Best of Stain 2 Now Available!

Get your copy of

Best of Stain

2

featuring

Tara Betts, Puma Perl, Ameila Terry, David Lawton and more

$7 includes S&H

http://www.janicebrabaw.com/

HOT OFF THE PRESSES!!!!

Due to the overwhelming success of the first edition of The Best of Stain, Janice Brabaw has compiled the second anthology of the series. This time the book features these Stained Glass Confessional/An Echo, A Stain alums:

Caroline Berger, Luis Bernard, Tara Betts, Janice Brabaw,Jen Bush, DeLana Dameron, Stephanie Darrow, Eric Crow Draven, Tim Freeman, Thomas Fucaloro, David Lawton, Mike Marcellino, Reina Miranda, Puma Perl. Jessica Reed, Ameilia Terry, Angel Thompson Georges, Amy Uzi, Lori Williams & Boris Zilberman.

SKETCHBOOK Jul-Aug 2009 Now Online

Absolute Freedom Project by Russ Freedman, USA

SKETCHBOOK Jul-Aug 2009

now online at

http://poetrywriting.org/

With 89 Writers & Artists from 20 Countries!

Deadline for next issue: 10/20/09

SKETCHBOOK
A Journal for Eastern & Western Short Forms
Edited by Karina Klesko and John Daleindon

HAIGAONLINE's Autumn Gallery now online!

HAIGAONLINE's Autumn Gallery now online!

Featuring work by

NAIA

MICHAEL REHLING

http://www.haigaonline.com/issue10-1/gallery.html

We are pleased and proud that three Haigaonline staff members—

Mary, Linda and former editor an'ya—were asked to contribute to
Origa's haiga b-day tribute to James W. Hackett!

http://worldhaikureview.googlepages.com/hackettmemorial

VERSAL New Reading Period & New Editors

VERSAL 8

Internationally acclaimed literary annual published in Amsterdam, bringing together the world's urgent, involved, and unexpected.

Versal is pleased to announce the start of its eighth reading period and welcomes four new editors to its team.

Jennifer K. Dick, the author of Fluorescence (Univ. of Georgia Press, 2004) and Enclosures (Blazevox, 2007), joins the poetry team, along with Matthew Sadler, whose first chapbook is to be published with Flying Guillotine Press in Brooklyn.

BJ Hollars is the newest member of the fiction team. He edited the recently released anthology You Must Be This Tall To Ride: Contemporary Writers Take You Inside The Story from Writer's Digest Books.

Finally, Shayna Schapp is Versal's new assistant art editor. She teaches at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague.

Versal wants your poetry, prose, and art for the eighth issue due out in May 2010.

See website for guidelines and to submit: http://versal.wordsinhere.com/

Inquiries (only) can be directed to: versal AT wordsinhere DOT com

Preorder POEM, HOME from Paper Kite Press

Preorder POEM, HOME An Anthology of Ars Poetica from Paper Kite Press

November Release $23 (includes S&H)

http://wordpainting.com/

poem, home
An Anthology of Ars Poetica

from Paper Kite Press

Edited by Jennifer Hill and Dan Waber

230 pages, $23 (includes shipping)

The title says it all. Includes poems by: Kelli Russell Agodon, Flor Aguilera, Karren L. Alenier, Sandra Alland, C. J. Allen, Ivan Arguelles, Anny Ballardini, Gary Barwin, Annette Basalyga, Rick Benjamin, John M. Bennett, Maxianne Berger, F .J. Bergmann, Cliff Bernier, Gregory Betts, Celia Bland, Dean Blehert, Helen Boettcher, Peter Boyle, Allen Braden, Therese L. Broderick, Mary Buchinger, Ana Buigues, Mike Burwell, Mairéad Byrne, Nick Carbó, Cathy Carlisi, Wendy Taylor Carlisle, James Cervantes, Joel Chace, Ellen Cole, Ed Coletti, Jennifer Compton, Anne Coray, Alison Croggon, Del Ray Cross, Craig Czury, Yoko Danno, Lucille Lang Day, Denise Duhamel, Patrick Dunagan, Riccardo Duranti, Paul Dutton, Susanne Dyckman, Lynnell Edwards, Dan Featherston, Annie Finch, Thomas Fink, Alan Halsey, Sharon Harris, Lola Haskins, Nellie Hill, Nathan Hoks, Paul Hoover, Mikhail Horowitz, Ray Hsu, Halvard Johnson, Jill Jones, Adrianne Kalfopoulou, Bhanu Kapil, W. B. Keckler, Karl Kempton, Kit Kennedy, Tracy Koretsky, Greg Kosmicki, Gary Leising, Amy Lemmon, Lyn Lifshin, Diane Lockward, Rupert Mallin, Dr. Pamela McClure, Dr. D. H. Melhem, Hillary Mellon, Paul Mitchell, Carley Moore, Daniel Thomas Moran, Maggie Morley, Richard Newman, Angela O'Donnell, Shin Yu Pai, Helen Pavlin, Jonathan Penton, Alice Pero, Patrick Phillips, Paul Pines, Kevin Prufer, Chelsea Rathburn, Susan Rich, Cynthia Ris, Kim Roberts, Jay Rogoff, Kate Schapira, Barry Schwabsky, Derek Sheffield, Shoshauna Shy, Sue Stanford, Lucien Suel, Rod Summers, Eileen Tabios, Elaine Terranova, Heather Thomas, David Tipton, Juanita Torrence-Thompson, William Trowbridge, Priscilla Uppal, Katherine Varnes, Jeanne Wagner, Amy Watkins, Scott Watson, Melissa Weinstein, Carol Clark Williams, Jacquie Williams, Ernie Wormwood, Mark Young, and Andrena Zawinski.

