What's Up with Crisis Chronicles Press?

People keep asking me what's up with Crisis Chronicles Press. Here's the short answer:

Our 2019 titles so far

1) EVENTS: A) We'll be in Kansas City this weekend (October 11-13) for Fountainverse: KC Small Press Poetry Fest. B) On November 23rd, we will team up with NightBallet Press to present readings by our Class of 2019 authors during Streetlight Imaginations with Crisis Chronicles & NightBallet at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library. C) I am also hosting (at least through March 2020) the Poetry+ reading series on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at Art on Madison in Lakewood, Ohio.

2) BOOKS: It's hard to believe we published 5 wonderful books (by John Dorsey, Mindi Kirchner-Greenway, Elaine Schleiffer, Cat Russell and Nicole Hennessy) in the first four months of 2019 and we haven't published a new one since (I've been too busy with a million things). But over the summer several of our recent titles did go into second printings. We still have eight books in our committed-to-publishing queue. We intend to publish three of them (So Marvelously Far by Nick Gardner, Ode to Horatio and Other Saviors by Carolyn Srygley-Moore and Alex in Movieland by Alex Gildzen) by the end of 2019. We'll space the final five out over the course of 2020.

3) SUBMISSIONS: In the past week I've written to dozens of people declining their unsolicited submissions. Technically we haven't even been open for submissions in years, though I sometimes bent that policy for a project I just couldn't pass up. For a while (years?) I flirted with (and at times seriously considered) the idea of reopening submissions after I got caught up. But I never caught up. Now I'm becoming more and more inclined just to wrap up the press for good after I complete my current commitments.

It's been an incredible ride. I've had the honor and privilege of working with some fantastic writers and people. And it's not over yet. Eight phenomenal books are coming. I hope you love them as much as I do.

Meanwhile, there's still time to complete your collection at http://ccpress.blogspot.com/.

Gratefully yours,
John

Fountainverse: KC Small Press Poetry Fest - October 11th thru 13th

This month my Rattle and Numb book tour will take me to Kansas City, Missouri, to again participate in the annual FountainVerse small press poetry festival. For three days I will man a table for my new book from Venetian Spider Press as well as for a select assortment of recent Crisis Chronicles Press titles.

Also, on Saturday October 12th from 4 to 5 pm I will participate in a publishers panel sponsored by Spartan Press' Jason Ryberg. And then sometime between 7 and 8:30 pm I will be a featured reader alongside some of the Midwest's finest writers. Both of these events (as well as the book fair and much of the rest of the festival) will take place at Capsule, 1664 Broadway Boulevard, Kansas City, Missouri 64108.


From the press release: "Fountainverse: KC Small Press Poetry Fest is a three-day poetry festival featuring poets representing independent poetry publishing houses from the KC metro area and across the country. The fest features scheduled readings, a pop-up book shop, publishing panel, workshop and open mic opportunities."

For more info including a full schedule of events, please visit www.fountainverse.com.
 

Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival, Oct. 4th & 5th in Frostburg

This weekend, I will represent Crisis Chronicles Press alongside several fine presses, journals and organizations at the Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival in downtown Frostburg. From the press release:

"The Frostburg State University Center for Literary Arts, in partnership with the Allegany County Library System, is excited to announce that the thirteenth annual Western Maryland Indie Lit Festival is scheduled for Oct. 4 & 5 on Main Street in Frostburg. The event brings together editors and publishers with writers and educators of the local community. Panel discussions and roundtable sessions include topics on various creative genres, revolutionary mothering, writing and the first amendment, writing about spirituality, telling the story through podcasting, and more!"

Friday, October 4th

5:30 pm - Kickoff  reception at the Frostburg State University Center for Literary Arts, 20 E. Main Street.

6:30 pm - Reading by four poets laureate at Main Street Books, 2 E. Main Street. (The poets are Michael Glaser, former poet laureate of Maryland; Nancy Mitchell, current poet laureate of Salisbury, MD; Chuck Joy, current poet laureate of Erie, PA; and Carly Volpe, current poet laureate of Bucks County, PA. Their panel discussion afterward will consider the role of a poet laureate in their community.)

Saturday, October 5th

11 am to 5 pm - Book Fair at the Hotel Gunter, 11 W. Main Street.

Assorted readings and panels nearby throughout the day.

Home again (briefly) then off to Massachusetts this weekend!

What a wonderful mini-tour with Jeanette Powers! I can't thank our friends in Toledo, Cleveland, Connecticut, Woodstock, New York City and Long Island enough. I dropped Jeanette off at the airport a little while ago and am now feverishly working on catching up on hundreds of things that need done between now and Friday, when I'll drive nine hours back to New England to launch the next leg of my tour.

