A Confluence of Poems: 2025 Edith Chase Reading, May 16th at Kent State

Grateful to be part of this reading and have two poems ("Tenacity" and a revised version of "Falls") in this anthology.

So many thanks to RC Wilson and the Edith Chase Symposium Association!

Friday 16 May 2025 at 4 p.m., poets from all over Ohio will gather for a dramatic reading on the theme of tributaries. There will be music, and an anthology of the poems performed will be available at the reading.

Kent State College of Architecture + Environmental Design
132 S. Lincoln Street
Kent, Ohio 44240

More info at https://www.facebook.com/events/1007338138041745.

To procure a copy of A Confluence of Poems, contact RC Wilson at rcwilsonii@gmail.com.

To the National Beat Poetry Festival this weekend - plus more travel and coming events

We just got back from the vet (sweet boy Bart has an ear infection) and I'm still working on feverishly on catching up on myriad tasks after four out-of-town trips and two power outages in the past month and a half. Thursday, I hit the road again and am very much looking forward to these fab events:

30 August thru 1 September 2024 in Collinsville and Barkhamsted, Connecticut
The National Beat Poetry Foundation's annual National and International Beat Poetry Festival will feature poets from across the United States and as far away as Europe and India. Friday's events will be held at Canton Town Hall, 4 Market Street, 06022; Saturday's and Sunday's events will be held at 22 River Road, 06063. Click here for more details.

3 September 2024 in Lowell, Massachusetts
Beat Night at the Worthern House Cafe will feature PW Covington, John Burroughs, Joe Kidd and Sheila Burke, plus Paul Richmond, hosted by new U.S. Beat Poet Laureate Mark Lipman at 141 Worthen Street, 01852.

10 September 2024 in Corning, New York (and ONLINE)
Poets in Play presents a featured reading by John Burroughs and open mic, co-curated by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes and Foothills Publishing at 79 West Market Street, 14830 (and on Zoom).

19 thru 21 September in Kent, Ohio
The Wick Poetry Center celebrates 40 years with keynote speakers Padraig Ó Tuama, Naomi Shihab Nye, Jane Hirshfield, and Adrian Matejka, plus much more.

27 & 28 September in Frostburg, Maryland
The Frostburg State University Center for Literary Arts presents their 19th annual Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival. Crisis Chronicles Press will have a table in the book fair.

3 October 2024 at 6 p.m. in Lexington, Kentucky
Poetry at the /'tāb-əl/ presents Matt Hart and John Burroughs, plus open mic, at Kenwick Table, 201 Owsley Avenue, 40502. More details forthcoming.

4 October 2024 at 6 p.m. in Lexington, Kentucky
Teen Howl Poetry Series presents John Burroughs and more, plus open mic, at Third Street Stuff & Coffee, 257 N Limestone #1, 40507. More details forthcoming.

6 October 2024 at 4 p.m. in Elizabethtown, Kentucky
A live reading and poetry open mic featuring John Burroughs, hosted by A.S. Coomer at Flywheel Brewing, 218 S Mulberry Street, 42701

14 December 2024 at noon - ONLINE
Poets Building Bridges, hosted by George Wallace, will feature poets from Cleveland, Ohio (John Burroughs, Judith Mansour and Dianne Borsenik); Bolton, UK (Linda Downs, David Wigmore and Laura Taylor); and Flower Litter Poets (Mimi German, Karlostheunhappy and Pankhuri Sinha). Event will be broadcast on Zoom.

 

Crisis Chronicles Press publishes Gildzen's new Alex in Movieland (1943-1973)

Crisis Chronicles Press is honored and ecstatic to celebrate Valentine's Day with the publication of Alex in Movieland (1943-1973), a major work by one of our favorite writers and artists, Alex Gildzen.

Alex in Movieland is a monumental work defying easy categorization. It is memoir, list, poetry, history and more, all in one, reading like a movie of the author's life in book form, replete with juicy detail. This new volume is 150 pages, perfect bound, 5.5 x 8.5". ISBN: 978-1-64092-947-0. Front cover art by the author. Available now for only $12 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 3431 George Avenue, Parma, Ohio 44134 USA.

US or Elsewhere?

U.S. Addresses $12.00 USD Outside the U.S. $16.00 USD

Click here to read a 2009 Otoliths interview with Gildzen wherein he talks about the origins and evolution of Alex in Movieland, which he began writing in 1996 and is still writing. Our new Crisis Chronicles volume is the first time the entire first thirty years of it have appeared in print. 

Alex Gildzen lives in Palm Springs where he writes every day. In the past year his poems have appeared in the anthologies "Love Jets" and "The End of the World Project." He also makes art — from collages to conceptual pieces such as "The Century Dimes" and "Box of Little Bags." In addition he's become a model — with and without clothes — for artists and photographers.

Cringing at the Mac 9/23 - with Buffalo, Kent, Cleveland & Rust Belt Boy

I'm thrilled to be reading this Friday at historic Mac's Backs-Books On Coventry with Buffalo's Cringe-Worthy Poets Collective (Nathanael William Stolte, Julio Valentin & Misty Khan-Becerra), a couple of Kent poets (Cassandra Adams & Joseph Bocchicchio), Cleveland's own Dianne Borsenik and, all the way from New Hampshire, Paul Hertneky (author of Rust Belt Boy). To borrow a phrase from Prince, we'll have "a pocketful of plentygoodtime." The festivities begin at 6:30 p.m.

More info on the Mac's Backs website.

Even more info on the Facebook event page.
Like the Cringe-Worthy Poets Collective and be happy.

