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:: Alan Berecka’s First Full Collection of Poetry Gets Published

January 20, 2009


"The Comic Flaw" features poems that draw on DMC librarian's youth in rural New York state

Del Mar College reference librarian Alan Berecka’s love of the printed word goes well beyond that of the average philobiblist. Berecka is also a published poet whose first full collection, The Comic Flaw, was released Jan. 9 at The Writer’s Festival at the University of Mary Hardin Baylor in Belton.

Published by neoNumaArts in Houston, The Comic Flaw is a 96-page paperback filled with poems that reflect on Berecka’s life as a youth growing up in Stittville, New York. Poet Angela O’Donnell, based in New York City, wrote the introduction for The Comic Flaw, which can be purchased through Amazon.com.

Berecka’s previous publications include two chapbooks. Trilobite Press published Each Man Has One Life in 2004; Oil Hill Press published Beacons in 2007. Berecka’s work has also appeared in such places as the American Literary Review, The Christian Century, Texas Review, Windhover and Red River Review.

In addition to the release of The Comic Flaw, Berecka’s work was recently featured in an anthology of poems by authors who live in the Southwestern part of the United States and China. The Virtual Artist Collective in Chicago published Two Southwests in October.

Berecka earned a bachelor’s degree in literature from the University of Dallas in 1981, a Master of Arts degree in interdisciplinary studies from the University of North Texas (UNT) in 1987 and a Master of Library Science degree from Texas Woman’s University in 1989. He started working as a reference librarian at Del Mar College in 1997.

Berecka says he first began writing poetry in high school, winning two awards for poetry while he was studying at UNT in the mid 1980s.

“Back when I was working on my creative thesis at UNT, I decided I didn’t want to be an academic poet,” he says. “I wanted to write narrative poems that folks could enjoy, have a laugh with now and then and maybe offer a person something to think about.”

Regarding The Comic Flaw, Berecka says he worked with poet Jill Alexander Essbaum to select the right mix of poems. Berecka says he was humbled by the experience. “So many talented people have put so much time into the book,” he says. “It has forced me to take myself a little more seriously and realize how fortunate I am to have found folks who enjoy my work.”

-DMC-rg


Cutline for JPEG provided in far right column: Alan Berecka, a Del Mar College librarian who works in the institution's White Library, holds a copy of his recently published collection of poems called The Comic Flaw.


For more information, media can contact Alan Berecka, DMC Reference Librarian, at 361/698-1933.



Date of this item added : 2009-01-20