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...

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

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

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.

PWP Releases DEAD RECKONING by Gene Auprey

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.

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

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 http://twitter.com/flordelconcreto

Little Sky Press Launches Peter Chelnik's STRAWBERRY HARMONY

"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."

PWP Releases THRUM by Joel Allegretti

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?

PWP Releases 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)

The many moods of THE SLIP, from fabulous to funny to frenetic, announce the arrival of a promising new voice that can express, with consummate sensitivity and verve, the sorrows and celebrations of our complicated queerness. When Michael Montlack writes, he can make us sing or break our hearts. Each poem is a veritable “kiss of the artist”—passionate and memorable.

—Rigoberto González, author of Other Fugitives and Other Strangers

With pitch-perfect pacing and an intimate colloquial voice, THE SLIP reads as engagingly novelistic even as these memoiristic vignettes are untamed by wit and scathing humor. Ouch. The poems are at once revealing yet winningly imaginative as they reignite myth—there’s even a bisexual Orpheus here who helps Montlack to rewrite the past while instructing, bruising, and exposing suburbia’s lingering melancholy.

—Peter Covino, author of Cut Off the Ears of Winter,
winner of PEN/America Osterweil Prize

Michael Montlack's THE SLIP situates us in the middle of a life, threading together joys and sorrows. Some of the comic moments will truly make you laugh out loud. And at times, you'll get horribly wistful. Such is the richness of this collection.

—D. A. Powell, author of Chronic

**Meet author Michael Montlack at the following events:

Wed 10/7: Michael Montlack reads THE SLIP 6-7:30PM Hofstra University Spiegel Theater Hempstead, NY (off Hempstead Turnpike)

Fri 10/9: Michael Montlack reads THE SLIP 6-8PM The Cornelia St Café 29 Cornelia St NYC $7 include 1 free house drink 212.989.9319

Mon 10/12: Michael Montlack reads MY DIVA 6-8PM The Cornelia St Café 29 Cornelia St NYC $7 include 1 free house drink 212.989.9319

Fri 10/16: Michael Montlack reads from MY DIVA (on Stevie Nicks), with contributors Wayne Koestenbaum (on Anna Moffo), Mark Doty (on Grace Paley), Jason Schneiderman (on Liza Minnelli), Christopher Murray (on Margaret Dumont) and Richard Tayson (on Helen Reddy), 4-6 PM CUNY Graduate Center 365 Fifth Ave - Room 4409 @ W 34th St, NYC Q/A and Reception to follow.



Michael Montlack is the editor of the essay anthology My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them (University of Wisconsin Press, 2009) and the author of two other poetry chapbooks: Cover Charge (Winner of the 2007 Gertrude Prize) and Girls, Girls, Girls (Pudding House, 2008).

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

BOOG CITY Small Press Fair in Brooklyn Sept 12

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

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

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

And this event is FREE!

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

By Subway: 2, 3 to Grand Army Plaza,

C to Clinton-Washington avenues,

Q to 7th Avenue

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

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

Anslem Berrigan in conversation with Buck Downs.

Readings from:

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

Music from:

Gracefully, Phoebe Kreutz, Jesse Schoen

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

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

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

—RICARDO NIRENBERG, Offcourse Literary Journal

John Amen's third book

AT THE THRESHOLD OF ALCHEMY

to be released from Presa Press

~ October 1 ~

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

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

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

—COLLETTE INEZ

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

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

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

~Selected Events~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TO ORDER YOUR COPY:

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

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

PERSIAN POETRY BOOK LAUNCH

Wednesday June 22 at 6:00 p.m.
@

Pomegranate Gallery

133 Greene St
between Houston & Prince Sts.
(212- 260-4014 / info@pomgallery.com).
Subway: B, D, F, V to Broadway Lafayette;
W, R to Prince St; 6 to Bleecker St;
C, E to Spring St; 1 to Houston St.

*FREE Persian Bilingual Poetry Book Launch—Iran, Yesterday & Today:
Mahmood Karimi-Hakak & Bill Wolak, co-translators of Your Lover’s Beloved: 51 Ghazals by Hafez, will read in both Persian & English from the book, as well as from new poems addressing the current stolen election, followed by a Q&A on the whole situation in Iran today. Plus singing of a ghazal with accordion accompaniment by Michela Musolino & Zoe B. Zak. Wine & cheese. Contact: Stan Barkan, publisher 516.868.5635

Thursday June 23 at 12:30 p.m.