Borsenik, Burroughs & Minicucci this Wednesday in Youngstown

I'm looking forward to reading with Dianne Borsenik (whose Age of Aquarius: Collected Poems 1981-2016 Crisis Chronicles Press just published) and Matthew Minicucci (whose Translation was chosen by Jane Hirshfield for the 2014 Wick Poetry Prize and published by Kent State University Press) on Wednesday May 4th 2016 at Suzie's Dogs & Drafts, 34 N. Phelps Street in Youngstown, Ohio. This event is part of an ongoing series hosted by Lit Youngstown at Suzie's the first Wednesday of every month.

RSVP on Facebook.

Happy birthday to Alex Gildzen! His complete Ohio Triangle published!

Crisis Chronicles Press is thrilled to present a new masterwork by the legendary Alex Gildzen, inspired by his rich experiences in three Ohio cities: Elyria, Cleveland and Kent.  Ohio Triangle is 75 pages, perfect bound, featuring many of his best poems and a handful of color photographs.  Officially published on 25 April 2015 to celebrate National Poetry Month and Gildzen's 72nd birthday, Ohio Triangle is now available for $10.99 from Crisis Chronicles, 3344 W. 105th Street #4, Cleveland, Ohio 44111 USA.  ISBN: 9781940996196.

Choose US or International

US Orders $10.99 USD International $15.99 USD

Love for Ohio Triangle:

"Alex Gildzen rushes to the heart with the clearest of memories, tacking them to our own with perfectly wrought images from his own life and calling out real people from the shadows of the past.  His work glows with the power of a master poet.  There is not one word in this book that doesn't ring true.  Be glad.  You can share a remarkable vision in this book that echoes through time every time Gildzen fixes his focus on his Ohio Triangle."

—D.R. Wagner, author of The Night Market

"Just as any 3 non-collinear points determine a unique plane, so Alex Gildzen's 3-part book of chiseled poems defines and explores the unique plane that is Gildzen's life in three different cities in Ohio. Here is a triangle considered in the context of the space-time continuum, where people, places and things combine to bring the past into the present and the present into the past. It is in the dimension of time, the loving remembrances and the sad recognition of the inevitable future of each person, place and thing within Gildzen's triangular plane, and by extension, within the reader's own unique plane, that brings warmth and heart to this multifaceted diamond of a book."

—Shelley Chernin, author of The Vigil

"I was first introduced to the work of Alex Gildzen a few years back now and out of everything I've read, this latest collection, Ohio Triangle, is without a doubt the most touching look into the memories that make up his highly colorful life, so much so that I almost teared up at several points, because this is the way we all want to be able to look back on things, on a life well lived, only, Alex has been able to put it into words in a way that feels immediately relatable and effortless, as the passing of time should be."

—John Dorsey, author of Imaginary Foxholes

Deluxe Package [no longer available]:

For a mere $5 extra a lucky 15 people received two great Gildzen books: Ohio Triangle and the rare New Notes: Poems 1971-76 (Kent, OH: Shelly's Press, 1978).  New Notes features paper wraps and a hand sewn binding.  While supplies last. [UPDATE: We have no more copies of New Notes, but you can still order Ohio Triangle for $10.99.]

Alex in front of Loomis Camera in Elyria, Ohio

He was born in California, first walked in Texas and now lives in New Mexico but Alex Gildzen spent the majority of his life as a resident of Ohio.  He was two weeks old when he arrived in Lorain.  When his father returned from the war in Europe the family moved to Elyria. He began visiting Cleveland as a child. Following graduation from Elyria High School he went to Kent State University where he was student, teacher and librarian.  In 1993 Kent presented him with the President’s Medal for “extraordinary and unique service” to the university.  The same year the Ohio Arts Council honored him with the Ohioana Citation in the field of humanities and education.

To learn more about Alex, visit the Literary Underground wiki and follow his Arroyo Chamisa blog. 

Crisis Chronicles Press publishes Irises Made of Moth Wings by Christian O'Keeffe

cover foto by Steven B Smith

Free poetry you need to read! 

Crisis Chronicles Press presents an inspired 26-page chapbook by the late Christian O'Keeffe (1991-2012).

The first time I met and heard Christian, at the Jawbone poetry festival, I found myself greatly moved and told him I’d love to publish a book of his work. He said he’d be honored and would work on sending me some poems. A year later, he gave me these cut and pasted, photocopied and (when he had revisions) pasted again galleys, a sort of handmade chapbook called Irises Made of Moth Wings, saying this is what he had in mind. I loved the poems. But before we made time to work together on the book, he was gone.  

I had mixed feelings about how to proceed. It was hard. I couldn’t consult Christian, so I set it aside. It took nearly 2 years before I knew what to do. I would photocopy his hand-created galleys, leaving them totally as is, come up with an appropriate cover to bind them, and disseminate his poems freely, as he did.

Irises Made of Moth Wings is offered at no charge in a saddle stapled edition, 8.5" x 5.5", with white cover stock, crimson endpapers and white photocopied pages.  1st edition of 99 copies published 14 September 2014.  ISBN 978-1-940996-09-7.  If you would like a copy, send your address to jc@crisischronicles.com or via snail mail to Crisis Chronicles Press, 3344 W. 105th Street #4, Cleveland, Ohio.  The book is free.  But if you'd like to send a couple dollars to cover postage, I would be grateful. 

Christian O’Keeffe lived in Kent, Ohio. His influences included the river, Jim Carroll, Maj Ragain, Jack Micheline, Bob Kaufman, moths, deer, blue heron, Kurt Cobain, Arthur Rimbaud, and that ecstatic act of walking.

Find more of his work online at https://soundcloud.com/christian-okeeffe.

Christian O'Keeffe at Jawbone, 6 May 2011 - photo by JB