Paper Kite Press Studio & Gallery
443 Main Street
Kingston, Pennsylvania 18704
http://wordpainting.com/
http://www.logolalia.com/arspoetica/

The Power of Literacy Contest Deadline Sept 22

Writing and poetry contest open to adults

In honor of International Literacy Day and Muskogee Area Adult Literacy Day, Muskogee Area Literacy Council and Muskogee Public Library are sponsoring a writing contest for adults 18 and over.

Categories are: Compositions or poems

Theme: The Power of Literacy

One of the following quotes must be used within your composition.

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. — W. Fusselman

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. — Chinese Proverb

It must be used in a way that it fits the composition and makes sense.

Composition requirements:

Must be original, limit one entry per person. You may choose to write in any genre 300 to 500 words in length. One of the quotes must be chosen and used within the composition. Typed or neatly written on one side of the page only (double spaced). It must be in English. Do not bold, underline, use charts tables or graphs. If typing, the font should be no smaller than 12 point.

On the back of the page, please write the following: Author’s name, the genre you have chose to write in, the quote you have chose to use, your mailing address and your telephone number(s).

Judging criteria - compositions:

Creativity; originality; content, staying within chosen genre; use of quote; details; grammar; punctuation; sentence structure; organization of thought and word choice; spelling; neatness.

Poetry requirements:

The poem must be written with “The Power of Literacy” as the theme; must be original (limit one entry per person); no more than 20 to 25 lines; can be written in any form; typed or neatly written on one side of the page only.

On the back of the page, please write the following: The form of poetry you have chosen to write in, author’s name, your mailing address and your telephone number(s).

Judging criteria - poems:


Thematic unity; effective use of language providing message and interest; originality in approach; creativity; choice of words and readability; mood intensity; overall impact; form and flow; spelling; neatness.

Entry deadline:

Entries must be received no later than 4 p.m. Sept. 22. Entries must be submitted in person or mailed to: Muskogee Area Literacy Council, 801 W. Okmulgee Ave., Muskogee 74401 No faxed entries will be accepted.

Notice to all entrants:

Winners will be announced Sept. 29 during a reception, which will begin at 7 p.m. in the southeast room at Muskogee Public Library.

The reception will be for the entrants and their families, as well as, the public.

If you have any questions, call Penny Chastain, adult literacy coordinator, Muskogee Public Library, 682-6657, Ext. 246.

All decisions made by the judges are final.

By entering this contest, contestants give consent for their compositions and poems to be published by the Muskogee Area Literacy Council.

Employees of Muskogee Public Library and members of Muskogee Area Literacy Board are not eligible to enter.

Reprinted from http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/features/local_story_252220135.html?keyword=secondarystory

Ekphrastic Poetry Contest Deadline Sept 30

Author: mamta
Posted: Mon Sep 14 8:04:00 EDT 2009
Post subject: Ekphrastic Poetry Contest

The staff and administrators of

GotPoetry.com
are pleased to announce
the first

ekphrastic poetry contest

[ Ekphrastic poetry brings attention to visual art. Its writing upon another art form, for instance a poem about a photograph ]

Entries:

This genre has a lot of freedom for exploration. There are no restrictions on the form. The poem should be written specifically on the picture posted above and for the contest. It may not be published in the finished section (or anywhere else) until after the winners have been announced.