Saturday (9/28) at 11:30 a.m. and Sunday (9/29) at 1:30 p.m. I will have the privilege of performing at the 2019 North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival in Orange, Massachusetts, hosted by U.S. National Beat Poet Laureate Paul Richmond and Human Error Publishing.

Then on Friday, October 4th, Crisis Chronicles Press and I will head to Frostburg, Maryland for the Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival....

If I owe you a message, I promise I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Any books I still owe folks will go into the mail by tomorrow. I am so grateful for your kind wishes and support.

https://www.facebook.com/events/699906550468769/.

Touring with Kansas City Poet Jeanette Powers This Month!

art/photo by Jeanette Powers

Finally home from the first of three trips to the east coast this month. I will spend today and tomorrow catching up on a million things, including hundreds of emails, a stack of bills, packaging and mailing books, running to Akron to pick up the 2nd printing of Nicole Hennessy's Gypsy Queen, mowing the lawn, getting a pdf proof for Nick Gardner's forthcoming Crisis Chronicles Press book (So Marvelously Far) to him and cleaning my house. Then Sunday, 9/8, in Toledo I will meet up with one of my favorite poets/artists/humans, Jeanette Powers of Kansas City, where we will have the privilege of reading with Barbara Sabol and Clarissa Jakobsons for Uncloistered Poetry at Calvino's Restaurant and Wine Bar.

After that, I will emcee two readings featuring Jeanette in the Cleveland area:

• Tues. 9/10 - Poetry+ featuring Jeanette Powers & Dianne Borsenik at Art on Madison in Lakewood, Ohio.
• Wed. 9/11 - Michelle R. Smith, Rikki Santer & Jeanette Powers at Mac's Backs in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

And then Jeanette's tour will continue as we head to the east coast for these events:

• Sun. 9/15 - Fall into Poetry at Sol’s Path (feat. Jake St. John, Meg Harris, Jeanette and me) in Northford, Connecticut.
• Tues. 9/17 (my birthday) - Woodstock Open Mic Poetry with John Burroughs & Jeanette Powers.
• Fri. 9/20 (her birthday) - Puma Perl's Birthday Bash Pandemonium (feat. Puma Perl and Friends, Annie Petrie, Jeanette, me and more) in New York City.
• Sat. 9/21 - Celebrate Poetry & Prose (feat. John Greiner, Jeanette and me) in Oceanside, New York.
• Sun. 9/22 - Poetry Street with John Burroughs and Jeanette Powers in Riverhead, New York.

Then we'll drive back to Cleveland, Jeanette will fly home, and at the end of the month I'll drive east again to read with U.S. Beat Poet Laureate Paul Richmond and others on 9/28 and 9/29 at the Word Stage at Garlic & Arts Festival in Orange, Massachusetts.

And if that wasn't enough, in October, I'll be heading to Maryland, Kansas City and North Carolina, among other places.

Rattle & Numb: Selected & New Poems, 1992-2019 (OUT NOW!)

Cover painting by Emma Anderson

I am beyond excited to see that my new book—Rattle & Numb: Selected and New Poems, 1992-2019—is now available. This is by far my biggest book yet, and my first hardcover. It features all my best poems from the past three decades, including a healthy helping of new, previously unpublished work. I absolutely love the cover art by Cleveland's own Emma Anderson. I am so grateful to her and to Venetian Spider Press editor William F. DeVault. I feel incredibly honored to join the VSP family.

Rattle & Numb: Selected and New Poems, 1992-2019 is now available from many of your favorite independent bookstores, as well as from Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

You may also procure a signed copy of Rattle & Numb directly from me on my 2019-2020 book tour, which so far features appearances in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Michigan, Missouri, and a bunch of venues across Ohio.

I'm always interested in adding more events. So if you're interested in having me read/talk/hang out at your university, bookstore, library, festival or literary happening, please contact me at jc@crisischronicles.com.

Artist Emma Anderson and me
[photo by Marty Snyder]

"In Rattle and Numb...John Burroughs has chosen some very strong pieces that propel the reader through a life-arc, while artfully revealing the person behind the poetry. His trademark wordplay is evident throughout, as in Ataraxis be bloom/be lilt/be boom/be wilt and Out (Not Fade Away) But in spite of it I wrote on/rode on/right on/wry dawn/rite yawn. Classic Burroughs poems—John Cage Uncaged and Engaged, Low Kay Shun, Lens—anchor the narrative, while new and newer poems create fresh mythologies, tackle the facelessness of Facebook, brood over the flow of rivers into Lake Erie, promise flaming postcards/from the conflagration. Rattle and Numb is both, and neither; it is a confessional collection that promises and delivers to whomever it may concern."

