Feb 27 2015
By Juliet Cook
The Thirteen Myna Birds flock has been freshly updated and offers new poetry by Jessica Lindsley, Martin Willitts Jr., Michael Lee Johnson, JT Williams, Luke Jeffrey Wilkinson, and Mitchell Krockmalnick Grabois here! – http://13myna.blogspot.com/
“a disaster of blood petals – watch the hands waving distress flags – like a reverse mapmaker – moonlight cracks open – the moon burns – lacerated throat of the skyline – the ghosts got replaced – sunset hemorrhaging – impeded by grey”
Next month’s Thirteen Myna Birds flock will feature some poems from the FIDDLE IS FLOOD collection by Lauren Gordon, the first wining Blood Pudding Press chapbook of the year, coming soon…
Source:: Blood Pudding Press
Feb 25 2015
By John Burroughs
We are thrilled to announce the long-awaited publication of John G. Hall‘s Poems for Explosion in February 2015. This book features 60 pages of Hall’s best poems, illlustrated by Becky Mackay, and is available for a mere $10 US from Crisis Chronicles Press, 3344 W. 105th Street #4, Cleveland, Ohio 44111 USA.
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Jack Hirschman says of Poems for Explosion, “These are ‘letter rip’ poems by a very conscious British poet who is forever breaking the chokehold that Willie Shakespeare has bent around the neck of that island. Hall really wants to include everything and everybody – he unloads personal and political contradictions with an organized spontaneity that is refreshing and millennial, and his urgencies are upbeat and rooted in a totalizing expressivity.”
Gerry Potter says, “Powerhouse tenderness and lyrical agility bind together John’s remarkable use of language to give work of lasting worth and historical accuracy. John G. Hall is poet first and foremost and a 20th-21st century documenter second to none. In a world of increasing unfairness we need work of this richness and colour to keep us sane.”
Foreword by Sue Fox. Cover image by Charlotte Henson. 6×9″ paperback. Edited by John Burroughs. ISBN: 9781940996141.
To order from CreateSpace, click here.
To rate on Goodreads, click here.
John G. Hall is a Manchester (UK) poet who has served as the editor of Citizen32 and the host of Beatification. His previous books include The Drowning Fish, Bang! and Spleen.
Source:: Crisis Chronicles Press
Feb 20 2015
By Dianne Borsenik
In celebration of Black History Month, NightBallet Press is enormously pleased to announce the publication of Margie Shaheed’s second book of poetry, Onomatopoeia!
Onomatopoeia bursts into the scene with the very special snap that characterizes Shaheed’s poetry. Askia M. Touré, winner of the 1989 American Book Award in Poetry, has written:
“Margie Shaheed’s sonorous chapbook Onomatopoeia is a subtle though visionary chant to life’s sacred essence, clad in the colloquial rhythms of the ordinary working people in America’s contemporary inner cities. She uses such everyday tasks as catching the bus to bring the reader face-to-face with cultural experiences which are often hidden by the sensational headlines of the corporate media. In her often dramatic urban serenades, the black, brown and beige folks come center stage to share their tortured brilliance, subtle language and survival wisdom with a spiritually starved world. I look forward to future sagas from this gifted cultural shaman.”
Onomatopoeia is 32 pages long and contains 21 poems. These poems are story and recollection, celebration and protest, gift and reclamation. Shaheed tells of “Catching the Bus” and “Overheard Conversation”, of “American Wildfire: Ferguson, Missouri” and “Rhyme and Rituals”.
Margie Shaheed’s first book, Mosaic, published by NightBallet Press in 2013, has drawn widespread interest across the United States, and to date has sold nearly one thousand copies. Dr. Mary Weems of Cleveland wrote this (part of a review for Ohioana Quarterly) after reading the poems in Mosaic:
“These are the poems of a storyteller clearly connected to her African ancestry, oral tradition, and the history of Black people in America.”
Margie Shaheed is a community poet, writer, and dynamic performance artist who conducts creative writing workshops for children and adults in a variety of settings, including traditional classrooms, libraries, theaters, and community arts centers. Believing poetry to be a tool for personal healing, she also conducts poetry workshops in clinical settings, including community health centers and outpatient substance abuse programs. Her work has also been published in Essence Magazine, Black Magnolias Literary Journal, The Mom Egg Review, Blackberry: A Magazine, and online at Femficātiō, Split This Rock, and TimBook Tu.
