Wednesday, November 16, 2011

New from Black Buzzard Press: IN FRAGILITY by Michael Graves

'In Fragility' by Michael Graves
IN FRAGILITY
by Michael Graves
$15.95
Black Buzzard Press
ISBN 0-978-938872-47-8
Soft Cover, 86 pp.

Praise for In Fragility:

"Emotion recollected in fragility, these poems lucidly etch the power of darkness that endures, that returns. These poems are amazingly lucid, which gives them a paradoxical power."

--ROBERT VISCUSI, author of the novel Astoria (American Book Award winner) and of the poem "Ellis Island"


"This grave book deals with such volatile elements as alcohol, sexual frustration, and apostasy. The reader will watch fascinated as Mike Graves burns his fuse down to the stick of dynamite he holds in his hand, for these poems approximate a searing self¬murder note addressed to any reader strong enough to peruse it. Only a poet as skilled and knowledgeable as Graves could render raw and repressed emotion with such acute control of form and diction, such range of allusion. But reader beware: you are about to take your own life into your hands."

--GEORGE HELD


"To adapt a phrase from James Joyce, whom Graves is influenced by, In Fragility offers readers the curve of multiple emotions. While traversing sentiments of aloneness and aloofness, and both objective and introspective, these poems are at once bleak, menacing, disturbing and humorous. They bespeak a stark sobriety often in conflict with itself and, through the effective use of metaphor and the recurrent theme of alienation, achieve a narrative coherence."

--A. NICHOLAS FARGNOLI, Dean of Humanities, Molloy College, Rockville Centre, NY, and President of The James Joyce Society.

Title Poem:

IN FRAGILITY

Speak to her
In fervent prayer
And fevered need
With brimming heart,
Shaking like a poisoned cup
And soft, sick gut,
Of where you rose
From nothingness
To nascent consciousness,
Inheritor of world
And family legacy,
Consuming time
And fragile self
That can't connect
Although it grow
In pain, organically,
Enthused by hope
And every false approach
Fear and circumstance allow

About the Author:

Michael Graves
MICHAEL GRAVES is the author of a full-length collection of poems, Adam and Cain (Black Buzzard, 2006) and two chapbooks, Illegal Border Crosser (Cervana Barva, 2008) and Outside St. Jude’s (R. E. M. Press, 1990). In Fragility from Black Buzzard Press is his second full-length collection.

In two thousand four (2004), he was the recipient of a grant of four thousand five hundred dollars ($4,500.00) from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation. He is the publisher of the small magazine PHOENIX. Many years ago, he was a student of James Wright and organized a conference on James Wright at Poets House in 2004. And he became a member of P.E.N. a couple of years ago.

In addition to leading a James Joyce Ulysses’ Reading Group, he has published thirteen (13) poems in the James Joyce Quarterly and read from them and others of his poems influenced by Joyce to a gathering of the Joyce Society at the Gotham Book Mart.

Watch Michael Graves on YouTube.com at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjGZeKfSW8g, an in depth interview and a reading. (Credit: Poetry Thin Air)

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

A New Poetry Collection from Michael T. Young Now Available to Pre-Order


Living in the  Counterpoint
by Michael T. Young
Finishing Line Press
ISBN 1-59924-870-0
Paper, $12
Release Date:  January, 13, 2012
Reserve Your Copy Today!
Pre-order directly from the publisher:
http://www.finishinglinepress.com/NewReleasesandForthcomingTitles.htm

Author Michael T. Young writes about writing  Living in the Counterpoint:

These poems were written over about an 8-year period.  If you’ve ever been astonished that in all the infinite amount of time, and all the endless empty and silent space in the universe, you are now alive and aware of being so, that is what my poems try to approach. All of them surfaced in the course of daily life, while sitting on the subway, sitting in a café, rising in a moment of insomnia, driving home toward the sunrise. In these moments, I find myself confronted by the question of identity in the face of loss and change -- the way the daily details render the face of who we are.