The East Meadow Public Library
in collaboration with
Cross-Cultural Communications
~Presents~

Discussion on
Your Lover’s Beloved: 51 Ghazals
by Hafez
and
Iran Today
with translators
Mahmood Karimi-Hakak and Bill Wolak

On Thursday, July 23 at 12:30 p.m., a discussion of Your Lover’s Beloved, a new publication of works by the 14th Century Iranian poet Hafiz will be presented at the East Meadow Public Library. Mahmood Karimi-Haka and Bill Wolak have translated this latest publication of Hafez’s work and will be at the library to lead the discussion.

Mr. Karimi-Haka is an Iranian educator, playwright, director and actor. He is currently a Professor of Creative Arts at Siena College. Mr. Wolak is a poet and the recipient of several National Endowment for the Humanities grants and two Fulbright-Hayes scholarships. He has been an Adjunct Professor at William Paterson University for over twenty years.

There will be a question and answer session on Iran today and time to speak with the presenters. Copies of the book will be available for purchase. Join us for this timely, exciting, and enlightening program. Refreshments will be served

FROM:
Stanley H. Barkan, Publisher
Cross-Cultural Communications
239 Wynsum Avenue
Merrick, NY 11566-4725
Tel: 516-868-5635
E-mail: cccpoetry@aol.com

New from Terrace Books: MY DIVA

Coming in May from UW Press...

“These deeply personal, campy, and insightful essays illuminate the eternal bond between gay men and their fabulous diva icons.”—Michael Musto

MY DIVA
65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them
Edited by Michael Montlack

Publication Date: May 7, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-299-23120-0, Cloth, $24.95, 320 pages
Terrace Books: A trade imprint of the University of Wisconsin Press

“I’m living for this book—What a thrill! Even if I wasn't one of the Divas myself I would be curling up with this tome and letting the multiple muses enthrall me. These women are lifelines to creativity, self-actualization and freedom of spirit. Uh-Mazing! ”—Justin Bond (a.k.a. Kiki Durane)

From Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Midler, and Diana Ross to Queen Elizabeth I, Julia Child, and Princess Leia, these divas have been sister, alter ego, fairy godmother, or model for survival to gay men and the closeted boys they once were. And anyone—straight or gay, young or old, male or female—who ever needed a muse, or found one, will see their own longing mirrored here as well.

These witty and poignant short essays explore reasons for diva-worship as diverse as the writers themselves. My Diva offers both depth and glamour as it pays tribute with joy, intelligence, and fierce, fierce love.

“Inspiration is contagious—and inspiration, excitement, and appreciation resonate through these essays. This is a story about how in the worst of times, there are the best of women—women in whom we find our courage and sometimes our heartbroken tenderness. My Diva is an act of love, well deserved and without reservation. Read it in the spirit in which it was made—this act of adoration, awe, and yes, love.”—Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina



Editor Michael Montlack splits his time between New York City, where he is professor of English at Berkeley College, and San Francisco. He has published two chapbooks of poetry, Girls, Girls, Girls and Cover Charge. This book was inspired by his love for Stevie Nicks.

MY DIVA
65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them
Edited by Michael Montlack

Publication Date: May 7, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-299-23120-0, Cloth, $24.95, 320 pages

Terrace Books – A Trade Imprint of the University of Wisconsin Press

“A completely fascinating and lovely book. In every case the diva is a kind of saint—for her suffering, for the emotional warble in her voice, as she sang, as she spoke those classic lines. It’s hard to miss the dovetailing of the gay male writer’s psyche and the voluptuous (much more than her body) voice of the diva. She shines her light on the way. Man, does she ever.”—Eileen Myles, author of Sorry, Tree

Featuring...

D. A. Powell on Eartha Kitt
Joseph Campana on Audrey Hepburn
Rigoberto González on Rocío Dúrcal
Michael Klein on Laura Nyro
Lloyd Schwartz on Gracie Allen
David Bergman on Lotta Lenya
Edward Field on Gloria Swanson
Kenji Oshima on Margaret Cho
Michael J. Andrews on Parker Posey
Brian Teare on Virginia Woolf
Forrest Hamer on Mahalia Jackson
Alfred Corn on Billie Holiday
Mark Doty on Grace Paley
Patrick Letellier on Queen Elizabeth I
Walter Holland on Marlene Dietrich
Michael Broder on Sappho
Michael Schiavi on Karen Black
Guillermo Castro on Evita
Peron Wayne Koestenbaum on Anna Moffo
Richard Blanco on Endora
Jonathan Howle on Patti LuPone
Regie Cabico on Nina Simone
Timothy Liu on Rickie Lee Jones
Lewis DeSimone on Auntie Mame
Christopher Murray on Margaret Dumont
Bill Fogle on Julia Child
Jason Schneiderman on Liza Minnelli
John Dimes on Björk
Christopher Lee Nutter on Sade
Jeff Oaks on Wonder Woman
David Trinidad on Joan Crawford versus Bette Davis . . .

