Apr 07 2014
By PoetsHaven.com
The Poet’s Haven Boutique is pleased to have added new Poet’s Haven Author Series books by Dianne Borsenik, Caira Lee, Jennifer Polehemus, and Alex Gildzen as well as The Poet’s Haven Digest: We Only Come Out at Night!
More books are on the way. If you would like to ensure you get each book as soon as it is released, we now offer subscriptions.
We have been getting e-mails asking this, so I thought I should say something on the blog: The Poet’s Haven is NOT having an open call for Author Series manuscript submissions this month. While we have had our previous open calls in April, I am still working through the manuscripts submitted last year as well as trying to catch up on submissions to our Digest calls and the online galleries. The current plan is for a manuscript call to be opened up in June.
Also (and I’m sure anyone looking at this website does not need to be told this, but…): The Poet’s Haven does NOT accept submissions via postal mail. We have not accepted postal submissions since 2002. As much as I love finding poems in my mailbox, whether I find the time to read them or not, none of them will be published on the site or in any of our Digest publications. If you wish to submit work to The Poet’s Haven, please follow the guidelines and use the forms linked on the “Submissions” page.
Source: The Poet’s Haven
Apr 06 2014
By Dianne Borsenik
Hold on to your hats this breezy month of April, because Hurricane Mouth is here!
NightBallet Press continues to celebrate and honor
photo (c) Casey Rearick, used with permission
Amanda Oaks at Snoetry 4 in Cleveland, Ohio 2014
Oaks “believes in our collective & creative freedom & enjoys laughing more than most anything.” Her beautiful spirit shines throughout the 25 fascinating and accomplished poems in Hurricane Mouth. In “How to Pick Up the Pieces”, she writes
You will outgrow this. You are lion’s
teeth. You are medicine tongue.
Your roots are resilience. When
you have your heart under a
magnifying glass the only thing
left to do is sing for the sun &
light yourself on fire. Be ready
for the next good gust but
remember that you are not
a candle. You are not a match.
You are a goddamn wildfire.
The text of Hurricane Mouth is printed on soft, brilliant-white paper, and the cover is a textured ivory cardstock with a sandstone brown cardstock insert. The cover art features a photograph of a fragment of a much larger beautiful and highly unusual mosaic created by Cleveland artist Colleen Fraser. Check out the entire mosaic at Stone Mad Pub, 1306 W. 65th Street, Cleveland, Ohio! Permission to use the mosaic art was graciously granted by Eileen Sammon, co-owner of Stone Mad Pub.
Get Hurricane Mouth and be blown away by its amazing poetry! Buy Hurricane Mouth through PayPal right here on this website, or order it on Amazon!
Source: NightBallet Press
Apr 01 2014
By Dianne Borsenik
To kick off this glorious National Poetry Month of April, NightBallet Press is pleased to present Lumière, a brand new book of poems by New York surrealist poet John Thomas Allen!
Lumière, a 56 page book, contains 40 poems that are, in the poet’s words, “a hybrid of orthodox surrealism and spiritual transcendence”. Of Allen’s work, it has been said:“The soul is conscious in this new voice, and John wears a rosary around his neck. Real as Albany, his infra-surrealism is growing and growling.”
David Shapiro, author of David Shapiro: New and Collected Poems, Abstract Expressionism
“The work of John Thomas Allen reflects a mature, distinct and unique poetic voice. There is an unusual courage of insight and clarity into what many of us would rather look away from. Enjoy this young poet’s itinerant voice.”
Julian Semilian, author of Osiris with a Trombone Across the Seam of Insubstance, Transgender Organ Grinder
John Thomas Allen, a 30 year old poet from upstate New York, is the head of a group of poets called “Noveau’s Midnight Sun” inspired by the work of Andrew Joron, Philip Lamantia, David Shapiro, Adam Francis Cornford, Lee Ballentine, John Olson, and Will Alexander. His previous chapbook The Other Guy is avail from Amazon and Crisis Chronicles Press.
One of this editor’s favorite poems in Lumière is “The Virgin Is Burning Under the Sign of the Hourglass”:
The Virgin Is Burning Under the Sign of the Hourglass
—for Philip Lamantia
In the hourglass
her waistband undone
In the earthquake her hands
clap above ground wax cartoon gloves
In a gold sepia dream she is spinning
In wax oysters spat red with hue she is turning
In the aeons of the dying swans skirt is the timekeeper
In the chambers of a child’s handgun
she turns
In the hourglass she burns a cap of midnight vapor she steals it
In the clown’s silver eyes she turns the lock
In the magnet balls she gyrates Salve
Salve a twinkletoe geometry is born
In the skirt of basketball nets she crochets new diamond
Salve the Virgin Burns
In the Sign of the Hourglass Breaking
Salve the hexes of a lonely werewolf’s cry she turns the volubles
She spins in the moon pale with corduroy buttons
in the clown’s funeral suit
She burns in vignettes of black sand and deep purple smoke machines
Salve, combustus in bytes of chiaroscuro
Salve, moonlight maiden she locks the lunar hatchets in the dead yo yo
Salve, combustible maiden!
