106 in 2016

Happy new year! I read 106 books in 2016 - most of them small press poetry works. 23 were NightBallet Press titles, 10 were Crisis Chronicles Press titles I published early in the year, and the three next best represented presses were Green Panda Press, Hyacinth Girl Press and the Cleveland State University Poetry Center. See all 106 here.

In 2017 I plan to read fewer but a lot bigger books.

Indie Lit Festval this month at Frostburg State University

Crisis Chronicles Press and I are pleased to be participating in the 10th annual Indie Lit Festval at Frostburg State University in Maryland this month.

The press will be part of the book fair, and I will share in a panel on Sustainable Literary Communities with George Guida, Jane Ormerod, and Dianne Borsenik.

For more details, please visit the Frostburg Center for Literary Arts website.

Three June Gigs, 2016 So Far, and Crisis Chronicles Press Titles to Come

It's been a busy busy busy past five months for me.  For the first time ever, Crisis Chronicles Press published 10 titles before the midpoint of the year.  Good thing, too, as we still have 19 more titles we plan to publish in the next twelve months. I've also given 11 readings so far this year, with 7 more to come.  I made my first-ever trip west of the Mississippi River and first-ever visits to Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Iowa. My father-in-law Arthur passed away in March. And I began a new day job in May, which soon gave way to an even newer and more time consuming job.

The next three titles Crisis Chronicles Press plans to publish are Ode to Horatio and Other Saviors by Carolyn Srygley-Moore, Inquiry into Loneliness by Meg Harris and an as-yet-untitled collection by Helen Shepard.  After those are out, the press will be caught up to October 2014 and less than two years behind for the first time in, well, years. Titles we are committed to publishing after that include work by Juliet Cook, Christopher Franke, Eric Anderson, Mark Sebastian Jordan, George Wallace, Lyn Lifshin, Margaret Bashaar, Dianne Borsenik, Kathleen Cerveny, John Greiner, Lisa Cihlar, Luba Gawur, Elliot Nicely, Michael Estabrook, Christopher Mulrooney, Dion Farquhar, Sarah Frances Moran, Steven B. Smith, John Dorsey, Victor Clevenger, Chansonette Buck and John Swain.

Finally (for now), I'm very much looking forward to my next three reading gigs, all in new (to me) venues and with a wide and fine assortment of poets.

Shout out to Chandra Alderman, who took this photo of me. Not sure who the other photographers are.

Sat. June 4th - Cleveland OH - 8 to 10:30 pm
Gather at Twelve Literary and Performance Arts Incubator.  Hosted by Eris Eady. "This debut edition of Gather features poets John Burroughs, Daniel Gray-Kontar, Alishia McCoy, Terry Provost, and Marisol Ramos performing work in the tradition of improvisational jazz solos." 

Sun. June 12th - Toledo, OH - 6 to 8 pm
Cloistered Poetry at the Black Cloister Brewing Company. Hosted by Jonie McIntire.  Featured poets John Burroughs, Dianne Borsenik, Bill Hurley, Leonard Kress, Jackie Koch and Tom Barden will throw down. Open mic too.

Sat. June 18th (Please note: rescheduled to August 27th) - Pittsburgh, PA - 8 pm
Free Jesus Poems About Jesus at Most Wanted Fine Art. Hosted by Rachael Deacon and Margaret Bashaar.  Featured performers will include Requiem, Art Ettinger, Skot Jones, T.A. Noonan and many more.  Hyacinth Girl Press will release the book Free Jesus Poems About Jesus.  Open mic too.

See the rest of my 2016 poetry reading tour dates here.

Nineteen books I read in February 2015

The silver lining to having to spend so much time in doctors' offices and the hospital with loved ones this past month is that I was able to knock a few books off my ever growing to-read pile.  The silver lining's silver lining is that most of these were pretty darn good.

Mutant Neuron Codex Swarm by Juliet Cook & Robert Cole [2015, Hyacinth Girl Press]
The Paris Notebooks by R.A. Washington [2015, NightBallet Press]
Captain Head by Dustin Holland [2013, Kleft Jaw Press]
Personal Myths by Howie Good [2012, Writing Knights Press]
Android by Lek Borja [2011, Plan B Press]
The Slop of Giving In, The Melt of Letting Go by Nikki Robinson [2009, P2B Press]
So Damn Sure of Us by Bree [2015, NightBallet Press]
Fortune Cookie by Dianne Borsenik [2012, Kattywompus Press]
The Ides of March: An Anthology of Ohio Poets edited by Hannah Stephenson [2013, Columbus Creative Cooperative]
dueling poets / poets dueling by Russell Vidrick & Jim Lang [2014 reprint, Jim Lang]
Disturbing the Peace by Erren Giraud Kelly [2012, NightBallet Press]
Selected Regions of the Moon by J.E. Stanley [2013, NightBallet Press]
Hurricane Mouth by Amanda Oaks [2014, NightBallet Press]
Prayerbook Bouquet by Zach Fishel [2013, NightBallet Press]
Poems for Explosion by John G. Hall [2015, Crisis Chronicles Press]
Hotel Room by Bradley K. Meyer [2013, Vostok East]
Meditations: a suite for John Coltrane by John Sinclair [1967, Artists' Workshop Press]
congregations by David Highsmith [2009, Plan B Press]
Jerry in the Bardo by Tsaurah Litzky [2014, NightBallet Press]

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