chapbooks 37

Chapbooks 37

This time I will be discussing two chapbooks, both with an Ann Michael connection:

St. Andrew’s Head
Kevin Pilkington
Camber Press
Bronxville, NY
©2003

I got this over the summer from Ann Michael in a significant packet of material. Pilkington is an award-winning poet who has taught in New York City area colleges, and the Press has been in operation since 2003 so this may have been one of their first chapbooks.

30 pages, quite handsomely done.



Nervous Halo
Patrick Porter
The Academic & Arts Press
Pueblo, CO
©2001

Patrick Porter is an American singer/songwriter, novelist, poet, and painter. He began as a musician and has drifted toward the written word. He has recently been described as the best minimalist writer in America today. This is his second book, published by Paul Dilsaver’s The Academic & Arts Press.

This copy is pristine. It doesn’t appear to have been opened. 36 brilliant pages. Staple-bound. Mixed media collage image on front attributed to Gilles Brenda. This is a stunningly well made chapbook. However, I learn from Ann Michael that Dilsaver died in 2001, shortly after this excellent chapbook was produced. A tragic loss to the fellowship of small press publishers everywhere.

Porter, on the other hand, has grown into something of a modern “renaissance” man. I don’t know if Patrick has taken to sculpture or performing ballet, but I also won’t put it past him.