NightBallet Press congratulates Shaheed on winning the 2014 Hidden Charm Press Poetry Chapbook Contest—her book of poetry The Playground will be published by Hidden Charm Press in June 2015—and on having her anthropological nonfiction book Tongue Shakers: Interviews and Narratives on Speaking Mother Tongue in a Multicultural Society accepted for publication by Hamilton Books!
Photo taken at Ohioana 2014 by Julie Moore, used with permission.
Shaheed, who presented on a panel at Ohioana, is holding her previous NBP collection, Mosaic.
Printed on crisp white paper, with a white cardstock cover and pine green cardstock insert, Onomatopoiea is a steal at only $10 plus $3 shipping/handling. It is available for purchasing beginning TODAY, Friday February 20, 2015 through PayPal right here in this posting, or on Amazon. Get it now, as her books tend to sell out quickly…and you don’t want to miss a single sizzle of this exciting new collection!
But wait! Before you buy, you might want to read the paragraphs below, treat yourself and save some money!
NightBallet Press recently celebrated Cleveland poet RA Washington. His collection of poems and essays in The Paris Notebooks details a Black man’s recent sojourn in Paris. Washington, a Cleveland icon, is a vibrant poet, musician, theorist, and much more.
Sam Allard of Scene Magazine has written:
“The bookshelves at Guide to Kulture aren’t just stocked, they’re curated. RA Washington has…been rocking and rolling at the helm of he westside’s coolest book-and- culture warehouse for more than a year. It’s certainly much more than a bookstore. Washington sells and repairs antique typewriters and has made the shop’s basement a co-op workshop for the creation of ‘zines. The basement is also where the readings and performances go down—Cleveland’s version of a Parisian salon.”
As a Black History Month special offer, NightBallet Press is making both Onomatopoeia by Margie Shaheed and The Paris Notebooks by RA Washington available for only $15 postage free through this PayPal link—get the Yin and the Yang of the Cleveland poetry scene in one envelope! And we’ll even throw in some freebie publications from other local presses. Be sure to use this PayPal link for your purchase of both books.
Source:: NightBallet Press
Feb 17 2015
By Writing Knights Press
$10.00 USD
Dear Reader,
This is an anthology compiled
of the best poems from the
authors published by
Writing Knights Press in 2014.
Six of these poems were
chosen to represent
Writing Knights in the
Pushcart Prize contest.
I hope you enjoy this collection
and if you find a poet you like,
I invite you seek out their
book or books to discover
more of their work.
We do this for you
and we couldn’t do this without you.
Azriel Johnson,
Director of Writing Knights PressAbout the author:
This volume contains poetry by:
Colin James – Bethany W. Pope – Walter Beck – Andrew Line – Gary Beck – Jnana Hodson – Serena Castells – Sharon Frye – Jen Pezzo – David Mac – Subhankar Das – Catfish McDaris – Lennart Lundh – James Schwartz – Ruth Morris – Diwakar Pokhriyal – Alexis-Rueal – Lorraine Cipriano – Grant Tarbard – Martin Willitts Jr
- Publication Date:
- Feb 17 2015
- ISBN/EAN13:
- 1507894112 / 9781507894118
- Page Count:
- 80
- Language:
- English
- Color:
- Black and White
- Related Categories:
- Poetry / Anthologies
Purchase Writing Knights Press 2014 Anthology
Source:: Writing Knights Press
By Juliet Cook
“Ms. Bava “carves her own poems”. The cuts are sure and deep. She has transformed her beloved artists into people of flesh and feeling.”
from a new mini-review of Alessandra Bava’s “They Talk About Death” (Blood Pudding Press contest winning poetry chapbook of 2014)), thank you to Janeen Rastall.
Read more here – https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1202256866
Buy yourself a copy of the chapbook here – https://www.etsy.com/listing/195494626/new-they-talk-about-death-by-alessandra?ref=shop_home_feat_1
Source:: Blood Pudding Press
Feb 12 2015
By Juliet Cook A collaborative poem by j/j hastain and Blood Pudding Press editor/poet Juliet Cook is now appearing within the new Ghost Proposal Issue 5, here – http://ghostproposal.com/
Yippee for February poetry news and hopefully more to come soon.
