Jul 05 2014
By Dianne Borsenik
So, it’s summer, and you want to go someplace special? How about going on a Dream Drive with Jonathan Harris?
Dream Drive is a brand new, 60-page poetry collection by Los Angeles poet Jonathan Harris. And what a ride it is! Harris intrigues us with dreamscapes of childhood memories and complex relationships, delights us with an entire section whimsically titled “Horsies”, and teases us with poems named “Shacking Up with Karma”, “Alessandro Volta’s First Letter of Resignation”, and “John (and Yoko) Write a Haiku”.
Featuring a richly-colored cover photograph by Californian Jeffrey Alfier on a pale ivory cardstock, with a textured, deep navy cardstock insert, Dream Drive is printed on thick white cotton paper and is a dream to hold in your hands. You’ll want to be wide-awake, though, when you read his words:
“Ode to Joy”
When he sings—sweet
scarecrow of a boy—he goes somewhere
other than here,
I think
to a holy place
in his hand-me-downs,
to a world brimming
with the well water
of joy,
where I go too,
picking up straw
& the golden notes
my son leaves behind.
“What I Do with My Time”
The past
is a time bomb
I hear ticking.
So I write.
The present
is a gift
I unwrap later.
So I hope.
The future
is a horse
I see winning.
So I bet.
Where I’m
coming from
kids turn cartwheels.
So I whistle.
Jonathan Harris received a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University. His first book of poetry, The Wave That Did Not Break, was published by Tebot Bach Press in 2010. Along with being head of development for the entertainment agency Atoll Productions, he serves as a judge for the Page International Screenwriting Contest. His work has appeared recently in the Raleigh Review, Spillway, Best of the Net, and the Jacar Press anthology What Matters. A former Peace Corps volunteer, he lives with his family in Los Angeles.
NightBallet Press is honored and extremely pleased to publish Dream Drive, containing forty-five poems on sixty pages. Divided into four sections: The Book of Us, The Book of Others, Horsies, and Portraits of Earth, Dream Drive will steal your heart and take you on a journey of discovery and delight. You may order Dream Drive for only $10 plus $4 shipping/handling, through PayPal right here on this website (scroll down the right-side column), or find it on Amazon. Of course, if you live in Los Angeles, you can get it directly from the poet himself!
Source: NightBallet Press
Jun 30 2014
By PoetsHaven.com
The Poet’s Haven’s call for chapbook manuscript submissions has been extended until July 5th. Go to the “Submissions” page (linked above) for full details and a link to submit your manuscript.
The Stardust Poetry open-mic series will be taking a hiatus for the next few months. The show will be getting retooled a bit before returning in October. The show will now be held on the third Saturday of October, January, April, and July. (That’s quarterly, every three months, just not in the same months as season changes.) The show will be staying at the wonderful Karma Cafe.
This year’s VENDING MACHINE: Poetry for change event will take place at Karma Cafe on Saturday, November 22nd. That’s the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Features are to be announced.
Speaking of VENDING MACHINE: the call for submissions to this year’s anthology will be going live on July 1st. Submissions must be received by October 4th. VENDING MACHINE: Poetry for Change is a special poetry anthology published annually by The Poet’s Haven themed around Gandhi’s quote “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” The book is edited by T.M. Göttl and Vertigo Xavier. The book is not available for sale, but is instead offered in exchange for donations to the Poetic Provisions Food-Drive.
———————————————————————————-
Okay, now that the news bulletins are out of the way, the explanation. The change to the Stardust Poetry schedule was announced more than a week ago at the final monthly show and then briefly posted on Facebook with the words “More details and explanation will be announced as soon as I have time type up a press release / blog post.”
The fact that it has taken nine days for me to get this typed up is a big part of why this schedule change is necessary. Those of you who know me offline know the turmoil my life has been in the past two years. For those of you who aren’t aware, here’s a brief recap: in July 2012, the day-job I had held for many years ended. Our operation was moved to a different facility in another state. The job market in my area is rough these days. While I managed to land a few “temp-to-hire” gigs, “temp” always proved to be the key word. (My father calls them “temp-to-fire.” He’s absolutely right.) This past December, I landed a gig that requires me to work an afternoon/evening schedule. While I am still working through a temp service, six months later I am still in this position. No word on when (or, really, if) I will be made a permanent hire, but six months have gone by and I am still there. This job has both long hours and a long drive. My old job was only five minutes from my home: this job requires nearly two hours of driving every day. This is severely cutting in to the time I need to do everything here at Poet’s Haven. As the schedule is evening hours, I have had to take time off (something not encouraged for contingent workers) for the Stardust shows these past six months. Moving the show to a Saturday schedule will allow me to work my full “day-job” schedule.
