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Microtones
Microtones is a chapbook of 24 prose & poems pieces written from 2009-2013. This is Vaughan's first published chapbook collection.
36 pages, Paperback
First published March 7, 2013
18 people want to read
About the author
Robert Vaughan
9 books142 followersRobert Vaughan's writing can be found in over 650 online and print journals and he's an ten-time Pushcart Prize nominee. He was twice a finalist for the Gertrude Stein Award for Fiction (2013, 2014). His piece, "A Box," was selected for Best Small Fictions 2016 (Queen's Ferry Press). And, "Six Glimpses of the Uncouth" was selected for Best Small Fictions 2019. He has taught writing retreats at Synergia Ranch, N.M., Mabel Dodge Luhan House, Ojai Retreat Center, CA., Cedar Valley, WI, The Clearing, and Devonfield Inn, MA. His sixth book is ASKEW (Cowboy Jamboree, 2022). He is the Editor-in-Chief of Bending Genres Journal. He offers online monthly weekend workshops and has an ongoing roundtable. And check out our two Bending Genres Retreats in 2026. Also, GET BENT anthology: www.bendinggenres.com.
KIRKUS REVIEW of FUNHOUSE: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
KIRKUS REVIEW of ADDICTS & BASEMENTS: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
Addicts & Basements (Civil Coping Mechanisms): http://www.amazon.com/Addicts-Basemen...
Diptychs + Triptychs+ Lipsticks + Dipshits (Deadly Chaps): http://www.createspace.com/4557487 and (http://www.amazon.com/Diptychs-Tripty...)
Microtones (Cervena Barva Press): http://www.thelostbookshelf.com.
MICROTONES review at PANK:
DIPTYCHS + TRIPTYCHS review:
Mark Kerstetter/ The Mockingbird Sings:
http://markkerstetter.com/2014/01/29/...
KIRKUS REVIEW of FUNHOUSE: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
KIRKUS REVIEW of ADDICTS & BASEMENTS: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
Addicts & Basements (Civil Coping Mechanisms): http://www.amazon.com/Addicts-Basemen...
Diptychs + Triptychs+ Lipsticks + Dipshits (Deadly Chaps): http://www.createspace.com/4557487 and (http://www.amazon.com/Diptychs-Tripty...)
Microtones (Cervena Barva Press): http://www.thelostbookshelf.com.
MICROTONES review at PANK:
DIPTYCHS + TRIPTYCHS review:
Mark Kerstetter/ The Mockingbird Sings:
http://markkerstetter.com/2014/01/29/...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 27, 2016
Another brilliant collection from Vaughan! His work is inspirational and layered: meant to be read again and again. Each time you find something unexpected that translates into your own life! Get a copy! LOVE!
December 29, 2013
Microtones
Book Review: Microtones by Robert Vaughan Červená Barva Press 2013
Microtones by Robert Vaughan
Červená Barva Press 2013 Gloria Mindock ~ Editor and Publisher
Robert Vaughan’s 2013 release, Microtones from Červená Barva Press contains two dozen prose poems of varying lengths and a variety of rhythms and structures. From the shortest, just four lines, to the longest, going on two pages; Vaughan’s poems are like songs with a hook that make you want to hear them again. Microtones is like a hand carved box filled with little treasures, a leather album with photographs of people and places you want to know more about, or a double record on vinyl with 24 three minute songs you play over and over.
From the opening piece, The Outlaw, right through to Wrestling With Genetics, the poem that closes the book, the arc and flow keeps the reader moving from one poem to the next. However, you can also pick any poem at random and it shines just as brightly on its own.
Vaughan’s writing is deep and nuanced and evokes both a visual and a visceral response. The poems flow with an ease and grace that is musical and lyrical, in language rich with unexpected images and surprising passages that stop you in your tracks and make you slow down, go back, and read them again.
“You hang mid-air, arms akimbo, glance askance. Resigned. Jubilant.