The most dominant influences while writing these poems were Stephen Dunn and Gerald Stern. I've alway admired their ability to take quite personal moments and find some concern central to simply being alive.





Praise for Living in the Counterpoint:

“Michael T. Young has crafted a metaphysics of memory in all its ache and luster. These poems pin down ghosts; finger the stirrings of nostalgia and its seeming perpetuity. Through a yearning to define those feelings most elusive, Young succeeds in unveiling them. Living in the Counterpoint coaxes introspection and haunts like a summer dusk, it is a true achievement.”

-- Benjamin Evans, Executive Editor, Fogged Clarity

“With the deftness of a magician, Michael T. Young moves us seamlessly between point and counterpoint, so seamlessly that we are almost unaware of the shifts from the living to the dead, from light to dark, near to far, and early to late. In tightly crafted gem-like poems, he contemplates fossils, diamonds, headstones, rivers, bridges, and even a slug, ultimately achieving and imparting ‘a deep knowledge of the earth.’”

-- Diane Lockward, Poet Laureate of West Caldwell, NJ
and author of Temptation by Water



From Living in the Counterpoint:


THE RISK OF LISTENING TO BRAHMS

I like action movies for the same reason
I like Brahms, or undiluted scotch
the constant flux of the sea,
or the sun’s light and heat stripped down
to raw fire, to the burning sine qui non,
like the first time I fired a gun and felt
deliriously naked and in that denuded moment,
remembered what I was chasing after when
as a teenager, without telling anyone,
I hopped on a bus for Philadelphia
and checked into the first hotel,
struggling to dodge those who knew me
to find if I wasn’t something more
than they expected, or could become
something other than they could know,
thrilled by the risk and uncertainty, the same
as when I hiked a mountain without water
on a humid summer afternoon,
trudging deeper into heat exhaustion,
the nausea stopping me every twenty feet
to gather strength from the pleasure
of wondering if I would make it home.

About the Author:

Michael T. Young has published two previous collections of poetry: the full-length Transcriptions of Daylight (Rattapallax Press, 2000), and the chapbook Because the Wind Has Questions (Somers Rocks Press, 1997). His next full-length collection, The Beautiful Moment of Being Lost, will be published by Black Coffee Press in 2013. He has received both a Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and a William Stafford Award, and he has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He received the Chaffin Poetry Award from the Chaffin Journal. His work has appeared in numerous journals including The Adirondack Review, Barrow Street, Iodine Poetry Journal, The Potomac Review, The Louisville Review, and The Same. His work is also included in the anthologies Chance of a Ghost (Helicon Nine Editions, 2005) and Phoenix Rising (T&W, 2004). He currently lives with his wife and children in Jersey City, New Jersey.



Reserve Your Copy Today! Pre-order directly from Finishing Line Press:

Shipping & handling within the USA is only $1.49 per book for a limited time only.  Please include $3.99 S&H for all international orders.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Open Submissions: Snail Mail Review Deadline: June 30, 2011

SNAIL MAIL REVIEW
SNAIL MAIL REVIEW


Submission Guidelines:
We accept simultaneous submissions
Poetry: 35 lines, 3-5 Poems
Short Fiction: 1-7pgs.
Mail Submissions to:
The Snail Mail Review
3000 Coffee Rd. Chateau Apt. B6
Modesto, CA 95355

Include:
S.A.S.E (Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope)
Cover Letter W/ Brief Bio.

Submission Deadline: June 30, 2011

Facebook: Snail Mail Review


* * *

From: Kris Price
Subject: Open Submissions: Snail Mail Review
Date: Saturday, May 21, 2011, 12:45 AM


Hi Fellow Writer,


Snail Mail Review is a up-and-coming literary journal. The editors are now seeking submissions for the second issue. Submissions are open from now until June 30, 2011. We would love to receive a submission from you. We accept all genre in Poetry and Fiction. Attached is a flier with all the specific submission guidelines. There is No Pay for accepted submissions. Contributors will receive a complimentary copy as payment. No online submissions are accepted. Online submissions are only accepted from overseas. Feel free to redistribute this flier to other writers as you see fit. If you are interested in submitting, please send 3-5 poems of no more than 35 lines and/or 1-7 pages of fiction to:

Snail Mail Review
c/o Kris Price
3000 Coffee Rd
Chateau Apt #B6
Modesto, CA  95355

No online submissions.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions at snailmailreview@gmail.com .

