James Ragan
Author of 7 books and translated into 10 languages, James Ragan is a Czechoslovak-American poet who has read at Carnegie Hall and the United Nations and for 6 heads of state -- including Czech President Vaclav Klaus, S. Korean Prime Minister Young-Hoon Kang, and Mikhail Gorbachev at Moscow's International Poetry Festival (with Robert Bly and Bob Dylan). His poetry has been called "arresting and distinctive" (Richard Wilbur), "Fine-grained and witty," (C.K.Williams), and "dominating--with insight that marks major poets" (Miroslav Holub). His plays "The Landlord" and "Commedia" have been produced in Beijing, Moscow, Athens, etc. Ragan has worked as a screenwriter at Paramount Pictures for Producer Al Ruddy and in production on "The Border," "Exile," and Oscar winner "The Deer Hunter." He served for 25 yrs as Director of USC's Professional Writing Program and for 16 yrs as Distinguished Professor at Charles University in Prague. In 1996, Buzz Magazine named Ragan one of the "100 Coolest People in Los Angeles: Those Who Make a Difference."
“Jason Mashak’s SALTY AS A LIP is grounded in a voice patiently bridging the “steeples and ‘scrapers” of an inquisitive mind. The poems are at once syllogistic, hard-edged, satirical, reflective, and finally as playful as love notes. The true joy of this book is that we are deliciously engaged in a "pantomime of pleasure" which the language and imagery generously evoke.”