Flor del Concreto

New from Black Buzzard Press: IN FRAGILITY by Michael Graves

2011-11-16T19:21:00.000-08:00

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 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)

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

2011-10-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

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:

http://www.finishinglinepress.com/NewReleasesandForthcomingTitles.htm

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.

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

2011-05-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

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

E-Mail: snailmailreview@gmail.com

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

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

2011-01-23T14:12:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-23T13:58:00.000-08:00

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.

Isles Poetry Group Seeking Editor

2010-10-21T19:51:00.000-07:00

In 1949, Jerome Brooke was born in Evansville, Indiana. He is currently the editor of the Isles of Myst Review. He has also written a varied collection of poetry books such as Dancer of Luzon (January 1999), Dark Sea of Sulu (January 1999), High Priestess (January 1999), Mirage: Dance of the Sun (January 1999), Our Lady of Silk (January 1999), Parade (January 1999), Hunters of Stone (January 2000), Lance of the Sun (January 2000), and Babylon (January 2001). These poetry books, as well as other books by this author, are available for purchase on Amazon.com.

Currently, he has put out a call for an editor for an eZine produced by The Isles Poetry Group. According to information he has posted about this opportunity, “the position is unpaid, but with income potential.”

If you are interested in applying for the position, or would like more information about it, send an email to jeromevbrooke@yahoo.com .

Thanks to Astarte Immortal for sharing this call. Reprinted from the Examiner.com.

Submit to Nothing No One Nowhere

2010-10-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

Virgogray Press

Nothing No One Nowhere

Nothing No On Nowhere will be published quarterly in print edition and will be edited by Amelia Hoff. Submissions will close on December 1st, 2010 or when the issue is full. These are the general guidelines:

You may submit up to five pieces of poetry or short prose/flash fiction or up to the total of 5 pages.
Short stories, fiction, plays, and interviews may be submitted with a length of up to 10 pages.
Reviews maybe submitted with a length up to 2 pages per review.
Public Forum/Polemics- This is a segment of the magazine dedicate to allowing the voice of public concern, thought or question to be expressed. Community to world wide, this space is open for your truth.
Art maybe sent in .jpeg format. Do not send .zip or like format. You may send a minimum of 4 images and up to 10 images. The work you submit may not previously appear in any print or internet media.

Please do not send genre writing: science fiction, fantasy, etc.

If there is a format of writing you wish to submit not included above, you may contact and inquire.

WE DO NOT ACCEPT SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS.

YOU MAY SUBMIT PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED WORK, however, they must be older than one year from the publication date of the Nothing No One Nowhere issue you wish your work to appear in.

Please include publishing history in your cover letter.
Please indicate what type of writing you are submitting (i.e. fiction, short story, public forum, etc.)
There may be up to a three month waiting period; please consider this when submitting.
Submissions must be marked: Nothing No One Nowhere Submission or NNN-submission
Please include your mailing address and a bio spit not to exceed three lines.
All submissions should be sent by e-mail in the body of the draft to: vgp_sa@yahoo.com .

There is no payment for publication in Nothing No One Nowhere, though we are hoping to provide monetary compensation to our contributors in the future. However, any creator featured in Nothing No One Nowhere will receive one contributors copy.

* * *

Advertise in Nothing No One Nowhere

We will reserve a limited amount of retail space for you to advertise your latest work or your business. All adds must be black and white or grayscale. Ads must be sent in .jpeg format or .gif format and must be print ready. We use laser printers so the detail of your ad will display. These are the ad rates:

Whole Page: Height 7.88” Width 5” $60

Half Page Square: Height 5” Width 3.88” $40

Quarter Page Tall: Height 3.88” Width 2.5” $20

Quarter Page Long: Height 2” Width 5” $20

1/8 Page Square: Height 2” Width 2.5” $10

We will design your ad for $10.00 for 1/8 Size through Half Page Size ads and $20 for whole page ads.

Payment options may be discussed in correspondence.

Mark your email: NNN-ad

Ad inclusion ends December 1, 2010. No exceptions.

All correspondence for Nothing No One Nowhere must be sent to: vgp_sa@yahoo.com .

Virgogray (Est. 2004) is an independent publisher operating out of Texas. We specialize in poetry chapbooks and anthologies. Visit us at http://www.facebook.com/virgograypress Please look around, get to know us and if you'd like, submit something for publication.

Ashland Poetry Press Releases Jason Schneiderman's Second Collection STRIKING SURFACE

2010-09-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

About the Book:

"Jason Schneiderman has a fabulous, distillate gift for seeing to the heart of inherited paradigms: the Greeks on violence and the gods; the Christian Middle Ages on violence and conquest; the all-too-transhistorical, multicultural Everywhere on violence toward children. Hence the ravishing paradox of Schneiderman's poems, which find their freshest purchase in twice-told tales: the myths of Hyacinth and Echo, the myth of the progressive totalitarian state, the skepticism of the Rabbis, the nostalgia of the skeptical philosophers. STRIKING SURFACE (six of them on the hand alone, says the latest Interrogation Manual) is both beautifully conceived and beautifully written: witty, trenchant, tender, acerbic, and always, immutably, wise"--Linda Gregerson.

STRIKING SURFACE
by Jason Schneiderman
Paperback: 72 pages
Ashland Poetry Press (September, 2010)
ISBN: 978-0912592701

About the Author:

Jason Schneiderman is the author of STRIKING SURFACE (Ashland Poetry Press, 2010) and Sublimation Point (Four Way Books, 2004), a Stahlecker Selection. His poetry and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including American Poetry Review, The Best American Poetry, Poetry London, Grand Street, The Penguin Book of the Sonnet, Story Quarterly, and Tin House. He has received fellowships from Yaddo, The Fine Arts Work Center, and The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. He was the recipient of the Emily Dickinson Award from the Poetry Society of America in 2004. A graduate of the MFA program at NYU, he is currently completing his doctorate at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. http://jasonschneiderman.net/

Jason Schneiderman
(photo credit: Star Black)

BOOK LAUNCH

STRIKING SHARK MYSTERY PARTY

3 POETS, 3 NEW POETRY COLLECTIONS, 1 NIGHT ONLY.

Saturday, September 25, 6-9PM

@ LILLIAN VERNON HOUSE, 58 West 10th Steet, New York City

~Featuring~

Jennifer L. Knox (The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway), Ada Limón (Sharks in the Rivers),

Jason Schneiderman (Striking Surface)

Jason Schneiderman's Striking Surface was reviewed in Publisher's Weekly

« Ashland Poetry Press http://ashlandpoetrypress.wordpress.com/

Schneiderman practices, and sometimes excels at, the kind of art that seems, at first, artless: his sonnets, prose poems, and sparse free verse show a laconic figure whose grave reserve reveals itself in carefully stripped-down language, using only the most common American words. This second collect...

A Midsummer Night's Press: Submission Call for 2 Anthologies Celebrating Queer Jewish Poetry

2010-09-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

please spread the word

Friday, September 10, 2010 4:48 PM

From: Lawrence Schimel
To: Roxanne Hoffman

Hola Roxy--

Am doing 2 new anthos via A Midsummer Night's Press.

Thanks for any help in spreading the word.

And shana Tova!
:-)

L.
--
http://amidsummernightspress.typepad.com/amsnp/2010/09/cfs-for-2-anthologies-of-jewish-gay-and-lesbian-poetry.html

A Midsummer Night's Press

announces a call for submissions for 2 anthologies

celebrating queer Jewish poetry

to be published Spring 2011:

FLAMBOYANT: A Celebration of Jewish Gay Poetry
edited by Lawrence Schimel

MILK AND HONEY: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry

edited by Julie R. Enszer

Deadline: November 30, 2010.

We are looking for poems that celebrate and question, meditate and intimate, argue and reconcile contemporary queer Jewish identity. What is queer Jewish experience in the twenty-first century? What poetry expresses queer Jewishness today?

Whether you write about interfaith queer parenting, cruising in shul, how it feels to sign a ketubah in a country that won't recognize our same-sex marriages, fetishizing a sheggitz or being fetishized, we want to read about it and share it with others who want to read it as well.

What are our sacred texts for today? If they don't yet exist, write them. What are our queer Jewish blessings, curses and prayers.

While there is a rich tradition of queer Jewish writers who have made an indelible mark on our literature over the years, from Gertrude Stein and Adrienne Rich to Allen Ginsburg and Edward Field, we are looking for work that reflects queer Jewish identity in the new (secular) millennium. As such, we are open either to unpublished work, or work that was published since 2000 (this would include work

originally published in a magazine or anthology before 2000, which was later collected in a book published after 2000).

We welcome voices from across the spectrum of Jewish identity, from observant to merely cultural, and their intersections with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender identities and experiences.

We are open to all styles of poetry, from formal to free verse.

We welcome queer Jewish voices from outside the US, and are willing to consider translations into English. (It is the translator's responsibility to secure permission to reprint the poem in English.)

Both anthologies are open to previously published work, but it is the poet's responsibility to secure permission to reprint the poem.

We welcome work from Jewish trans poets, so long as the content of the work is relevant to either gay or lesbian experience.

There is no limit to the number of poems which may be submitted, so long as the Jewish and queer content are both relevant.

Submission instructions:

Title file with the initials of the anthology and author's last name: F-Surname.doc or MH-Surname.doc
Include your name, your mailing address, your email address, and a bio WITHIN the .doc file with your essay, as submissions will be separated from emails to be read.
Submit your work by email, as an attachment in .doc or .rtf format, to queerjewishpoetry@gmail.com

Deadline: November 30, 2010.

Payment will be three copies of the anthology per contributor.

About the Editors:

Lawrence Schimel is the author or anthologist of over 100 books, including FOUND TRIBE: JEWISH COMING OUT STORIES, KOSHER MEAT, BEST GAY POETRY 2008, FIRST PERSON QUEER, PoMoSEXUALS: CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT GENDER AND SEXUALITY, TWO BOYS IN LOVE, THE FUTURE IS QUEER, etc. He has won the Lambda Literary Award (twice), an Independent Publisher Book Award, the Spectrum Award, and other honors. He writes in both English and Spanish, and his work has been translated into 27 languages.

Julie R. Enszer is the author of the poetry collection HANDMADE LOVE (A Midsummer Night's Press, 2010) and the chapbook SISTERHOOD (Seven Kitchens Press, 2010). Her work has appeared in numerous Jewish, feminist and queer publications, including BRIDGES, JEWISH WOMEN'S LITERARY ANNUAL, SINISTER WISDOM, CALYX, WOMEN'S REVIEW OF BOOKS, FEMINIST STUDIES, WASHINGTON BLADE, LAMBDA BOOK REPORT, etc. She is also the founder of the Lesbian Poetry Archive.

About the Publisher:

A Midsummer Night's Press is an independent poetry publisher, publishing primarily in two imprints: 1) Fabula Rasa, dedicated to work inspired by myth and fairy tale, which has published FORTUNE'S LOVER: A BOOK OF TAROT POEMS by Rachel Pollack and FAIRY TALES FOR WRITERS by Lawrence Schimel, and 2) Body Language, devoted to queer poetry, which has published THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED IN OUR OTHER LIFE by Achy Obejas; BANALITIES by Brane Mozetic, translated by Elizabeti Zargi; HANDMADE LOVE by Julie R. Enszer; and MUTE by Raymond Luczak.

http://www.amidsummernightspress.com/

Eighty-eight Stories Campaign Against Domestic Violence And Raise Funds For Abused Mothers And Kids

2010-09-02T08:45:00.000-07:00

Wisdom of Our Mothers (Familia Books, 2010) is an anthology of true stories and poetry based on the theme of lessons learned from the authors’ mothers. It is the brain-child of part-time philanthropist Eric Bowen.

* * *

WISDOM OF OUR MOTHERS

Stories and Poems by Daughters and Sons

Edited by Eric Bowen

Trade Paperback, 296 Pages

ISBN 978-1453631010

Familia Books, 2010

$14.95

From the mother who taught her daughter to wire a lamp
to the mother who recruited the President to save her daughter's life,
the memories of daughters and sons of the remarkable wisdom and dedication of their mothers come to vivid life in this anthology of true stories.

~Contributors~

Aderemi Adegbite

Lily Alex

Liz Allen

Sally Bellerose

B. Lynch Black

L. Michael Black

Sylvia Bright-Green

Rheana Lee Campbell

Iona Carroll

Selene Castrovilla

Vijayalakshmi Chary

Eve Cogdell

JaeLynn Conrad

Flavia Cosma

Althea Gael Coupé

Shirley Anne Cox

Julie Curwin

Lynne Daroff

Carole Davis

Laura Aviella Davis

Mary Dempsey

Liz Dolan

Melissa England

Fred Evans

Deepanjolie Sonya Figg

Sandra Fischer

Virginia Fortner

Michele Graves

Susan Harmon

Jean M. Hendrickson

Roxanne Hoffman

Stephanie Holbrook

Andrea Hernandez Holm

Anne-Marie Hood

Dee Ann E. L. Horvath

Patrick Hurley

Amanda Hyslop

Beverly Jackson

Sally Jadlow

Diane Kolb

Kathy Krisko

Erin Lawlor

Loraine Lawson

James W. Lewis

Christy Lowman

Rose Marks

Tara Masih

Caryl McAdoo

Lyn McConchie

Myrna McKee

Rajendar Menen

Susan E. Méra

Jayne Moraski

Brooke Mullins

Hugh Neeld

Jean Noble

Lucy L. Painter

Sr. Josie Palmeri, MPF

Roberta Filzer Pearl

Perry P. Perkins

Carolyn Piper

Gayle Portnow

Oluwafemi Reis

Pat Richards

Dmae Roberts

Gwen Russell Green

Sheri Ryan

Wanda Ryder

Lynn Veach Sadler

Mark Scheel

Jacqueline Seewald

Virginia Settle

Ryma Shohami

Sheila Sievewright

Sharon Skinner

Serena Spinello

Madeline Steeg

Deborah Straw

Annmarie B. Tait

Laura Tamayo

Nicole A. Tatum

Rita Janice Traub

Dalia van den Boogaard

Sarah Wagner

K. K. Wilder

Lisa K. Winkler

Opposing domestic violence: In honor of those mothers doing their work in the most difficult of circumstances, editor Eric Bowen has pledged to donate one-half of his profits from the sale of this book to shelters for women and their children who are escaping abusive relationships.

About the Editor

Born in Renton, Washington State in 1953, Eric Bowen uses his day job as an accountant to support his family and his various hobbies and social activities, including Toastmasters, the Unitarians, hiking, taekwondo, linguistics, singing, and of course writing. His first book, An American View of Wales, chronicled his decade of volunteering for the Welsh home rule and language restoration movement.

* * * FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE * * *

Aug 25, 2010

Contact:

Patricia Carragon
917 679 5002
pcarragon@gmail.com

EIGHTY-EIGHT STORIES CAMPAIGN AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Anthology aims to raise funds for abused mothers and children

Bellingham, Washington (July 1, 2010) Wisdom of Our Mothers (Familia Books, 2010) is an anthology of true stories and poetry based on the theme of lessons learned from the authors’ mothers. It is the brain-child of part-time philanthropist Eric Bowen.

Following the publication of Tim Russert’s popular Wisdom of Our Fathers, Bowen saw the need for a companion volume of maternal wisdom. Bowen solicited writers from around the world to contribute their stories of what they had learned from their mothers. Guided by his own mother’s teaching that “one does well by doing good,” Bowen has pledged half his profits from the book to raise funds for shelters for abused mothers and children.

Everyone has a mother, and readers will doubtlessly find stories in this anthology that relate to their own experiences. Yet Bowen’s presentation isn’t sentimental. The mothers profiled in the stories are human. Their virtues are balanced by their flaws, and in some cases, the lessons learned from those flaws form the basis of the story.

The anthology explores maternal wisdom in various categories: emotional, relationship, and practical skills; virtues, humor, and heritage. One chapter delves into “the dark side,” profiling some truly dysfunctional mothers. “From other lands” describes motherhood in cultures outside the American mainstream.

For more information about Wisdom of Our Mothers, please visit http://www.familiabooks.com/ or contact Eric Bowen at 360-384-1028.

About Eric Bowen:

Eric Bowen has worked as an occasional free-lance reporter. Of Welsh descent, he covered the Welsh nationalist movement of the 1990s, summarizing his work in his first book, An American View of Wales. In addition to his writing experience, Bowen brings to his new book a social conscience and multicultural perspective developed in his volunteer work with the United Farm Workers and Amnesty International. These perspectives, coupled with his personal trauma as both an observer and victim of domestic violence in his extended family, are evident in the yeasty, gritty, and multicultural facets of the anthology.

About Familia Books:

Familia Books is Eric Bowen’s publishing enterprise. In addition to Wisdom of Our Mothers, Bowen plans further anthologies including Wisdom of Our Children and Surviving Domestic Violence.

###

Bench Press Releases LIGHTLY IN THE GOOD OF DAY Poems by Bob Hart

2010-08-30T19:30:00.000-07:00

LIGHTLY IN THE GOOD OF DAY
by Bob Hart
(Bench Press, September 2010)
6x9, perfect bound, 84 pages, $15.00

Publisher/editor Jee Leong Koh, Bench Press and author/poet Bob Hart will launch Lightly in the Good of Day, a new collection of poetry by Bob Hart, this September at the Cornelia Street Cafe in Greenwich Village, New York. This will the second title released by Bench Press, after its inaugural Equal to the Earth, a full-length collection by Jee Leong Koh, released last summer. And a second book for Bob Hart who has a previous small book of poems titled Acrobat.

Bob Hart, a beloved and long-time regular at the Friday night open mic at the Cornelia Street Cafe, has been regaling New York audiences with his wistful and lyrical verse for decades. An observant and thoughtful writer, his poetic confessions at the open mic are more revelatory of the world around him than of himself. Hart grew up in Harlem, on 145th Street, 142nd Street and 158th Street. He served in the army from 1952 to 1954, and was stationed in Germany during the Korean War. He now works for a mail sorting company in Midtown West, and lives in Brooklyn, often sporting one of his many colorful trademarks vests.

Friday, Sep 17 at 6:00PM

SON OF PONY Kat Georges, host

The Friday night legendary open mic poetry series

~features~

BOB HART

The Cornelia Street Cafe

29 Cornelia Street

(Between Bleecker & West 4th)

New York, NY 10014

212.989.9319

Arrive before 6 pm to sign up.

Cover $7 (includes one house drink)

For more details about Bench Press and Lightly in the Good of Day by Bob Hart please visit: http://www.benchpresspoetry.com/

BENCH PRESS
poetry that exerts pressure at every point, and so achieves a momentary rest

Valery Oisteanu remembers LOUISE BOURGEOIS (1912-2010)

2010-08-30T17:42:00.000-07:00

Louise Borgeois

Louise Bourgeois (1912-2010)
by Valery Oisteanu

Sculptures are almost melting, crying of loneliness
Aggressive ecstasy and malicious joy
Gigantic spiders stand still, in a frozen position
The spider-mother had passed into infinity
Mirrors reflecting other mirrors, as a portal
The old doors that were never opened
Her octagonal room a sequence of doors
Move slowly, almost invisible, closing opening
Two dark limbs are chopped off
And lay there on a slab of dark granite
The grand dame of Confessional art
With the dark latex phallus under her arm
Talks to Freud and Lacan, May 31, 2010
Something dark and uneasy about her
Her head appears like a surreal house
No eyes but windows, no face but steps
A garden of phalluses grows under her
She will harvest them on a full moon
Eccentric, sadistic, abstract-geometric
Totemic, Iconic, Ironic
All of that and much more
The Louise we knew, will not return.

Maman, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao.

The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver. My family was in the business of tapestry restoration, and my mother was in charge of the workshop. Like spiders, my mother was very clever. Spiders are friendly presences that eat mosquitoes. We know that mosquitoes spread diseases and are therefore unwanted. So, spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother.

– Louise Bourgeois

Louise Joséphine Bourgeois, French-American artist and sculptor, nicknamed the "Spiderwoman" for her spider structures or Maman, died of heart failure on 31 May 2010 at the age of 98. She is credited as the founder of "confessional" art, best known for her disturbing and symbolic sculptures exploring birth, sexuality and death from a woman's point of view.