Find us on Facebook by searching Snail Mail Review.

Thank you,

The Editors

* * *

Best Regards,

Snail Mail Review
Kris Price
Christine Chesko
Founding Editors

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Call for DADA Art & Poetry Submissions: Maintenant 5 (deadline: 1/31/11)

Call for DaDa Art & Poetry Submissions: MAINTENANT 5
Deadline: 1/31/11.
(In case you haven't seen this call posted by Peter Carlaftes/Kat George on Facebook)

Be a part of the 4th annual New York DaDa Poetry Salon, by submitting your DaDa-inspired poetry and/or art to Maintenant5, A Journal of Contemporary Dada Poetry & Art. The concept of Maintenant is inspired by DaDa instigator and Three Rooms Press spiritual advisor Arthur Cravan. In the past three annual issues, we received increasingly bolder work from Neo-Dadaists worldwide. We’re excited about this year’s new perfect bound for...mat, and we’re looking for the best Neo-Dada work ever to publish.

Poems should be no longer than 20 lines. DO NOT send multi-page long poems as they will not fit our format and will be rejected outright. DO submit shorter pieces—as long as it is full of the intensity and madness that reflects the age we’re living in.. Also–we LOVE Dada-inspired poetic word art, collage and photography. All art must be submitted in jpeg format, high resolution (300 dpi, 4×5 in). Black & White only.

Send your submissions to editor@threeroomspress.com

The journal will be distributed at the DaDa Poetry Salon on Friday, March 18th, 2010 at Cornelia Street Cafe (29 Cornelia Street, NYC, 6-8 p.m.), via mail to contributors, and to those wise enough to request a copy.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: JANUARY 31, 2011

*Arthur Cravan is credited with creating the first ‘zine in the world with his publication Maintenant. We’re proud to carry on the tradition.

http://threeroomspress.com/2010/11/call-for-dada-submissions-maintenant5-pub-date-march-2011/

Call for Poems about Sex w/o 100 Words Deadline Extended to March 1

Anthology Call for Poems About Sex with 100 Words Off Limits. THE DEADLINE has been extended until March 1, 2011.

Here's the original call:

It's notoriously difficult to write about sex. As even the most inventive writers struggle to capture its utter fabulousness, this most visceral and energized experience keeps looping around to its own staid, repetitive language. There are varying levels of heat (hot, sizzling, torrid); a running X-rated soundtrack (moan, scream, grunt) and the inevitable parade of pounded, perspiring and manipulated body parts (breasts, butts, rods). If you've read one (jerk, cum, rigid), you've pretty much read them all (suck, damp, spurt). The poems range from the dryly clinical (vagina, testicles, areola) to the unintentionally comedic (dripping honey pot, throbbing member).

So how do we re-energize and reinvent the sex poem? We identify the 100 words that are the most blatant offenders, and we declare them off limits. That forces us to examine the act without the customary escape routes, those words that say "I don't know how to say this, so I'm saying this."

Here's a chance to muse upon the loss (or rediscovery) of your virginity, the best or worst you've ever had, illicit sex, purchased sex, sex toys, illegal sex, teenage sex, geezer sex, sex in the news, dangerous liaisons and fumbling first attempts. Use your imagination, but don't use THOSE WORDS--and be sure to look for unexpected entry points (oops) into your work. Utilize persona, shifting perspective, nonce forms, etc. No scratch-and-sniff, please.

For a list of the forbidden words, please email <100Wrds(at)gmail.com> (replace (at) with @ in sending e-mail).

Submissions will be accepted at the same address. Please, no more than three poems per submission, and no previously published poems. No publisher has yet been wooed for this project, but the search is on.


Reprinted from Creative Writers Opportunities.