—Dianne Borsenik, author of Raga for What Comes Next, publisher at NightBallet Press

 

The Hoot feat. Robert Carr & John Burroughs, 9/4 in Portsmouth NH

Robert Carr

Next week, following the National Beat Poetry Festival in Connecticut, I'm also thrilled to be returning to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on September 4th for a reading with Robert Carr.

Join us at 7 p.m.

Café Espresso

800 Islington Street,
Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03801

Portsmouth is at the center of one of my favorite poetry regions in the country and I'm so happy to be returning!

For more about Robert Carr, not to be confused with the 1st Earl of Somerset, please visit www.robertcarr.org.

2019 National Beat Poetry Festival - 8/30 thru 9/1 in Connecticut

*Copied from the National Beat & International Beat Poetry Festival Bulletin Board*

The National Beat Poetry Foundation, Inc. will host their annual 3 day, National Beat Poetry Festival, one of the largest gatherings in the US, of Beat Poets from the US and worldwide.

Master of Ceremonies: Darlene Fernandez.

Locations & Times:

Friday, August 30, 2019, Noelke Gallery, 15 Water Street, Torrington, CT, starting at 7:00pm. Readings and spoken word. Music by Podunk Throwbacks. Plus an open mic.

Saturday August 31, 2019, The Licia & Mason Beekley Community Library, 10 Center Street, New Hartford, CT, 2:00pm-6:00pm. Ten new Beat Poets Laureate will be named and honored at a special awards ceremony for their dedication and contributions to their respective communities for their love of writing, poetry, spoken word and the arts.
Music by Tony Vacca. Plus an open mic.

Sunday September 1, 2019, Farm River Cafe, 526 Main Street, New Hartford, CT from 2:00pm to 5:00. Readings, spoken word, and musicians should plan on coming to share their talents. Plus an open mic.

All aficionados of Poetry, Music, & the Arts are cordially invited to attend this cultural enriching three day event.

Books and merchandise from many different artists will be available for purchase all three days and at all three event venues.

Poets will be reading their poetry all three days from our newest poetry anthology called, We Are Beat from Local Gems Press [pre-order here].

This years award recipients are:

Paul Richmond: National Beat Poet Laureate USA (2019-2020)

Donna Anne Allard - International Beat Poet Laureate, Canada (2019-2020)

Dr. Chryssa Velissariou: Greece Beat Poet Laureate - (2019-Lifetime) from Larisa, Greece

John Burroughs - State of Ohio Beat Poet Laureate (2019-2021)

BLW (Babs) McGrory - State of Delaware Beat Poet Laureate (2019-2021)

Ron Whitehead - State of Kentucky Beat Poet Laureate (2019-2021)

Richard Wayne Horton - State of Massachusetts Beat Poet Laureate (2019-2021)

William David Sovern - State of Indiana Beat Poet Laureate (2019-2021)

Kate Lamberg - State of New York, Long Island Beat Poet Laureate (2019-2021)

Nordette N. Adams - State of Louisiana Beat Poet Laureate (2019-2021)

I would like to express my gratitude to Debbie Tosun Kilday and Colin Haskins of the National Beat Poetry Foundation. You may contact them with any questions about this and/or future events at: NBPF15@GMAIL.COM.

A Poetic Farewell to Vertigo Xi'an Xavier, Friday 8/23 in Akron

Please join us tomorrow (Friday 8/23) in Akron to celebrate the life and legacy of our dear friend Vertigo Xi'an Xavier. 

 

 

5:30 to 8:30 pm at Polymer City Records, 730 Portage Trail Extension W, Akron, OH 44313.

Next appearances: 8/16 in Cleveland and 8/17 in Monroe, Michigan

8/16 in Cleveland, Ohio
The Power of Word featuring Dianne Borsenik and John Burroughs at SAYMO Collective + Gallery, 16205 Lorain Avenue, hosted by Georgia Reash.

8/17 in Monroe, Michigan
Madhouse & Firefly present: HEAT featuring William F. DeVault, John Burroughs Leo Todd Jarret, Dan Denton, Michelle Williams, Melvin Douglas Johnson, Damon Aker, AE Audamatic Harris, Leo Jarret, Gwen Jerris, Rebel Jones, Chris Curan, Jesse Eagle, live painting by Erik Steiger and musical guest Lucian Townes at Serendipitous Vintage, 403 E. Front Street.

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