Cat Russell Book Launch and Review

From the Akron Beacon Journal (3/20/2019):

Everyday life is the source for the poetry in Cat Russell’s collection Soul Picked Clean. The provocative title of her opening poem “Why I Can’t Tell You About My First Time” refers to her first library visit, which Russell can’t recall but which instilled in her a lifelong love of reading, leading to visits to high school and college libraries. The delicate “Urn” depicts the poet’s mother seated in her “tastefully decorated office” selecting a cloisonné urn to contain the ashes of her husband, to keep him close by.

“Panic” ably describes the uncontrollability of a panic attack and how it feeds on itself, and “Gathering” the prosaic childhood memory of Russell’s father and his friends relaxing poolside with beer and chips.

Some of the poems were previously published.

Soul Picked Clean (89 pages, softcover) costs $12 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 3431 George Ave., Parma 44134.

Cat Russell will be joined by Pittsburgh poets Jen Ashburn (The Light on the Wall) and Jason Irwin (A Blister of Stars) at 7 p.m. Saturday [3/30/2019] at Mac’s Backs, 1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights.

https://www.ohio.com/entertainmentlife/20190320/local-books-stories-of-world-war-ii-poetry-about-everyday-life-events-and-signings

Kruhaus: A Quarterly Gathering in Denver This Friday

One last reminder: I'll have the honor of sharing the stage with some amazing writers from all over the place this Friday during Kruhaus: A Quarterly Gathering at Hooked on Colfax in Denver, hosted by Kleft Jaw Press. 7:30 p.m.

The line-up:

John Burroughs
Jason Hardung
Kenning Jean-Paul García
Kristine Otero
Lindsey Thomas
Zophia McDougal
Hillary Leftwich
Jay Halsey
Jonathan Montgomery
Blake Marcelle
Sarah Richards Graba
Shelley Chernin
Chris Chady
Rosie Reynolds
Jesse Lee Pacheco
Natalie Sharp
Estefania Munoz
 

Hooked on Colfax

3213 E Colfax Avenue
Denver, Colorado 80206

Reviews of recent Crisis Chronicles books in Pudding

Many thanks to Pudding Magazine: The Journal of Applied Poetry and editor Connie Everett for recommending two recent Crisis Chronicles Press books in their latest issue. Subscribe to Pudding at puddingmagazine.com.

About Rikki Santer's Dodge, Tuck, Roll, they say:

"There is plenty of heft and whimsy in the poems of Rikki Santer. Besides her obvious love of language and its play, she ruminates over failed relationships, environmental peril, internet addiction, health scares, and death. But there is also a well-balanced celebration of music, art, and nature to appreciate. Betty Boop is reconsidered as only a feminist might. A food and art mashup with appearances by Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Stephen Hawking and abstractions of culinary possibilities leave the reader dizzy. Reading Santer's poems is an experience of synesthesia as she navigates the 'thin membrane between apocalypse & carnival.' Dodge, Tuck, Roll is a book to be savored."

About Kari Gunter-Seymour's Serving, they say: 

"After decades of war, many of us don't know any who have served or their families. Gunter-Seymour gives an emotionally honest portrayal of what service and sacrifice look like for military families. A sense of home, of place, offer context for what we protect and why. A book of heartbreak, but most of all, love."

Order Rikki's and Kari's books together and save!

Clarion Thursday, Columbus Sunday

Between having so many events this month, so much work to do before I head to Denver next week, and also an out-of-town guest at my house, I know I'm way behind on messages. I promise I will get back to everyone the first chance I get. I'm doing as much as I can every spare moment I have. Thank you for your patience.

Meanwhile, I hope to see you at one of these fab events: 

3/13: Sara Minges & Juliet Cook at Mac's Backs
3/14: Tobeco Open Mic and Ohio Beat Poet Laureate John Burroughs in Clarion, PA
3/17: John Burroughs / Peripatetic Poets in Columbus, Ohio!

CLE Uncorked on 3/12 at CLE Urban Winery

Very much looking forward to sharing poetry from the same stage as Sara Minges, all the way from Kansas City, and a bevy of bad-ass musical talent this Tuesday, 3/12, at CLE Uncorked: Voices and Vines on Lee, hosted by Jason Patrick Meyers at CLE Urban Winery. It's gonna be smokin' hot in the Heights!

The Power of the Powerless

I am grateful to Ryan P. Kinney and Beautiful Blasphemy for including a piece of mine in this new free chapbook!

Message facebook.com/Beautiful.Blasphemy.Poetry for a free digital copy.

John Burroughs - Ohio Beat Poet Laureate 2019-2021

Wow! I'm as close to speechless as I can be about this — extremely honored that the National Beat Poetry Foundation, Inc. has selected me as their Beat Poet Laureate for the State of Ohio, 2019-2021. I'm still a bit incredulous! :) Many thanks to the Foundation and executive directors Debbie Tosun Kilday and Colin Haskins for their relentless advocacy on behalf of Beat poetry. And hearty congratulations to the newly named Beat Poets Laureate from other states/regions. I look forward to seeing and hearing as many of you as possible this August in Connecticut.

Crisis Chronicles Press to publish Soul Picked Clean by Cat Russell

Crisis Chronicles Press is pleased to announce the publication of Soul Picked Clean, the debut poetry collection by Ohio writer Cat Russell.

"In Soul Picked Clean Cat Russell provides a thoughtful and hopeful collection of sharp-edged, personal poems that balance themes of “cosmic coincidence” (“Dice”) with close observations of daily life and family. Knitting together comfort and struggle, Russell’s poems build a sense of alienation filled with tense urgency. In poems like “Serial Killer at the Laundromat” she brings to focus measured risks, remaining “acutely conscious of / how alone I am” and “Balloon,” which imagines the growth and deflation of memory and life through “the events / that would shape and fill me.” If “Children see the things adults turn away from” ("2 a.m."), they are also evident in the honest insights of Russell’s debut collection."

—E F Schraeder, author of Chapter Eleven

Your location?

United States $12.00 USD Elsewhere $15.00 USD

Soul Picked Clean is around 100 pages, perfect bound, 5.5 x 8.5". ISBN: 978-1-64092-978-4. Front cover photo by Chandra Alderman. Available in March 2019 for only $12 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 3431 George Avenue, Parma, Ohio 44134 USA. 

Meet the author at these special events:

3/30 (7pm) - Book launch party at Mac's Backs, 1820 Coventry Rd, Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118. Cat Russell and Pittsburgh-area poets Jason Irwin and Jen Ashburn will read.

4/12 - Aztilude - sWord Fight Tournament in Canton, Ohio. More details forthcoming.

4/13 (11am-2pm) - Local Author Fair at Massillon Public Library, 208 Lincoln Way E, Massillon, Ohio 44646.

Cat Russell shares her life with her high school sweetheart, their son, and other ferocious creatures in the wilds of Ohio while composing poetry, writing short stories, and learning more about the craft every day. Her work has been published in Flash Me magazine, Metro Fiction, Beyond Centauri, and the Best of Friday Flash – Volume One and -Volume Two anthologies, as well as Poetry Quarterly and Three Line Poetry. More of her writing can be found on her blog at ganymeder.com.