Papaveria Press:
Descent: A series of seven long-form poems, each a re-imagining of a mythological katabasis, covering descents into the otherworld from Inanna to Tam Lin. Limited edition, fully illustrated handbound hardbacks will be released on equinox and solstice through 2007, beginning with The Descent of Inanna.

The Descent of Inanna

"Valente's version is rich as the earth; you can smell the dirt under the fingernails, taste the rotting leaves in the mouth...she's updated the poetic technique, and "translated" the ancient ritualistic (and highly repetitious) poem into an idiom that makes sense to a modern reader, without trivialising, without exchanging the strange, rotted flavour of the original for too-contemporary banalities."
(Review by Hal Duncan)

Poem exerpt:

Her foot is pointed like a dancer's, laces inward,
indicating darkness. The bend in her knee is not quite classical --
the bone protrudes, white-blind, and her calf is mapped:
scar, welt, sun. It hesitates, ostrich-elongate,
and the ribbon knotted at the perfumed hollow of her ankle
flutters.

The wind out of the deep smells of myrrh and cardamom,
and meat just shy of spoil.

Does she hear the sea far off from her? Does she hear the working
of worms in the ceiling of loam?

The Descent of Inanna was released March 20, 2006 as a hand-bound limited edition of 50 copies. Catherynne will be donating 15% of her royalties to the Global Fund for Women.