Michael Sikkema
serif of nottingham editions
Hamilton, Ontario CANADA
(c)2012
It's interesting to "look back" at someone's work whom you are just now getting to know and they have moved to having novels being published. Interesting little press. Interesting little collection and I especially like the poem "how to explain your politics at a party" since it still feels unfortunately relevant today.
Becca Klaver
Bloof Books
part of the 2012/13 season
#96 of 100 printed. Off-kilter sized hand sewn chapbook. Bloof was a thing doing a thing at a time when things were done and appreciated in Brooklyn. I almost see the ghost of Frank O'hara in the background. A lot of "I did this and I did that". Whereas "I lost interest". Such is life. Just sayin'
Mimi German
The Poetry Box
Portland, OR
(c) 2022
I need to state upfront in case you didn't know, but I am deeply involved and committed to the study and collection of Beat Generation material. I am a member of several Facebook groups that are about the Beats (some specifically about Burroughs, others focused on Kerouac) and on one of these groups a few months ago now was a review of a book by the poet Mimi German. The review was entitled Beneath the Gravel Weight of Stars and the Beat mythology of the supertramp and it appears on the blog of "Karlostheunhappy".
I read the review and decided at once to get a copy of the book. Once the book arrived I reached out to the poet and found out that she was originally from Philadelphia and that we had a mutual friend.
The book itself is 37 pages and has a spine so thin no text can appear on the spine. So, it's a chapbook by my reckoning. The book has an interesting history. The Poetry Box edition is actually the second incarnation of the book. It was initially titled Eyes of the Horse Hair and was an honorable mention in the 2020 Hopper Poetry Prize announcement.
The review by Karlos is far superior to anything I might add, except that I have a correspondence now with the poet/activist in Portland want to praise the work she has accomplished, both on the page and in the community.
dana guthrie martin
Hyacinth Girl Press
(c)2012
Really like the cover art. The presentation of this material though is less than stellar.
Mark Wallace
Leave Books
Buffalo, NY
(c)1992
From the beginning of this endeavor I have been interested in following a trajectory of a writer/press through the publishing history of a book/books. While it began with the sad tale (of which I was unaware when I just wrote of it in 2006) borne still by Michele Waters whose stolen child haunts her forever, many of my bloggers are merely snapshots, polaroids of a moment in time. A Singular captured frame.
But this is the exception, a chapbook by an author who has a history that can be traced through his own chapbook history. (how odd indeed), This early effort of Mark Wallace's was published in Buffalo by Leave Books. Wallace was at SUNY/Buffalo. By 1994 he was the host of a poetry series in Washington DC called the ruthless grip (which still chugs along) where he interacted with a young poet newly arrived in town named Buck Downs who started his own publishing effort, which in turn published a chapbook by Mr. Wallace. Due to his time running ruthless grip he also became friends with Rod Smith who runs Edge Books which published a few of his books as well.
I have captured a bio of Mr. Wallace from the early aughts:
Mark Wallace is the author of more than ten books and chapbooks of poetry, including Nothing Happened and Besides I Wasn't There and Sonnets of a Penny-A-Liner. Temporary Worker Rides A Subway won the New American Poetry Award and is forthcoming from Sun and Moon. His first collection of fiction, The Big Lie, was published by Avec Books in Fall 2000. His critical articles
and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, and along with Steven Marks, he edited Telling It Slant: Avant Garde Poetics of the 1990s (University of Alabama Press) a collection of 26 essays by different writers on the subject of contemporary avant garde poetry and poetics. With Juliana Spahr, Kristin Prevallet, and Pam Rehm, he edited A Poetics of Criticism, a collection of poetry essays in non-standard formats published by Leave Books in 1994. He runs the Ruthless Grip Poetry Series and the "dcpoets" e-mail list in Washington, D.C., where he teaches at area colleges including Georgetown University, The George Washington University, and American University.
and from his page on Amazon:
Mark Wallace is the author and editor of a number of books of fiction, poetry, and essays. His most recent novel, Crab, was published in 2017 by Submodern Books. Other recent publications include a book-length prose poem, Notes from the Center on Public Policy, and a novel, The Quarry and The Lot. Temporary Worker Rides a Subway won the 2002 Gertrude Stein Poetry Award and was published by Green Integer Books. His critical articles and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, and he has co-edited two essay collections, Telling It Slant: Avant Garde Poetics of the 1990s, and A Poetics of Criticism.
The Kent State University Press
Kent, Ohio
(c) 2010
18 pages - a glimpse, a pause, a moment foreshadowed. Her future previewed. Captured as though a polaroid picture. Begun with this.
Claire Becker
Horse Less Press
(c) 2010
Unpaginated staple-bound chapbook. The werds float.
David Baratier
Luna Bizonte Prodz
Columbus, OH
(c)2004
This is simply an extremely bizarre booklet. Words beyond these are meaningless.
New Directions Poetry Pamphlet #4
(c) 2013
Quite the coup to be published by New Directions. 47 pages. Illustration in book by author. Cover art by Office of Paul Sahre. Interior design by Erik Rieselbach. 47 pages. Have your dictionary ready.
Gina Myers
unidentified publisher
signed by poet inside
#8 of 36 copies printed. Broadside. Staple-bound
more mystery than information. I am intrigued.
Burl Ives
Decca Records
(c)1946
This is a booklet that came with a 1946 vinyl record. Full of song lyrics. It's a booklet that I am counting as a "chapbook" since I have seen far too many chapbooks with spine so tiny that no words can be printed on them.
Megan Kaminski
Dusie Kollektiv
(c) 2013
&
Wintering Prairie
Megan Kaminski
Dusie Kollektiv
(c) 2014
Published in Zurich, Switzerland
Just to show those lovely forgotten chapbooks that Ms. Kaminski doesn't acknowledge these days.
Ben Pease
Monk Books
New York City
(c)2011
This is a hybrid twice over. It's 41 pages with a spine, okay, so I technically don't call it a chapbook but the spine has no writing on it so what's the point of that? Dead empty space on a black spine which emphasizes the "tiny sliver of nothing" in black space that I am certain was not a conscious thought of the publisher here but - the book contains, in addition to some interesting language formations and topography has addition visual topography that mirrors and reenforces the words in a playful and almost harmonious way. The subtitle of the book, "Selections from a Blockbuster in Verse", ties the threads together well. And the last line of the last poem does not have a period, suggesting to me at least, that there is not "ending" like a good French film which stops without "concluding". Or, say the ending of the American film "Sideways". The "ending" is what you, the viewer, project it to be; the movie doesn't give it to you. It's satisfying in its unending-ness.
The Song Cave
#57 of 100 printed. Signed by "Ben" who is also WIZ or not. This is the 22 book from the Song Cave. Hand printed, I mean, the entire book is written in the author's hand. I have not witnessed anything... well, I have actually but WOW. This is bizarre
Emily Murman
dancing girl press & studio
Chicago, IL
(c) 2021
Emily Murman is a poet & educator from Chicago. In April 2019, she was awarded the Gail DeHerder Memorial Prize in Creative Writing. She holds an MFA in poetry from National University. She is the author of two chapbooks, “SHRIVEL AND BLOOM" (Dancing Girl Press, June 2021) and “I want your emergency" (Selcouth Station Press, July 2021).
Some really good poems in this thin slice of heaven.
Since I started this divergence, this deep dive into the murky depths of small press publishing of staple bound (almost all of them) book of less than 50 pages, I have listed and mentioned and speculated about the poet and the press and the printer and the first recipient of each book.
Each is unique in its singularity. I have only the single one of each. There is a singular relationship that exists between us all (author/publisher/printer/reader) that, since they are chapbooks, are never really considered in the same way a novel by an established author from a prestigious publishing house is.
It began with a book written by a woman who had her daughter stolen at a concert in San Francisco during the 1960s. A tragedy she has never fully recovered from (and how could she, how could any mother?). Some of the books I have written about were by poets and writers who have become well known, sometimes deciding in their own biographies to "forget to mention" the chapbooks that came before their first official books. Their first literary prize. Their first teaching assignments at the major universities that they now hail from.
My mission or calling (if it is one) is different from the library in Brautigan's The Abortion. These books have all been published, some by the author themselves but all have seen the print of ink. All are physical objects because I do not consider e-texts to be proper books.
And there are many people to thank for the horde of chapbooks I have now, and someday will pass forward. Daniel Nester, another gentleman from upstate New York, a righteous dude from Iowa City, and others along the way. Along the time. Between the margins. As one will.
Mark Turner
(unknown/self published?)
(c) 1980
Every once in awhile I get a chapbook of poetry that as much mystery as any in a novel written by the best writer in their field. Not dramatic conclusion, I hope, but a mystery none the less.
There is no publisher info anywhere in the book. Nothing on the back cover. The booklet was not trimmed so it was unlikely to have been a professional printing. 21 pages, staple bound, white paper. White cover stock. A bit dirty closer to the fold. There is a Mark Turner (cognitive scientist) whose first book was published in 1987. And there is a fair amount of repetition in the writing. But I can not presume to know. So, until further information appears; a mystery it will remain.
dancing girl press
Chicago, IL
(c) 2011
I have to say this is one of the best books I have seen from dancing girl. It's a bit of a shame that Ms. Kaminski doesn't mention her chapbooks published prior to 2012. There is a lot of good poetry before.
Juliana Spahr
Belladonna
Brooklyn, NY
(c) 2012
Chaplet #144 was published to commemoration of her performance with T C Tolbert on April 3, 2012 at Dixon Place (NYC). 11 pages. I have a number of Belladonna chapbooks and printed material. I took in a reading of Ms. Spahr at Georgetown University in DC. She definitely has a style.
Lisa J. Cihlar
Crisis Chronicles Press
Cleveland, OH
(c) 2022
Technicalities aside (this is a chapbook with a spine), this chapbook is a great read written by a talented poet and published by an interesting press out of Cleveland, OH.
27 pages of cool prose poetry. Cover art by the poet herself as well.
Glad to have it. Glad to have read it.
If you know anything about Cleveland Ohio small press history, one name reverberated across the city and that name was d. a. levy. John Burroughs isn't exactly a replacement so much as someone who has picked up that baton and begun to carry it forward. Good for him. Good for publishing. Here's to Crisis Chronicles Press.
