Crystal Clark
The Poet's Haven
Massillon, OH
(c)2018
tiny format chapbook. Poetry is fine. The publisher seems to have disappeared online. The author lives in southeast Michigan. She can turn a phrase. Hope to read more from her in the future.
United States Department of Labor
Washington, DC
(c)1957
Staple bound "booklet". It's 85 pages so it's not a chapbook but it is staple bound and it is important in this era of "new gilded age" to remember that Labor is how billionaires came into being in the first place. Black and White images throughout.
Mary-Lou Brockett-Devine
Comstock Review, Inc.
(c)2025
The cover actually makes sense with the title.
Contest winner. Staple bound chapbook. The work here reflects a family connected to the sea. Fine poetry.
Mather Schneider
The Rattle Foundation
Studio City, CA
(c)2018
I should have learned this lesson long ago when my daughter, who could speak but hadn't started reading yet, pointed out an unforgivable error in a children's book. There was a page in which the text read "five violins" but there were only 3 violins shown on the page. She was not having it.
As a publisher I have attempted to wed book titles and content with a cover image that "worked" with everything else for over 25 years. This cover does not succeed.
This chapbook was the 2018 Chapbook Prize Winner but that doesn't excuse this apparent slap-dash cover image. The poetry is okay but I can't separate the cover image from the content.
I am certain my opinion has no bearing in the career of this writer or Rattle, just stating it for the record.
A long time ago now I happened across a statement - a proclamation really - by the artist and printer El Lissitsky who stated that "The book must be the unified work of the author and the designer. As long as this is not the case, splendid exteriors will constantly be produced for unimportant contents, and visa-versa.
He wrote this in 1931. I have been writing this chapbook blog for over a decade and I seldom mention the cover art nor whether the cover the poetry and the presentation work together as a unified effort.
I will strive to do better in the future. Many of the books I have mentioned have had covered that did not convey anything about the poetry, nor have any connection with the title of the book at all. Beyond my "save a tree" pronouncements throughout the blog over the years, I ought to have pointed out the often glaring contradiction that some publishers have offered for books that they deemed worthy of publishing.
Other books have been master classes in detail.
I will be adding commentary about the entirety of the "package" for now on.
beginning with the next one : A Bag of Hands by Mather Schneider.
Nancy Holt: Massachusetts
College of Visual Arts& Performing Arts
Dartmouth College
(c) 2021
This is an exhibition booklet for the artist's thesis work containing photos and a blueprint of a structure and artistic representations. There was a similar artist concept book from a different artist what was ruined by water. The artist died in 2014. This seems to have been a retrospective piece.
Naomi Thiers
Finishing Line Press
Georgetown, KY
(c)2013
Heartfelt memories woven together in this collection of poetry. Cover image of grandfather is a nice touch as well.
Rick Lott
The 2009 Ledge Poetry Chapbook contest winner
The Ledge Press
Bellport, NY
(c) 2009
The Ledge Press has a formula that they use for all their contest winners. It includes glossy slick covers that do not appeal to me at all. However, I do like the cover image of the Mobil Pegasus logo.
Poetry is good. Not abstract enough for my peculiar taste and a bit too much first person singular. But it was not my contest and all I got to do is read the work. But I really do like the cover image. That works for me.
Michelle Gillett
The Ledge Press
Winner of the Ledge 2010 Poetry Chapbook contest
Bellport, NY
(c)2010
Handsome book with a slick cover. Poems are fine. The production is fine. Just not my flavor, I suppose. Ms. Gillett is an accomplished poet as stated in her bio. Not meaning to sound dismissive. At the time of the release of this chapbook she was the co-partner of g + r, a writer assistance company but I found no trace of it online.
John Perazzo
David Horowitz Freedom Center
Sherman Oaks, CA
(c)2018
This is not a collection of poetry. This is a racist rant printed and stapled and distributed to white nationalists giving them "permission" (my interpretation) to hate women, anyone of color, anyone who has empathy for others. The "Freedom" at the center of David Horowitz's Center is the freedom to be white and maintain their privilege for being so. It's a disgusting booklet, as evil as anything published in Germany between the wars targeting Jews, gays, people of color. History has already repeated itself, only this time in America.
Someone needs to publish an answer to this diatribe with a booklet entitled "The Right's War on Everyone Else".
Needless to say, this did not make it into my collection of chapbooks.
Nick Wayte
The Ferry Press
London, UK
(c)1969
Never heard of this press nor this poet before. I found a webpage for this press and neither this book nor this author were listed as something the Press even brought out. Very curious.
At the time though, 1960s through mid-1980s, The Ferry Press did publish work by the likes of Lewis Warsh, Fielding Dawson, Tom Clark, J. H. Prynne, and others. Staple bound. Unpaginated. One of 350 printed. Somewhat oddly sized.
Joe Dunn with collages by Jess
White Rabbit Press
San Francisco, CA
(c)1968
This is an intriguing one to be sure. I knew who "Jess" (Collins) was, he was an artist in the Poetry scene in SF during the 'Renaissance' there prior to the arrival of the Beats. He was connected to the Jack Spicer circle somehow - I thought I remembered but I don't and as I collect more data, I wlll alter this posting - whereas Joe Dunn, who was involved with the same Jack Spicer group and was a founder of White Rabbit Press and verdant press, somehow has not been deemed important enough to have his own Wikipedia page. Go figure.
This book is stuffed with collages by Jess, one will spend a good deal of time studying them all. The poetry appears to have been created on a typewriter and feels very stream-of-consciousness, like floating across the page and then pulsating through the collage to begin anew on the next page of text. Red pages flyleaf between cover and text also adds a nice touch to the book. I also appreciate that the pages actually feel like something instead of many newer books that are so slick I feel the need to wash my hands after holding them just to feel something on my finger tips. Some books might as well be printed on plastic.
This one, however, is better than fine just as it is.
UPDATE ; I never do this but this time I have to. I reread this book and oh my god it is weird. Nonlinear text, collages that may or may not have anything whatsoever to do with the text. It startled me. I read it aloud. It didn't make any more sense that way than silent reading. Holy moly is it weird. How is this not better known? So original.
