Friday, November 27, 2015

Alex Gildzen's Ohio Triangle nominated for a 2016 Ohioana Book Award

I just nominated Alex Gildzen's Ohio Triangle for a 2016 Ohioana Book Award.  Though ten recent Crisis Chronicles Press titles are eligible for nomination, and strong cases can be made for several of them, I believe this book is the most deserving, the most quintessentially Ohio.

If you haven't read Ohio Triangle yet, you really should.  I don't believe there's been a more engaging and endearing poetry book published this year.


Choose US or International


Here's a clip of Gildzen reading from Ohio Triangle during BeatStreet Cleveland 2015.

Monday, November 23, 2015

Cooking up some Malformed Confetti

Check out this recent interview with Juliet Cook about grotesque writing, collaborative writing, and her forthcoming (in early 2016) Crisis Chronicles Press book, Malformed Confetti:

Writing That Disturbs The Bodies Of The Mind.

And after you read that, watch this, the creepy cool book trailer Susan Yount created for
Juliet Cook's Malformed Confetti:


Friday, November 20, 2015

My "In Due Season" Nominated for Pushcart

NightBallet Press has just nominated my poem "In Due Season" (from the chapbook Beat Attitude) for a Pushcart Prize. What a thrill, especially to be included in such fine company (they also nominated great poems by Margie Shaheed, Kathleen Cerveny, Geoffrey A. Landis, Connie Everett and Lyn Lifshin). "In Due Season" was written for an Ekphrastacy program at Heights Arts and inspired by a Melissa Jay Craig sculpture. Thank you!

Click here to read the NightBallet press release.
Click here to buy a copy of my Beat Attitude.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Divine Warning from God on the Streets of Cleveland

Found this "Divine Warning from God" (who is a Seventh Day Adventist?) on my car today. The end may be nigh, as they say, but I can only presume we have at LEAST until November since Dr. Ben Carson is still pursuing the presidency.


Sunday, November 15, 2015

Crisis Chronicles Press publishes Bradford Middleton's Drink Drank Drunk

Cover photo by Chandra Alderman
We are thrilled to announce the publication of intoxicating new work by UK poet Bradford Middleton on 14 November 2015. Drink Drank Drunk is a pamphlet of poems on the joys or otherwise of drinking, the latest release in Crisis Chronicles' NineSense series of 9 poem chapbooks by writers you ought to know.  Available for a mere $4.99 in the USA (a few dollars more for overseas orders).

Choose Your Location

Drink Drank Drunk is hand assembled and saddle stapled, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, laser printed on white pages with black card stock endpapers wrapped in white cover stock emblazoned with Honeydew bourbon art. ISBN 978-1940996264.

Click here to rate/review at Goodreads.

Bradford Middleton was born in southeast London in 1971. He spent the next 30 years desperate to either get to the middle or get out, he could never decide, and eventually landed above a pseudo-legendary punk record shop in Croydon. After six years it became too much and he moved back deeper into south London and somehow landed a job. He went back to university and then aged 34 he finally got the chance to go away to university to study at postgraduate level in something interesting but not exactly vocational. Within a year he landed in Brighton and began writing crazy stories and poems of outrage and insanity. At the age of 38 he finally decided to show someone his work, and a series of editors received strange tales and bizarre poetry as he eschewed the influence of his friends. Just before his 40th birthday the Mad Swirl, those glorious souls from Dallas, USA, published his first poem, a joyous ode to losing your mind. That is not included here, so you’ll have to go find it online. He has, as of 2015, accumulated over 100 unique publications in various places including Empty Mirror; Zygote in My Coffee; Ppigpenn; Word Riot; Rolling Thunder Quarterly; The Camel Saloon; Fuck Art, Let’s Dance; Dead Snakes; The Weekenders; and Electric Windmill Press, as well as some others. His debut novel, DIVE, is now available from New Pulp Press. Follow him @beatnikbraduk on Twitter.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Flashback to Meet the Presses

photo of Juliet Cook, me (holding Matilda's Battle Waltz)
and Dianne Borsenik by Alexandria Mitchell

Saturday I had the privilege of representing Crisis Chronicles Press at Meet the Presses in Toledo.  Thanks to Lorraine Cipriano for inviting me, and to my co-presenters Dianne Borsenik (NightBallet Press), Azriel Johnson (Writing Knights Press), Vertigo Xi'an Xavier (The Poet's Haven) and Juliet Cook (Blood Pudding Press) for contributing to a fantastic event.

Each of us gave a presentation of 20-or-so minutes. A question and answer period followed.  I read poems from four recent CC Press books, Matilda's Battle Waltz by Tracie Morell, The Night Market by D.R. Wagner, Balefire by Susan Sheppard and Ghost on the Inside by John Dorsey.

Many thanks to Women Unbound for this video of the proceedings:

Monday, November 9, 2015

Poetry returns to the Lorain Arts Council 21 November


I thought Saturday's Toledo/Detroit trip was gonna be my last event for a while, but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to be part of this great event November 21st as poetry returns to the The Lorain Arts Council. I look forward to sharing selections from my new chapbook, Beat Attitude [NightBallet Press], from the same stage as poets Tamara R. Crumble, Jeanette Nettles, Dianne Borsenik and Ryan Sagert.  This event will also feature an open mic, refreshments and music by Undisputed Truth.

Lorain Arts Council
737 Broadway
Lorain, Ohio

Friday, November 6, 2015

Saturday: Toledo, Detroit - my last two scheduled events until February


Saturday afternoon at 2, Crisis Chronicles Press and I will join Dianne Borsenik (NightBallet Press), Azriel Johnson (Writing Knights), Juliet Cook (Blood Pudding Press) and Vertigo Xi'an Xavier (The Poet's Haven) for Meet the Presses at the Sigmond Sanger Branch Library, 3030 W. Central Avenue in Toledo, Ohio.

Then that evening at 7:30, Dianne Borsenik and I will share poetry during the Ultimate Artist Extravaganza at the SOUL Community House, 32905 Grand River Avenue in Farmington, Michigan (just outside of Detroit), as The Soul Collective of Collaborative Arts celebrates its one year anniversary. Also performing:  Natasha BeautifulThought AnĂ©e, One Single Rose, Nina Robb, Ania Ela, and Carla Dodd.  Special music by Kristopher Lamont, an exhibition of Tanya Britt's photography and an open mic!

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Tracie Morell: Best Erie Poet 2015


Congratulations to Tracie Morell on being selected Best Poet in the Erie Reader's Best of Erie 2015.  Crisis Chronicles Press had the honor of publishing her book Matilda's Battle Waltz this summer.