Thursday, October 15, 2015

2 from the shelves of a public library....

It's an odd thing to find chapbooks on the shelves of a public library since they are little slivers of nothing and who on earth (besides me, apparently) looks for them? The two I found in Alexandria, VA have been languishing in their nearly invisible state for 13 years or more. I am likely the first person to take them out in a decade. I am surprised they weren't purged, honestly. It must be that they were local and gifted to the library. and they are :
Coming Through the Wry
Viette Sandbank
Praying Mantis Press
Alexandria, VA
(c) 1982

A local author on a local press. Never heard of Praying Mantis Press before. Could be that the author was also the publisher. 1982 is a long time ago now. This copy is signed by the author. 30 page staple-bound chapbook. No meat on the bone here. Am acknowledging the existence of the book.

Ingeborg at St. Elmo's
Ingeborg Carsten-Miller
self published
(c) 1999

This chapbook was created for a specific reading which took place at St. Elmo's (coffee house) in the Del Ray section of the city of Alexandria, VA. So, another local author on a local press. There is nothing rewarding within. It meant something to the author since in 1999 St. Elmo's was a new swinging thing. It isn't anymore. The poetry is very vanilla pudding. There's a poem in the chapbook for the nursing house that the author lived in. YYYYYYYYYEAH.

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