As we are when any end is imminent.”
Robert Vaughan is a keen and compassionate observer of humanity; his writing, at times, tender, poignant and sad, yet unsentimental and tough when it needs to be. There’s also a healthy dose of irony and humor and a playfulness with language that is unique and refreshing.
“He’s the tetherball attached to my pole, the flying trapeze of my soul.”
You slide into each poem with so much ease, that, before you know it, you’re off and running. Microtones celebrates the predicaments of the human condition and the ephemeral quality of human relationships, and mourns their passing, while at the same time, still holding hope for the future.
Though Microtones is work from a seasoned author, it is also fresh and exciting new work from a writer just really hitting his stride, an artist who speaks to us, in full, with a vibrant voice, and whom we can expect to hear from again.
Microtones is available from Červená Barva Press
http://www.cervenabarvapress.com
Robert Vaughan’s website is http://www.robert-vaughan.com
Book Review: Microtones by Robert Vaughan Červená Barva Press 2013
Microtones by Robert Vaughan
Červená Barva Press 2013 Gloria Mindock ~ Editor and Publisher
Robert Vaughan’s 2013 release, Microtones from Červená Barva Press contains two dozen prose poems of varying lengths and a variety of rhythms and structures. From the shortest, just four lines, to the longest, going on two pages; Vaughan’s poems are like songs with a hook that make you want to hear them again. Microtones is like a hand carved box filled with little treasures, a leather album with photographs of people and places you want to know more about, or a double record on vinyl with 24 three minute songs you play over and over.
From the opening piece, The Outlaw, right through to Wrestling With Genetics, the poem that closes the book, the arc and flow keeps the reader moving from one poem to the next. However, you can also pick any poem at random and it shines just as brightly on its own.
Vaughan’s writing is deep and nuanced and evokes both a visual and a visceral response. The poems flow with an ease and grace that is musical and lyrical, in language rich with unexpected images and surprising passages that stop you in your tracks and make you slow down, go back, and read them again.
“You hang mid-air, arms akimbo, glance askance. Resigned. Jubilant.
As we are when any end is imminent.”
Robert Vaughan is a keen and compassionate observer of humanity; his writing, at times, tender, poignant and sad, yet unsentimental and tough when it needs to be. There’s also a healthy dose of irony and humor and a playfulness with language that is unique and refreshing.
“He’s the tetherball attached to my pole, the flying trapeze of my soul.”
You slide into each poem with so much ease, that, before you know it, you’re off and running. Microtones celebrates the predicaments of the human condition and the ephemeral quality of human relationships, and mourns their passing, while at the same time, still holding hope for the future.
Though Microtones is work from a seasoned author, it is also fresh and exciting new work from a writer just really hitting his stride, an artist who speaks to us, in full, with a vibrant voice, and whom we can expect to hear from again.
Microtones is available from Červená Barva Press
http://www.cervenabarvapress.com
Robert Vaughan’s website is http://www.robert-vaughan.com
June 28, 2013
I regret that I didn't read this book sooner. Honestly, it's a chapbook that I got in March at AWP 2013, which was followed by a train ride lasting over 24 hours. Okay, I get motion sick, which is why I listened to a Junot Diaz e-book. Instead, I read the whole thing while waiting for my BBQ chicken dinner to bake. That easy!
Some works in this chapbook are flash, others are poetry. I lean more toward fiction myself, which is probably why I liked those pieces more. The ones that stood out as my awesomest-favoritist were "Stand Here," a piece that describes the descent of a relationship NOT in dialogue or feelings, but simply where the person was physically positioned (COOL!); "Recollection," which captured an entire life in maybe 100 words--what's he guilty of, what does the wife know, why is the pastor so forceful!--; "Buried," about two women who are pregnant and waiting for their baby-daddy to come home, though he most likely died in combat--the women were soldiers, too, until they both became with child; and "Wrestling with Genetics," a super shorty with a father/son duo battling out drinking, driving, and the macho attitudes that can lead to such a decision.
