Chance of a Ghost
An Anthology of Contemporary Ghost Poems
Edited By Gloria Vando & Phill Miller

The 172 spirited poets and artists represented in Chance of a Ghost include four former poets laureate of the United States: Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Richard Wilbur, and William Jay Smith; the director of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dana Gioia; Albert Goldbarth, the only poet ever to receive two National Book Critics Circle Awards; and others, famous, infamous, and new. The book’s cover image is by Otto Piene, who last year received both the Joan Miró Medal from UNESCO and the Leonardo da Vinci World Art Prize from Consejo Cutural Mundial.

The ghosts we chance upon in this anthology are as varied as the many ways ghosts choose to visit the living. They blend into the commonplace: curtains, wisps of clouds, empty rockers, cushions, the scent of mildew and perfume, strains of music, even a dry martini. They tease us with a stutter of static on the cell phone, a single hair on our lapel. Despite rumors that they jump out at us with a resounding Boo!, some prefer to remain in the shadows, tightly curled—the wallflowers of the other world. Or they interact: bring solace, issue warnings, harp, scold, or try to seduce us. And sometimes, to our chagrin, they don’t appear at all.

Chance of a Ghost is a project to benefit the library of The Writers Place, a literary community center in the heart of Kansas. The library provides writers, readers, and scholars with a unique collection of small press books and literary magazines from the Midwest, and other parts of the country. The profits from this anthology will be used to expand and index the collection.

Paperback, ISBN:1-884235-38-7, $14.95 + $3 S&H, send check or money order to Helicon Nine Editions at the following address: