picking through the wreckage of another Pandemic year (2021)

 I do want to apologize for waddling through this year of collateral damage, supply chain interruptions and climate change disasters but there are still publishers making books and poets carving poems out of our shared experiences as though we, as humans, live beneath Mount Vesuvius as it begins to erupt. I will keep chronicling as we keep ignoring the DANGER signs flashing on the thin ice our civilization is built on. Maybe someone in the future will find these writings worthwhile. 

faster, faster by Stephanie Balzer (2009)

faster, faster

Stephanie Balzer

CUEeditions

Tucson, AZ

(c)2009

Prose poetry at its finest. (I know, but it's approaching midnight on a truly terrible year and I wanted to squeeze this in) 

Balzer is an extremely talented writer. CUE is a overachieving journal/press. Great things hiding in generically plain covers. It's worth the read, seriously

[Mary] by J. Hope Stein (2012)

 

[Mary]

J. Hope Stein

Hyacinth Girl Press

(c) 2012

Sometimes a chapbook is more than a fancy cover with a black ribbon, sometimes it is meant to be more and is in fact more. This is one of those times. [Mary] : is the 3rd installation of a mixed media project called “The Inventor’s Last Breath,” which includes a 10-minute film that premiered at the Henry Miller Library in 2011, and the chapbook [Talking Doll] : which was published Dancing Girl Press in 2012. 

“The Inventor’s Last Breath” gets its title from Thomas Edison’s last breath, which was supposedly captured in a test tube and is on display at the Ford Museum in Michigan. A future installation of the Inventor’s Last Breath may or may not have taken place on her website, jhopestein.wordpress.com (almost 10 years ago now, and the traces of her film have disappeared from the Net). 

It is fair to say that Ms. Stein has a highly creative mind as evidenced in her most reason book titled Occasionally, I remove your brain through your nose. 

Twenty Grand :the fin de siècle poems by Guy Birchard (2003)

 

Twenty Grand : the fin de siècle poems

Guy Birchard

Pressed Wafer 

Boston, MA

(c) 2003

tiny book of sizable words. The poet lives in Saskatchewan. Or did in 2003 when this collection came out. I like the way Grover on Sesame Street says Saskatchewan. The poems here are thin and tasty. Wherever Moose Jaw is.....

in case/this way two things fell by Beau Beausoleil (1982)

 

in case/this way two things fell                                                 

Beau Beausoleil

Potes & Poets Press

Hartford, CT

(c)1982

Potes & Poets Press has had a long and influential history (1972- 1998) From the University of Connecticut library archives page :

"Potes & Poets Press was a small press founded by poet and publisher Peter Ganick.

Peter Ganick was a private piano teacher, poet, publisher, artst and resident of West Hartford, Connecticut. He was born on December 14, 1946 in Boston, Massachusetts to parents William (an executive in advertising) and Virginia (a legal secretary and pianist). Ganick was raised in Needham, Massachusetts, twelve miles from Boston itself. He attributed his passion for the arts to his parents and to having grown up in the Boston area, where he had access to many exceptional art museums and venues.  

His profession as a publisher began in the early 1970s. Roxbury Poetry Enterprises, his first poetry press, was used to publish his book, SOME POEMS. The press also published poets including Larry Eigner, Will Bennett, Clayton Eshleman, and Brad Pearson. 

Ganick founded Potes & Poets Press in 1980. An influential L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry publisher, Ganick printed and distributed the works of writers such as Charles Bernstein. Although the Press lacked a clear mission statement, Ganick always hoped to publish an array of writers whose work proved challenging. The press was ultimately given non-profit status and received four grants—two from the National Endowment of the Arts and another two from the Connecticut Endowment for the Arts. Ganick sold the Press in 2000, as he needed to focus on his own writing and newfound passion for visual art.

Peter Ganick died on April 16, 2020."

Beau Beausoleil is a poet and bookseller living in California. This chapbook is one of his earliest published collections. Published in a run of 300 copies in a famous Brooklyn print shop (The Print Center). Beau is best known now for being a founder of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition and the co-editor (along with Deema Shehabi) of the anthology Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here: Poets and Writers Respond to the March 5th, 2007, Bombing of Baghdad’s “Street of the Booksellers”

Harpsichord Hills by Merrill Gilfillan (2013)

 Harpsichord Hills

Merrill Gilfillan

Horse Less Press

Grand Rapids, MI

(c)2013

More interested in the history of this press than the words on the page with this one. Jen Tynes and crew are on a mission worth keeping track of. 

What Came First by Jennifer Campbell (2021)

 What Came First

Jennifer Campbell

dancing girl press & studio

Chicago, IL

(c)2021

Fairy tales meets 21st century media culture in this interesting blended collection.