Crisis Chronicles Press This Fall

We may not have published a new title in two years, but we've remained busy behind the scenes with a couple of highly anticipated and long-awaited projects still in the works (more on those later). But Crisis Chronicles Press is delighted to be coming out of the closet, literally, to take part in three wonderful book fairs this fall and we'd love to see you at all of them.

September 19-20: The Writers Association of Northern Appalachia (WANA) Annual Conference at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Wheeling, West Virginia.

September 27: The annual Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival, hosted by the Frostburg State University Center for Literary Arts at City Place and other venues in Frostburg, Maryland. (I'll be reading there at 1 p.m. as well.)

October 17-19: The annual Fall Literary Festival hosted by Lit Youngstown in Youngstown, Ohio.

February 15th on Zoom: I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing

My first appearance of 2024 will be on February 15th when the Spoken & Heard series, hosted by the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio, will present a reading by twenty contributors to the award-winning anthology I Thought I Heard A Cardinal Sing: Ohio's Appalachian Voices (edited by Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour and published by Sheila-Na-Gig). We hope you'll tune in.

At the Lit Youngstown Fall Literary Festival This Week!

The annual Lit Youngstown Fall Literary Festival happens this week, October 19th through 21st. I will attend the kickoff event on Thursday evening. Then on Friday I will man the Crisis Chronicles Press table all day at their book fair in addition to being part of a 2:30 p.m. reading by contributors to the anthology I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing (edited by Kari Gunter-Seymour) in the Ford Theater at Bliss Hall. Unfortunately, I will have to miss Saturday's events.

From our friends at Lit Youngstown:

The 7th annual Fall Literary Festival will feature Ross Gay, Jill Christman, Alison Stine, and the Craig Paulenich Endowed Lecture on Literary Community by Lit Cleveland Executive Director Matt Weinkam. This will be an incredible conference, with thanks to our sponsors the Centofanti Foundation, the Youngstown State University Center for Working-Class Studies, WYSU-FM, the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley, Lake Erie Golf Cars, the Thomases Family Foundation, KO Consulting, the Grace Ruth Memorial Endowment, Ohio Humanities, the Wilkes University Master of Fine Arts, the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts, Eastern Gateway Community College, the Ohio Arts Council and the Youngstown Foundation.

Registration for daytime events is now closed. Please join us for the free evening readings! For more information including a full schedule of events, please visit https://www.lityoungstown.org/fall-literary-festival-2023.

 

Appalachian Studies Association Conference this weekend in Athens, Ohio

This weekend, I'm heading to my alma mater, Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, for the 2023 Appalachian Studies Association Conference.

I'll perform there on the 17th at 10:30 a.m., sharing poetry & touching on my journey from being born in Richwood, WV, raised in Ohio, bullied relentlessly for my accent and heritage and learning to hide it, to finally as an adult embracing where I came from with joy and renewed pride.

Then at 2:30 p.m., also on the 17th, I'll be one of many contributors to I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio's Appalachian Voices (edited by Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour) sharing our poems from that monumental anthology.

At the end of next week I'll be sharing poetry in Dansville, NY (the 24th), and Binghamton, NY (the 25th).

In between, I hope to have copies in hand of my new c. 300-page book, The Wrest of the Worthwhile: Unselected, Uncollected and New Poems, 1982-2023 [which collects all my published work that did not appear in Rattle and Numb, as well as some stuff no one has seen before].

Then in April, I'll be part of events in Florida, Missouri, Indiana and Ohio. More on those in the near future. But click here to see my regularly updated event schedule.

March 17th: Dual Performances at AppalachiaFest: From Surviving to Thriving

I am very much looking forward to being part of this special event on March 17th at AppalachiaFest, the 2023 Appalachian Studies Association Conference, in Athens, Ohio. I'll also be doing a deep-dive one-hour solo performance ("Hampuy: The Circle Returns") there that same day at 10:30 a.m.

I remain so grateful to Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour for creating this wondrous anthology and including a couple of my poems in it.

Click here to buy I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio's Appalachian Voices.

October 6th in Hamilton, Ohio: I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing anthology reading

October 6th at 7 p.m., the Hamilton campus of Miami University will host a reading by contributors to the recently published I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio's Appalachian Voices anthology (edited by Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour and published by Sheila-Na-Gig). This event will take place at the Harr.y T. Wilks Conference Center, 1601 University Blvd. Hamilton, Ohio 45011

If you're in the area, we would love to see you there.