The contest is open to all members. (To become a member, register here: http://www.gotpoetry.com/Your_Account/register.html) The whole staff or families of staff are not eligible for this competition. Please do not share your submissions with other members of Got Poetry. Selected judges will be rating them blindly. Please do not respond in this thread either with a poem or to disclose you are sending one. Only one submission per member is permitted.

Not following these rules will lead to disqualification.

Please submit your entry to MAMTA in private messaging no later than midnight Eastern Standard time on September 30th. Please use the subject line "ekphrasic poetry contest" for your submission. Winners will be announced on October 5th.

• The first place winner will receive 100 karma points. The second place winner will receive 75 karma points and the third will receive 50 karma points.
  
  
• The winners will have a badge displayed under their info and on their profile.
  
  
• Also, the winners will enjoy a new status within the community. They will be invited to our exclusive club called the "winner's circle" where they will enjoy a unique set of privileges and perks.

_________________

Reprinted from http://www.gotpoetry.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=22783.html

BOOG CITY Small Press Fair in Brooklyn Sept 12

POETS WEAR PRADA will be at The Boog City Small Press Fair at Unameable Books in Brooklyn Saturday, September 12, 2009. We are launching two new releases at the fair: LAST CALL by David Elsasser and TWO NAKED FEET by Maria Lisella. All our chapbooks will be 20% off the list price (and of course you'll save the normal $1.50 S&H included on all mail orders if you buy your copies at the fair). We will also have copies of our summer releases: TOP TEEN GREATEST HITS by Carol Wierzbicki and DETAILED STILL by Karen Neuberg and very limited copies of our older chapbooks.

And best of all, AUSTIN ALEXIS will be reading at the mic to represent the press at 12:50PM!

Lots of poetry and music to hear and enjoy! Plenty of books to browse and buy!

And this event is FREE!

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12th
12:00 Noon
BOOG CITY SMALL PRESS FAIR
@
Unnameable Books
600 Vanderbilt Ave.
(bet. Prospect Place/St. Marks Avenue)
Brooklyn, NY

By Subway: 2, 3 to Grand Army Plaza,

C to Clinton-Washington avenues,

Q to 7th Avenue

The day's program will include readings from the following small presses:

A.P.D, artCHOKE Press, Belladonna, Bloof Books, Book Thug, Corollary Press, Ellipsis, EOAGH, Futurepoem, Litmus Press, little scratch pad press, POETS WEAR PRADA, Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs Press, 2nd Avenue, Straw Gate Press, Stubborn Plant Press, Ugly Duckling Presse.

Anslem Berrigan in conversation with Buck Downs.

Readings from:

Ammiel Acalay, Anslem Berrigan, Brenda Coultas, Mike County, Buck Downs, Jim Dunn, Danielle Le Gros Georges, Ish Klein, Jean-Paul Pecqueur, Ryan Walker, Dana Ward, Karen Weiser, Katie Yates

Music from:

Gracefully, Phoebe Kreutz, Jesse Schoen

For an online copy of the Welcome to Boog City festival issue of Boog City, which serves as a program for the even: http://welcometoboogcity.com/bc59.pdf

PWP Releases Maria Lisella's TWO NAKED FEET

In a quietly seductive voice Lisella takes the reader on journey after journey, to exotic locales like Havana, Venice and Dubrovnik, places steeped in myth and bloodshed. With crystalline descriptions reminiscent of Elizabeth Bishop, she mixes the haunted elegance of the old world and the disturbed consumerism of the new. TWO NAKED FEET is brilliantly wired with the tension of paradox. It is about exile and the movement of peoples, the destruction and pastiche of cultures, the chasm between the idealized world and the colloquial one. Lisella writes with depth and simplicity. Her “I” rarely steps outside of the observing eye to become autobiographical, and yet the poems are remarkable for their passion.

—STEPHANIE DICKINSON Award-winning author of Half Girl and Road of Five Churches

TWO NAKED FEET
by Maria Lisella
ISBN 978-0-9841844-1-5
(soft cover/saddle-stitched/24 pp.)
$8.00 (+ $1.50 S&H)
POETS WEAR PRADA
September 2009

Maria Lisella is Program Coordinator for the IAWA readings at the Cornelia St. Café, and is co-editing an anthology based on those readings. She lives in Long Island City and was a finalist in the competition for Poet Laureate of Queens in 2007. A longtime travel writer, she currently edits a national travel trade magazine and is a member of the New York Travel Writers Association.

