THE FALL 2018 title from Propeller Books, the publishing imprint of Propeller magazine, is The Devil Says Maybe I Like It, an essay collection by Wendy Bourgeois. The title will be released on October 30, 2018, but is available for pre-order now. Along with a foreword by poet Daneen Bergland, the book will feature previously-published pieces from Bourgeois’ popular “Reading Lines” columns, as well as new pieces written just for the book. The Devil Says Maybe I Like It is Bourgeois’ first book, and the eighth title from Propeller Books.

Wendy Bourgeois is a poet, a teacher, and a staff writer at Propeller, where “Reading Lines,” her column on poetry and life, has run for the past several years. The Devil Says Maybe I Like It reveals that in addition to the humor, intelligence, and insight Bourgeois offers in her responses to poetry and philosophy, she also has the ability to craft, in just a few words, indelible sketches of children and parents, lovers and friends. Together, the pieces in the collection acquire the character of a subtle memoir, both intimate and cultural, from a fiercely intelligent woman assessing the power and predicaments to be discovered not only in literature, but in life itself.

From the foreword by Daneen Bergland:

“These essays are dishy, spoken in the voice of a confidant, as Bourgeois tucks each poet’s line inside a closet of her own stories, secrets, and desires. What’s astonishing is the way she can unpack an idea, a feeling, an experience, or an especially dense or opaque line of poetry so deftly and completely, as if picking apart a hopeless knot in an impossibly delicate chain. Once untangled, a truth sparkles under the beam of her bright intelligence. Though the pieces reckon with literature and theory across time, the ageless themes are housed firmly in their modern context: Power, Death, Religion, Marriage, Beauty, Femininity, Motherhood, Love, God. If poetry is a distillation, these essays offer a concentrated drop of truth reconstituted in a personal and cultural moment.”

Wendy Bourgeois is a poet and writer. In addition to the essays she writes for her regular column in Propeller, her poems have appeared in Cirque, Portland Review, and other small press journals. She is a writing instructor at Portland Community College and Portland State University. “The Devil Says Maybe I Like It” is her first book.

Propeller was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. It is a magazine of books, music, art, film, and life. Its publishing imprint, Propeller Books, publishes one title per year.