Lumière is printed on creamy textured soft white paper, and has a matching creamy textured cardstock cover. The thick cardstock insert is a deep chocolate brown.
Lumière is available for only $10 plus $4 shipping and handling, through PayPal here on the NightBallet Press website, and also on Amazon. I just know that Salvador Dali would be standing in line for this surrealist Voice. Get your copy today!
Source: NightBallet Press
Mar 18 2014
By Dianne Borsenik
Yes, we here at NightBallet Press are celebrating a glorious St. Patrick’s Day and approaching spring equinox with the publication of
The Green World by Andy Roberts!
NightBallet is enormously pleased to present The Green World, which is a landmark publication for our press…it is the 50th book we’ve published! (Horns, drums, confetti, cheering!)
The Green World features a beautiful cover photograph by Tucson artist Elizabeth A. Soroka and contains twenty-three poems by Columbus-area poet Andy Roberts. Roberts’ three previous chapbooks were published by Pudding House Press, and we are very pleased to have him join us at NightBallet. A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Roberts has had poems appear in hundreds of small press journals over the last twenty-five years, including Atlanta Review, Coal City Review, Common Ground Review, Fulcrum, Hiram Poetry Review, Ilya’s Honey, Lake Effect, Mudfish, Parting Gifts, Plainsongs, San Jose Studies, Slipstream, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Third Wednesday, and many others.
The Green World is thirty-two pages long, with a dove-white cardstock cover and a rich forest green cardstock insert. The text is printed on brilliant white cotton paper. But it’s the poems within that make this book so gorgeous. In them, Roberts explores “this greenfooted world” with a loving eye, a gentle voice, and an accomplished hand. From wildflowers to redwoods, from bees to blue jays, and from creeks to thunderstorms, he turns daily observations into introspections that will soothe your soul and fill you with a yearning for nature’s sweet green embrace.
Available beginning March 18, 2014, The Green World is only $5 plus $3 shipping/handling. right here on the NightBallet website and also at Amazon! Go Green and check it out today!
Source: NightBallet Press
Mar 11 2014
By PoetsHaven.com
Congratulations to Joshua Gage, who has been nominated for both the 2014 Best Chapbook Elgin Award AND the 2014 Best Short Poem Rhysling Award!
The Elgin nomination is for Josh’s Poet’s Haven Author Series chapbook INHUMAN: Haiku from the Zombie Apocalypse, and the Rhysling nomination is for one of the haiku appearing in INHUMAN! To celebrate this, we have marked the book down to just $5 (plus FREE SHIPPING) through the Elgin voting period! (Markdown ends on August 15.)
Source: The Poet’s Haven
Mar 01 2014
By Writing Knights Press
The name Jnana (usually pronounced “jah-na”) was bestowed while he was living in a yoga ashram in the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania.
After four decades as a professional journalist, Jnana Hodson is finally concentrating fully on poetry and fiction. Over the years, his literary work has appeared in journals on five continents.
Chapbook
United States
Purchases
$8.00 USD |
Chapbook
International
Purchases
$8.00 USD |
Excerpt: “a blue bathrobe from an outlet store gives a curious elegance in a motel stay
“I could be playing two racetracks, side by side
“or recognizing the economic future of Oneonta “writing the slow obit of the region”
“in a decade, the colleges will be gone along with the final stability
“confounding any sense of staying, of commitment, of roots, of proclaiming
“THIS PLACE IS MY LIFE” — ON THE BEAT
Source: Writing Knights Press
By Writing Knights Press
Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director. His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. His poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines. He currently lives in New York City.
Chapbook
United States
Purchases
$8.00 USD |
Chapbook
International
Purchases
$8.00 USD |
Excerpt:Personal faults are quickly confessed on facebook, twitter, by peculiar people seeking an audience, rushing to display inappropriate acts, spreading faster than jungle drums, smoke signals, flashing mirrors, until everyone knows what they did wrong. — Out There
Source: Writing Knights Press
Feb 23 2014
By Dianne Borsenik
NightBallet Press is delighted to announce the first publication in this new year of 2014,
Interstate by Douglas Cole!