The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow No. 3: Now Available on LULU.com

2010-08-22T13:58:00.000-07:00

The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow No. 3

ISBN 978-0-557-58376-8

Paperback: 232, Price: $15

Red Wheelbarrow Poets, August 2010

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-rutherford-red-wheelbarrow-no-3/12206587

Masthead:

Editor: Jim Klein

Managing Editor: Mark Fogarty

Managing Editor: Sondra Singer Beaulieu

Designer: Claudia Serea

Editor Advisor: John Barrale

Editor Advisor: Céline Beaulieu

Editor Advisor: George DeGregorio

Contributors (in alphabetical order):

John Barrale

Céline Beaulieu

Sondra Singer Beaulieu

Marian Calabro

Teresa Carson

George DeGregorio

Gil Fagiani

Jane Fisher

Mark Fogarty

Elissa Gordon

Max Greenberg

Roxanne Hoffman

Pamela Hughes

Josh Humphrey

Gail King

Jim Klein

Melanie Klein

Janet Kolstein

Joel Lewis

Maria Lisella

Pete Loria

Zorida Mohammed

Michael O'Brien

Moira O'Brien

Tony Puma

Gabriella Radujko

Susan Rappaport

Susanna Rich

Dan Saxon

Claudia Serea

Ed Smith

Rosemarie S. Sprouls

Anna Toher

John J. Trause

Miyuki Tsurumaki

David Vincenti

B.J. Ward

Dorinda Wegener

Don Zirilli

Sander Zulauf

~BOOK LAUNCH~

William Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative of Southern Bergen County

Presents

Poetry in Rutherford

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

7:00 PM

~Featuring~

THE RED WHEELBARROW POETS

Celebrating the Release of the Third Edition of

THE RUTHERFORD RED WHEELBARROW

Plus the work of

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

presented by JOEL LEWIS

Open Readings from the floor

This program is held at:

Williams Center for the Performing Arts
One Williams Plaza
Rutherford, NJ 07070
Tel: (201) 939-6969
Fax: (201) 939-0843
http://www.williamscenter.org/

Call the Rutherford Public Library at 201.939.8600 for more information.

THE RUTHERFORD RED WHEELBARROW 3

2010-08-20T20:07:00.001-07:00

THE RUTHERFORD RED WHEELBARROW

3RD COLLECTION CELEBRATES THE AMERICAN POETIC VOICE

RUTHERFORD, August 20, 2010 — A remarkable collection of 42 poets connected with the Rutherford, NJ poetry revival gives voice to memorable poetry and essays in the third edition of The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow.

Published by the Red Wheelbarrow Poets, this third annual edition of the literary journal celebrates the epic in the local and poetic voices in the American grain that so inspired William Carlos Williams, Rutherford's hometown doctor and poet, whose liberation of the voice of the common man (and woman) in poetry was a true revolution in words during the last century.

"Dr. Williams was a one-man vortex who continues to inspire the many fine poets who live in Rutherford or come here to take part in its many poetry readings, workshops, symposia, and literary journal," said Jim Klein, editor of the book and leader of the Red Wheelbarrow Poets.

"All of the poets in The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow have a deep connection with the town," said Klein. "Either they have participated in the Red Wheelbarrow Poets' weekly poetry workshop, now in its fourth year, or the monthly readings at the Williams Center, sponsored by the William Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative, or the monthly readings at GainVille Café hosted by the Red Wheelbarrow Poets."

"We have scored another coup by publishing two rare and perhaps previously unpublished works by Williams," said managing editor Mark Fogarty. "Jane Fisher, director of the Rutherford Public Library, graciously allowed me to look through the library's Williams Collection, and we came up with a short typed memoir of Paris by the doctor and a handwritten letter and introductory fragment of a poem Williams worked on in the first decade of the 1900s."

"Our featured poet this year, Kathy Kuenzle, is a Rutherford native now living in Providence, RI who has made a "return of the native" to Rutherford in the past couple of years," said managing editor Sondra Singer Beaulieu. "Her exciting work comes both from her Rutherford period and her later years in Providence." Kuenzle's poetry has just been issued by the Rutherford-based White Chickens Press in the volume A Dress Full of Holes.

Keeping up the Williams theme, the book also features four essays on the poet, adapted from presentations made at the monthly Williams Center readings, as well as a review of a new book of Williams' correspondence with his brother. There is also a memoir of the North Jersey poetry scene by Hoboken poet and critic Joel Lewis.

The journal will be launched on Sept. 1 at 7 PM at the Williams Center, at the Williams Poetry Cooperative reading run by poet John J. Trause and Fisher. Copies of it will be available for sale that night, and many of the poets in the journal will read from it during the evening. The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow is also available online at Lulu.com and will be available through Amazon.com before the end of the year.

# # #

POETS WEAR PRADA
C/O Roxanne Hoffman
533 Bloomfield Street - 2nd Floor
Hoboken, NJ 07030
http://pwpbooks.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Poets-Wear-Prada/41483895438

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 chaplets, 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://flordelconcreto.blogspot.com

http://twitter.com/flordelconcreto

Hint Fiction Writing Contest - Great Prizes - No Entry Fee

2010-08-11T06:40:00.000-07:00

Gotham Writer's Workshop Announces

HINT FICTION WRITING CONTEST
DEADLINE: October 11, 2010

Great Prizes - No Entry Fee

Gotham Writers' Workshop invites you to enter our Hint Fiction 25-Word Story Writing Contest. Entry is free and easy.

For this competition, Gotham welcomes the expertise of Robert Swartwood, editor of Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories of 25 Words or Fewer (to be published in November by W.W. Norton). Mr. Swartwood will select the winner from the finalists in this competition.

What is Hint Fiction? Here's Swartwood's definition:

Hint Fiction (n): a story of 25 words or fewer that suggests a larger, more complex story.

GREAT PRIZES

Submit your unpublished 25-word story to our competition and you could win:

•10-week writing workshop ($420 value)
•$100 USD
•One-year subscription to The Writer
•Publication of your winning entry in Gotham's Winter 2011 course catalog
•Bragging rights

ENTRY IS FREE & EASY

To enter, just complete the online entry form. Limit one entry per person.

What are you waiting for? Enter today!

Reprinted from Gotham Writers' Workshop's 08/10/2010 GothamGRAM.

Just in case you have difficulty opening the link for the online entry form here it is to cut and past:
http://www.writingclasses.com/ContestPages/hintfiction.php

Call For Submissions: Thanksgiving Mystery Anthology

2010-08-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

Deadline: September 30
Call For Submissions: Thanksgiving Mystery Anthology

We are in the process of creating an anthology of short stories to be released on November 1st as a Thanksgiving release.

This anthology is designed to be a humorous mystery anthology. Only mysteries with a definite humor angle to them will be accepted or considered. What we’re looking for are stories geared around the most popular Thanksgiving dishes: turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, etc.. As long as it’s a regularly-featured food at Thanksgiving, we’re open to how you work it in. Please note that it is unlikely we will publish multiple stories of the same food (i.e.: no two stories where pumpkin pie is featured).

As this is a short story anthology, submissions need to be between 3500-5000 words in length. We may be willing to accept longer works depending on the content. Previously published material is ok for submission providing that all electronic rights have reverted to the author. Stories that have been published previously need to be notated as such, along with the information as to where it first appeared.

The intention is to release each short story as its own release under our existing Fingerprints short story line, but there will also be an all-in-one edition at a lower price than purchasing the stories individually to encourage readers to pick up the entire anthology.

Editor-In-Chief Jay Hartman will serve as Editor for this anthology.

Deadline for submissions is September 30th, 2010. Email submissions ONLY, and they MUST be in DOC format, Times New Roman, 12pt. Submissions received that are not in this format will be deleted. Please include the word “Thanksgiving” in your subject line. All stories should be sent to submissions at untreedreads dot com. Submissions sent to other email addresses will not be recognized.

If an insufficient amount of usable entries are received, this anthology may be withdrawn, and such withdrawal will be announced no later than September 15th.

Please repost/cross-promote this Call with fellow authors/blogs/lists, etc..

Questions regarding this Call should be directed to Editor-In-Chief Jay Hartman at jhartman at untreedreads dot com.

Submission Guidelines for the Pain/Pleasure Anthology

2010-08-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

Deadline: October 1, 2010
Theme: Pain/Pleasure

Editor Jane Callan is looking for stories of 5,000 word length (you can go slightly over but you won’t be paid more) about the concept of the twin emotions of pain and pleasure. The submissions must be full (the story complete) and emailed to jane at gmail dot com by October 1, 2010 as an MS Word Attachment with the subject line: "Pain/Pleasure Anthology Submission."

The submission can be, generally, anything with a strong erotic content. There is no limitation on genre. I definitely want a lot of variety such as m/m, femdom, diversity in characters. The work can have been published on your website but it cannot have been sold in publication.

Payment is $500 for each contracted submission with .25% royalty in exchange for world digital, audio and print rights.

Jane Callan is a long time romance reader whose passion is, you guessed it, reading. She's currently loving contemporary authors like Sarah Mayberry and Kristan Higgins but her first love will always be the historical. Some of her old time favorites are Amanda Quick and Johanna Lindsey and some of the new favorites are Sherry Thomas, Joanna Bourne and Claudia Dain. You can reach Jane by emailing her: jane at dearauthor dot com. You can follow Jane on twitter: @jane_l.

Reposted from http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2010/06/26/submission-guidelines-for-the-painpleasure-anthology/

Diva Anthology: Seeking Poetry about Female Icons by Gay Men

2010-08-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

Deadline October 1, 2010. For the follow-up to My Diva, the Lambda-nominated essay anthology. Looking for poems (1-2 pages in length) that explore the relationship between strong female icons and gay men. Looking for all kinds of DIVAS: singers, actresses, comics, chefs, politicians, writers, visual artists, athletes, scientists, fashion models … Broadway, Opera, Country, fictional, religious, and mythic figures … Already have many standards but would love to see women like Bea Arthur, Frida Kahlo, Gertrude Stein, Oprah, Hillary Clinton, Jackie O., Dolly Parton, even characters like Miss Piggy. But open to ideas. Please send poem and a 2-3 sentence bio by October 1, 2010 to Michael Montlack at mikemont17 at hotmail dot com with “DIVA POETRY ANTHOLOGY” in subject line.

Reposted from http://www.lambdaliterary.org/category/writers/subs/

Anthology Call: A PINT OF BLOODY FICTION

2010-07-29T10:25:00.000-07:00

A Pint of Bloody Fiction Submission Guidelines

What do we want?

200 word stories exactly – excluding the title and byline, filled with suspense. These 200 words must be able to tell a story from beginning to end, they should not be snippets from anything or quotes/passages. They must have at least one character and at least one form of action should play out.

How do we want it?

Please paste your story into the body of an email. No indents. Single spaced and a hard return after paragraphs. You can send up to three stories in one email accompanied by a bio of around 100-200 words. We do accept simultaneous submissions but if your story is accepted elsewhere whilst sitting in our slushpile, then please inform the editor. We also accept reprints, but please make sure that you have the rights to sell your work onto us. Please send all submissions to Sam at horrorhouse.editor@yahoo.com

Payment

We offer $3 for both stories and poetry and a copy of the book at a discounted rate with free shipping.

Deadline

Open until filled. We will announce when we are almost there.

~S.E.COX – Editor in Chief, House of Horror

Anthology Call: TALES OF A WOMAN SCORNED

2010-07-29T10:18:00.000-07:00

Tales of a Woman Scorned

Anthology Call: TALES OF A WOMAN SCORNED

This anthology will be a collection of all those stories of what women will do to get what they want. From bunny boilers, to black widows, we want to read your darkest stories about these psychotic women.

Story Guidelines

We are looking for stories of between 2000-5000 words. Reprints are welcome as long as you have permission to sell your story again.

Submission Guidelines

All submissions should be pasted into the body of an email. We do this simply to keep out any computer viruses as the editor’s laptops and computers are most precious to us, and also it makes for an easy transfer from editor to editor without constantly having to download an attachment. Anyone who sends us an attachment will not be read and their submission will automatically be deleted without notification.

Please only send one submission at a time. This means no multiple submissions. By all means, if we reject a story, then send us another – this goes for the poets too –one submission only! Simultaneous submissions are OK as long as you let us know if it has been accepted elsewhere whilst sat in our queue.

Put “Tales of a woman scorned/title/wordcount” in the subject line and send all submissions to horrorhouse.editor@yahoo.com and please be aware that your submissions may be shipped around for second or third opinions.

Please note that anyone who is a friend of the editor or from another publication/eZine etc, their work will be stripped of identity and sent to another editor for reading. I do not want to be biased when reading for this anthology. Theoretically as Editor in Chief, I will have the final say, but I will take into consideration the comments and notes from the other editors before making my decision.

Please format your submission with the following:

12pt Times New Roman – no other font please. Single spaced with a 2cm paragraph indentation. No returns after paragraphs. Mark scene breaks with three stars with two spaces between each one e.g.
* * *

All em dashes – must be true hyphens – with no spaces between words. Sentences in Italics should be in italics, not underlined.

In the body of an email before your submission, please introduce yourself, maybe tell us a little about the story – we like to hear about writers that submit to us, not a lot of publications do, but we want to get to know our writers and also include an interesting bio of 100-200 words. Please make your bio’s interesting. We do not want a reel off of publications and websites, pick your favourite three and keep it at that.

Open to submissions now and closed when full. We’re looking for about 30 stories for this fun anthology so get yours in as soon as you can. Expect to be put on a short-list or a rejection. Acceptances will be given out when we have all chosen stories.

Expected Publication date:

Mid to late September 2010

Payment:

We offer $5 per story and $3 per poem, Also we have a contributor's royalty scheme. Upon publication, each contributor will choose their own reference number. Any books bought quoting their unique reference number, said contributor will recieve a further $5 or $3 via paypal depending on whether they had a story or poem published. There is no limit to how many books you can sell quoting your reference number, the more books that you sell, the more money you make.

Have fun writing and I look forward to reading all of your stories!

~ S.E.COX – Editor in Chief, House of Horror

PULSE Is Accepting Poetry Submissions! Deadline: 9/15/2010

2010-07-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

Pulse Masthead

PULSE Is Accepting Poetry Submissions! Deadline: Sept. 15, 2010

Dear Pulse Readers,

We are delighted to let you know that we are ready to accept poetry submissions for the coming year! We invite you to submit your poems from now until September 15, at which time we will review every submission and select those that will appear in Pulse between November 2010 and October 2011.

Here are some guidelines:

You may submit up to three poems for consideration;

Each poem may be up to two pages in length (but shorter is perfectly fine!);
The subject matter should be related to illness experiences and/or healthcare;
We welcome submissions from patients, family members, students and health professionals;
We prefer poems depicting personal events; and
Most of all, we want good poems that help us understand illness, health and everything in between.

We invite you to visit our Archives so that you can leaf through poetry that has appeared in past issues of Pulse.

When you're ready to submit a poem, please review and follow our Submission Guidelines carefully. This will allow us to consider your submission blindly--that is, without the reviewer knowing who the poet is--something we insist upon.

We look forward to receiving and reading your submissions!

With warm regards,

Judy Schaefer RNC, MA and Johanna Shapiro PhD

Poetry Editors

PULSE: Voices from the Heart of Medicine

http://www.pulsemagazine.org/

Sun June 13 PHANFest: NJ Publishers & Poet Support NJ Food Banks 12-5pm Secuacus Library

2010-06-11T13:05:00.000-07:00

PHANfest, Publishers Helping America’s Needy NJ Poetry Festival is sponsored by David Messineo of the Six Centuries Club, in support of N. J. food pantries.

Artists are often known to “sing for their supper” – but next weekend, dozens of poets will read to help pay for someone else’s.
writes E. Assata Wright, Hudson Reporter staff writer. To read her entire article "Words Against Hunger: Area Poets to Raise Money for Needy" which appeared Sunday June 6th, click here: http://hudsonreporter.com/bookmark/7809040
It’s an opportunity to…hear some fine poets from various regions of the state. – David Messineo, PHANfest organizer and Editor of Sensations Magazine.

The event takes place

SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 2010, 12 noon – 5 p. m.

at the Secaucus Public Library and Business Resource Center,

1379 Paterson Plank Road, Secaucus, NJ.

Readings will be held in the Panasonic Room. There is a suggested donation of $10 to benefit NJ Food Banks.

Confirmed Participants will each have display tables and two readers.

* Anhinga Books - Jack Kreuter
* Cherry Blossom Press - Anthony Buccino
* Cup & Chaucer Bookstore - Marina Kramer (used books related to poetry)
* The Idiom Magazine - Mark Baird
* Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction - Gordon VanGelder
* Marymark Press - Mark Sonnenfeld
* North Jersey Literary Series (Beyond The Rift Anthology) - Paul Nash & Denise la Neve
* North River Review ("Presses of the Past") -Melanie Pimont
* Poets Wear Prada Press (poetry chapbooks) - Roxanne Hoffman
* Sensations Magazine - David Messineo
* Snake Hill Press - David Messineo
* Thunderclap! Magazine and Thunderclap Press - Amanda Deo
* Watchung Booksellers - Marina Cramer (new poetry books)

For more details: http://centclub.webs.com/phanfest1.htm

New from Fierce Grace: URBAN HAIKU by Patricia Carragon

2010-06-09T07:51:00.000-07:00

feathered troubadours
outside my window
sunrise serenade
–Patricia Carragon

URBAN HAIKU
and More
by Patricia Carragon
Illustrated by William L. Hays
saddle-stitched chapbook, 52pp
Fierce Grace Press, Pooler, GA
$7

"For anyone who knows Patricia Carragon, this newest collection of short, mixed media poems will surely delight–if not surprise. From the riotously humorous to the deeply poignant, Patricia covers the emotional terrain with her witty personality unfurled and a display of craft that, like a dancer, seems so effortless. If you love contemporary short verse, you'll certainly savor these confections by a poet who is a spirited observer of the world around her and within her."
–Brenda J. Gannam, Member, Haiku Society of America

tealeaves tumble down
the gypsy's porcelain cup
Dow Jones takes a fall
–Patricia Carragon

"Patricia Carragon hits the haiku right on the head–making it as much her form as the masters’ – Funny and deadly accurate–they stop you in your tracks. It’s no accident that she starts off with a Kerouac and Bashô haiku. She frees up the territory–Bashô’s frogs are replaced by bedbugs–Kerouac’s drugs are replaced by Viagra–very feminine with no holds barred–very astute and timely–a great read–guaranteed to free up your notions of what a haiku can’t or can do."
–Hal Sirowitz, author of Father Said

rude people
unlike fine Bordeaux
get worse with age
–Patricia Carragon

URBAN HAIKU

and More

Now Available at:

BookCourt
163 Court Street
Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Phone # (718) 875-3677
http://www.bookcourt.org/
Take F or G to Bergen St., N or R to Court St.,
or 4 or 5 to Borough Hall

About the Author:
Patricia Carragon is a New York City writer and poet. Her publications include Poetz.com, Rogue Scholars, Poets Wear Prada, Best Poem, BigCityLit, CLWN WR, Chanterelle's Notebook, Clockwise Cat, Ditch, Poetry Magazine, MOBIUS: The Poetry Magazine, The Toronto Quarterly, Marymark Press, and more. She is the author of Journey to the Center of My Mind (Rogue Scholars Press). She is a member of Brevitas, a group dedicated to short poems. She hosts and curates the Brooklyn-based Brownstone Poets and is the editor of the annual anthology. For more information, please check out her websites: http://brownstone.poets.blogspot.com and http://patriciacarragon8.wordpress.com.

About the Illustrator:
William L. Hayes (Bill to his friends) is a native Texan of six generations, living in exile in Savannah, GA. Born under Aries, with Pisces rising. in 1949, he has always been compelled to walk his own creative path. He has worked in hair design and color, floral design, jewelry design, sculpture and weaving, in addition to painting. His passion is Oriental art, especially all things Japanese. Although he honors all the prophets of the world, as a devout hedonist, his special teacher remains the poet Omar Khayyam. "Come, fill the cup..."

Valery Oisteanu: Peter Orlovsky (July 8, 1933 – May 30, 2010)

2010-06-08T08:10:00.000-07:00

Peter Orlovsky (July 8, 1933 – May 30, 2010)
Remembrance by Valery Oisteanu

That was your face laughing wild
As if it could trick madness
At the entrance to the St. Marks Church
Peter is confessing about pills
Talking to Ira Cohen and me
Lithium and anti-depressant are mentioned
Andy Warhol & Peter’s “The Couch”
Allen Ginsberg’s trashed kitchen, cops called in
The existential gray ponytail is revealed
While the wind blows his hat off in the East Yard
Deep voice, drinking with your eyes shut
Lamenting his brother, his lover, his own mind
Insanity fallows him to Creedmoor mental ward
But at that fragile morning of last day of May
A sunflower blossomed and starts bleeding petals
Alone in death, alone and still, alone and naked
Folded arms, closed lips, heart full of unwritten poems
Swimming up the stream of eternity
Shivering up the glittering dream.

©2010 Valery Oisteanu

Peter Orlovsky was best known as Allen Ginsberg's lover and companion of almost three decades, from about the fifties to the seventies. What is less well known is that he was a wonderful poet in his own right. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and antholologies. Peter died May 30, 2010 at the age of 76. To read 4 of Orlovsky's poems from Clean Asshole Poems & Smiling Vegetable Songs, Pocket Poets Series #37, City Lights Books ©1978 by Peter Orlovsky online visit Brian Nation's blogspot Beat the Devil: http://boppin.com/orlovsky.html

Valery Oisteanu is the author of 11 books of poetry; his latest is Perks in Purgatory (Fly By Night Press, 2009). He is a columnist at New York Arts Magazine, and art critic for Brooklyn Rail and ArtNet.com. His website is http://zendadanyc.vpweb.com/

MEDITATIONS ON A PHOTOGRAPH by Erik La Prade

2010-05-31T19:32:00.000-07:00

MEDITATIONS ON A PHOTOGRAPH
by Erik La Prade

Soon after we moved into the building and the first floor was operational, Andreas Brown began to decorate the place with photographs and Gorey prints. He wanted to create an aesthetic as he would say. So, the familiar faces of famous or once famous and now unread writers were hung on the walls of the new Gotham Book Mart. On the first floor, by the pillar next to the cash register, above Michelle’s desk was a large, high school photograph of John Updike and below him was a large photograph of Gertrude Stein by Carl Van Vechten. The photographs would go up as they were found, taken out of the boxes and chosen to be displayed in a prominent place.

The large poster-sized photographs have been hung on the wall above the stairway. As customers ascended to the second floor, they would find themselves standing next to a wall of large, wooden framed images. But in order to see them properly, they would have to step away from the wall about ten feet, and then they could get a clear view of who was hanging there.

The largest photo is the famous group shot taken in the back room of the old Gotham Book store in November 9, 1948. It was a party for Dame Edith and Sir Osbert Sitwell. The story according to Ms. Steloff’s version is “one day during the summer of 1948, Charles (Henri Ford), came in and announced that Edith Sitwell and her brother Osbert were coming to America for a series of readings. In the same breath he asked, “Why don’t you have a tea for her?”

“Oh,” I said, “she would have far more important engagements than coming here for tea.”

But Charles insisted. “She’d love it, and why don’t you invite her?” So, Ms. Steloff sent her a letter and the rest is history. Amusingly, Life magazine sent a photographer and “picked the people who were to be in its photographs, and some of those who were left out.” The ones left out were William Carlos Williams, William Saroyan and Alfred Kreymborg. I’ve also heard the story that John Berryman wasn’t speaking to Randall Jarrell at the time and ended up going to a bar instead of getting into the picture. Why isn’t Ms. Steloff in this photograph? Is it because she didn’t write poetry and didn’t feel she belonged in the picture? It was her bookstore. She should have been included in this group picture.

Andreas Brown liked to tell the story of how Ford tried to get Gore Vidal thrown out of the photograph by claiming Vidal wasn’t a poet. But Brown defends Vidal and says he had written poetry when he was about nineteen years old. I’ve never read any of Vidal poetry if it has ever been published but by the time this photograph was taken, Vidal would have written three published novels, and this achievement alone, by someone younger than Ford would have been enough to make Ford extremely envious.

In fact, I once showed a copy of this photograph to Ford and asked him about it. He immediately related the story of how he tried to get Vidal thrown out of the shot by saying to him, “You can’t be a poet, you have beautiful legs!”

Apparently, Vidal was insulted by this remark and wanted to punch Ford, but whether he did or not, I’ve never been able to find out. Obliviously, Ford’s comment didn’t work since Vidal is in the shot. But Ford’s comment to Vidal has a curious origin. It was originally said to Djuna Barnes by Gertrude Stein. In Phillip Herring biography of Barnes, the incident occurred in the early 1930s. Herring relates how when Barnes was visiting Stein, during the course of the visit, Stein said to her, “You can’t be a writer, you have beautiful legs.” Insulted, Barnes left and went home to her apartment she shared with Ford at the time and she related what Stein had said to her. Since Ford had the memory of elephant, it’s the kind of comment he would have cherished and used again and again. Certainly, the kind of thing he would have said to Vidal in an attempt to piss him off. So, here’s a footnote of how gossip becomes literary history; from Stein to Barnes to Ford to Vidal in the Gotham Book Mart in New York.

Customers enjoyed looking at and commenting upon this photograph. Generally, they would stand in front of it and try to identify who the writers were. Of course, I’d stand nearby, watching them. Sometimes I’d tell them how only one writer was still alive and if they could guess who it was, they’d get a free drink.

Surprisingly, some people would guess it was Vidal, while at other times they would pick Delmore Schwartz. Originally, when we moved into the new building, there were two writers in the photograph who were still living: Richard Eberhart and Vidal. But Eberhart died about a year after we moved in, so that leaves Vidal as the lone survivor.

After studying the group photograph, customers would then peruse the other large pictures showing scenes from famous GBM book signings. Strangely, these other photographs included Ms. Steloff standing with the writer, whether it’s Cocteau, 1948, or Anais Nin, 1968, or Dylan Thomas, 1952. In another version of the Thomas photograph, there is a glass of beer on the table and sitting next to Thomas is John Malcolm Brinnin. In the large poster photograph, Brinnin has been cropped out.

When business was slow, I would sometimes study the group photograph. I found it curious that Elizabeth Bishop has one glove on (her left hand) and one glove off, (her right hand), whereas, Marianne Moore is holding both of her gloves in her lap. Bishop looks away from the camera as does Marya Zaturenska, who sits on the opposite side of the room. What are they looking at? A book or a customer, or were they wishing it was over? Of course, Ford is smiling, happy as a pig in shit because he’s the center of attention, sitting at the feet of the Sitwells, whose poetry he didn’t much care for then. Who reads them now?

"MEDITATIONS ON A PHOTOGRAPH" is an excerpt from Erik La Prade's forthcoming memoir on working at Andreas Brown's Gotham Book Mart, published here by permission of the author.

INTERVIEWING THE INTEVIEWER: Erik LaPrade on BREAKING THROUGH

2010-05-31T18:02:00.000-07:00

Erik La Prade has a B.A and an M.A. from City College. His first book, Things Maps Don't Show, was published in 1995, and his second, Figure Studies, was published in 1999. SWATCHES, a chapbook, was released in 2008 from Poets Wear Prada. Some of his poems have appeared in Fish Drum, Night Magazine, The Hat, The Reading Room, The New York Times, and Artist and Influence. He also has articles and interviews in The Brooklyn Rail, Captured: A History of Film and Video On The Lower East Side, and The Outlaw Bible of American Essays.

BREAKING THROUGH, released earlier this year in March from MidMarch Arts Press, is engrossing history of Richard (Dick) Bellamy's Green Gallery conducted through interviews by La Prade with Alfred Leslie, Mark di Suvero, Philip Wofford, Mimi Gross, Claes Oldenburg, Tadaaki Kuwayama, Rakuko Naito, Pat Passlof, Richard Smith, Sally Hazelet Drummond, Lucas Samaras, Wolf Kahn, Emily Mason, Hanford Yang, James Rosenquist, Frank Stella, Charlotte Bellamy, Jeannie Blake, Sam Green, Virginia Dwan, Paula Cooper, Robert Morris and Richard Bellamy. It includes an introductory essay, limited illustrations, and a chronology of exhibitions at the Green Gallery.

FDC: How did you get started conducting these interviews?
ELP: I just liked writing about certain artists. The editor of a magazine said I could have a page in their magazine and write about anything. I wanted to. So, I did.

FDC: How did you get to meet the players?
ELP: I originally met Richard Bellamy because I went to interview him regarding an artist he showed in The Green Gallery in 1963. I was planning to write about Larry Poons at the time, 1998, so I met Bellamy in January 1998. Strangely, Bellamy died in March 1998.

FDC: Over what period did you conduct the interviews?
ELP: I conducted these interviews over a three-year period. Most of them were done by telephone. I only met about 8 artists in person.

FDC: Who was the most intriguing of all the people you interviewed for the book? Were there any suprises?
ELP: They were all intriguing. Emily Mason surprised me by being so candid about how hard or impossible it was for women to get shown during this period. Not only that, but since women artists wanted a career and money was tight, they generally opted to not have children or just had abortions. Many women artists were locked into a position that they found very frustrating.

Bellamy was elusive. He generally didn’t want to be in the spotlight at all. I suspect, if I had wanted to interview him personally, he would not have done so.

FDC: BREAKING THROUGH just came out this year, at the beginning of 2010, 45 years after The Green Gallery closed. Is it still relevant 45 years later?
ELP: The Green Gallery set a standard for exhibiting unknown artists who created new works. The example of the gallery is still relevant because it offers a model of a gallery focused on new and unknown artists; it’s just a matter of finding them.

FDC: How has the New York City gallery scene changed in 45 years? What is the current relationship between the artists and gallery owners. You mention in your introduction about Castelli introducing 50% commission on sales and the growing gallery expenses, also $ side of galleries and the competition between them for artists.
ELP: The emphasis seems to be more and more on money and names and creating a buzz. I can’t say what the current relationships between artists and gallery dealers are since it is so varied.

FDC: Is there a place for co-op galleries? Are there any "art saints" today?
ELP: Co-op galleries are good introductions to the commercial art world as Alfred Leslie talks about in his interview. I don’t know if there are any “art saints” around today.

FDC: What your next project? Is there anything special you are working on now that you would like to tell us about?
ELP: I am currently editing a memoir on working in Gotham Book Mart. Plus, a collection of poems.

BREAKING THROUGH
Richard Bellamy and The Green Gallery, 1960-196523
Interviews by Erik La Prade
ISBN 9781877675782
Soft Cover - Perfect Bound - 215pp.
$24.00
MidMarch Arts Press
Release Date: March 2010

2 New Books of Poems by Ben Mazer

2010-05-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

Poems collects Ben Mazer's poems of the past ten years for the first time, and is nearly half made up of poems written in the past two years. Many of the poems have been featured in Fulcrum and other international periodicals; many are published here for the first time. The poems in this long-awaited collection topple divisions between the 'traditional' and the 'avant-garde' in the exquisite independence of their lyricism, and prove Ben Mazer to be among the most important poets of our time.

Poems
by Ben Mazer

ISBN 978-0982162545

Paperback, $13.00

The Pen & Anvil Press, April 2010

http://bostonpoetry.com/press/poems-by-ben-mazer.html

"Ben Mazer is lyric poetry's true hero and has not compromised one iota, as his amazing works attest with their singular purity, beauty and heartbreak."
—Philip Nikolayev

"Like fragments of old photographs happened on in a drawer, Ben Mazer's poems tap enigmatic bits of the past that suddenly come to life again. To read him is to follow him along a dreamlike corridor where everything is beautiful and nothing is as it seems."
—John Ashbery

"Ben Mazer is one of the few poets of his generation to understand that only mastery of craft will bring you to the natural breath, and that to sing memorably in verse, with the body, on the line, is the only way to sound the depths of the passing moment."
—Glyn Maxwell

"I am a great admirer of Ben Mazer's poetry."
—John Kinsella

About the author

Ben Mazer's poems appear frequently in international periodicals, including Fulcrum, Harvard Review, Salt, Verse, Jacket, Boston Review, Agenda, and The Wolf. His previous full-length collection is White Cities (Barbara Matteau Editions, 1995), and he is also the author of January 2008 (Dark Sky Books, 2010), which is published simultaneously with this volume. His chapbooks include Johanna Poems (Cy Gist Press, 2007) and The Foundations of Poetry Mathematics (Cannibal Books, 2008). He is the editor of Selected Poems of Frederick Goddard Tuckerman (Harvard University Press, 2010), Everything Preserved: Poems 1955-2005 by Landis Everson (Graywolf Press, 2006), and a forthcoming edition of the poetry and prose of John Crowe Ransom.

~~~~~

January 2008 (149 pp., paperback, available March 31, 2010 from Dark Sky Books) collects 135 poems, written shortly after the death of the poet Landis Everson.

January 2008
by Ben Mazer

Paperback, $17.51

Dark Sky Books, March 2010

http://www.darkskymagazine.com/books/ben-mazer-january/

“A surge of poems in the aftermath of a friend’s sudden death, recalling Emily Dickinson’s ‘After great sadness a formal feeling comes.’ And indeed the formality here is in the nature of a deliverance. Not so easy: the echoes rage and multiply, rhymes (better/ water/ patter) knock about and sometimes screech, big-time history pales or looks cheap compared to simpler intimacies — and sometimes a moon-like ‘she’ appears to cast much-needed receptivity every which way. The poems are all necessity, ‘a frozen crystal spectrum magnified,’ a procession.”
— Bill Berkson, author of Portrait and Dream

“Ben Mazer’s January 2008 reads like pages ripped from an ingenious madman’s most personal journal, like love letters never sent — in other words like unbridled passion penned in the flame of a moment and not meant for any eyes but the writer’s own. Here intense confessional lines seduce us into a universe of surreal grotesque, where satin monkeys keep company alongside Frankenstein and movie stars from the golden age of cinema appear nonchalantly alongside Dante’s Beatrice in Mazer’s testament to love, loss, and most importantly, to poetry.”
— Katy Henriksen, publisher of Cannibal Books

Fly By Night Releases PERKS IN PURGATORY by Valery Oisteanu

2010-05-16T19:53:00.001-07:00

Hot off the press, a new poetry and collage book, Perks in Purgatory from Fly By Night Press, a subsidiary of A Gathering of the Tribes, New York. Chock-full of travel and erotic poems, this book will enhance your imagination and set you on a sensual experience.

Perks in Purgatory
by Valery Oisteanu
ISBN 193008318-1

Trade Paperback, 80 pp., 5 illustrations, $15
Fly By Night Press, 2009

For more information & to order your copy:
http://zendadanyc.vpweb.com/

~About the Author~

Valery Oisteanu is a writer and artist with international flavor. Born in Russia (1943) and educated in Romania. He adopted Dada and Surrealism as a philosophy of art and life. Immigrating to New York City in 1972, he has been writing in English for the past 37 years. He is the author of 11 books of poetry, a book of short fiction and a book of essays: The AVANT-GODS. A new collection of poetry Perks in Purgatory from Fly by Night Press was recently leased at the end of 2009. For the past 10 years he has been a columnist at New York Arts Magazine and art critic for, Brooklyn Rail and http://www.artnet.com/ . He is also a contributing editor at http://www.artscape/ and contributing writer for French, Spanish & Romanian art and literary magazines (La Page Blanche, Art.es, Viata Romaneasca, Observatorul Cultural, Contemporanul, Romania Literara, etc.) As a performer Valery Oisteanu is well known to downtown NYC audiences. He is always well received in theaters and clubs specializing in poetry and music where he presents original Zen Dada multi-media show in his unmistakable style of “Jazzoetry.”

EXQUISITE CORPSE #2 Hits the Streets!

2010-05-16T19:23:00.000-07:00

THE CORPSE LIVES AGAIN!!!
ON SALE NOW!!!

GET LEGENDARY ISSUE #2!!!

R. CRUMB!!!HUNTER S. THOMPSON!!!JAN KEROUAC!!!
ED SANDERS!!!ANNE WALDMAN!!!
GERALD NICOSIA!!!BERNADETTE MAYER!!!
STEVE KATZ!!!ANDREI PLESU!!!
DEBRA DI BLASI!!!ELINOR NAUEN!!!
DAVE BRINKS!!!HARIETTE SUROVELL!!!
MIKE TOPP!!!TYRONE JAEGER!!!PAT NOLAN!!!
BROOK WILENSKY-LANFORD!!!JOHN VANDERSLICE!!!
JARED SCHICKLING!!!KEVIN P.Q. PHELAN!!!
EMIL NICULESCU!!!GRETCHEN HENDERSON!!!
LARRY BETZ!!!

Send a check made out to "UCA" ($15 per issue) to
Exquisite Corpse Annual
Dept. of Writing
University of Central Arkansas
Conway,AR 72035

or send PayPal payment to corpse_ed@yahoo.com.

For international orders please add $13 per issue for shipping.

Lifetime subscriptions $100.

Also Available on Amazon.com or through spdbooks.org
http://www.corpse.org/

Andrei Codrescu, Editor in Chief
Mark Spitzer, Managing Editor
Terry Wright, Associate Editor
Rex Rose, Design Editor

"[T]he work in Exquisite Corpse [Annual] is as richly layered as it is stunningly diverse."--Newpages.com

"The distinctly independent voices found in Exquisite Corpse Annual deserve a place in any collection of contemporary literature."--Library Journal

"Overall it's a journal of the highest order, and one that Arkansas should be proud to have in its cultural bookshelf."--Arkansas Times

Booksellers:
Please write corpse_ed@yahoo.com for discount prices for orders of 5 or more.

To submit, send materials to corpsesubmit@yahoo.com

GULPER EEL Surfaces & Seeks Nourishment

2010-05-16T18:33:00.000-07:00

Gulper Eel ’s mouth is pouch-like and loosely hinged, catches everything that comes its way... hulking angler fish or runtish plankton, no matter. Everything nourishes the Gulper...

Welcome, friends, to Gulper Eel, the Internet’s new refuge for offbeat journalism, fiction, poetry and art. Read the Manifesto; gorge upon our features, our fiction, our poetry, our Mezzotints; join the conversation by leaving your thoughts... And then submit (your work, if not your soul.)

Join the three pronged revolt against vapid writing on:

Our website: http://www.gulpereel.net/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gulper-Eel/249048911721
& Twitter: http://twitter.com/gulpereel

Then tell your friends. All of them.

Gulper Eel comes in Wakes. The line-up for Wake 1 "Benthos & Belles-Lettres" is listed below.

In the words of Eugene Jolas: “The plain reader be damned!”

See you around, I hope.

Adam Biles
(Gulper Eel Features Editor)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wake 1: Benthos & Belles-Lettres

Monday 17th May
Gulper Eel Manifesto
The Man Who Walked The Alleys by Colin Hoult
Horizon Beats by Matthew C Golding
Lions by Harriet Alida Lye
Beckett Vs. Clarkson by Kat Nugent
New fiction by Paul Kavanagh and Jeff Crouch
New poetry by Nuala Ní Chonchúir and Neil Ballard

Tuesday 18th May
New fiction by Hunter Qualye Thurssen

Wednesday 19th May
Walt Sent Me by Alex Hoskins

Thursday 20th May
New poetry by Jordan Reynolds

Friday 21st May
Teenage Pastoral # 1: Genesis by Adam Biles

Monday 24th May
James Ellroy and genre by Jean-François Caro

Tuesday 25th May
New fiction by S. Day Sclater

Wednesday 26th May
Cupcake (Part 1) by Anthony Prentis
New poetry by Harriet Alida Lye

Thursday 27th May
From the Border Agency, by Alexander Dickow
New fiction by N. God Savage

Friday 28th May
New fiction by Dulcie Few
New poetry by Andrew James Weatherhead

Monday 31st May
New film by Kate Theodore
New poetry by Howie Good

Tuesday 1st June
New fiction by Diane Payne

Wednesday 2nd June
Correspondence from Harriet Alida Lye
New poetry by Changming Yuan

Thursday 3rd June
New fiction by Craig Jordan-Baker
New poetry by Richard O’Brien

Friday 4th June
Dutch Auction Editorial by Adam Biles
Gulper Eel Wake #2 Preview

PWP Releases DEAD RECKONING by Gene Auprey

2010-05-10T14:58:00.000-07:00

Poets Wear Prada is pleased to announce the release of Gene Auprey's first collection, DEAD RECKONING. Now available on Lulu.
Author Gene Auprey offers a new collection of poems; a meditation on nature, life and death, and the ever-present possibilities of hope, humor and love.

DEAD RECKONING
Poems by Gene Auprey
ISBN 978-0-9841844-5-3
6" x 9" Saddle Stitched, 50 pp.
$15.00
Release Date: May 2010

Now Available on Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/dead-reckoning/10663804

“At home somewhere between the pastoral and the familial, violence and tranquility (often showing how they are sometimes the same side of the same coin), Gene Auprey’s voice is one of restrained and steady power.”
— James Midgely, Editor Mimesis

“What strikes me about this poetry is its solid groundedness. The speech rhythms of Auprey’s native vernacular weave a fine colloquial music that seems a direct heightening of the spoken word; whether embodied in skillfully crafted free or metrical verse, his art evokes the real sound of people using language organically. Solid texture is achieved by the way Auprey's imagery so strongly evokes all of the five senses. You can see the world of these poems very sharply, but you can also hear it, touch it, smell it, and taste it as well. It has substance. I come out of reading these poems with a strong impression of actually having been in Auprey's physical reality, and of having shared important truths and insights there. More poetry like this, please!”
— Paul Stevens, Editor The Chimaera

“Gene Auprey’s poems transport the reader into worlds of immediacy — the primal world of rural culture and of nature, but also the contemporary world and its particular urgencies. Dead Reckoning is an engaging and rewarding work, rich in language that examines the human condition from a stable but varied set of vantages.”
— David Landrum, Editor Lucid Rhythms

About the Author:

Gene Auprey is Senior Editorial Adviser for Soundzine, an online international literary journal located at http://www.soundzine.net/. His poems have appeared in The Flea, Hawk & Whippoorwill, Lucid Rhythms, Other Poetry, Pisgah Review,and The Shit Creek Review, as well as many other places, both pixel and print.

Gene currently lives in Buxton, Maine. Widely traveled and a dedicated outdoors man, he enjoys the company of his grandchildren. He has worked across the United States in construction, designed and built many homes, managed diverse companies, and also served as an ordained minister. While his poetry has many influences, perhaps the strongest has been New England’s poet laureate, Robert Frost.

VOICE OF BARDS Anthology, Deadline, May 5th!

2010-04-18T09:38:00.001-07:00

Voice of the Bards Anthology, Deadline, May 5th!

Attention Poets,

Still taking submissions VOICE OF THE BARDS: Contemporary Verse of Myths, Fairy Tales, and Legends.

Have you ever written a fun poem about fairy tales? Poems about fantasy creatures that used to play with you in your backyard when you were little? Ever write a mock-epic about a heroic knight? Then don't neglect to send in your submissions to Voice of the Bards.

Voice of the Bards is an anthology attempting to bring together fun fantasy poetry (and artwork.) Poetry about knights, elves, orcs, dragons, wizards are all fine! Myths, folklore, fables, and fun. If you have an idea you think might fit but aren't quite sure, just send a query!Don't wait too much longer!

The Voice of the Bards anthology has announced a deadline of May 5th. Hurry up and get your submissions in.

Guidelines: All forms of poetry will be considered, Spoken Word, Free Verse, Haiku, Formalist, Contemporary, Hybrids, as long as they contain some kind of fantasy element to them. Submit up to 3 poems to Nick Hale at LGBards AT gmail DOT com Further questions concerning this anthology to James P. Wagner at LongIslandPoetryExaminer AT gmail DOT com

(There will also be a limited amount of artwork accepted: black and white fantasy peices. Send querys to LongIslandPoetryExaminer AT gmail DOT com)

Reprinted from Examiner.com; This Call in Today's Duotrope Newsletter.

PWP Releases FOR LINCOLN by AUSTIN ALEXIS. 3/28 Book Launch at Bengal Curry!

2010-03-20T13:51:00.001-07:00

FOR LINCOLN

& OTHER POEMS

by Austin Alexis

ISBN 978-0-9841844-3-9

soft cover - saddle-stitched - 36 pp.

$10 (+ $1.50 S&H)

Poets Wear Prada

Release Date: March 2010

Austin Alexis contemplates the way time's passage alters our sense of artists such as Chopin, Haydn, Poe, and Martha Graham as well as, among others, grandparents, Einstein, and presidents Lincoln and Obama. The way the poet cultivates sound, sense, and form, he grows, as he writes George Sand did for Chopin, "the branch he needs / in order to soar."
— George Held, author of Phased, Grounded, and other poetry collections

By use of precise imaginings, Austin Alexis allows us an intimacy with select artists: Chopin, or a street poet, or Lincoln, that great artist of rhetoric and vision. An engaged and observant poet, Alexis reveals grace, connection, legend and mortality. This book is an ode to all of us.
— Sarah Sarai, author of The Future Is Happy

The poet's vision enables the reader to see connections between Einstein and Merce Cunningham whose choreography "penetrates... the mysteries of space time [and] weight," and how Lincoln's last day actually culminates in another with the inauguration of Barack Obama: "each verse a fetus / waiting to be born / in the heart of a reader."
— Linda Lerner, author of Something is Burning in Brooklyn, and thirteen other collections

About the Author

Poems and stories by Austin Alexis have appeared in journals such as Six Sentences and Tuesday Shorts and in the chapbook Lovers and Drag Queens (Poets Wear Prada, 2007). Recently he served as a panelist for The Bronx Council on the Arts Literary Fellowships. One of his poems won a prize in the 2008 Poets for Forest Competition. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in a number of anthologies, including Bowl of Stories (Oregon Council of Teachers Anthology Winners Publication), Off the Cuffs (Soft Skull Press), Dinner with the Muse (Ra Rays Press), Art's Buoyant Felicity: Art/Healing/Creativity (Lickle Nine Press), and And We the Creatures (Dream Horse Press), among others.

Meet the Author at the Following Events:

Sunday March 28
5:30PM - 7:30PM
Phoenix Reading Series
~ presents ~
*Linda Lerner & Austin Alexis*
@ Bengal Curry
65 West Broadway
(Between Murray & Warren Sts. 11/2 blocks South of Chambers)
New York, NY 10007
212.571.1122
$3 Donation
Dinner, Snacks & Soft Drinks Available for Purchase
Open Reading
Hosts: Michael Graves & George Spencer
Take A, C, 1 to Chambers or E to last stop WTC

Saturday May 1st
4PM-6PM
(Note: open mic sign up ends at 5PM)
The Shout Out
~AUSTIN ALEXIS~
Otto's Shrunken Head
538 East 14th Street
Between Avenues A&B
Hosted by Hobo Bob and Obsidian
$3 Hobo Fee (and please patronize the bar!)
Time Square Shout Out!: timessquareshoutout.blogspot.com
Hobo Bob: theadventuresofhobobob.blogspot.com
OBSIDIAN: obsidianthemystic.blogspot.com

A SHOUT OUT AT OTTOS! Anthology Blogsite:

theshoutoutatottos.blogspot.com

Monday July 12th
7:30PM till 10PM
Saturn Series
~AUSTIN ALEXIS~
Nightingale Lounge
213 2nd Avenue at East 13th Street
New York, NY
Age 21 & up
Open Reading
$3 Suggested Donation + 2 Drink/$10 Minimum at the Bar
Hosted by Su Polo & David Elsasser
http://www.supolo.com/

* * *

POETS WEAR PRADA
C/O Roxanne Hoffman
533 Bloomfield Street - 2nd Floor
Hoboken, NJ 07030
http://pwpbooks.blogspot.com/
http://poetswearprada.blogspot.com
http://thesmokingbook.blogspot.com/

POETS WEAR PRADA is a small press based in Hoboken, New Jersey devoted to introducing new authors through limited edition, high- quality chaplets, 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
http://twitter.com/pradapoet
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New from Muse-Pie Press: SHOT GLASS JOURNAL

2010-03-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

WHAT’S NEW AT MUSE-PIE PRESS?

30th Anniversary of Muse-Pie Press
1980-2010

http://www.musepiepress.com/

NOW ON THE MUSE-PIE PRESS SITE
THE INAUGURAL ISSUE OF

Our new online poetry journal for short poetry
EDITED BY MARY-JANE GRANDINETTI

This inaugural issue features an international collection of poetry from widely published poets to first-time published poets who have submitted their work from Australia , Canada , Japan , the Netherlands , New Zealand , the UK , and the US . The wide range of poems includes Free Verse poetry and poetic forms such as Cinquain, Rondolet, Sijo, Tanka, Triolet and Zen poetry.

CHECK US OUT AND ENJOY THE POETRY

Austin Alexis

Collin Barber

Yota Daniil

Gil Fagiani

Donna Gagnon

Rachel Green

Lois Marie Harrod

Ruth Holzer

Hank Kalet

Steadman Kondor

John Lambremont, Sr.

Gill McEvoy

Karen Neuberg

Joan Page-Durante

Mandy Pannett

John Joseph Petrolino III

Doug Pugh

Christine Redman-Waldeyer

David Romanda

Nancy Scott

Ivan Sun

Levi Wagenmaker

Lonnard Dean Watkins

Mark Arvid White

Wolfiewolfgang

2010-03-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

Poets House 2010 Showcase:
June 28, 2010 (Opening Reception)
Submission Deadline: May 31, 2010

Dear Publisher,

This summer Poets House invites you to celebrate the 2010 Poets House Showcase, a festival of the art unlike any other—where all of this year's new books, from publishers large and small across America, will be on display. Now that we are in our new home on the banks of the Hudson River, the Showcase will fill Kray Hall, and the voices of poets and audiences will spill out into the park. This year marks the first of a new summer festival of poetry. Please join us by making your new books a part of it.

Opening on June 28, 2010, the Showcase will be on view throughout the month of July, including all of the year's new poetry and poetry-related books, chapbooks, and multimedia titles published in the United States. Over 2,000 books were in last year's exhibit, representing close to 600 publishers—commercial, university, independent, small, and micro-presses.

Inclusion in the Showcase is entirely FREE. To participate, please email maggie@poetshouse.org to let us know of your interest in participating in the Showcase and then send us review copies of your latest poetry books. The 2010 Showcase will include all poetry and poetry-related titles (volumes by individual authors, anthologies, chapbooks, biographies, critical studies, essay collections, CDs, DVDs, etc.) published since April 2009.

Why participate?

Books are organized by publisher and displayed face-forward, offering free publicity not only for your latest titles but for your press as well.

Exposure to national prize and library acquisition committees.

Free listings in our online Directory of American Poetry Books, the country's most complete bibliographic resource for contemporary poetry books.

After the Showcase, all titles are incorporated into Poets House's 50,000-volume, noncirculating poetry library.

To ensure your new books are included:

Please send an email to maggie[at]poetshouse[dot]org to let us know which books you will be sending no later than May 15, 2010.

Send two copies of each book to Poets House as soon as they are available. All books must be received by May 31 , 2010 to ensure a spot in the display.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Truly,

Maggie Balistreri, Librarian
Poets House
10 River Terrace
New York NY 10282

SPECIAL CALL FOR SUBMISSION FOR 2011 BIG BRIDGE

2010-03-17T11:32:00.000-07:00

Big Bridge announces a call for submissions
from Jason Braun for:

THE FUSION,
A guest edit anthology he is doing for the 2011 Big Bridge issue.

Jason says, "We want poems that work on the page and on the stage. Specifically we’re trying to weave a tapestry of Beat Poets, Slam Poets, Black Arts Poets and Hip Hop Poets. We’re looking for poets from those movements and peripheral to them, as well as poets inspired by any and all of those movements.We're working to show the similarities of these movements as well as celebrate the cultural and individual differences."

Please send three poems, a photo, and short bio to: jason[dot]lee[dot]braun[at]gmail[dot]com

Big Bridge
www.bigbridge.org

Reposted message sent to members of The New Word Order on Ning.

VWA: POEMS FOR HAITI Now Available at CreateSpace

2010-03-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

Vwa: Poems for Haiti
Edited by Lisa Marie Basile
Trade Paperback - 76pp. - $9.50
ISBN 9781451510027
Caper Literary Journal
Release Date: March 16, 2010

Available at CreateSpace

Vwa: Poems for Haiti is a literary charity effort edited by Caper Literary Journal Editor Lisa Marie Basile.

ALL PROCEEDS ARE DONATED TO HAITI RELIEF.

The anthology's contents include breathtakingly talented poets and authors from all over the world who have felt the sorrow of the January 2010 earthquake. Titled Vwa, the Kreyòl word for voice, the anthology aims to turn the pain and inspiration into literary works.

More about Caper Literary Journal can be found at www.caperjournal.com. All of the Vwa: Poems for Haiti work can be found at http://www.poemsforhaiti.wordpress.com/

CONTRIBUTORS:
Lisa Marie Basile (Editor)
Martin Willitts, Jr.
Kenneth Karrer
Robert Gibbons
Mary Strong Jackson
Jabou McCoy
James G. Piatt
Val B. Russell
William Doreski
Jasper Ballard
Dillon Mullenix
James Lee Jobe
Annmarie Lockhart
David L. Wright
Tony Rivera
Austin Alexis
Lee Transue
Thelma T. Reyna
Richard Antonio Phelps
Michael Shorb
Mara Buck Aaron
Middlepoet Jackson
Joel Shulkin
David Basile
Yolaine M. St.Fort
Cassie Preemo Steele
Telly McGaha
Olivia Arieti
Shayla Hawkins
Brigit Truex
Caroline Depalma
Renee Petersen
Lisa Marie Basile

About the Editor:

Lisa Marie Basile is a writer and editor living in New York. She is Editor-in-Chief of Caper Literary Journal, a journal of poetry and prose. She has had work published work in several journals and magazines. You can view more information at lisamariebasile.com

MidMarch Arts Releases Erik La Prade's BREAKING THROUGH

2010-03-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

BREAKING THROUGH

Richard Bellamy and The Green Gallery, 1960-196523
Interviews by Erik La Prade

ISBN 9781877675782

Soft Cover - Perfect Bound - 215pp.

$24.00
MidMarch Arts Press

Release Date: March 2010

Engrossing history of Richard (Dick) Bellamy's Green Gallery conducted through interviews by Erik La Prade with: Alfred Leslie, Mark di Suvero, Philip Wofford, Mimi Gross, Claes Oldenburg, Tadaaki Kuwayama, Rakuko Naito, Pat Passlof, Richard Smith, Sally Hazelet Drummond, Lucas Samaras, Wolf Kahn, Emily Mason, Hanford Yang, James Rosenquist, Frank Stella, Charlotte Bellamy, Jeannie Blake, Sam Green, Virginia Dwan, Paula Cooper, Robert Morris, Richard Bellamy. Includes introductory essay, limited illustrations, and chronology of exhibitions at the Green Gallery.

Now available at Ursus Books on Madison Avenue, Spoonbill & Sugartown Bookseller in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, and St. Marks Bookstore in the East Village, or online from Specific Object (http://www.specificobject.com/objects/info.cfm?inventory_id=14676).

Erik La Prade has a B.A and an M.A. from City College. His first book, Things Maps Don't Show, was published in 1995, and his second, Figure Studies, was published in 1999. His chapbook SWATCHES was released in 2008 from Poets Wear Prada. Some of his poems have appeared in Fish Drum, Night Magazine, The Hat, The Reading Room, The New York Times, and Artist and Influence. He also has articles and interviews in The Brooklyn Rail, Captured: A History of Film and Video On The Lower East Side, and The Outlaw Bible of American Essays.

Little Sky Press Launches Peter Chelnik's STRAWBERRY HARMONY

2010-03-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

"Peter Chelnik's poems take us across America's highways, down back roads, up city streets, across the tracks and into open fields. They sing a song of America and they swing with the blues and be-bop." -- Bob Feldman

STRAWBERRY HARMONY

New Poems

By Peter Chelnik

ISBN 978-0-964 270 9-9-3

$12.00

Little Sky Press

Release Date: March 2010

"Peter Chelnik's Strawberry Harmony is an odyssey across the physical and spiritual plains of America with the fast paced images that are his signature poetry snapshots. In an age where voices often express cynicism and rage, Chelnik's energetic ovice always resonates with affirmation and optimism. Fans of Peter Chelnik with cheer his newest and strongest book of poems Strawberry Harmony." -- Laura Boss, Editor of Lips

~Book Launch + Open Mic~

***PETER CHELNIK with BOB FELDMAN on Tenor Sax***

Monday, March 15, 2010

at 7:30pm

@
S A T U R N S E R I E S P O E T R Y R E A D I N G
Nightingale Lounge
213 2nd Avenue at East 13th Street
New York, NY
Age 21 & up

$3 Suggested Donation + 2 Drink/$10 Minimum at the Bar

Hosted by Su Polo & David Elsasser

"Peter Chelnik's Strawberry Harmony tantalizes with its odd juxtapositions, its American Highway jump cuts. Using refrains and a broad range of cultural allusions, from "Baptist wood pew prayers" to "Matisse paint joy," Chelnik creates a 21st Century vision: three-dimensional, speedy, ecstatic and reverent. Chelnik's new book will entertain as it surprises readers and satisfies our humber for poems that resonate in the mind."
-- Austin Alexis, Author of Lovers and Drag Queens

STRAWBERRY HARMONY
New Poems
By Peter Chelnik
ISBN 978-0-964 270 9-9-3
$12.00
Little Sky Press
Release Date: March 2010

Peter Chelnik’s books include Railroad Heart, East Coast Line, Manhattan Wilderness, Eternity Road and Wildflower Serenade. He has had seven plays produced Off-Off-Broadway. These dramatic works include Street Rag, Prairie Fire, Parking Lot, Moving Target, Scarsdale Station and Tremont Vortex. Peter has also written Trick Bag, a novel of the 1960's. And yes, he does believe "the word will set you free."

S4N Books releases full-length poetry collection by Adam Penna

2010-03-12T20:40:00.000-08:00

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FROM S4N BOOKS*

LITTLE SONGS & LYRICS TO GENJI
Poems by Adam Penna
Release Date: March 1, 2010
127pp 978-0-9798707-1-2
S4N BOOKS

Little Songs & Lyrics to Genji are two sequences of poems where, in the author’s words, he was attempting daily to “right” himself.

The poems of Little Songs take an unrhymed sonnet form that looks back to the religious work of Donne and Hopkins, and the autobiographical element in Dante’s New Life, to weave a spiritual meditation on the natural world and the sacred minutiae of everyday living. In each poem we are shown suburban streets, homes, and front-yards, and the trees and animals and human inhabitants that fill those spaces, all presented through the mind of the quietly-seeing poet. What we emerge with is a evocation of a world akin to Wallace Stevens’s vision of New Haven, alive with eternity.

The poems in Lyrics to Genji are filled with the same subjects, but approach them more playfully. Addressed to an invisible friend named Genji (a name which means “treasure”), the poet begs answers to the universal and mundane questions of his day (“Genji, do you have a brother?”, “Who could bear a full life, Genji?”), and ruminates over recurring dreams, childhood memories, questions of ethical responsibility as well as home repair, and the frequent, mischievous presence of Genji’s wife. Whereas Little Songs approaches something like direct prayer, Lyrics to Genji come closer to Zen meditations, or koans.

The overall vision of this unique collection is one of abiding mystery and gratitude for the natural and invisible worlds, and for a state of quiet contemplation that brings such awareness about. As the poet says to his friend: “I’m grateful, Genji./How do I know?/I sing.”

Adam Penna lives in East Moriches, New York, with his wife, and teaches at Suffolk County Community College. He is the author of The Love of a Sleeper (Finishing Line Press, 2008), and his poems have appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including Cider Press Review, The Basilica Review and Verse Daily.

He blogs at http://www.adampenna.wordpress.com/.

S4N BOOKS
6904 Colonial Road #28 Brooklyn, NY 11209
online: http://www.s4nbooks.com/
email: editors@s4nbooks.com

* * *

Dear Fellow Poets, Editors and Publisher Friends:

S4N has just published my first full-length collection of poetry. Please follow this link to purchase from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Little-Songs-Lyrics-Genji-Penna/dp/0979870712/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1268411217&sr=8-1.

All my best,
Adam Penna

PWP Releases THRUM by Joel Allegretti

2010-03-08T06:41:00.000-08:00

THRUM
Poems
by Joel Allegretti
ISBN 978-0-9841844-4-6
soft cover, saddle-stitched, 40 pp.$12.00

"In Thrum Joel Allegretti, deftly and delightfully, strums his magical musical instrument, which is poetry, as he forges fresh forms of songs and stories that are inspired by strummers' strings. “Context is everything,” Allegretti reminds us, and we’re planted in the heart of a global ancient/modern orchestra. Prepare yourself for the revelatory performance."

Martine Bellen
Author of Tales of Murasaki and Other Poems,
1997 National Poetry Series selection

"Joel Allegretti's latest collection of poems is as enjoyable as it is different. Thrum takes the reader on a journey that explores known musical instruments, such as the mandolin, dulcimer and fiddle, as well as some not-so-known instruments, such as the oud, koto and theorbo. But what makes this journey unique is that each instrument is in a sense personified as the emotive element of each instrument is brought to life. Allegretti does a wonderful job tuning every poem so that the music of each instrument is realized again and again in the words on the page. An intriguing and must read for anyone who has a sense of all that culminates in the commingling of the arts."

Raymond Hammond
Editor, The New York Quarterly

About the Author

Joel Allegretti is the author of The Plague Psalms, which appeared in 2000 and is now in its third edition, and Father Silicon, selected by The Kansas City Star as one of 100 Noteworthy Books of 2006. Allegretti’s work has appeared in many national journals, including The New York Quarterly, Margie, The Laurel Review, Art/Life Limited Editions, Rattapallax, Slipstream, Confrontation, and Xcp Cross-Cultural Poetics. He is represented in the anthology Chance of a Ghost (Helicon Nine Editions, 2005), and his poem in that collection received an Honorable Mention in the 2006 edition of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, published by St. Martin’s Press. In April 2009, Kean University in New Jersey presented the world premiere of a song cycle based on Allegretti’s poetry, “A Cycle by the Sea” by Frank Ezra Levy, who served several decades as cellist with the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra and whose symphonic work is available in the American Classics series on Naxos. Allegretti is a graduate of New York University and lives in Northern New Jersey. His website is www.joelallegretti.com

Meet the Author at the Following Events:
Sat., March 13:	Smalls' Jazz Club 183 W. 10th Street, NYC 5PM-7PM
Sun., March 28:	Literary Lounge Studio Luna 406 Tompkins Street, Orange, NJ 3PM-5PM
Sun., April 11:	Polestar Literary Series NATIONAL POETRY MONTH SOIREE Cakeshop 152 Ludlow Street, NYC 4PM-6PM
Sun., May 2:	Polestar Literary Series NIRVANA NEVERMIND NIGHT Cakeshop 152 Ludlow Street, NYC 5PM-7PM
Sat., May 15:	Greek American Writers Association Reading Series Cornelia Street Cafe 29 Cornelia Street, NYC 6PM-8PM
Sat., June 26:	North Jersy Literary Series The Classic Quiche Cafe 330 Queen Anne Road Teaneck, NJ 8PM-11PM
Tues., July 13:	Word for Word Bryant Park 6th Ave. between 41 & 42nd Sts., NYC 12:30PM to 1:45PM

POETS WEAR PRADA
C/O Roxanne Hoffman
533 Bloomfield Street - 2nd Floor
Hoboken, NJ 07030
http://pwpbooks.blogspot.com/
http://poetswearprada.blogspot.com
http://issuu.com/pradapoet

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

Proud Member of CLMP

Have you had your poetry today?

LIPS Poetry Magazine Submission Deadline February 28

2010-02-03T20:43:00.000-08:00

LIPS (a magazine of poetry founded in 1981 by Laura Boss) has published poems by:
Robert Bly, Allen Ginsberg, Ruth Stone, David Ignatow, Marge Piercy, Michael Benedikt, Nicholas Christopher, Anne Waldman, Ishmael Reed, Gregory Corso, Lyn Lifshin, Ted Berrigan, Paul Hoover, Jana Harris, Toi Derricotte, Joseph Bruchac, Alice Notley, Warren Woessner, Robert Phillips, Hal Sirowitz, Theodore Weiss, Alicia Ostriker, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Stanley H. Barkan, Michael Weaver, Molly Peacock & Richard Kostelanetz.

To receive your copy, please send a check for $10 plus $2.50 postage and handling for each book to:

Laura Boss, Editor
LIPS
7002 Blvd. East, #2-26G
Guttenberg, NJ 07093

SUBMISSIONS

Submissions are being solicited for the next issue. We recommend that contributors send for a sample copy of Lips before submitting work to the magazine.

GUIDELINES

Five poems unpublished, first rights, copyright reverts to the author upon publication. Please send poems with an S.A.S.E. with proper postage to the address below left.

No submissions between March and September.

LIPS is published twice a year. We suggest seeing a copy of the magazine first, either at your library, or a back sample for $8 plus $2.50 postage and handling.

Reprinted from http://home.earthlink.net/~poetry_magazine/Lips.html.

FW: Menupoems, Readings, Art, More!

2010-02-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

Open submissions for menupoems!

We'll select about a dozen of your poems for our 4th annual menupoems broadside
(looks like a menu but has poems on it!)
to celebrate April National Poetry Month

Here are the guidelines:
Submissions accepted from February 1st - March 1st
3-poem submission limit
12-line limit per poem
send poems to menupoems@alimentumjournal.com
Paste poems into body of email - NO attachments

What's a menupoem?
Menupoem Editor Esther Cohen has the scoop plus a peek at past menupoems...
Click here ...

Join us for readings in February!
Tasty Poems to Tempt the Appetite and the Muses

February 4th 2010 6:30 pm
Cumberland Gallery
4107 Hillsboro Circle, Nashville, TN
With:
Kevin Compton Trammel
Christina Stoddard
Nancy Vienneau
Paulette Licitra
This event is in conjunction with Second Harvest, please bring a non-perishable food item
For more info

February 12, 2010 5-6:30 pm
Luna Star Cafe
775 Northeast 125th Street, N. Miami, FL
With:
Jen Karetnick
Stephen Gibson
Ricardo Pau-Llosa
Michael Hettich
Paulette Licitra

For more info

Check our Website for the latest updates!

New Art Gallery show with the work of Marilyn Murphy

Unique, beautiful and thought-teasing images!

Alimentum Art Gallery with Marilyn Murp hy

And we're boiling over with new Book Reviews!
Gastrology by Archestratos
Eat Memory edited by Amanda Hesser
Eat My Globe by Simon Majumdar
Eating by Jason Epstein
What We Eat When We Eat Alone by Deborah Madison
The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz
Modern Spice by Monica Bhide
MORE TO COME...

Alimentum Book Reviews

Become an Alimentum Facebook Fan for scoops, news, and contests!

Alimentum Facebook Page

Follow us on Twitter for up to the minute announcements

Alimentum on Twitter

Alimentum is sponsored by
The French Culinary Institute
and
Pamela's Products

2010-02-03T09:37:00.000-08:00

Gently Read Literature
February 2009 Issue 23

http://www.gentlyread.wordpress.com/

Reviews of Contemporary Poetry and Literary Fiction:

Competing Impulses: Joseph P. Wood on Anna Journey’s If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting

http://wp.me/pcuKI-t9

Between the Ordinary & the Ecstatic: Michelle Moore on Lynn Levin’s Fair Creatures of an Hour

http://wp.me/pcuKI-t5

With More Than a Little Bit of Care: James Reiss on Judith Valente’s Discovering Moons

http://wp.me/pcuKI-sZ

Fractured States: Robert McGuire on Being Abbas el Abd by Ahmed Alaidy

http://wp.me/pcuKI-sV

Whatever Order We Put the World: Robert Silva on Scary No Scary by Zachary Schomburg

http://wp.me/pcuKI-sR

A War With History: Kelly Lydick on Sandy Florian’s The Tree of No

http://wp.me/pcuKI-sL

Terrible Sounds: Mary Meriam on Jan Steckel’s Mixing Tracks

http://wp.me/pcuKI-tf

Eloquence in Detail: Patricia Carragon on Karen Neuberg’s Detailed Still

http://wp.me/pcuKI-ta

The Everyday: Joy Leftow Interviews and Reviews John Yamrus

http://wp.me/pcuKI-tg

Death Speaks: Mark Danowsky on The Letter from Death by Lillian Moats

http://wp.me/pcuKI-th

February’s Featured Artist: Nathan Abels

Daniel Casey
Gently Read Literature
gentlyreadlit at gmail dot com
http://www.gentlyread.wordpress.com/

CALL FOR POEMS INSPIRED BY WOODY GUTHRIE

2010-01-27T17:22:00.000-08:00

2010 WOODY GUTHRIE FESTIVAL: Call for Submissions – Poetry and Readers

In conjunction with the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma on July 17, 2010, anthology of poetry will be published that reflects the essence of what Woody Guthrie stands for as an American icon:

To memorialize in poetry the history and culture of working people and to perpetuate the ideals, goals of equality for the working class, and themes that Woody Guthrie espoused and promoted in his art.

To raise world consciousness of the labor and political movements of the thirties through the fifties. His life in Oklahoma. Forefront of the American political and social debate. A fascinating glimpse into the American of an earlier day.

Poets are invited to submit up to six poems that reflect, either directly or peripherally, on anything stated above or on other themes connected to Woody Guthrie. If the poet perceives the poem to be reflective of Woody Guthrie, his work or his art, it probably is, so send it to us. Poems will be judged by a panel of poets and editors selected by Dorothy Alexander and Nathan Brown, coordinators of the 6th Annual Woody Poets Reading at Okemah, and by George Wallace, founder and director of the Woody Guthrie Poetry Group. The published anthology will be available for purchase at the readings in Oklahoma City and in Okemah. Poems from previous Festivals may be submitted, and previously published poems, too, with permission of publisher.

From the poets whose poems are accepted for the anthology, readers will be selected to read their work at a public “pre-Fest” reading sponsored by Village Books Press, at the Scissortail Social Space, 3012 N. Walker (Paseo Art District) in Oklahoma City on Friday evening, July 16th and at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Okemah on Saturday, July17th. This arrangement affords more poets more opportunities to participate in celebrating the art and life of Woody Guthrie!

Woody Guthrie, born and reared in Oklahoma, was a champion of the disenfranchised, minorities and the working class, a colorful and beloved folk hero. He was part of a primitive tradition, carried through the ages by common people to express their joy and anger and frustrations through music. Their drudgery and occasional triumphs. Their intense independence.

Woody remains one of the patron saints of American rebelliousness, still causing trouble posthumously, inspiring generation after generation of singer-songwriters, and all those who feel constrained by conformity. Joe Klein says he was struck by his “elegant rage.”

Send poems in email attachment (MS Word) to Dorothy Alexander, nishkit1 at gmail dot com along with a short (50 words or less) bio and a pledge to buy at least one copy of the anthology at $15.00 each. The sale proceeds of the anthology will be applied to expenses of promoting and arranging the readings and travel expenses of the director. Email Dorothy if you have questions.

Deadline: Poems must be received NO LATER THAN: March 1, 2010

Reposted from Facebook invitation from George Wallace. Thank George for sharing this one!

PTE: Issue 2 Parts I & II Online

2010-01-25T13:03:00.000-08:00

Pushing The Envelope: Issue Two
New Year, New Desires, New Adventures With Writing

1/18/10

There is nothing more important to us than:

OUR FANS AND WRITERS

New York, Oregon, DC, California, Florida, Nevada, Georgia, Washington, New Jersey, Ireland, Italy, Halifax NS, and Claymont De....and others

“Fasten Your Seat Belts It’s Going To Be A Bumpy Read”
The Late, Great: Bette Davis "Yes even she is a fan from the great beyond"

Featuring Such Great Works As:

"The Prey Becomes The Wolf"
"Shakespeare’s Sonnet 23 And A Response By Roxanne Hoffman"
"Me"
"Whitman"
"The Fetish"
"Emmett Till"
"The Law Of The Lawn"
"My Imaginary Girlfriend"
"The Group Poem"
And Many More!

Letter From The Editors

Poetic Greetings,

Happy New Year! This is our second issue, and there were some who said this would never last. We are growing more everyday. We have a Facebook page, and finally a Website: http://ptealiterarymagazine.blogspot.com. We are loving every minute of this great undertaking. We took what we learned from the first issue, and made this issue bigger and better. We have even become a bit more computer savvy along the way. This time around has been a little less stressful, and we enjoy what we do very much, and can’t wait to work with our fellow writers in the third issue. We already have some very talented writers lined up.

We are very proud of all the writers in issue two. We have some old favorites, and a lot of new writers to enjoy. Returning authors include: Roxanne Hoffman, myself [Kevin Michael Wehle], Brian Damian Sabbats, Danny Garcia, Adam Henry Carriere, and Patricia Carragon. We also have some wonderful and very talented new comers to our pages. Donnie Gatto, Gina Delorenzo, Paul A. Toth, Fiorella Arrunategui, Bonnie Martha Moret, Maria Chisolm just to name a few. Also we have some art work in this issue. Some of it was include by the author of the pieces, and Anti-social submitted two pieces: “Burlesque,” and “The Vapors.” We also put together a group poem which is truly terrific, and there were about ten poets who helped make it a true beauty. All who grace the pages of issue two made this a wonderful experience, and a beautiful issue.

There was no theme for this issue, but we felt that one emerged as the submissions came in. This issue seemed to deal with love or desire for the most part. Although there are some works that just stood on their own. One of the best examples of desire is the story by Gina Delorenzo: “The Fetish.” This story blew us away. It has a great twist in it. That you have to read to find out what it is. It is truly worth the wait. There are two poems that come to mind that best represent love, and they are: Bonnie Martha Morét's “John’s Balcony”, and Roxanne Hoffman’s “Listen.” Each and every piece in this issue is great, and will make you feel. I hope you like it as much as we liked putting it together.

So sit back and relax. Get a cup of coco, wrap yourself up in a warm blanket, and enjoy!

xoxox Kevin And Brian :)

pushingtheenvelope09 at gmail dot com
http://ptealiterarymagazine.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pushing-The-Envelope-A-Literary-Magazine/171994915341

Reprinted from http://ptealiterarymagazine.blogspot.com.

EMPLOYEES ONLY - THE WORK BOOK 2nd Printing

2010-01-24T19:29:00.000-08:00

Employees Only - The Work Book
(Poet Plant Press, 2009)

31 authors and poets writing on the subject of work and the work experience.

A special myspace page has been set up for this project:
http://www.myspace.com/theworkbook

Sunday, January 24, 2010

As we get ready for the second and last printing of Employees Only - The Work Book, I want to let you know that I have approximately 100 copies left of the first printing.

64 pages
printer: Hugh Ward III / Classic Blends

There are three ways to purchase copies of the first printing:

1. Coffee Creations:
200 Cobblestone Drive
(in the Cobblestone Village, near Woody's Bar-B-Que)
St. Augustine, Florida 32084 USA

This coffee shop has copies available at 10 dollars each. Pay the cashier in cash. If you would like it signed, then please attend our open mic spoken word series on the last Sunday of any month in 2010. the reading begins at 3:00 and wraps up around five. Sign up is 15 minutes before start time or anytime online at www.bodor.org.

The place also sells ice cream treats and sandwiches. Chris S is the owner and they have a myspace page. He is also the drummer for Elizabeth Roth's band the Grapes of Roth.

2. Paypal.com
We do business under this email:
poetplantpress at yahoo dot com

3. You can mail a check or concealed cash to Chris Bodor's home address, if you prefer. Email us for more information: poetplantpress at yahoo dot com

With Respect,

Chris Bodor, Editor
Poet Plant Press / 3 Pm

This anthology, edited by Chris Bodor for Poet Plant Press, is an attempt to tell the story of what it means to have to work for a living. The editor began his search for work on the subject of work in his backyard: St. Johns County, Florida. Then, he broadened the scope to include far away voices from San Pedro, Budapest, Sweden, and NY City, and beyond. Creative folks were invited by Bodor to send a poem, essay, or image that was created "on the clock" or on the job. Positive poems exploring memorable work experiences were also included in the mix.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
(first printing, 64 pages/Classic Blends/ 150 copies):

FORWaRD by Wayne Mason
Between Misery and The Muse
FORWoRD by Chris Bodor
Marsh Stream of Conscience

Section I – ORIENTATION
Mike Daily - 6:26AM: A Play In One Act
Bobby Smith - The Work We Do
Mike Watt - The Lighthouse Keeper
Wayne Mason - All In A Days Work
Puma Perl - But What Do You Do?
Daniel Nester - On The Road Again
Aleathia Drehmer - Saints in Waiting
Patricia Carragon - The Designated Underpaid Office Manager

Section II – FULL TIME
Henry Denander - All My Jobs
Stevie Cenko - Foreclosed
Michael Henry Lee - Melville and Me
David Dannov - That's Our Educational System For You
Judith Westley - Train In The City
Joseph Goosey - While At Work
Dawn Corrigan - Clock Logging
Vic Swan - Grand Tetons to Motel 6

Section III – EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR
Karl Koweski

Section IV – THE DAY PLAYERS
RD Armstrong
David Hill
Dennis Rush
James M. Wilson
Glenda Bailey-Mershon
Roger Geronimo
Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal
Steve Seidenfeld
Charles Chaplin
t.kilgore spake

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Poet Plant Press PUBLISHING PLAN

September 2010 "The Love Book"

This year (2010) Chris Bodor will be collecting poems and images (black ink line art and photos) on the subject of love and relationships. Submissions will be reviewed from January 01 to June 01, 2010. Release date for this Poet Plant Press anthology will be Fall of 2010.

Guidelines: Please send up to five poems at a time on the subject of love and relationships. The good, the bad and the bed, and the ugly. A special myspace page has been set up for this project:

http://www.myspace.com/thelovebook

September 11, 2011 the author hopes to collect thoughts and feeling from the last ten years for a project called "Aftermath - 09/11/01 The First 10 Years."

Reprinted from http://poetplant.blogspot.com and http://www.myspace.com/poetplantpress.

GINOSKO #9 Online!

2010-01-24T18:08:00.000-08:00

www.ginoskoliteraryjournal.com

GINOSKO #9 features work by the following contributors:

Jennifer Andrews
Marcia Arrieta
Natasha Cabot
Chris Castle
Grace Cavalieri
Tobi Cogswell
Ananya Dash
A. Davlin
Andrea DeAngelis
Darrell Dela Cruz
Rosemarie Dombrowski
Laury Egan
Gina Ferrara
Priscilla Frake
J. Gabriel Gates
Jason L. Huskey
Kit Kennedy
Suvi Mahonen
Caitlin McGuire
Michael Mirolla
Edward Mullany
Kelsey Noble
Barry W North
Graham Nunn
Luivette Resto
Kristin Roedell
Penelope Scambly Schott
James Snyder
Katrin Talbot
Phoebe Wilcox

Download and read at http://www.ginoskoliteraryjournal.com/images/ginosko9.pdf.

Guidelines:

Accepting short fiction & poetry, creative non-fiction, interviews, social justice concerns, spoken word recordings.

Editorial lead time 1-2 months; accept simultaneous submissions and reprints; length flexible, accept excerpts. Receives postal submissions & email submissions—prefer email submissions as attachments in Microsoft Works Word Processor or Rich Text Format. Copyright reverts to author.

Publishing as semiannual ezine, winter & summer. Selecting material from ezine for printed anthology.

Check downloadable issues on website for style & tone.
Use latest version of Adobe Reader.

ezine circulation 4500+. Website traffic 750-850 hits/month.

Also looking for artwork, photography, to post on website and links to exchange.

Member CLMP. Listed in Best of the Web 2008. Est. 2003.

Ginosko Literary Journal
Robert Paul Cesaretti, Editor
PO Box 246
Fairfax, CA 94978
USA
http://www.ginoskoliteraryjournal.com/
GinoskoEditor@aol.com

ginosko (ghin-oce-koe)

To perceive, understand,
realize, come to know;
knowledge that has an inception,
a progress, an attainment.
The recognition of truth by experience.

Submission Guidelines reprinted from http://www.ginoskoliteraryjournal.com/guidelines.htm.

SHOT GLASS JOURNAL: New E-Zine Calls for Short Poetry

2010-01-19T18:31:00.000-08:00

Shot Glass Journal - a new online journal of short poetry from Muse-Pie Press

Muse-Pie Press, publisher of the Fib Review and award winning poetry, announces the new online journal for short poetry - Shot Glass Journal, which debuts March 2010. Submissions are now being accepted.

You may submit to Shot Glass Journal by sending any short poetry that is under sixteen lines to musepiepress AT aol DOT com. Short poetry can include short form poetry, free verse and prose poetry. Prose poetry should not exceed ten lines. All poems must be the original, unpublished work of the submitter.

Make sure that what you send is your best work. Please also make sure to type in the subject line "For Shot Glass Journal." Submit the poems only in the body of the e-mail in plain text. No submission e-mails will be accepted with attachments. If for some reason attachments might be necessary, contact the editor, Mary-Jane Grandinetti, at the above e-mail address first so that a plan can be formulated to receive your submission.

Shot Glass Journal will accept submissions year-round and will publish accepted submissions in two issues to be published over the course of a calendar year.

Mary-Jane Grandinetti, editor
Musepie Press

HUGH FOX Reviews UNION PRINTER from Marymark Press

2010-01-19T17:58:00.000-08:00

Union Printer.
By T. Kilgore Splake and Mark Sonnenfeld.
2009;17pp; Marymark Press, 45-08 Old Millstone Drive,
East Windsor, NJ 08520. No price given.

During my first reading of Union Printer I kept thinking of the first part of Wim Wenders’ film Wings of Desire, two angels wandering around Berlin listening to people’s thoughts. What seems like total mind-flow structure/structurelessness. Then during my second and third readings I began to slowly realize that Sonnenfeld is stream of consciousness, and Splake exactly the opposite. Here’s Sonnenfeld’s “I will wait for you there,” for example: “Weird/lying on the floor./Lurch/Lunch Bell No Is Lost/in the Edison Industrial Park./Then the trick is sliding/the heavy doors/Standing by/Someone’s/wall.” (p.10). Something you really have to construct a plot around. Is he lying resting on the floor in this industrial park, then lunch is over, he has to leave and ends up (still homeless) out next to a wall somewhere? Totally stream-of-consciousness. Much more plotted (and much more crossword-puzzleish) is the work of T. Kilgore Splake: “pumpkin tides/catfish friends/garlic meat ladies/absaroka summit/ troll hut/vida/ianthe/”tfa” short/good talking candles/watermelon sugar/IDEATH/trout colored streams.” (“ ‘bro’ brautigan obit,” p.4). What it essentially is is an obit of writer Richard Brautigan. Absaroka is a mountain range in Brautigan territory, Ianthe is the name of his daughter. IDEATH is a quote from Brautigan’s autobiography Watermelon Sugar....and so it goes. So, although on the surface, the two poets seem very similar, the truth is that although Sonnenfeld is “free-flowing,” Splake is Mr. Puzzle-It-Out.

Reviewer: Hugh Fox

PRUNE JUICE Issue 3 Online. Call for 4: Senryu & Kyoka

2010-01-07T14:12:00.000-08:00

PRUNE JUICE is proud to present Prune Juice : Journal of Senryu & Kyoka : Issue 3.

The Winter 2010 edition features new poems from the likes of Sanford Goldstein, Alexis Rotella and George Swede to name just three. The journal is presented online free of charge courtesy of Scribd.com. http://www.scribd.com/doc/24700313/PRUNE-JUICE-Issue-3

Submissions for issue 4 (to be released July 2010) are now being considered. Please visit the submissions page for details.

Click here to read Prune Juice : Issue 3 : Winter 2010.
http://prunejuice.wordpress.com/

* * *

Submission Schedule

Submissions for Issue 4 will open January 1st 2010 and will close on May 1st 2010.

Issue 4 will be published in July 2010.

Submitting to Prune Juice

Prune Juice is seeking submissions of quality senryu and kyoka in English from writers across the globe. Please submit up to twenty senryu/kyoka at a time via email. Poems should appear in the body of the email – no attachments will be read. Please ensure that your submission has ‘PRUNE JUICE SUBMISSION’ clearly written in the email’s title field. Always include your name and a brief biography, even if you have submitted to us previously.

Prune Juice does not accept simultaenous submissions or previously published work. We will only accept senryu and kyoka and will not consider any other form of poetry. Unfortunately, we don’t currently offer payment for the work we select. Prune Juice no longer publishes hard copy editions. Each edition is now free to read on the website.

Send your submissions to prunejuicejournal [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk (the format of the email is altered here to avoid spam).

What to include in your submission

1. Your name

2. Up to twenty senryu/kyoka (in the body of the email, not attached)

3. A brief biographical sketch

Reprinted from http://prunejuice.wordpress.com/submissions/

DIAGRAM 9.6 is Up! New Chapbooks, Too!

2010-01-07T10:27:00.000-08:00

Hello friends and followers and fans. I'm writing this note to let you know that DIAGRAM 9.6, our 54th issue, and the last issue of our ninth year of publication, is up. It is exciting to be turning ten so soon. In fact we have big plans for it, featuring a special print 10th Anniversary Spectacular, coming in February. More on that in time. For now we should celebrate the release of 9.6, which is pretty great. It's available at:

<http://thediagram.com/9_6>.

This email is kind of long, so here's a brief ToC of the email: 1. DIAGRAM 9.6 description and sample; 2. New chapbooks by Ben Mirov and Genine Lentine available; 3. Hybrid Essay Contest Results; 4. Two new rocking Monson books forthcoming. 5. Random nude photograph (not really).

*

1. DIAGRAM 9.6!

It has texts by: Lucy Anderton, Steve Barbaro, Douglas Basford, Simeon Berry, Bill Carty, Laura Didyk, Natalie Eilbert, Roxane Gay, Loren Goodman, Marj Hahne, Kristin Hayter, Joy Kettren, Jon Liberzon, Ben Mirov, Sally Molini, Michael Ogletree, Rachael Peckham, Patty Seyburn, Matt Swetnam, and Bill Yarrow.

The schematics included in this issue are: The Anatomy of a Divorce; A Diagrammatic, Pictorial Illustration of the Electrical Wiring As Associated with the Table and the Backboard; Path of Dough Piece in Umbrella-Type Rounder; Pet Display Clothing; The Response of a Dog to Rage and Fear; Social Penetration with (A) an Acquaintance, (B) a Friend, and (C) an Intimate; Spectacular Machine; Typical Feelings Man; and an infographic on the Use of the Family Car.

How about a sample from the issue:

I IS TO VORTICISM by Ben Mirov

as red leaves are to riverbanks.
As American History is to blackout drunk.
As blackout drunk is to flying away.
If you come upon a vortex in your laundry tonight
don't be afraid.
Give it a name like Scheherazade.
Take it to dinner,
feed it oysters and champagne.
They don't teach you this in college
or how to deal with moving faster than the speed of light
into a brick wall,
but that’s how I got my diploma
knocking around in the chrysalis
until they pulled me out
and the figment in my wings dried
and my tongue refused to bifurcate.
Mighty big snow-globe head.
Mindful of harmless laser beams.
Three or four ideas spinning around a coat hanger.
Lasso after lasso.

*

2. New chapbooks:

So come on down and check the issue out! While you're there, enjoying the Ben Mirov and others, pick up both of the new NMP chapbooks: chapbook contest winner Ben Mirov's I IS TO VORTICISM is pretty hooked up, plugged in, and good. Don't believe me? Think we're biased? How about what these folks have to say about it?

"A recurring character in the poetry of Ben Mirov is Ben Mirov, part charming host, part self-inflicted lab experiment in a debut dedicated to demonstrating our daily, perilous transformations. These poems are sudden, agile, heart-strong, and as wonderfully unsolvable as their analogical title. Welcome to the surgical theater. You're finally going to learn how to sleep with your eyes open." --Dobby Gibson

Also: "These poems and parables celebrate the idea of no self, even as they sing a host of eccentric alter-egos and delightfully strange secret-identities into being. Using 'interstellar ventriloquism,' Ben Mirov is able to inhabit several worlds at once. He deftly mixes the mythic with the mundane, the literary with the cartoonish, sincerity and simulacra. The result is an impressive, often hilarious, book that truly works on many levels." --Elaine Equi

$9. 48pp. Perfect-bound, color cover, and all. Order online at <http://newmichiganpress.com/nmp/ordering.html>.

Ships today!

*

Our other new chapbook, just out (technically it'll be released on Tuesday, at which point we'll be shipping it) is Genine Lentine's MR. WORTHINGTON'S BEAUTIFUL EXPERIMENTS ON SPLASHES. Which rocks. Obviously. We have heard many good words about this one. For instance:

"Reading Genine Lentine's poems--so ardent and playful, risky and affecting--I kept thinking that it's not true, what René Char once said, that 'no bird has the heart to sing in a thicket of questions.' These poems plunge headlong into uncertainties of both language and life and, in doing so, they are so original that I often felt while reading them that I was in the grip of a brand new and still unnamed emotion." --Richard McCann

"These clear, refreshing acts of attention seem to wake us to another way of seeing, and to the problems and pleasures of saying what we see. Have we taken the act of speech for granted all along? In her short, formally inventive pieces--and especially in her dazzling long poem about language's power and limits that anchors this collection--Lentine sounds like no one else. Her wry, astonished, aching voice is a fresh presence in American poetry." --Mark Doty

"Beautiful experiments from the spiraling ladder of someone who has spread out her root hairs and patiently attends the right words to assign; one who is there to honor the instant something shimmers before it disappears, be 'it' the meaning of 'all this' or the lack thereof, not unlike Mr. Worthington photographing a droplet's splash he so ingeniously rigged to measure. And what doesn't Genine Lentine's aqueous breath expel--a disquisition on Softsoap, a sideways look at the motivational expression of Grenville Kleiser, the speed of sperm, along with a little consideration of the comma, the prefix un-, the contour of a vowel. Ms. Lentine's experiments begin and end with the parent body as it breaks away, that 'which asks nothing of us, only that we're here for it.' She is here." -- C. D. Wright

"These thrilling poems--restless, calm, reckless, wise--interrogate themselves by hovering over moments of aching beauty, as well as utter bewilderment, until they become the world itself." --Nick Flynn

Jesus, those are some blurbs, no? Yes they are. Pick it up. It's great. $10, 77pp, perfect bound, color etc. You know what to expect from us by now, right? Order online at <http://newmichiganpress.com/nmp/ordering.html> or via Amazon if you swing that way.

(We also sell a 2009 chapbook subscription, so you get both chaps + Brent Armendinger's awesome UNDETECTABLE for $21 + shipping. Unbeatable. Order on the website. Makes excellent make-up gifts for those friends who sent you gifts but whom you forgot. You know there are so many. You have so many friends. You are popular. Imagine what ordering a friend the 2009 Chapbook Subscription will do for you. Jesus. It's going to be an amazing year.

*

3. Hybrid Essay Contest Results!

Next up, maybe you've heard already. Our 2009 Hybrid Essay Contest reading & judging is finished. Our winner is Cheyenne Nimes, for her essay, "Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and the Santa Cruz River Sand Shark, subtitled 'This troublesome regulatory constraint.'" She rocks. It rocks. We all rock. She received $1000 and publication in DIAGRAM issue 10.1, out at the end of February.

We'll also publish three excellent finalist essays in that issue:
--Josh MacIvor-Andersen and Roderick McClain: "How To Talk Up Gravity and Take Down a Tree"
--Raquel Maldonado: "How My Baby Would Kill the Devil and God With A Bat of Her Non-Existent Eyelashes"
--Lucas Farrell: "A Description of the Hook I am Capable Of"

That enough for you? Didn't think so. Okay. We have much more to come in our next 10 years. And we'll keep you looped. $5 Innovative Fiction Contest is heating up (deadline: 03.08.10), and the chapbook contest guidelines will be out in a week (deadline later this year, 04.30.10).

*

4. Editorial self-promotion, for which your editor is duly ashamed, and fare-thee-wells:

And that is it. All the news. Looking forward to a big 2010 for you and yours. Editor Ander Monson (that's me, horn-honk, faux-third-person POV of email violated) has two books forthcoming: VANISHING POINT, a nonfiction, is out on 03.31.10. Check out the website for it if you like: <http://otherelectricities.com/vp>. And THE AVAILABLE WORLD, poems, comes out in June. I hear he'll be touring around and doing some readings, so if you want him in your town, drop him a line to say so, and he'll see what he can do. Expect a self-serving email with a special discount for DIAGRAM readers around the pub date. Because that's what we're born to do.

Thanks for listening/reading us. If you'd like to unsubscribe, click the link below. We won't be offended (much). (Actually we won't know, so it's cool.) Need your address changed? Unsubscribe and put in your new email on our website form and we'll do the rest.

We out,

Best,
Ander Monson, Editor

[CONTRARY ] Sherman Alexie, Issue and Call

2010-01-07T09:43:00.000-08:00

THREE POEMS BY SHERMAN ALEXIE

ODE TO MY SHARONA | ODE TO JOLENE | CENSUS

Saturday, January 2, 2010 7:58 AM

From: "Jeff McMahon, Contrary"

To: contrary@lists.uchicago.edu

We wish you a contrary New Year with a happy new issue, including three new poems by National Book Award winner Sherman Alexie:

http://www.contrarymagazine.com

Plus new poems and stories by Alex Cigale, Leah Welborn, Anna Potter, Kiki Petrosino, and Edward Mc Whinney.

Reviews of new books by Witold Gombrowicz, Andrew Zawacki, J.D. Abel, Kevin Goodan, Ben Yagoda, and Jessie Lendennie.

Fondly, your editors:

Jeff McMahon (Commentary)

Shaindel Beers (Poetry)

Frances Badgett (Fiction)

SUBMISSIONS:

Contrary accepts submissions only through the online submissions form at contrarymagazine.com. Our next deadline is March 1.

DM 31 Internationale Online

2010-01-03T19:09:00.000-08:00

for immediate release

“A nation is its words, its stories, as much as its physical boundaries.”

Mohamed Nasheed

“Thus we may see,” quoth he, “how the world wags.”

As You Like It, I, iii, 11

Danse Macabre 31

Internationale

Ali Abdolrezaei * Thierry Brunet * Valery Bryusov * Arun Budhathoki

David Calcutt * Helen Catherine Calcutt * Anton Chekhov * Alex Cigale

Martyn Conterio * Subhankar Das * Justin Ehrlich * Katerina Fretwell

Richard Godwin * Robert J. Gregg * Vivekanand Jha * Penn Kemp

James Kendley * Alexei Khvostenko * Roberta Lawson

Michael Mc Aloran * Mark Murphy * Tomás Ó Cárthaigh

Edward O'Dwyer * Bobby Parker

Craig Podmore * Diana Pollin * Kenneth Radu * Alexandra Seidel

Matteo Spinetti * Shahidul K K Shuvra * Mahdi Tavajohi * Thuy Truong

Marc Vincenz * Anand Vishwanadha * Deborah Walker * Petra Whiteley

Partake of the finest coloratura letters online

http://dansemacabre.art.officelive.com

♥ ♠ Danse Macabre ♦ ♣

An Online Literary Magazine™

Le premier magasin littéraire en ligne au Nevada,

new issues monthly on first Friday

ISSN 2152-4580

The Winter 2010 Issue of Luciole Press is Published!

2009-12-31T07:12:00.000-08:00

December 31, 2009
7:03 am

Clifford's Castle, by Mart Clayton. Winter Issue 2010.

The Winter 2010 Issue of Luciole Press is published!
http://www.luciolepress.com

Editor's Note
Winter Issue 2010

Hello to all readers,

2009 is now at an end, and many of us surely feel like it was akin to climbing up a hill like the one pictured above, in “Clifford’s Tower.” It has been a rich year in many ways, and I am thankful as a new decade is being ushered in – a rebirth that will no doubt continue to reveal riches across all fields of art and literary creation for everyone.

I remain resolute in working diligently and with a hopeful heart in order to make sure Luciole Press continues to present opportunities for readers and contributors alike to foster connections, communications, pleasure and understanding amongst all of us. I wish you all a bountiful new year filled with all you need to foment an ample and creative environment.

Luciole has been graced with many interesting new contributors this issue, including poets Elin Assarsson-Lod of Sweden, Jonaton Asbjørn Allin of Denmark, and Hadaa Sendoo of Mongolia. Offerings of art come from Anett Kilén Kennedy of Norway, Satya Möller of Sweden, and the Alida Ivanov Gallery of Stockholm, Sweden. We have two new poets from the United States, Eric Basso and William Crawford.

Stephen Page of Argentina offers a deep, insightful interview of Argentinian author Esther Cross.

I welcome back poets Aleksia Petko, David Smith, Kumari de Silva, Scott Wannberg, and Scott Owens, whose new book Paternity is available in February (congratulations!); photographers Andrea Folmer, Jeaneth Patricia Skagvold, and Mart Clayton; and Christine McClintock, whose searing portrait of a woman’s shelter in Colorado transcends all physical locations and takes us into the heart of humanity in need.

Dena Rash Guzman’s final installment of her travel series to Thailand concludes a colorful adventure… where to next, Dena? :)

S.A. Griffin has created The Poetry Bomb, which is seeking submissions. Visit the page to learn more about the exciting new project!

Ellyn Maybe has an exquisite new CD of her poetry, Rodeo for the Sheepish. I interviewed her, and reviewed Rodeo. Don’t miss it.

Tracy Lee Stum brings us her experiences traveling to India as both a street artist and teacher of students eager to learn, courtesy of student organizers from IIT Kanpur and the American Center of the US Consulate in India. She also fills us in on her next big adventure, traveling to Vancouver and staying at the USA House during the Winter Olympics, where she will create a work of art commemorating US Olympic Hall of Famers! Cannot wait to hear all about it, Tracy.

Deb Scott shares her cedar waxwing bird-watching adventures in her lovely photos and essay, "Perhaps Once a Year, If I'm Lucky."

This issue truly is packed with wonderful abundance; may it help us start the year with creativity blossoming through the rebirth of not only the calendar, but of our endless potential for art.

Always my best,
Karen Bowles

Publisher and Editor

Celebrate the new year with the newly published Winter 2010 Issue of Luciole Press!

Table of Contents

ART --

-- Alida Ivanov Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden

Artwork by Allen Grubesic and John Rydberg
Grubesic: “Another Masterpiece, 2009”
“The Diary of Spoofy (getting smaller everyday), 2009”
“Delirium Tremens, 2009”
(photos by Katya Sandomirskaja)
Rydberg: “Allanrop, 2009”

-- Anett Kilén Kennedy, Norway: paintings

“Glass Transparencies,” “The Veil,” “The French Woman,”
“Window Seat,” “Rendez-vous au Jardin de Luxenbourg,”
“Silent Night,” “Lovers,” “Dog on the Run,” “On the Beach,”
“Paris in Sight,” “Blue Moon,” “Spanish Dancer,” “Dreamer,”
“Kneeling Nude,” “Baudelaire 4.- Series.”

-- Satya Möller, Sweden: The Peace Human Sculpture

“The Peace Human series” (on a plane, subway roof, by the
water, more), “Satya with Swedish Opera singer Caroline af
Ugglas,” “Around his neck,” “Satya on top of the airplane,”
“Satya fixing with them”

-- Tracy Lee Stum, USA: street painting workshops in India

Please check the Photography/Travel listing below

AWARENESS

-- Christine McClintock, USA:
Just Another Day In Paradise - Homeless Women of Colorado

BOOKS

-- Scott Owens, USA: Paternity, to be released in February

-- Stephen Page, Argentina: An insightful interview with
Argentian author Esther Cross

EDITOR'S NOTE

A note from Editor Karen Bowles about all the
happenings behind the Winter Issue

ORGANICS

Esmaa Self, USA: Column Organics: It's a Balance Thing

PHOTOGRAPHY/TRAVEL

-- Andrea Folmer, USA: Joshua TreeLNational Park

-- Deb Scott, USA: Bird watching -- Cedar waxwings in Oregon

“Three waxwing juveniles,” “Pigeon (devil’s walking stick) tree,”
“Pigeon tree fruit,” “Cedar waxwing adult male”

-- Dena Rash Guzman, USA: Travel photo essay of Thailand and Shanghai

“Yellow for the King,” “Return to the Lamphu Treehouse Inn,”
“Wooden foot brigde,” “Elephant Man,” “Elephant,” “Elephant
Food,” “Thai Taxi,” “Skys Scraping”

-- Esmaa Self, USA: Colorado

“Reaching higher, though the days are short,” “Thriving between
rocks and a hard place,” “Shining the light”

-- Jeaneth Patricia Skaugvold, Norway: Ireland and Norway

“Reflections,” “Self portrait,” “Dublin,” “Kira,” “Chimney View”

-- Karen Bowles, USA: California

“Winter Night,” “Screened Sunset,” “Dish of Rain”

-- Mart Clayton, UK: York, England

“Clifford’s Tower,” “Millenium Bridge,” “Wiping Snow off the
Tyburn,” “York Minster,” “Houseboats on the Ouse,” “Winter
sky fishing,” “The Hospitium, Museum Gardens”

Tracy Lee Stum, USA: India

“Antaragni 09,” “Teaching,” “Students,” “Catwoman,”
“Hai,” “Hyderabad,” “Rickshaw,” “Skip on the chair,”
“Workshop 1,” “Workshop 2,” “Camels,” “Pushkar,”
“Kolkata,” “With Hemant Gupta”

POETRY

-- Aleksia Petko, USA: "DAMP,” “Disconnect"

-- David Smith, USA: "A Cow-Puncher’s Chance”

-- Elin Assarsson-Lod, Sweden: ”press repeat och hold your horses”
Versions in original Swedish and translated into English

-- Ellyn Maybe, USA: New CD: Rodeo for the Sheepish
Interview, and CD review, on the pages with the CD title

-- Eric Basso, USA: "The Meeting,” “Windows”

-- Hadoo Sendoo, Mongolia: "New Year’s Eve,” “Memories”

-- Jonatan Asbjørn Allin, Denmark: "Love Hadron Collider”
“The day that all the leopards died in front of blind and busy eyes”

-- Karen Bowles, USA: "Winter Crisp,” “Breath,” “It rained so hard”

-- Kumari de Silva, USA: "Ground Breaking” “Better Safe then Sorry”
“How to Say Anything to Anyone”

-- Scott Wannberg, USA: “Regret City doesn’t live here anymore”
“the kindness of buffalos”

-- Scott Owens, USA: "Steps,” "Manners"

-- S.A. Grffin, USA: The Poetry Bomb is now accepting submissions

-- William Crawford, USA: “That Time I Stopped Breathing, Beside You,
In My Sleep” (for Kimberly)

PROSE

Deb Scott, USA: "Perhaps Once a Year, If I’m Lucky “

WORTH A LOOK

Pär Strömberg, Sweden -- Artist

Check out his work and his blog

REPRINTED FROM LUCIOLE'S NOTE ON FACEBOOK.

Chanticleer Launches OL' CHANTY On-Line Mag

2009-12-30T19:55:00.000-08:00

OL' CHANTY - Chanticleer Magazine Online

Ol’ Chanty is the new website of the old Chanticleer Magazine, which has now been discontinued. The aim of this website is to publish poetry, essays, short stories, novel excerpts, criticism and what ever else comes our way that we deem worthy of the world’s attention. Ol’ Chanty would like to continue the tradition of Chanticleer Magazine, which called itself “A Magazine Of Poetry And Ideas – Not Necessarily In That Order.” Therefore Ol’ Chanty will also include a blog (Chatbox) in which the editor – or anyone else – can sound off on any issue which stimilates them to say something interesting – within certain limits of course.

Chanticleer Magazine acquired the reputation of being an against the grain, ‘underground’ magazine which took a certain pride in being different from most other magazines. It received a lot of warm praise from various quarters, as well as some scathing criticism. One reviewer even described it as the most irritating poetry review journal he had surveyed to date. (Kudos indeed!) Ol’ Chanty will do its best to continue this proud and noble tradition.

Chanticleer Press, which used to publish Chanticleer Magazine, now only publishes chapbooks and ‘proper’ books (in limited handmade editions). Details of these publications can be found elsewhere on the website.

Issue 22 (the previous paper issue was 21, so this might also be considered to be 22 ) contains:

Poem - Karen Margolis

Short Story - Ian MacFadyen

Poems - George Held

Shards - John Bennett

Essay and Translations - Thomas Ország-Land on Miklós Radnóti

Poems - David Waddilove

Poem - R. D. Armstrong

Short Story - Hugh Fox

Poems - Arthur Coleman

Essay - Richard Livermore on Lorca’s Politics

Poems - A. D. Winans

Essay-Review - Richard Livermore on Jeremy Reed’s Genet

Review - Richard Livermore on Louise Landes Levi’s Banana Baby

Submissions, queries and comments can be made using the on-line form found on our Contact page. You can also join our mailing list there.

http://www.chanticleer-press.com/contact.html

Finally, the editor hopes that all who visit these pages enjoy what they read.

Richard Livermore – Editor
http://www.chanticleer-press.com

HOLY ROSE REVIEW #3 Dec 09 "Wonder" Online & Call for "Worry"

2009-12-30T19:04:00.000-08:00

Tattoo by Michael Kozlenko

Poetry by Ivy Alvarez, Lane Falcon, Thomas Griffin, Christine Hamm, Eugenia Hepworth Petty, Dorianne Laux, Raina Leon, Joseph Millar, Erika Moya, Rhonda Palmer, Siimon Petkovich, Lise Whidden, & Martin Willitts, Jr.

Tattoos by Seven Beckham, Rich Bustamante, Cengiz Eyvazov, Luba Goldina, Sean Herman, Avi Inks, Michael Kozlenko, & Jason Wainwright.

To read HRR Issue #3, Dec 09, "Wonder" visit us online at http://www.hollyrosereview.com/dec09editorial.html

PUBLICATION/SUBMISSION SCHEDULE

Issue Four Theme, WORRY: June 2010~poetry submission months March & April 2010
Any poetry subs sent before or after these dates cannot be read or viewed. Sorry...

Rolling submission for tattoos begins December 2009 (send whenever you want, and we'll take a look)

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES AS FOLLOWS:

E-mail subs only to editor@hollyrosereview.com

POETRY
Four poems in the message box-no attachments-include name and e-mail. All POETRY submissions must express the theme. No previously published poems unless invited, simultaneous subs okay. PLEASE SUBMIT ONLY ONCE PER SUBMISSION PERIOD.

TATTOOS
Four or more tattoo photos as jpegs, normal resolution. Tattoo submitters can be the tattoo wearer, the tattoo artist (if not the artist of the original design), the original artist, or the photographer. In each case, please include the names of everyone involved. TATTOO submissions should express the theme, but you may submit any style tattoo, as you never know the direction the editor will take with the theme.

You must send completed copyright agreement (First On-Line Publication)form, which includes a short bio, with your submission.

Theresa Senato Edwards
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief

Toni Turner
Partner

HOLY ROSE REVIEW
Poetry & Tattoo Literary Arts Journal
http://www.hollyrosereview.com/

MÖBIUS, THE POETRY MAGAZINE 27th Anniversary Edition is Out!

2009-12-18T19:43:00.000-08:00

Juanita Torrence-Thompson, Editor in Chief/Publisher is pleased to announce MÖBIUS, THE POETRY MAGAZINE, 27th Anniversary Edition - 2009, Volume XXIV.

This year's edition includes among it's many gifted and talented contributors such notables as: Valerie Martin Bailey, Robert Bly, Cornelius Eady, Ed Galing, Dianela Gioseffi, Jean Hull Herman, Maurice Kenny, Esther Leiper, Linda Lerner, Lyn Lifshin, Norma West Linder, Julio Marzan, Tom McKeown, B.Z. Niditch, Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan, Ruth O'Callaghan, Anthony Oldknow, Simon Perchik, Marge Piercy, Hal Sirowitz, Stephen Stepanchev and Susan Terris.

Additionally work by several friends of Flor grace its pages:

Dominick Arbolay
Mary Elizabeth Clark
Diana Festa
Robert Ghiradella
Deborah Hauser
Roxanne Hoffman
Carl Kavadlo
Ed Bok Lee
Erica Mapp
Mary Orovan
Linda Rothstein
Maria Sassi

as well as the late Pud Houston.

MÖBIUS, THE POETRY MAGAZINE has been named a "best pick" 2007, 2008 & now 2009 by Small Magazine Review.

More information about how to order your copy and how to submit to next year's edition can be found at:

www.mobiuspoetry.com
www.poetrytown.com
www.youtube.com/poetrytown

Coinciding with this year's release we would like to announce and congratulate the Dr. Zylpha Mapp Robinson International Poetry Award Winners:

First Prize: Esther Leiper - “Of Souls & Shadows” -- $300 & Audiobook: Poetry Among The Flowers: Queens Meets Asia by Juanita Torrence-Thompson (See newspaper article here).

2nd Prize: Dan Knapp - “Everything But One” -- $50 & Audiobook

1st Honorable Mention: Edward Fisher - “Heiroglyph”
-- Audiobook & Certificate

2nd Honorable Mention: Maria Sassi - “The Flying Children Of March 7, 2007”
3rd Honorable Mention: Judith Veder - “The Tailor: For Half A Century”
-- Audiobook & Certificate

2nd Merit Award: Lynn Cooper - “Expectations”
3rd Merit Award: Diane Elayne Dees - “Two Pictures”
-- Audiobook & Certificate

MÖBIUS, THE POETRY MAGAZINE
P.O.BOX 671058
Flushing, NY 11367-1056, USA

All-World Wrestling Poetry—52 Wrestling Poems

2009-12-09T20:40:00.001-08:00

_____

The poems in this collection are on wrestling—the collegiate and amateur styles—but also how we wrestle with life, where we find wrestling in our lives, plus our gods, prophets and heroes past, those who have wrestled the classic bouts. It is modern and boundary-busting, and at the same time about tradition, a duality significant to both the poetry and wrestling communities. It is not about professional wrestling. Although that would make a wonderful project on its own, there is not enough poetry about amateur wrestling, the collegiate, Olympic, and folk styles.

The rest of this intro will be of interest to you if you would like to use any of the artwork or poetry yourself, and if you are interested in why such a collection came together—maybe for the first time. If not, then scan down to below Catherine Edmunds' 2009 drawing called "Greek wrestlers," and begin reading. If you are looking for a particular poet's work, or to see if it is included, simply click "Ctrl-F" on your keyboard. Here is a list of the living contributing poets you will find:

Rane Arroyo
John D. Berry
Rus Bowden
Kimberly Dark
Susie DeFord
Lori Desrosiers
Susan Kelly-DeWitt
David Hernandez
Drax Ireland
Jayson Iwen
John Jeffire
Andy Jones
Jeff Kass
Steve Meador
Muhammad Afzal Mirza
Steve Parker
Gilbert Pye
Don Schaeffer
Muhammad Amir Sheikh
Michael D. Snediker
G.C. Smith
Judy Swann
Terreson
John Timpane
Pamela Uschuk

In lieu of bios, links to the contributors' web sites are provided from their names. If you would like to reach them, most of the time you will find contact information there. If not, e-mail me (lowelldude@aol.com), and I will try to connect you.

The works in this collection fall under Creative Commons—Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported. This way, as you share these poems, the poets' names remains attached, so that they continue to get credit for their work as it is passed around. In the spirit of this, each piece of artwork used below has just beneath it, as part of the image, an attribution that includes what the work is, who made it, and when. This Creative Commons agreement also protects the artists and poets from someone else making money from their works, while cutting them out. You'll need permission for such a commercial venture. It allows, however, for you to feel free to share the works, to keep the poems handy and pass them around, and speak them at events. If you have sought these poems out for noncommercial use, wonderful!, please write the poet a thank you, but the answer is already yes.

A few years back, when I was blogging daily at Bud Bloom, November arrived, and the poetry posting necessarily slowed down, as wrestling season was about to begin. My son Dan was wrestling in college at the time, and I was a moderating contributor at MassWrestling.com, working on a comprehensive directory of all collegiate wrestlers from Massachusetts, in order that wrestlers, their family, and friends, could see how their high school wrestlers were faring in college, even if they were still active. Part of this, was to create a comprehensive list of wrestling colleges around the country, which was shared with other wrestling forums in other states. I made a brief post on the poetry blog called Wrestling With Poetry in November. I wanted to include wrestling poetry in that blog, and found some in a translation of Homer's Iliad, but had difficulty finding it elsewhere. Since creating that blog post, I then noticed that many others who go online in search for "wrestling poetry", come up with my post. And I always felt that that post was not allowing the searchers to find the jackpot they were looking for. Thus, there is demand, but short supply. This blog post is a wrestling poetry jackpot.

Back in July, I made a call for submissions of new and recent wrestling poems, by posting at over 20 wrestling forums, over 20 poetry forums, and to over 2500 members of Facebook. The response has been remarkable, as you can read for yourself below. And a high percentage of these gifted poets, have been or still are wrestlers or members of the wrestling community themselves. With these poems by living poets, I have merged classics. Included also are fresh translations of classic poems, and renditions of scriptural texts.

My thanks go to all the contributors listed above. Each have been a pleasure to work with. My thanks also to those who have guided this project with ideas, such as Joyce Nower, who turned me onto Emily Dickinson's many wrestling poems, and Dennis Greene, who reminded me of the classic wrestling scene in Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha." Thanks also to you for finding these poems, for shaking hands with them, and taking the time to read them, even to grapple with them when you hear the metaphoric whistle. It's your match now, your time to enter the ring.

http://clatterymachinery.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/the-mixed-classic-amateur-wrestling-poetry-all-world-meet-48-poems/

VGP Anthology 2: SO IT GOES

2009-12-09T19:45:00.001-08:00

"So it Goes" Poetry Anthology Now Available

The latest edition in the VGP Chapbook Anthology Series is now available. So it Goes collects poetry about death. Within these pages you will find verse that touches aspects of our humanity in a spectrum of emotions. Here lies collected works celebrating life by bravely confronting the subject of death or dying and reflections with honest, straight forward and sometimes humorous poetry. This anthology includes the work of established and new writers, including: Elzy Cogswell, Leyna Inberg, Puma Perl, Chris D'Errico, Gillian Prew, Mike Meraz, Morrie Greene, Ashley Leitner, Doug Tanoury, Larry Lefkowitz, Roxanne Hoffman, Sergio A. Ortiz, Susan Bosler, Gail Gray and Joseph Goosey.

"Colostomy" by Elzy Cogswell from VGP Anthology, So it Goes was nomintated for the 2009 Pushcart Prize by Virgogray Press

Stop into the Virgogray Press online store and pick up your copy today!

http://virgograypress.blogspot.com/

New Poetry from J Bradley

2009-12-09T19:14:00.001-08:00

DODGING TRAFFIC

J. Bradley

ISBN 978-0-9841025-2-5

Widely published, loved, and admired, J. Bradley's first collection is long overdue. Ampersand Books is proud to present this raucous, lively collection of vivid imagery, larger-than-life imagery, and poetry crafted from the real stuff of everyday life. Lust, love, contempt, disgust, parental guidance, and poetic revenge, crafted with unbridled imagination and unmistakable skill.

"J. Bradley is the Veruca Salt of the literary chocolate factory, writing with a satirical brazenness that leaves cavities among the reader's eyes. There is a sugary darkness to his work and a lackadaisical charm; that of a black-market dental hygienist. J. delivers new audacity, important romance, and certainty. He acknowledges the sensational ugly without apprehension. His ideas are of an entirely different species and his wit knocks at postmodern...stunned today, laughing tomorrow. Dodging Traffic is the classic, the sequel will forever envy."

+ Sarah Morgan, author of Animal Ballistics

"Reading J. Bradley's Dodging Traffic is a lot like actually dodging traffic - both are unpredictable, thrilling, surprising. Prepare yourself, because these poems hit hard."

+ Jason Jordan, Editor-in-Chief, decomP Magazine

"J. Bradley has a pen attached to his heart. His heart has its own brain. His brain has its own heart, but we are unsure if there's a pen attached to that."

+ Robbie Q. Telfer, The Encyclopedia Show

J. Bradley will be touring across the country for performances, book signings, and workshops. For all of J. Bradley's tour dates, check out iheartfailure.net. Purchase your copy of Dodging Traffic through Ampersand Books at ampersand-books.com.

DM XXX WEIHNACHTSMARKT is Open!

2009-12-09T18:42:00.001-08:00

Friday, December 4, 2009 at 6:58am

Celebrating THIRTY issues of the finest coloratura letters online...

Danse Macabre XXX

WEIHNACHTSMARKT

featuring

2009 prix d'écriture de Noël in Fiction
winner
K. Marvin Bruce

2009 prix d'écriture de Noël in Poetry
winner
Corinne Elysse Adams

Winterreise
by Wilhelm Müller & Franz Schubert

Unsere Winterreise
an exclusive DANSE MACABRE poetic collaboration
featuring
Ingeborg Bachmann
Eric Basso
Mark Baumgartner
Bruce Bond
Susan M. Botich
J. Bradley
Michael Brandonsio
Alex Cigale
Taylor Collier
Nabina Das
Joan Harvey
M. Rose Hill
Roxanne Hoffman
E.T.A. Hoffmann
Branch Isole
Klement Kasza
Yukai Li
Bill Mayer
Robert Michael
DLR Pesavento
James Ragan
Elizabeth I. Riseden
Farida Samerkhanova
satnrose
E. Smith Sleigh
William N. Thompson
Walther von der Vogelweide
Esté Yarmosh
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Zhuang Yusa

Weihnachtspoesie & Erzählungen
from
Michael Brandonsio
Gordon Collins
P.S. Cottier
Katy Darby
William Doreski
James Dye
Ed Higgins
Russell Jones
Frank Kelly
Roberta Lawson
Said Leghlid
Bill Mayer
Jennifer Reeser
Jamie Robles
E. Smith Sleigh

Weihnachten um die Welt
essays
from
Priti Aisola
David Hughes
Allan Stevo
Sivakami Velliangiri

and
new holidaze fiction
from
Felicia Florine Campbell
William Jeffrey
John Kearns
Farida Samerkhanova
Zhuang Yusa

Combat seasonal dementia, evil consumerism, and frighteningly festive folks bearing strange gifts with our gala thirtieth issue!

Now Open 24/7

@ http://dansemacabre.art.officelive.com

Sincèrement,

Adam Henry Carrière
éditeur, Danse Macabre
An Online Literary Magazine™

le premier magasin littéraire en ligne au Nevada,
new issues monthly on first Friday ~

Copyright © MMVI-MMIX by Adam Henry Carrière / Stonesthrow Publishing LLC. All Rights Reserved. ISSN pending.

SIMPLY HAIKU: Call for SENRYU

2009-12-02T20:44:00.000-08:00

Editor Al Pizzarelli is currently seeking SENRYU poetry for publication in upcoming issues of the Simply Haiku website.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

1. Poets are urged to read the Editor's Introduction in the Simply Haiku Senryu section and read among the many examples of senryu in the SH archives.

2. Both unpublished and previously published senryu are invited. All previously published senryu must include the name and year of the publication in which they first appeared.

3. There is no limit to the number of submissions.

4. All submissions should appear in the body of the e-mail. Attachments are not acceptable.

5. Response time is a week or two from the date of submission.

6. Accepted poems are published within a year of acceptance. Some appear sooner than others depending on the featured topic of each issue.
Note: Topics are determined by the related subject matter of accepted poems and are not announced prior to each issue.

7. Bios & Photos should only be submitted by request of the editor.

8. Submit regularly.

Send submissions to:

PoetryA@comcast.net

Al Pizzarelli
SENRYU editor
Simply Haiku

OMEGA 7 Online Now

2009-12-02T20:22:00.000-08:00

OMEGA 7
“from hive this mind”

Happy Holidays, here is your link to the Web’s premiere literary production
ONLINE NOW.

250 dynamic pages … and it’s FREE for one and all!
(but you can DONATE if you so choose, and empower INDEPENDENT alternative literature and art)

