With a dizzying turn of sentences, Danielle Dutton uses Gertrude Stein’s technique of “insistence” (also known as repetition) to create a palpable intensity, and the playful, yet precise simplicity of the word choice in her debut collection, Attempts at a Life, marks Dutton as the descendent of the modernist portraits by—and of—both Stein and Pablo Picasso, as handed down through Language poetry, prose poetry and experimental fiction lineages.

A year-and-a-half ago Habenicht Press editor David Hadbawnik moved from San Francisco to San Marcos, Texas to pursue a master of fine arts in poetry. “Needless to say I went from a bustling, hustling town of readings and events to a small village that can generously be called a college town,” says Hadbawnik.