Poker is Tomaz Salamun's first book of poetry, originally published in 1966 in Slovenia. This edition, vibrantly translated by award-winning poet Joshua Beckman in collaboration with the author, makes Poker available in its entirety in English.
As a young poet Salamun edited Perspektive, a progressive cultural and political journal. Communist authorities eventually banned the journal's publication and arrested Salamun. His first two books, Poker (1966) and The Purpose of the Cloak (1968), were released in samizdat. Salamun went on to become one of the most widely respected of European poets and achieved international acclaim, later even serving as the Slovenian cultural attaché in New York City.
Salamun has had several collections published in English translation, including The Shepherd, the Hunter (Pedernal, 1992), The Four Questions of Melancholy (White Pine Press, 1997), The Selected Poems of Tomaz Salamun (Ecco Press, 1988), Feast (Harcourt Brace, 2000), A Ballad for Metka Krasovec (Twisted Spoon Press, 2001), and The Book For My Brother (Harvest Books, 2006). Salamun has won the praise of many poets, including James Tate, Robert Creeley, Robert Hass, who celebrates his "love of the poetics of rebellion," and Jorie Graham, who calls his work "one of Europe's great philosophical wonders."
Joshua Beckman is the author of three books of poetry: Shake, Your Time Has Come, and Something I Expected To Be Different. He has also authored two books in collaboration with Matthew Rohrer: Nice Hat. Thanks. and Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. Beckman is an editor at Wave Books.