________________________________________________________

Dear Friends;

Please join me in celebrating the publication of MY DIVA at one or both of the NYC DIVA EVENTS.

AND look for the piece on it in TIME OUT NEW YORK THIS WEEK!

NYC DIVA EVENTS:

APRIL 27 (Mon) 7pm. MY DIVA READING.
Barnes & Noble. 82nd &
Broadway. 2289 Broadway.
With Michael Klein, Walter Holland, Jason Schneiderman
& Michael Montlack.

MAY 13 (Wed) 6pm - 9pm. RECEPTION & READING.
Out Professionals My Diva Event.
At the LGBT Center: 208 West 13th Street. (West Village).
With Mark Wunderlich, Tim Liu, Michael Broder,
Richard Tayson, Steven Cordova & Michael Montlack.

Thanks and hope to see you,

Michael

PS Doing events in Fort Lauderdale, New Orleans, San Francisco, Rhode Island, Philadelphia, DC, Portland, Atlanta, and more soon (if you're not in NYC).

PWP Announces EQUAL TO THE EARTH by Jee Leong Koh

POETS WEAR PRADA
Announces
Its First Full-Length Collection:

EQUAL TO THE EARTH
Poems by
Jee Leong Koh

ISBN 978-0-9817678-9-5
Trade Paperback, 80 pp.
List Price: $14.99
Release Date: April 2009

&
Invites you to the author's virtual book party!

On March 20, 8 p.m. (EST/ GMT/ SST), I am throwing a Virtual Book and Birthday Party to launch my new book of poems Equal to the Earth. Everyone is invited, and you don't even have to leave the comfort of your home, or wherever you find yourself that evening. All you have to do is to visit the book blog or my Facebook page. Invite your friends. Invite your family. Invite your dog.

I'm thinking of reading, in my sexiest voice, a selection of poems from each of the five sections of the book. If you have other suggestions for the party, do write them on the blog. Virtual cheese and crackers will be provided. Bring your own bottle.

You may order the book in advance by using Paypal (blog sidebar) or by mailing me a check for USD $14.99 (3963 58th Street, Apt. 2, Woodside, NY 11377).

I hope to see you at the party, when you write in the guest book. I promise mindblowing acts and memorable speech.

Jee Leong Koh

--
New book of poems: equaltotheearth.blogspot.com
Poetry blog: jeeleong.blogspot.com


* * *

In his first full-length collection EQUAL TO THE EARTH, Koh writes in a variety of forms, speaks with a range of voices—ancestral, recent and contemporary—and travels a span of ground to investigate the imaginary claims of community and self. Here you visit Montreal and Montauk, Nebraska City and Fire Island, and a bar where Hart Crane, W. H. Auden and Cavafy hit on you. In the center of this investigation, as in the book, exerts the great question of love.

"Koh is a vigorous, physical poet very much captured by the expressive power of rhythm, rhetoric, and the lexicon. He is also, paradoxically, a poet in pursuit of the most elusive and delicate of human emotions. The contradiction is wonderful and compelling, and so are his poems."
—Vijay Seshadri, Author of The Long Meadow (Graywolf Press)

"His poems are like the sexy nerd you meet at a bar, the one you really want to get to know better—with his glasses and tie on and nothing else."

—Christopher Hennessy, Outside the Lines: Talking with Contemporary Gay Poets (University of Michigan Press)

"Smart, irreverent, often unnerving, these sonnets smirk,smile, argue and bless. Jee Leong Koh has taken a month of days and rendered a very contemporary version of the artist as a young man."
—Marie Howe, about Koh’s Payday Loans

Jee Leong Koh is the author of Payday Loans. His poetry has appeared in the Best New Poets 2007 and Best Gay Poetry 2008 anthologies, and was nominated in 2008 for the Pushcart Prize. Born in Singapore, he now lives in New York City, and blogs at Song of a Reformed Headhunter (http://jeeleong.blogspot.com).