Once upon a time, I had a super long list of local poets I wanted to feature. Unfortunately, the number of poets we have featured has outpaced the number of poets getting added to the list. Having a show on a weeknight also makes it more difficult for not-so-local poets to come headline an event. Going to a quarterly, Saturday schedule should make it easier to line up features.
With my “day-job” hours now in the evening, I have not been able to attend many poetry events. This has allowed me to see the big problem currently plaguing our local poetry scene. When I would be in the audience of five or six different shows each week, I would see just about everyone in our scene somewhere or another. Only being able to attend certain weekend events now, what has become telling is the faces I do not see. Our “community” has always been fractured into little cliques. Each clique attends a show or two in its circle, but refuses to venture out of that circle. Several years ago, this was what I set out to break down. I wanted to do shows that would draw people from every poetry clique. For a while, we were successful at this. Then something slowly changed and our shows developed a clique of their own. I don’t want to loose our loyal audience, but something needs to be done differently to make our shows the big EVENT that EVERYONE wants to attend. It is my hope that a less routine schedule will help us accomplish this.
Again, as I have indicated here, time is a big issue for me right now. When the day finally arrives where being a publisher and slam team manager can be my sole, full-time job, I will again seek to host multiple shows each month. I just don’t have the time necessary to do everything I want to do here. It has taken me a long while to realize that I need to focus on quality over quantity. I would much rather produce just five shows each year and have them be the best shows in our region.
Source: The Poet’s Haven
Jun 14 2014
By Dianne Borsenik
Today, Saturday June 14, 2014, is the BIG DAY…the day of the Words Dance in the NightBallet book-release super-bash in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!
poster designed by Amanda Oaks
Beginning at 7:30 p.m., nine poets from Ohio and Pennsylvania will join to read “round robin” style at the Modern Formations Gallery, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA:
Amanda Oaks
Jason Irwin
Dianne Borsenik
Jason Baldinger
Karen Lillis
John Burroughs
Heather McNaugher
John Dorsey
Nikki Allen
NightBallet Press is honored to have published Hurricane Mouth for Amanda Oaks in April of this year, and is proud to have published books for John Burroughs— The Eater of the Absurd —and John Dorsey— Fall of the Ramen Empire and White Girl Problems —as well.
This past week NightBallet Press was thrilled to announce the publication of five new books by five outstanding Pittsburgh poets!
Where You Are by Jason Irwin
The Studs Terkel Blues by Jason Baldinger
Double Life by Heather McNaugher
The Paul Simon Project by Karen Lillis
ligaments of light tigering the shoulders by Nikki Allen
To celebrate the spoken and written word, Words Dance and NightBallet Press have joined together to present tonight’s Words Dance in the NightBallet…and YOU are invited!
As this is a very special event, it deserves a very special sale! Buy all five books for $25 plus $4 shipping/handling! That’s a savings of $5 off the price of Nikki Allen’s book, and the combined shipping saves you $11! To purchase all five books for this very special price, see the PayPal button in the right side column of this website—be sure to hit the PayPal Button that says SUPER SALE, and not the PayPal buttons for the individual Pittsburgh poets’ books.
We hope to see you tonight at the event—it’s going to be a night to remember!
Source: NightBallet Press
Jun 13 2014
By Dianne Borsenik
The fifth of five Pittsburgh poets to have NBP publish them this week is Nikki Allen, with her brand new full-length collection of poems ligaments of light tigering the shoulders!
In ligaments of light tigering the shoulders, Allen writes lushly textured poems that draw you in and won’t let go. Her world dances and daydreams, burns and shines. These two poems from her collection are prime examples of the beauty and skill with which she wields her words:
aloe vera
she kept her aloe in the fridge next to
hot sauce and a jar
of olives ball-gagged
with garlic
grin of arrowhead
and clover
sometimes
i burn she said
sometimes
i don’t
states
Georgia: billboards and red clay, fruit stands. Hotel soaps so slight in geometry they become phases of moon before the shower ends. Hallway carpet I will never see again, hum of ice machine.
