A Confederacy of Joy

Poems

Poetry - General
128 Pages
Reviewed on 02/14/2015
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Author Biography

Juan-Paolo Perre has lead an international and nomadic life which has become a resonating theme in all of his work. Living, as a child, in Siena, Italy, he then emigrated to London, England before returning as a young boy to New York City.

He began his polymathic career at age 7 as a musician and singer. He performed as a soloist with orchestra at age 10 which lead to an audition with renowned conductor/composer, Leonard Bernstein. Equally adept at the violin, he maintains an active career as a concert violinist, having performed in solo, chamber music and orchestral concerts worldwide.

A passion for theatre and film lead to his enrolment at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Within a year of returning to NYC, (and using his nom d’artiste, Adam Alexi-Malle) he made his Broadway début in Maury Yeston's "Titanic", participated in the films of Woody Allen and Sidney Lumet and the following season starred in the American première of British playwright/film director, Mike Leigh’s play, “Goose-Pimples” which garnered him critical acclaim in an award-nominated performance. He later appeared on Broadway in the revival of "The Threepenny Opera" as well as continuing to star in numerous films including, "Bowfinger", "Hidalgo", and "The Man Who Wasn't There", and on television in "The Sopranos", "The West Wing" and "24".

He is a sought-after voice artist having lent his voice in film, television and as a narrator for Penguin/Random House Audio Books in titles such as "The Second Empress", "Letters from Skye" and "The Anatomy Lesson" and has just embarked on a major project where he is engaged as the voice of the celebrated French author, Alexandre Dumas, where all of the author's books will be recorded.

He attended the Interlochen Arts Academy, the Juilliard School and the universities of Wisconsin and Maryland earning a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Doctoral and advanced graduate work continued at the Université de Paris, the Paris and Moscow Conservatories as well as the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

A recipient of numerous fellowships including the New York Philharmonic Scholarship, the Harriet Hale Woolley Fellowship in Paris and an Aerodyne Grant, his writing has previously appeared in numerous publications.

In 2013, he was awarded the Legacy Poetry Prize for his début collection of poetry, "A Confederacy of Joy: Poems". Adding to the mosaïc which is his artistic life, he was recently been appointed poetry editor of the literary magazine, "Il Palio Review."

    Book Review

Reviewed by Rich Follett for Readers' Favorite

It’s all in there: literature, science, history, art, mythology, romance, mysticism; from Fibonacci to physics, A Confederacy of Joy by Juan-Paolo Perre has something for every taste. Reading Juan-Paolo Perre’s impeccably crafted poetry and prose is like meeting the world’s most brilliant conversationalist in a bistro - one must blink astonished wide eyes and savor every word while simultaneously expressing profound gratitude for such extraordinary, serendipitous good fortune.

Perre is truly a Renaissance man: substantial credits as an actor, singer, dancer, musician, writer, photographer, and even a chef pepper his curriculum vitae and infuse his work with a timeless and universal energy. Perre punctuates his writing with the mystic’s exclamation point, the existentialist’s question mark, the philosopher’s comma, the mathematician’s period, the mentor’s dash and the mythologist’s ellipsis. The result is a sumptuous, intoxicating stew of ideas and musings to inspire and delight. A Confederacy of Joy is Perre’s debut collection, bringing to the modern age all of the joy and mystery a wondrous birth deserves.

Mystery and truth exist in equal, perfectly balanced measure in Perre’s personal poetic universe. In a world where everything has been said, usually in twenty or more inversions, Perre manages, inconceivably, to consistently break new ground. From “A Nomad’s Ode to Romance”: Romance is the thing in two/The splitting cell rejoined/The gift of opposing thumbs.

These poems are glittering jewels in the firmament of wonder - their truths are so simple and ingenious that one is left breathless, wondering how it is possible for them to have waited so long to be expressed with such guileless panache. A Confederacy of Joy by Juan-Paolo Perre enthralls and inspires in waves so profound that they bring new depth and dimension to the writer’s art. This is a debut collection not to be missed.