Poetry is better than silly little Valentine candy, after all.
Source:: Blood Pudding Press
Feb 10 2015
By Juliet Cook
“…but what is real anyway? Hole punch thighs, hole punch eyes,
hole punched fritillaries falling down. Ashes ashes we
used to think we were interesting. Now we are nothing
but rotten fritters that would eat until nothing remains.
You want to crush my indigo mana from those yellow stripes
and deliver me unto no maker. Why am I heathen to this…”
from the poem “Swarm Two”, within the new chapbook MUTANT NEURON CODEX SWARM by Juliet Cook & Robert Cole (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2015)
Source:: Blood Pudding Press
Feb 03 2015
By Juliet Cook
Blood Pudding Press 2015 chapbook contest results!
I know I had indicated with the contest guidelines that at least three finalists and two winners would be chosen – and each of the two winners would have their chapbooks published and would receive thirteen free copies of their chapbook. Similarly to last year, it felt nearly impossible for me to narrow it down to only naming five people, so I doubled that and am naming ten people – four Semi-Finalists, three Finalists, and THREE WINNERS.
I will only be publishing the three winners, but I truly hope the Finalists and Semi-Finalists soon find a press that chooses their manuscripts to publish too. In fact, there were handfuls of chapbooks that very much deserve to be published that didn’t quite make it into my top ten list, because I received so many oodles of high quality submissions.
***
Here are the Blood Pudding Press chapbook contest results – from four Semi-Finalists to three Finalists to the THREE WINNERS.
Four Semi-Finalists:
Clarissa Jakobsons – Camille Claudel: Montdevergues Asylum
Stephanie Lane Sutton – Revocation
Kelly Andrews – Kingdom of Lust
Yu-Han Chao – Notes to a White Belt
Three Finalists :
Paul David Adkins – War Stories
Winnona Elson Pasquini – AND THE STARS FROM THE SKY ARE RIPPED
Jennifer MacBain-Stephens – Jeanne
The Three Winners (in the order Blood Pudding Press plans to publish them):
! Lauren Gordon – Fiddle Is Flood (to be published in March)
! Matthew J. Hall – Pigeons and Peace Doves (to be published in late May/early June)
! Nicole Rollender – Bone of My Bone (to be published in late August/early September)
Thank you again to everyone and big congratulations to the three winners!
I will be in touch with the winners a little later this month.
Sincerely, Blood Pudding Press/Juliet Cook
Source:: Blood Pudding Press
Jan 30 2015
By Juliet Cook
Blood Pudding Press poet and art creature, Lisa M. Cole and Blood Pudding Press poet and art creature and editor, Juliet Cook, have a small art-oriented interview appearing on page 37 of the new Stitches.
The artsy image near the top of that page is a photo of the art piece Juliet Cook created and used upon the cover design of Lisa Cole’s contest winning 2013 Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbook, “RENEGADE//HEART”.
http://www.stitches-digital.com/publication/frame.php?i=242834&p=38
***
After you partake of the Stitches, you might want to take a look at and get yourself a copy of RENEGADE//HEART, within the Blood Pudding Press shop here
***
ALSO, stay tuned for the results of this year’s Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbook contest, coming soon!
Source:: Blood Pudding Press
Jan 26 2015
By Juliet Cook The first new Thirteen Myna Birds flock of 2015 is alive (and almost dead at the same time). It’s a sad and scary, somewhat real, somewhat haunted hybrid creature of human to non human horror. Poems (and a flash fiction piece) by Sarah Lilius, Tracie Morell, Alexis Fancher, Charles Cicirella, Gwendolyn Kiste, and John Grey are all here – http://13myna.blogspot.com/
“When is a promise like a bayonet? – A throb of walls – her smooth slit floats in the fluid – pricking my neck – Streams of scarlet seeped into the snow – a grumbling engine load – melting broken crayons – We make our own beds, and then we lie in them or we don’t – The moon is a tombstone.”
Source:: Blood Pudding Press
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