Flash fiction is painfully hit/miss and can totally deceive young writers. Some see it as a platform to describe a scene, and we get something like a photo. Others see the flash as a place to rant a bit on his/her personal views. The flash needs to be a WHOLE WORLD, a life, in few words. Vaughan does it about 100 or less. Amazing!
Example: "Most people don't like a sarcastic cancer patient actually," I said. Aunt Sally replied, "Well, most people don't have cancer." I drove her to her chemo treatments on Mondays, my day off. This was her third round. I turned up the radio. She re-applied her lipstick, turned it back down. "And what's so bad with a little sarcasm every now and then?" Here we go. "Saved your Uncle Tony's and my marriage. Maybe you shoulda tried a little sarcasm with your ex-wife?" I turned the radio back up.
Don't you just wonder about the relationship between these two? They seem incompatible, but they are together every Monday to help Aunt Sally avoid death. Where did she get her attitude about sarcasm in the first place? What really happened between the narrator and his ex-wife? These are areas in which a reader can dream. We're fed enough to be satiated--to get a whole situation and some history--but are left room to explore.
Some works in this chapbook are flash, others are poetry. I lean more toward fiction myself, which is probably why I liked those pieces more. The ones that stood out as my awesomest-favoritist were "Stand Here," a piece that describes the descent of a relationship NOT in dialogue or feelings, but simply where the person was physically positioned (COOL!); "Recollection," which captured an entire life in maybe 100 words--what's he guilty of, what does the wife know, why is the pastor so forceful!--; "Buried," about two women who are pregnant and waiting for their baby-daddy to come home, though he most likely died in combat--the women were soldiers, too, until they both became with child; and "Wrestling with Genetics," a super shorty with a father/son duo battling out drinking, driving, and the macho attitudes that can lead to such a decision.
Flash fiction is painfully hit/miss and can totally deceive young writers. Some see it as a platform to describe a scene, and we get something like a photo. Others see the flash as a place to rant a bit on his/her personal views. The flash needs to be a WHOLE WORLD, a life, in few words. Vaughan does it about 100 or less. Amazing!
Example: "Most people don't like a sarcastic cancer patient actually," I said. Aunt Sally replied, "Well, most people don't have cancer." I drove her to her chemo treatments on Mondays, my day off. This was her third round. I turned up the radio. She re-applied her lipstick, turned it back down. "And what's so bad with a little sarcasm every now and then?" Here we go. "Saved your Uncle Tony's and my marriage. Maybe you shoulda tried a little sarcasm with your ex-wife?" I turned the radio back up.
Don't you just wonder about the relationship between these two? They seem incompatible, but they are together every Monday to help Aunt Sally avoid death. Where did she get her attitude about sarcasm in the first place? What really happened between the narrator and his ex-wife? These are areas in which a reader can dream. We're fed enough to be satiated--to get a whole situation and some history--but are left room to explore.
February 11, 2014
It's been, shall we say, a little while since I dipped my toe in poetry, and this collection of Vaughan's free verse and short-shorts reminded me every piece of writing need not boil down to plot points, rising conflict, climax and resolution. The strong pieces herein--"Levitation" and "Sometimes He Feels Like It's Numb" to name two--illuminate their subjects in ways that make narrative unnecessary, if not irrelevant. I felt strangely freer after finishing this work, reminded how good verse can break through the frozen seas within us. Consider Microtones the perfect pick-axe.
August 24, 2013
Robert Vaughan is an interesting, intelligent, and daring writer and this is a good sampling of what he does. Highly recommended to readers and writers of flash, poetry, and prose poetry.
December 8, 2013
A stunning collection from Mr. Vaughan!
December 28, 2013
A fantastic assortment of jarring poems in this author's first collection. I recommend it for everyone, especially those who wouldn't normally read poetry.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews