New from Black Buzzard Press: IN FRAGILITY by Michael Graves

IN FRAGILITY

by Michael Graves

$15.95

Black Buzzard Press

ISBN 0-978-938872-47-8

Soft Cover, 86 pp.

Praise for In Fragility:

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

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

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

--GEORGE HELD

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

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

Title Poem:

IN FRAGILITY

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

About the Author:

MICHAEL GRAVES 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



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

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)

Call for DaDa Art & Poetry Submissions: MAINTENANT 5
Deadline: 1/31/11.

(In case you haven't seen this call posted by Peter Carlaftes/Kat George on Facebook)

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

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

Send your submissions to editor@threeroomspress.com

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

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: JANUARY 31, 2011

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

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

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

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

Here's the original call:

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

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

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

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

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


Reprinted from Creative Writers Opportunities.

Isles Poetry Group Seeking Editor

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

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

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

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:

1. Title file with the initials of the anthology and author's last name: F-Surname.doc or MH-Surname.doc
2. 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.
3. 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

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

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)

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.