http://issuu.com/howlingdogpress/docs/omega7fromhivethismind

[If the link doesn't work, simply copy and paste it into your browser. That's almost guaranteed to bring it up.]

OMEGA 7 “from hive this mind” is designed, edited, and created by Michael Annis, senior editor and founder of Howling Dog Press. The Featured Artist for OMEGA 7 is Henry Avignon.

OMEGA 7 is comprised of dynamic and visionary work by 45 writers whose poetry, stories and Hinge applications cover progressive politics, global warming, governmental corruption, revolutionary language theory /linguistics, anti-war works, social and economic stratification, human alienation, imprisonment, abstracted reality, dreams and the subconscious, quantum mechanics, poverty, and pieces dedicated to world unity and peace. A special section by the late Charles Bukowski is central to OMEGA 7. Other literary contributors are Michael Annis, Henry Avignon, Benjamin Balthaser, Tom Bradley, Ginnetta Correli, Jane Crown, Nabina Das, Tatjana Debeljacki, Jared Demick, DubbleX, Renee Dwyer, Stevie Lee Edwards, AnnMarie Eldon, Victoria Ganim, Joe Giglio, Gregory Greyhawk, Leigh Herrick, Sandra Hunter, Molly Kat, Jillian Rose Krupp, Sun Yung Lee, Joy Leftow, Heller Levinson, Oswald Le Winter, Elenor “Ele-Beth” Little, Adrian C. Louis, Michael D. Main, Stacy Muszynski, Edward Mycue, Mary Newell, Valery Oisteanu, John Olson, Laura Orem, David Ray, Paul Corman-Roberts, Kenneth Rosen, Adam Roufberg, Albert Salinas, Lilvia Soto, Thomas [Wordwulf] Sterner, Ross Vassilev, Jack Wiler, Frank Winters, and Jeffrey Cyphers Wright.

A testimonial:

I just saw the preview of Michael Annis'/Howling Dog Press' new Omega 7 online journal publication "From Hive This Mind" featuring a slew of amazing poets including Michael Annis, David Ray, Heller Levinson, Leigh Herrick, Oswald LeWinter, Paul Corman-Roberts, and others (not to mention myself…) and I have to say that this man (Michael Annis) is a creative/intellectual genius - a truly divine spark.

"From Hive This Mind" is a labor of love blending together a most magnificent compilation of poetry, photography, spirit, and graphic design capable of being produced only by a true visionary -- one who sees through, and beyond, the corporeal constraints imposed on us physically, culturally, emotionally, etc .And, as an added bonus, this masterful work is published online for FREE.

Stay focused for soon the publication will go public and a link will be posted (but join the group instead so you don't have to rely on me for your information) Join “Omega Online Literary Magazine” on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=a47e5b01bcef29cfde73d883f03d0aad&#/group.php?v=wall&ref=ts&gid=48599887203

OMEGA 7 is mind blowing! What Michael has put together is such a masterful craft projecting such force... from the layout/design to the word on page to the people he’s brought together, man, this is one amazing publication. Seriously, I felt like I was standing in front of an ancient shrine, or those sacred Buddhas that the Taliban blasted out of existence, or the monolith in 2001...wtf... love's labours found. Wow!

~Adam Roufberg, “RadioActiveLunch” radio host

OMEGA 7’s theme is derived from an excerpt from Conducting Bodies by Nobel Prize winner Claude Simon. OMEGA 7's subtitle "from hive this mind" is taken from a Hinge Application of the same title composed by Michael Annis and “hinges” back to Claude Simon. Hinge Theory was created by Heller Levinson, and is evolving through the work of Levinson, Annis, Newell, Giglio, Main, Avignon, Roufberg, and others; Hinge represents, quite possibly, the most significant revolutionary poetic form to have been originated in the last 20 years, and can be explored further in Levinson’s latest book “Smelling Mary” (Howling Dog Press). A practioner’s guide to Hinge Theory, “The Hinge Manual” by Michael Annis, can be received free of charge in PDF format by request to WritingDangerously@HowlingDogPress.com.

Toward the end of this email, you will find navigation tips. When you forward the link, please also forward the navigation tips, which come in handy for those who are not familiar with ISSUU (the software OMEGA rides on). Working with ISSUU format takes a little practice, but the more you experience, the easier and more entertaining it becomes as you maneuver through the pages. As you distribute this email and link, please encourage your lists to do the same, and if they are on Facebook to join the Facebook group “OMEGA online literary magazine”. Help us increase our readership.

When you open the OMEGA link, take it slow; it's a 13 mb file and it takes a little time to download. Please don't skip ahead; allow it to completely download. Start at the beginning of OMEGA and view it a page-spread at a time; that will ensure that it downloads accurately. If you skip through it while it’s downloading, it causes the program to insert blank pages and missing links--it's happened to me, and it was because of my impatience.

During the course of designing and building OMEGA 7, four people very dear to me passed away. In the order of their transitioning are:

David Sisneros, musician (June 2009)
Mark Stryker, artist and writer (August 2009)
Will Inman, poet and activist (early October 2009)
Jack Wiler, poet and OMEGA 7 contributor (late October 2009)

There are memorials to each of them in OMEGA 7; each was dearly loved and all will be heartbreakingly grieved and missed by many.

Periodically, I will be posting/dispatching comments by contributors and readers. You are invited to post your own comments about OMEGA 7 on the Facebook OMEGA group homepage or on ISSUU in the Comments window that you will find when you open OMEGA 7.

Also, OMEGA 7 includes a very special offer:

The Works of Henry Avignon, OMEGA 7’s artist are now available for purchase!

SUPERB, LIMITED EDITION PRINTS of all the artwork by HENRY AVIGNON featured in OMEGA 7 are now available through a joint collaboration between the Artist and Howling Dog Press. Details: page 247 in OMEGA 7.

--from OMEGA 7, by Henry Avignon (50+ more images in OMEGA 7

If you are unfamiliar with ISSUU, here are a few navigation tips:

1. Patience will serve you well; your ability to manipulate and stabilize the pages will evolve as you use it.

2. I’ve found that it’s best to use FULLSCREEN mode; the button is found in the upper left corner of the ISSUU screen after OMEGA loads.

3. In Fullscreen mode, you have more control and can adjust the size of the pages with the slide bar that appears at the top. It also gives you a “page bar” at the bottom that loads 20 pages at a time. The greatest advantage with Fullscreen mode is its stability compared to the “page turning” mode that first loads. The disadvantage is that it doesn’t look as cool when the pages turn, and it doesn’t give you the full aesthetic beauty of movement (those pages flying like silky black ravens’ wings).

4. When you click on any page, it will enlarge. Click again and it returns to original size, and the two-page spread. After you click on the page, take your finger off the mouse or mousepad. It will stabilize the page. ISSUU is very sensitive and responsive, so it’s easy to send the image flying around the screen if you keep your finger on the mouse.

5. At the outer edge of each page there are faint “arrow” buttons. Clicking on those will take you either forwards or backwards through the publication, one page at a time. If you click the double arrow, it will take you to the end or beginning of the publication.

6. The PAGE BAR at the bottom of the screen: you can click on any set of two pages and immediately go there. If you want to go forwards or backwards through the pages, click on the arrows at either end of the page bar and it will load 20 previous pages (left side arrow) or the next 20 pages (right side arrow). You can enlarge the image of any set of two pages by placing your cursor on it. It also gives you the page numbers above the image and relevant to it.

7. You can completely change the presentation of the publication from what originally loaded (in OMEGA’s case, “magazine”) to two other options: “Presentation” view and “Paper” view. Paper view presents each page as if it were a PDF, and you scroll up or down to change pages, rather than horizontally. The BUTTON that controls the view options is located next to the Fullscreen button at the top. Experiment, you might like another view better than what I’ve chosen. I chose “magazine” for its aesthetics-- the effect of movement, and the dramatic sheen of the pages.

8. There is also a “dot bar” under the page bar. You can move more rapidly forward or backward by clicking on the dots; each dot represents twenty pages, and you can click any dot—they don’t have to be clicked in order.

Scars Publications "Sexy Poets" 2010 Calendar Now Available

2009-11-09T20:59:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Scars Publications “Sexy Poets” Poetry Wall Calendar:

After receiving submissions of both images and poems, Scars has released the 2010 Poetry Wall Calendar that looks phenomenal! Most of the images in this collection are of writer-supplied images, and only a few months have artwork from Scars Publications. A few of the months have two poems on the page, and when it came to December, we added film negatives of prints of a number of writers that are a part of the Scars Publications world.

Check out the authors who have writing in the Scars Publications 2010 “Sexy Poets” Poetry Wall Calendar.:

January: poem by John Yotko (image of ice on trees in Urbana, Illinois)

February: poem by Jill L. Ferguson (image of Jill L. Ferguson)

March: poem by R. N. Taber (image of R. N. Taber)

April: poem by Adam Henry Carriere (image of dolphins in the Pacific Ocean in 2007 near the Galapagos Islands)

May: poem by Chad Newbill (image of Chad Newbill)

June: poem by Michael Lee Johnson (image of an old upturned small boat near a retention pond in Naples, Florida)

July: poem by Michael Dubé (2 images of Michael Dubé)

August: poem by Anthony Hall (image of Anthony Hall)

September: poems by Jessica Reidy and Patricia Carragon (image of Jessica Reidy)

October: poem by Sam Brown (image of Sam Brown)

November: poems by Rachel Mehl and Joey Connelly (image of Rachel Mehl)

December: poems by Kevin Michael Wehle and Rose E. Grier (image of snow on a trees from Grunee, Illinois in the background, with two images of a camera for the poems taken by John Yotko, with two film negative collages of: Iliana Vasquez, Rose E. Grier, Charlie Newman and John Yotko, and LLL-Phoenix, “Dionysus Don” Mathis, and A.J. Chilson & Miles)

Poems & Photos are currently on view at on the Scars Publications website:

http://scars.tv/2010calendar.htm

and this highly collectible Calendar is available right now for sale (if anyone is interested):

http://www.cafepress.com/Sexy_Poets

Special thanks to Kevin Wehle for sharing the original submission call and this update!

Qarrtsiluni Seeks Work on Health by November 30, 2009

2009-11-04T19:53:00.000-08:00

Qarrtsiluni is pleased to announce that submissions are open for the winter issue, which will begin publishing after the New Year. The theme this time is Health, broadly defined, and the editors are Susan Elbe and Kelly Madigan Erlandson (the links go to their works here at qarrtsiluni; see below for more about them). We’re having the submission period now, in November, to avoid the busy holiday season. The deadline is November 30th. As always, please refer to the How to Contribute page for general submission guidelines (and note that there have been several minor changes).

The editors have chosen a theme that should resonate far beyond the current health care debate in the United States:

We are interested in creative interpretations of health, which will of course include the health (or lack thereof) of the human body, but also of the mind and spirit, the environment, or the culture. How systems stay in balance, how one attains wellness, how we relate or respond to our own state of health and the health of others, and the extent of an individual’s physical, emotional, mental, and social ability to cope with his/her environment would all be fair game. Unusual health-related practices also intrigue us (serpents? psychic surgery?) as well as tales of spontaneous recovery. How much control do we have over our own health? Explore superstitions, regale us with symptoms, or simply make a well-written toast to our health — we’ll consider it. Keep in mind too that the etymological roots of health include “whole” and “hale,” but also “holy.”

Our limit is three poems or one prose piece per submission, with a 1,200-word limit on the prose.

Both editors hail from the American Midwest, and they’ve been friends for years.

Susan Elbe is the author of Eden in the Rearview Mirror (Word Press) and a chapbook, Light Made from Nothing (Parallel Press). Her poems appear or are forthcoming in many journals and anthologies, including Blackbird, diode, MARGIE, North American Review, Ocho, Salt Hill, Smartish Pace, and A Fierce Brightness: Twenty-five Years of Women’s Poetry (Calyx Books). Among her awards are the inaugural Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize (Calyx), the 2006 Lorine Niedecker Award, and fellowships to Vermont Studio Center and Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Susan has served on the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission and currently serves on the Council for Wisconsin Writers Board. You can learn more about her and her work at susanelbe.com.

Kelly Madigan Erlandson is the author of Getting Sober: A Practical Guide to Making it Through the First 30 Days (McGraw-Hill). Her poems, stories and essays have appeared in Best New Poets 2007, Crazyhorse, The Massachusetts Review, Plains Song Review, Terrain.org and Prairie Schooner. She has been a writer-in-residence at Jentel Artist Residency Program and the KHN Center for the Arts. Kelly was awarded the Distinguished Artist Award in Literature from the Nebraska Arts Council in 2006, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 2008. She has worked as a licensed alcohol and drug counselor in Nebraska since 1983. Visit her website at KellyMadiganErlandson.com

Qarrtsiluni is an experiment in online literary and artistic collaboration. The title comes from an Iñupiaq word that means “sitting together in the darkness, waiting for something to burst.”

http://qarrtsiluni.com

Brooklyn Poet Laureate Search

2009-11-04T18:21:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn Poet Laureate Search

Mon Nov 2, 2009 2:15 pm (PST)

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is seeking the next Brooklyn poet laureate and has appointed a five-member Brooklyn Poet Laureate Recommendation Committee to evaluate candidates for the volunteer position. The Committee will recommend a pool of three finalists to the borough president, from which he will choose one to be the bard of the borough.

Candidates for the poet laureate position must be a Brooklyn resident with recognition as a poet, and demonstrate a commitment to using the position for community outreach and projects that promote poetry and/or literacy in our diverse borough of Brooklyn.

To be considered for the position, candidates should submit 5–10 pages of their work, a maximum two-page bio or résumé and a cover letter that describes their vision of engaging Brooklyn’s various communities in poetry. The deadline for nominations is November 24 at 5:00 p.m. Information can be e-mailed to ekoch@brooklynbp.nyc.gov, faxed to 718-802-3452, or mailed to Poet Laureate Recommendation Committee, Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201.

Applications are due by November 24, 2009.

Please help spread the word.

Best, Craig

(NOTE: Click here for more information, including downloadable application

instructions, or use the following link:
http://www.brooklyncb6.org/announcements/#16)

Craig R. Hammerman
District Manager
Brooklyn Community Board 6
250 Baltic Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201-6401

t. 718.643.3027
f. 718.624.8410
w. http://www.brooklyncb6.org/
e. districtmanager@BrooklynCB6.org

Serving the neighborhoods of Carroll Gardens/South Brooklyn, Cobble Hill, Columbia Street District, Gowanus, Park Slope and Red Hook

DM Announces Nominations for Best of the Web 2010

2009-11-02T19:00:00.000-08:00

Danse Macabre
has nominated work for the Best of the Web 2010 anthology (Dzanc Books).

As submissions were limited to three nominees, much Hallowe'en candy-fed agonsing ensued. However, the following pieces were selected to represent Danse Macabre in 2009. The nominees are:

"The Moon is New, but Love is Old" by Kristin Fouquet
from Issue XXIII, Volume Four, Number Three
Une Nuit à l'Opéra
http://dansemacabre.art.officelive.com/TheMoonisNewbutLoveisOld.aspx

"Nights at the Opera" by Levi Wagenmaker
from Issue XXIII, Volume Four, Number Three
Une Nuit à l'Opéra
http://dansemacabre.art.officelive.com/nightsattheopera.aspx

"The Bottle" by Orlaith O'Sullivan
from Issue XXIV,
Volume Four, Number Four
Hauptfriedhof
http://dansemacabre.art.officelive.com/thebottle.aspx

Final selections for the anthology by Dzanc Books (and guest editor Kathy Fish) will be announced mid-January, 2010.

Congratulations to the nominees, and to the dozens of the other poets, writers, and lively spirits who have graced the pages of Danse Macabre this year. Your ink energy is the chill wind howling through the cemetery of suburbanality, expanding the literary web one macabre signature at a time.

Servus!

Sincèrement,

Adam Henry Carrière
éditeur, Danse Macabre
An Online Literary Magazine™
http://dansemacabre.art.officelive.com/

Submissions Call - Epic Rites Press

2009-10-31T17:21:00.000-07:00

Re: lines written with a razor, netzine published by Epic Rites

Everyone here at Epic Rites is excited to announce that netzine lines written with a razor will now be edited by American poet Puma Perl.

The mandate remains - lines is looking for poetry that relies on guts to carry its message, rather than literary technique.

Submissions are open with the simple guidelines:

1. Send work to pumaperl@hotmail.com

2. Cut and paste - No attachments, please.

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Kevin Wisher Reviews THE SLIP by Michael Montlack

2009-10-31T14:08:00.000-07:00

An opinion in the Life of…..

Walking wearily into the house, the work day now over with a fervent wish to merely relax and recharge, I poured a cup of some well deserved coffee before taking my position on the long worn sofa. Black dress shoes voiced annoyance as they fell from foot to floor, while tightly embracing cloth relinquished its professional death grip when pulled from torso, thus creating a sense of peace. It was at this time that my eyes spied The Slip by Michael Montlack.

THE SLIP

by Michael Montlack
Poets Wear Prada, October 2009
ISBN 978-0-9841844-2-2

soft cover/saddle-stiched/32 pages

$10 ( S&H $1.50)

I received his chapbook from a mutual friend and had the privilege of hearing him read on more than one occasion, opening the book my eyes transcribed word to psyche and I found myself drifting though a linear time stream of my life and similar occurrences, and I smiled. I, myself am a gay writer and Community organizer, and such poems as “Boy Witch," "Christopher’s Mother," "Brothers and Sisters," and "Didn’t You get the Memo” awoke slumbering memories of past events, and relationships. Enlightening me as to the inner strength I must have possessed when refusing to negate myself and my individuality, as well as the strength of my family and friends in their support of me.

Utilizing his humor, with such poems as “Vanity Smurf”, I saw many a Fire Island acquaintance reflected in his written mirror of type, yet while following the verbal maze of clarity and confusion to clarity back to confusion through the intricate play on words in the poem, “Gertrude you had Alice, But I had him (so briefly) and now we don’t even talk,” I felt like I was a newbie Suduko player with no grasp of the concept of the game, only to complete the board and question how on earth I succeeded.

In “Didn’t You Get the Memo”, I must admit a mischievous grin did take my face in envisioning a gay strike encompassing goods and services and a world where artistry and craft were left to the heterosexual masses. Where as "Christopher's Mother", shows everyday dysfunction and judgment issues which change over time to acceptance in the matters of being gay, only to be replaced by judgment of the "normal sons". My favorite piece in this collection however is that of "The Mythology of Death," it speaks of heartache and loss, while addressing the "what if?" aspect, and relates to the metaphor "You can paint a broken fence, but its still a broken fence," it leads one to ponder the second chance, and the pain that one would endure yet again if the path leads you to the same end.

When critiquing others, it is often my rationale that if an artist's expression is conveyed, then his goal has been met. In poems where upon the reader may not directly connect, its is not always the flaw of the writer as for if an experience is not shared, it can most certainly be appreciated, but will never invoke the same emotion of loss, heartache, happiness and or sorrow. I can honestly say I did not feel disconnected from Mr Montlacks collection of poems. I find that many of his works connect with the reader on the interpersonal level and that most can relate through similar life episodes; be they straight, gay, male or female. This is extremely evident in "Boy Witch" where one can see where the conditioning or roles are enforced, even if it means the sorrow of more than one individual.

Kevin G. Wisher received his fine arts education at School of Visual Arts and New York's Fashion Institute of Technology. He is currently working on his PhD in Nursing Education with a minor in Forensics. He is a staff writer for Population Arts Merge and was awarded Pride Alliance of Long Island's Diva with an Ink Sword award. He is a GLBT activist and served as the director of Outreach for PALI (Pride Alliance of Long Island). He curates the Rainbow Readings at Pisces Cafe in Babylon, Long Island and helped organizes the music and arts festival known as Out In Sayville. He often writes under the pseudonym Edweena Scoot-a-which.