The Weight of the Minolta in Her Hand by Marianna Hofer

$13.99

 

If a poem is a lens for seeing, and re-seeing, the splendor and complications of the world, then Marianna Hofer’s new collection, The Weight of the Minolta in Her Hand, fulfills this promise more than tenfold. In “The Apprentice Photographer Thinks about History” we are beckoned to step directly into the narrative and experience the moment firsthand with our speaker: “She feels her own breath, the weight / of the Minolta in her hand, silence / that really isn’t silence, just / an absence that leans like / a quick stray cat at the ankles.” Hofer transforms the landscapes of this chapbook into places at once pleasingly familiar and astonishing. With descriptions such as, “The day / a freshly sharpened knifeblade / flat along her cheekbones,” she acknowledges unspoken dangers while paying tribute to vital connections in life. This chapbook reminds us to examine our own days with a steady hand, and an unblinking eye.

–Mary Biddinger, author of Small Enterprise

 

“What unfolded/ here?” asks the apprentice photographer of this collection, which serves as a record of things “not exactly abandoned […] more like inadvertently forgotten.” With a poet’s ear and a photographer’s eye, Marianna Hofer skillfully blends the aural and visual in poems that detail the “wreck and ruin” of her Midwestern settings, considering how the “slow decay” of the neglected can come into “sharp sudden focus” through language. The Weight of the Minolta in Her Hand salvages the past with an immediacy and perspective at once arresting and transformative.

–Jennifer Moore, author of The Veronica Maneuver

 

I never pass an abandoned house without wondering how Marianna Hofer might photograph it and write about the light that has been left behind. With a photographer’s eye and the “lush language of light” she describes everything from goldfinches, to sugar cookies, to a junkyard where a rusting Thunderbird lies like a “Renaissance angel.” The haunting beauty of these poems lies in Hofer’s reverence for impermanence and her uncanny ability to “document this day in a shroud of bright sunlight.”  

 –Cathryn Essinger, author of “My Dog Does Not Read Plato” and “What I Know About Innocence.”
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The Weight of the Minolta in Her Hand

by Marianna Hofer

$13.99, paper

Marianna Hofer works on her writing and b&w film photography in Studio 13 in the historic Jones Building in downtown Findlay, OH. She publishes her poems and stories in various literary journals, and her b&w photography hangs in local juried shows and local eateries. Barns, a chapbook from O2 Press, was published in 1983, and A Memento Sent by the World, a full length collection from Word Press, was published in 2008.

Marianna L. Hofer shuffled off this mortal coil on May 3, 2017, after a short but courageous battle with cancer. Marianna leaves behind her two beloved cats, Sofia and Aloysia, as well as many friends and colleagues. Marianna was preceded in death by her mother, Mary, and her father, Elmer, whom she admired and often credited to giving her her unique perspective on life.
Marianna taught writing at the University of Findlay for 32 years, and was dedicated to her classroom and her students. As one of her colleagues wrote, “She single-handedly helped hundreds of struggling students pass English 104 … she worked diligently, passionately, ferociously to teach reticent writers to organize their thoughts and words, when the last thing they wanted to do was organize their thoughts and words.”
Marianna’s life outside the classroom was lived for art. She loved being at her studio in the Jones Building, sharing space with other artists. She especially enjoyed the spring and fall Art Walk, where she could share her talents and promote local art and artists. Marianna was an avid photographer, preferring older cameras exclusively using black and white film. She had a keen eye and was a talented art photographer, but her true passion was poetry.
Marianna wrote in her journal every day. Her poems were published in literary journals across the country. Her first book of poetry, “A Memento Sent by the World,” was published in 2008. (She was so tickled to see it on Amazon!) Her second book, “The Weight of the Minolta in Her Hand,” will be released later this year.
Marianna’s love of art and its creators led her to leave a legacy at the Community Foundation. There will be an endowment in her name in support of the arts and artists in Findlay, a town she profoundly loved. Please make all memorials to the Community Foundation, in her name.
In keeping with her wishes, there will be a gathering of friends in honor of Marianna on Saturday, May 13 from 3-6 p.m. at the Main Street Deli.

Posted On Wed. May 10th, 2017

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