Photo Credit: Stillman Rogers

Preview this book at issuu.com: http://poetswearpradanj.home.att.net/MariaLisella.html

POETS WEAR PRADA
C/O Roxanne Hoffman
533 Bloomfield Street - 2nd Floor
Hoboken, NJ 07030
http://poetswearpradanj.home.att.net/
http://poetswearprada.blogspot.com/
http://thesmokingbook.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/pradapoet


POETS WEAR PRADA is a small press based in Hoboken, New Jersey devoted to introducing new authors through limited edition, high- quality chapbooks, primarily of poetry.

New press, great authors, a publisher who is one miracle short of sainthood.-Angelo Verga, Poetry Curator of The Cornelia Street Cafe

Poets Wear Prada is a poetry publishing house with excellent poets and affordable books with beautiful covers. Have you had your poetry today?-Meredith Sue Willis, Books for Readers

Stylistically, these beautifully designed and produced chaplets bear their own distinctive signature.-Linda Lerner, Small Press Review

Proud Member of CLMP

http://www.myspace.com/poetswearprada
http://www.youtube.com/pradapoet
http://gcast.com/u/pradapoet

PWP Releases LAST CALL by David Elsasser

David Elsasser's a dangerous poet. His art is patient observation of what happens when time passes and we are not looking. He nails it “past where rails meet.” What images! Watch your back, these rites of passage are not for children.

—GEORGE SPENCER, Co-host of the Phoenix Reading Series

LAST CALL
Poems by David Elsasser
ISBN 978-0-9817678-8-8
(soft cover/saddle-stitched/30 pp.)
$8.00 (+ $1.50 S&H)
POETS WEAR PRADA
September 2009

Poetry again prevails – the subject this time, coping with time and our mortality. Elsasser has accomplished some beautifully written and memorable work here, weaving words about the waxing of our years and waning of our bodies, and where it leaves us.

—EVIE IVY, The First Woman Who Danced and Dinner With The Muse, the Anthology of the Green Pavilion Poetry Event

David M. Elsasser co-hosts the weekly Saturn Series poetry reading in Manhattan. LAST CALL celebrates his generation’s present moment of deliberation.

[Photo: Su Polo]

Preview this book at http://home.att.net/~poetswearpradanj/DavidElsasser.html

POETS WEAR PRADA
C/O Roxanne Hoffman
533 Bloomfield Street
2nd Floor
Hoboken, NJ 07030
http://poetswearpradanj.home.att.net/

John Amen's AT THE THRESHOLD OF ALCHEMY Due Out October 1

Poems such as these, and there are plenty in this book — John Amen’s third — keep resounding in the mind the way great poetry does...

—RICARDO NIRENBERG, Offcourse Literary Journal

John Amen's third book

AT THE THRESHOLD OF ALCHEMY

to be released from Presa Press

~ October 1 ~

At the Threshold of Alchemy is a brutally realistic book of poetry. By immersing himself in the particular details of his most meaningful moments, John Amen transforms hurt into poems that are both imagistic & lyrically expressive. With metaphoric daring and offbeat grace, he guides us through haunting and sometimes violent memories of roving through America’s southland. Includes the major 260 line poem-sequence “Portraits of Mary,” hailed by poet Jared Smith as “perhaps the most complex, intricate, and thoroughly honest love poem in all of contemporary poetry.” Holding a compass below the stars, his surreal imagery unfolds like origami. A thoroughly human book of memorable poems of great intensity by one of our best younger poets.

John Amen flexes verbal muscles in lively poems filled with metaphoric daring and offbeat grace. He guides us through a haunting and sometimes violent
world as he draws mythological and Biblical references, entwined with wild memories of roving through America’s southland.

There is a memorable and intense beauty in these poems, and their excitement deserves an attentive audience.

—COLLETTE INEZ

THOMAS LUX writes of John Amen's debut collection: "Christening the Dancer is an intense, vivid, and stunning first book. "

John Amen is the author of three collections of poetry: Christening the Dancer (Uccelli Press 2003), More of Me Disappears (Cross-Cultural Communications 2005), and At the Threshold of Alchemy (Presa 2009), and has released two folk/folk rock CDs, All I’ll Never Need and Ridiculous Empire (Cool Midget 2004, 2008). His poetry has appeared in various journals and anthologies, including, most recently, Rattle, The New York Quarterly, The International Poetry Review, Gargoyle, and Blood to Remember. He is also an artist, working primarily with acrylics on canvas. Amen travels widely giving readings, doing musical performances, and conducting workshops. He founded and continues to edit the award-winning literary bimonthly, The Pedestal Magazine (http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/).