Virginia: we dig a big hole in the sand. So big that children of strangers start appearing with shovels and buckets and helping. At the end of the day we let it go and by evening the crater is swollen with ocean, a full mouth pushing its food around—form loses shape. Thick aloe leaves snapped and shared, scrubbed like erasers on the essay of shoulders.
Kentucky: the beautiful girl with blue dreads, her thin-as-reed companion—head low in yellow shirt. The poems and our car with no heat, shivers down the highway. We talk nonstop to stay warm. A man named Falcon in the back walking circles, practicing. Getting lost between bridges, slingshot and brewery.
South Carolina: population of jellyfish against my morning run. Hijacked liquor cabinet; we run with shovels and sweaters in the dark. The water looks like chocolate and I can point out sharks. I learn to fear the current.
Florida: baby with colic in the backseat. He is small and red, unrelated dynamite. I use my stack of empty postcards for poems. In the center, on the Gulf. I am afraid to feed the seagulls. I stare at two of them mating on hotel roof, off-white flutters stacked and screeching; my father tells me to look away.
Nikki Allen scribbles poems on cocktail napkins, receipts, and/or any other blank space she can get her pen on. She’s been getting on stages to read her work for over 15 years, including in St. Louis, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Seattle, war protests, music festivals, charity events, and art openings. Allen is the author of My Darling Since, Quite Like Yes, and Birds at 4 A.M., and has contributed vocals to tracks by recording artists Poogie Bell (“Question Song”) and Jack Wilson (“NYC”). Visit her website at
www.honeydunce.com.
ligaments of light tigering the shoulders is 48 pages long and contains 34 poems printed on creamy white paper. The cover features a stunning photograph taken by Allen, printed on a very pale turquoise cardstock with a rich turquoise cardstock insert. This fantastic collection of poems is only $10 plus $3 shipping/handling, and can be purchased beginning today, June13, 2014, by clicking the PayPal button in the right side column of this website. You can also find us on Amazon, or, if you live near Pittsburgh, you can get your very own signed copy directly from the poet at the Words Dance in the NightBallet book-release super-bash TOMORROW June 14, 2014 (follow link for details)!
Source: NightBallet Press
Jun 12 2014
By Dianne Borsenik
Of The Paul Simon Project, Lillis writes:
“For the last decade, I’ve been drawn to Paul Simon’s early solo albums, but especially Still Crazy After All These Years. I love his particular way of telling stories that can contain such dry observation, even sarcasm, and such tenderness at the same time. He writes songs about people and relationships on a very human scale, songs that convey an intimacy. I decided to write an album of poems that used each song title from Still Crazy as a prompt; from there I allowed myself to be inspired by any other aspect of the song I chose to, or to go my own direction entirely.”
That’s right, The Paul Simon Project by Karen Lillis is an “album” of ten delightful poems, all titled the same as the song titles on the Paul Simon album Still Crazy After All These Years! This 24 page chapbook is printed on textured ecru paper, and has an ecru cardstock cover (with a rust-red cardstock insert) that echoes the original Paul Simon album. (Cover model Lisa Panepinto) The poems explore a variety of subjects, including writing about her own “little town” (excerpt):
Pedaling furiously to a rendezvous
with the last Catholic boy this side of Maryland
Making out hard on the asphalt edge
of a new housing development
Falling head over heels at breakneck speed
Shedding red bandana so hair tumbles free
Holding on tightly to straight A’s and virginity:
double-edged, sure-shot, one-way ticket
out of my little town.
Karen Lillis, novelist, poet, journalist, editor and blogger, has had work appear in The Boog City Reader, Free State Review, Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology, Trip City, and many more. She is the author of four short novels, including Watch the Doors as They Close (Spuyten Duyvil, 2012), and is the recipient of the 2014 Acker Award for Avant Garde Excellence in Fiction. She blogs at Karen the Small Press Librarian and runs Small Press Pittsburgh, an underground lit bookselling service.
The Paul Simon Project is available for purchasing beginning today, June 12, 2014, right here on the NightBallet Press website! See the link to PayPal in the right side column, or find us on Amazon. Lillis will be signing copies of her new chapbook this coming Saturday June 14, 2014 at the Words Dance in the NightBallet book release. Get your copy and “listen up” to The Paul Simon Project!
