, for many years. He has translated several titles from Spanish, such as the testimonial novel, Biography of a Runaway Slave, by Miguel Barnet, which was republished by Northwestern University Press in 2016. Hill's versions of the award-winning poetry of Mexican Jorge Fernández Granados appeared in various journals like eXchange, In/translation, and as the chapbook, Constructed on Coincidence, in the 30th Anniversary issue of the Mid-American Review (2010).Hill's poetry has come out in various journals: World Literature Today, minnesota review, Dogwood, Sow's Ear Poetry Review, and in Spanish / English: The Americas Review, Bilingual Review, Ventana abierta, and others. His Mundane Rites / Ritos mundanos was a finalist in the Sow's Ear Chapbook Contest in 1997.Sleight Work, Hill's third full book of poems, was published under a Creative Commons copyright, as part of the effort to make the World Wide Web accessible for everyone. It is available at his website (www.wnickhill.net) and as an Ebook on Smashwords (smashwords.com) and other distributors of digital works, like Scribbd (scribbd.com).Blue Nocturne, And We'd Understand Crows Laughing, are both published Dos Madres Press (dosmadres.com).Hill lives on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state with his spouse, Barbara.