GAINESVILLE, Fla., April 22, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- A troubadour waits out his death sentence locked up in a tower room of a castle. He has the misfortune of living in the fourteenth century and in the year of the last crusade. Eight centuries hence, how do his lyrical works run parallel with those of a modern poet? Or have the times altered any semblance? James Sunwall's new book Escape of the Unicorn is a delightful work that combines one play set in the medieval era and a selection of his modern poems. Sunwall's verses have been one of the stronger contenders in the poetry contest of the Writer's Digest magazine.
In the play of the same title as the book, Robert de Chanson is a favored minstrel of the high court. But the tides have turned, and he finds himself inside a tower room of a Southern France castle. Only four people are allowed to see him-a monk who is tasked to "save" the atheist lyricist, the Duchess Helene, the spoiled little Princess Claire who thinks she is in love with the poet, and an embittered servant woman who is deaf-mute and spites the prisoner. But the poet, who too had once lived in an abbey as a novice, disagrees with the war. As the priest continues his visit, he begins to see the doomed prisoner's views on the crusade, the rights of women, the significance of religion, and life itself. In the end, they form an unlikely friendship that shall impact on the poet's fate.
Sunwall, who has published as a writer and poet, shows that he is equally adept in Middle Age verses as he is with modern poetry. What binds his play and poetry selection in this new book is the poetic questionings of the tragic affairs of the world. Centuries later, Sunwall's poetry echoes similar problems such as an unpopular war and gender inequality. A long time has passed that it seems like an eternity, but the world is still plagued with the same ills.
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About the Author
James Sunwall was born in 1922 in Hayfield, Minnesota. He served in the army in the Pacific during World War II. Afterward he received degrees from the universities of Minnesota, Yale, and Iowa, where he was a member of the Writers Workshop. He wrote and taught the writing of fiction, poetry, and drama for thirty years at the University of Florida. He has almost one hundred stories, poems, and plays published or produced so far.
Escape of the Unicorn * By James Sunwall
A Play and Selected Poems
Publication Date: November 19, 2004
Trade Paperback; $18.69; 200 pages; 978-1-4010-6852-3
Cloth Hardback; $28.79; 200 pages; 978-1-4010-6853-0
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