Interstate by Douglas Cole features a stunning cover photo of the South Satiam River in Oregon, taken by Tracey and Sarah Hiser, printed on creamy cardstock with an olive cardstock insert. The chapbook contains 32 pages of 18 poems, printed on soft white paper matching the cover cardstock.
Of the poems in this book, David Bates, editor of My Favorite Bullet, says:
“The poetic institution that nature’s elemental beauty somehow trumps humanity’s complexity in meaning is an exploding myth. Interstate takes us on a “blind drive” into the emotional geography of the American Northwest, where nature continues to recover from it’s own volcanic self-destruction. Cole’s journey–in his car, in motel rooms, in campgrounds–initially seems a final grab at the idea that there is simple reason in the mountain, and simply chaos in the city. But this conceit fails to his credit. Anxiety and tranquility are not mutually exclusive. And the black highway between the two is where these poems live.”
Through poems like “Map of the Cascades”, “All Rivers Are One”, “Indian River”, and “Holy River Gorge”, Cole takes us on a trip of discovery across the interstates of road, river, and reflection. And believe me, this is one trip you won’t want to miss.
Curtis Harrell, poetry editor of VISIONS, a Journal of the Arts, says “Douglas Cole’s crystalline images propel his poetry down the page like water flowing down a fountain.”
Douglas Cole, who lives in Seattle, Washington, has had work appear in Red Rock Review, The Chicago Quarterly Review, and Midwest Quarterly. He is a recipient of the Leslie Hunt Memorial Prize in Poetry for a selection called, “The Open Ward,” as well as a Best of Poetry Award from Clapboard House and First Prize in the “Picture Worth 500 Words” poetry contest by Tattoo Highway. He teaches writing and literature at Seattle Central College, where he is also the advisor for the literary journal, Corridors.
Interstate is available to order beginning now right here at NightBallet (see the column to the right of this post), directly through PayPal, and also is listed for sale on Amazon. Take a ride with Douglas Cole today!
Source: NightBallet Press
Feb 22 2014
By Writing Knights Press
Andi is a twenty-something Dopeless Hopefiend with an affinity for finger painting on the walls with her five-year-old daughter. Andi is engaged in a number of writing projects including a memoir and two novels. She wants to teach high school English and open a coffee shop called Zombie Coffee Inc. Right now, however, she will settle for graduating cosmetology school without punching anyone. Andi has succumbed to conformity and now uses the Oxford comma on a regular basis.
Chapbook
United States
Purchases
$8.00 USD |
Chapbook
International
Purchases
$8.00 USD |
Excerpt:“If we are stories, you’re the Myth of Sisyphus –
in the words of Nietzsche, and I am Stone Butch Blues –
by Prophet Muhammad.
“You are written in the language of Camus
with Latin footnotes, and I am Old English prose –”
— Bilbiophilia
Source: Writing Knights Press
Feb 20 2014
By John Burroughs
Crisis Chronicles Press is thrilled to announce the long-awaited publication of Songs in the Key of Cleveland: An Anthology of the 2013 Best Cleveland Poem Competition.
cover photo by Michael Spear
The first annual Best Cleveland Poem Competition was held on Sunday, May 5, 2013 at the Willoughby Brewing Company. Songs in the Key of Cleveland features the best poems shared that day, including work by lit stars Catherine Criswell, Katie Daley, T.M. Göttl, Dianne Borsenik, Geoffrey Landis, Joshua Gage, Terry Provost, Jack McGuane, Ruth J. Coffey, Martin Snyder, Jeffrey Bowen, Mary A. Turzillo and competition emcee Ray McNiece.
The book is around 40 pages, perfect bound, 6×9″ and a steal at only $10 from Crisis Chronicles Press, c/o John Burroughs, 3344 W. 105th Street #4, Cleveland, Ohio 44111.
Available now by mail and online — and soon from particular local independent bookstores across the country! Please join us for the official Songs in the Key of Cleveland release party on March 3rd during Mondays at Mahall’s Poetry & Prose series, hosted by Catherine Criswell at Mahall’s 20 Lanes, 13200 Madison Avenue in Lakewood, Ohio. Meet and hear many of the contributors there. PLUS… the evening will feature a reading by Cleveland lit superhero Brad Ricca, author of Super Boys. Talk about a dynamic duo!
Project editor for Songs in the Cleveland: Dianne Borsenik
Executive editor: John Burroughs
For more information about the annual Best Cleveland Poetry Competition sponsored by attorney Tim Misny, please visit http://misnylaw.com/best-cleveland-poem-competition/.
Source: Crisis Chronicles Press