Source: NightBallet Press
Jun 11 2014
By Dianne Borsenik
NightBallet Press is enormously pleased to announce the third of five Pittsburgh poets to be published this week: Heather McNaugher, with her new chapbook Double Life!
In Double Life, which is (aptly) divided into two sections, “Seattle” and “Pittsburgh”, McNaugher writes about relationships and recollections with wry humor and honesty. In “Second-order Desire”, she writes (excerpt)
So I said, “But I want to want
to marry you. I want to want
kids, a dog, to trip over their toys in the yard,
to mow the lawn on Saturday, to learn to garden;
I want to want—”
And she pulled the car over on Woodlawn.
And not until she had come to a complete stop
did she turn her torso to look me directly in the eye
which I averted and she said, “Heather.
Will you listen to yourself?” Then she put the Civic into drive
and drove.
And in “New Dumpling House, 2000″, she writes (excerpt)
It was the Christmas I walked to the Chinese restaurant for beer.
The snowy, then snowier, haul to the bottom of Murray. Inside, my
glasses steam with Dim Sum and the secular body heat of
nonbelievers in blue jeans. It was the Christmas I believed only in
beer. In the Chinese restaurant on Christmas there is one kind of
beer, Tsingtao, and the tidy man behind the bar is required by the
State of Pennsylvania to sell it to me by the bottle, 3 bucks apiece. It
would be easier to purchase a grenade launcher.
Heather McNaugher received a BA in English from Pittsburgh’s Chatham University in 1995, after which she followed a redhead to Seattle and became a housecleaner and barista. She received her PhD in English from The State University of New York at Binghamton, and now teaches English back at her alma mater. She is the author of two previous poetry collections, System of Hidouts (Main Street Rag, 2012) and Panic & Joy (Finishing Line, 2008). Her work has appeared in The Fourth Genre, New Ohio Review, 5 A.M., and on the radio show Prosody. She is poetry editor of The Fourth River. She’s tried living elsewhere, but keeps coming back to Pittsburgh.
Double Life is 32 pages with 17 poems. The cover, which is thick white cardstock with a textured charcoal gray cardstock insert, features a stunning photograph taken by New York poet Matthew Hupert. The text is printed on creamy white paper. This book is available for only $5 plus $3 shipping/handling beginning today, June 11, 2014 (orders will be mailed Saturday June 14, 2014, the day of the book release at Words Dance in the NightBallet.) You may order by clicking on the PayPal button in the right side column, or find us on Amazon. Of course, if you live near Pittsburgh, you can get a signed copy and hear the poet read from her book this coming Saturday June 14, 2014 (see the link in this paragraph for details)!
Source: NightBallet Press
Jun 10 2014
By Dianne Borsenik
The second of five Pittsburgh poets to be published this week is Jason Baldinger, who has The Studs Terkel Blues!
In The Studs Terkel Blues, Baldinger wryly addresses the subject of work: finding it, leaving it, dealing with bosses, coworkers and customers, and sweating it out through seasons and relationships.
The front cover features original artwork by Jon Dowling; the chapbook cover is ivory with a dark chocolate cardstock insert. The text is printed on ivory paper. The Studs Terkel Blues is 32 pages long and contains 19 poems with wickedly witty titles such as “Employee of the Month”, The Hymn to Toilet Duck”, “My Three Days as an Environmentalist”, and “To Interviews”.
A sample of lines from some of the poems:
“Jobs, like people, fall out of our pockets
sometimes, maybe more so when you’re seventeen.”
“I have to watchan OSHA video on safety
before I can report to work.
The video stars and is narrated by David Ogden Stiers…
…I’m pretty sure Major Winchester
never had to lift a box
or work a twelve hour day
in a diaper factory”
“To the drug store district manager, so excited he had a management candidate under thirty, it wouldn’t matter what I said during that interview. It was, however, creepy that at interview’s end, standing for the handshake, he had a hard-on.”
photo by John Burroughs, used with permission
Jason Baldinger has spent his life in odd jobs; he says “if only poetry was the strangest of them, he’d have far less to talk about.” His latest books are The Studs Terkel Blues, and The Lower 48 (Six Gallery Press). He has also been published in The New Yinzer, Shatter Wig Press, and Blast Furnace. You can hear him read from The Lady Pittsburgh, his first solo collection, here.