JIMMY SANTIAGO BACA describes Amen's second collection, More of Me Disappears, as "chock full of electric lines that sting the senses."

~Selected Events~

10/05/2009. Reading in Sacramento, CA 7:30PM Sacramento Poetry Center. 1719 25th St; Sacramento, CA 95816. 916.979.9706. Co-feature with Scott Weiss. For additional info, contact Tim Kohl: tnklbnny@frontiernet.net

10/06/2009. Reading in Redondo Beach, CA 8PM Redondo Poets Series. Coffee Cartel; 1820 South Catalina Ave (cross street: Elena Ave); Redondo Beach, CA. 310.316.6554. For additional info, contact Larry Colker: larry@redondopoets.com

10/07/2009. Reading in Fallbrook, CA 5:45PM Fallbrook's Writers Series. Café des Artistes; 103 S. Main St; Fallbrook, CA For additional info, contact KB Gressitt: KBGressitt@aol.com

10/09/2009. Workshop and reading in Modesto, CA Workshop, 6-7PM; Reading, 7:30-8PM, followed by open mic. Horizon Room; Homewood Village Mobile Home Park; 2000 Mable Ave; Modesto, CA. 209.522.1412 To reserve for the workshop and/or get additional info, contact Cleo Griffith by phone: 209.543.1776 or by email: cleor36@yahoo.com. The cost for the workshop is $20 and includes a copy of John's new collection, At the Threshold of Alchemy.

10/11/2009. Reading in San Francisco, CA 4PM Valona Poetry Series. Valona Deli; 1323 Pomona St; Crockett, CA. 510.787.2022. For additional info, contact Connie Post: livermorepoetlaureate@hotmail.com

10/14/2009. Reading in Woodbridge, NJ Reading at 8PM, preceded by short and informal workshop at 7PM. Poets Wednesday Series. Barron Arts Center. 582 Rahway Ave; Woodbridge, NJ. 07095 For additional info, contact Deborah LaVeglie: PoetRed@aol.com

10/16/2009. Reading in New York, NY 6PM Son of a Pony Poetry Series. Cornelia Street Cafe. 29 Cornelia St; New York, NY. 212.989.9319. For additional info, contact Kathi Georges: kgeokat@mac.com

10/18/2009. Reading in New York, NY 5PM NY Phoenix Series. Bengal Curry. 65 West Broadway; New York, NY. For additional info, contact George Spencer: nvega3ec@yahoo.com

11/07/2009: Reading in Charlottesville, VA 11AM The Virginia Writers Club (Annual Conference); held at the OMNI Hotel in Charlottesville; 235 West Main St; Charlottesville, VA 22902. 434.971-5500. For additional info, contact Sarah Collins Honenberger: honenberger@comcast.net

TO ORDER YOUR COPY:

For more information and to order you copy visit Presa Press online at http://www.presapress.com/

or the author's website at http://www.johnamen.com/

Seeking Video Poetry for MEMORY by February 2010

Fri, Sep 4, 2009 2:59 am

SYNAPTIC GRAFFITI COLLECTIVE SEEK YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THEIR SECOND MULTIMEDIA PROJECT

Dear Collective;

It has been five years since we produced the first Synaptic Graffiti Collective project, Slam the Body Politik. Five years since we blew the lid off the Judith Wright Centre auditorium with the launch of a revolutionary CDROM featuring the work of poets, musos, digital and visual artists from around the globe.

We are back in 2009 with a more contemplative offering in the form of MEMORY – Video Poetry Project. There is still a strong social consciousness at work in MEMORY, but it has a more personal flavour. MEMORY will go further than metaphorically scrawling on the walls of the system, it will break through them with powerful creative expressions of WHO WE REALLY ARE!

We are seeking VIDEO POEMS that correspond with broader social movements/events, as well as those that explore the links between memory and identity, and memory and place. Your video can consist of any combination of media including: spoken word, music, text, still and moving images; but works with a strong filmic quality are preferred.

Full submission details, including technical submission details, are provided on our MYSPACE blog:

PLEASE NOTE THAT SUBMISSIONS FOR THIS PROJECT CLOSE ON FEBRUARY 28, 2010

http://www.myspace.com/synapticgraffiti

Or you can send us an email:

synapticgraffiti@scart69.net

Warmest Regards

Sara Moss & Scart
Synaptic Graffiti Collective

Special thanks to Kirpal Gordon for sharing this announcement.