You may also order the book at:

https://www.karigunterseymourpoet.com/order-cardinal-sing.

Six-Pack of Events Coming Up [Edit: Make that Seven]

Paying bills and tying up as many loose ends as possible today, then hitting the road tomorrow. Looking forward to a lot of great events in the next couple of weeks:

 

10/1-2: Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival in Frostburg, MD,

10/4: Poetry Night at Sitwell's in Cincinnati, OH,

10/6: I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing, Appalachian anthology reading in Hamilton, OH,

10/8: Uncloistered Poetry Live - October (John Dorsey book launch) in Toledo, OH,

10/8: Oktoberfest at Serendipitous Sound in Monroe, Michigan,

10/9: Dorsey, Clevenger and Borsenik at Mac's Backs in Cleveland Heights, OH,

10/15: I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing, Appalachian anthology reading in Coshocton, OH.

On the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition Blog

"It should not come as a surprise that we count a Beat poet among urban Appalachians...."

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Mike Templeton for the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition blog. Read at https://uacvoice.org/2022/08/john-burroughs-urban-appalachian-and-national-beat-poet-laureate/.

NFSPS Convention in Columbus Next Week!

 

You now have until June 19th to register for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies Convention that is happening in central Ohio on June 23rd through 26th, hosted by the Ohio Poetry Association. 

Hanif Abdurraqib will be their convention Keynote speaker. If you can't attend in person, there is also an option to attend virtually.

More info: https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/nfsps-2022-convention.

I'll be participating in two events there:

A reading by contributors to I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio's Appalachian Voices on 6/23 at 8 p.m. and a Poets Laureate panel on The Power of Literary Citizenship on 6/24 at 1 p.m.

Hope to see you!

June 11th online: I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing anthology reading

On June 11th, the Cuyahoga County Public Library will host a reading by contributors to the new I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio's Appalachian Voices anthology (edited by Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour and published by Sheila-Na-Gig). This reading will take place online and we'd love for you to tune in. 

Registered participants will also have the option of attending in-person at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst Branch to watch the event on a large screen.

Please register here to attend.

May 14th in Toledo: I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing anthology reading

On May 14th, Uncloistered Poetry and the Toledo Lucas County Public Library will host a reading by contributors to the recently published I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing anthology (edited by Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour and published by Sheila-Na-Gig). We'd love to see you there!

2 p.m.

325 N. Michigan Street
Toledo, Ohio 43604

May 7th in Akron: I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing anthology reading

On May 7th, Summit Artspace will host a reading by contributors to the recently published I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing anthology (edited by Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour and published by Sheila-Na-Gig). I'd love to see you there!

2 p.m.

Summit Artspace
140 E. Market Street
Akron, Ohio 44308

 

April 23rd in Youngstown: I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing anthology reading

On April 23rd at the Soap Gallery, Lit Youngstown will present a reading by contributors to the recently published I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing anthology (edited by Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour and published by Sheila-Na-Gig). We'd love to see you there!

2 p.m.

The Soap Gallery
117 S. Champion Street
Youngstown, Ohio 44503

April 14th in Marietta: I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing anthology reading

On April 14th at Marietta College, Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour will present a reading by contributors to the recently published I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing anthology and we'd love to see you there!

7 p.m.

Marietta College
McDonough Auditorium
215 Fifth Street
Marietta, Ohio 45750

Ohio's Appalachian Voices Launch: March 16th in Cincinnati

Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour has put together a fabulous anthology of regional poetry and I'm thrilled that two of my poems appear in it. I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio's Appalachian Voices will have its book launch this Wednesday, March 16th, at the Mercantile Library in Cincinnati, and we would love to see you there.

DOORS OPEN 6PM - All guests must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or have received a negative COVID-19 diagnostic test within 72-hours prior to this event.

RSVP here for "in person" attendance: https://mercantilelibrary.com/calendar/i-thought-i-heard-a-cardinal-sing-book-launch-reading.

REGISTER here for "virtual" attendance: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/i-thought-i-heard-a/register.

ORDER THE BOOK: https://www.karigunterseymourpoet.com/order-cardinal-sing.