Beginning today, Tuesday June 10, 2014, you can buy The Studs Terkel Blues for only $5 plus $3 shipping/handling (the books will be mailed Saturday June 14, 2014, the day of the book release). You may purchase the book right here on this website, right side column, through PayPal, or find us on Amazon!
Source: NightBallet Press
Jun 09 2014
By Dianne Borsenik
NightBallet Press is thrilled to be producing five new chapbooks for the upcoming (Saturday June 14, 2014) “Words Dance in the NightBallet”
Where You Are is a 28 page chapbook of 21 slices-of-life poems, written by Pittsburgh poet Jason Irwin. Irwin’s pithy poems are collages
of desire and anticipation
From archipelago to archipelago
my eyes travel southward,
following a constellation of blue stars
that disappear beneath her low slung jeans.
of irony and missed chances
You know you could love her forever,
if you could just summon the courage to ask
her phone number. Instead, you settle for a sixth cup
of coffee and extra ketchup for your fries.
of a lifetime seeking the “Where You Are” of the title…
Aren’t we like that girl at the bus stop—
short skirt, one wool sock
pulled tight at her knee, the other lost
around her ankle—bewildered
by the distance we must travel?
photo by Jen Ashburn, used with permission
Irwin ‘s first full-length collection Watering the Dead won the 2006-2007 Transcontinental Poetry Award and was published by Pavement Saw Press in 2008. Some Days It’s A Love Story won the 2005 Slipstream Press Chapbook Prize. You can find him at www.jasonirwin.blogspot.com.
Where You Are features a beautiful cover photo by Chandra Alderman, printed on two-sided dove gray and dark gray cardstock, with a thick, burnt orange cardstock insert. The text is printed on a creamy-textured brilliant white paper. This chapbook is available beginning this coming Saturday June 14, 2014 for only $5 plus $3 shipping/handling! You may preorder beginning today.
If you are in Pittsburgh, you can obtain a copy at the Words Dance in the NightBallet event and have the poet sign it for you on the spot! If you are out-of-town and must order it online, you can order it through PayPal (see the link in the right side column of this webpage) or find it on Amazon!
Be among the first to get a copy and find out just exactly Where You Are!
Source: NightBallet Press
May 31 2014
By Dianne Borsenik
Words Dance in the NightBallet—Poetry in the Dark—is a superbash scheduled
for June 14, 2014, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!
NightBallet Press editor Dianne Borsenik teams up with Words Dance editor Amanda Oaks for a night of poetry and new books, friendship and fun!
NightBallet Press has already published books for three of the poets reading—John Burroughs’s The Eater of the Absurd, John Dorsey’s White Girl Problems and Fall of the Ramen Empire, and Amanda Oaks’s Hurricane Mouth—and is planning to release not one, not two, not three, but five books to celebrate the amazing talent that saturates the Pittsburgh poetry scene!
Due to be released June 14th, the night of “Poetry in the Dark”, are:
Jason Irwin’s Where You Are
Karen Lillis’s The Paul Simon Project
Heather McNaugher’s Double Life
Nikki Allen’s ligaments of light tigering the shoulders
and
Jason Baldinger’s The Studs Terkel Blues!
(In the coming days, each book will be showcased on the NBP page; stay tuned for the postings!)
Don’t miss out on this chance to see us blow the roof off the Gallery! The reading will be “in the dark” but these poets will light up the night with words that sparkle and sizzle…join us, BYOB, and help NightBallet and Words Dance kick off the summer with a night to remember!
Source: NightBallet Press
May 28 2014
By John Burroughs Thanks to GoDaddy eliminating Quick Blogcast in June, we are in the process of moving our blogs.
Here are the new links. What was once three blogs will now be four blogs (two will remain as static
archives beginning in June, while the other two will remain active):
Crisis Chronicles Cyber Litmag (June 2008-June 2014): http://cclitmag.wordpress.com/
Tao of Jesus Crisis v. 2.0 (April 2007-May 2014): http://taoofjesuscrisis.wordpress.com/
Tao of Jesus Crisis v. 3.0 (May 2014-infinity): http://jesuscrisis.blogspot.com/ [work in progress]
Crisis Chronicles Press blog: (July 2008-infinity): http://ccpress.blogspot.com/ [work in progress]
Many thanks for your love and support!
John
Source: Crisis Chronicles Press
