What's Happening?

The past several months have been a whirlwind. Where to begin?

Several dear friends have passed away recently: Kay Easterling (November 10th), Helen Shepard (December 26th), Haymond Holcomb (January 25th), William Merricle (February 5th), and Jake Pavlica (February 12th).  Also during this same time my partner lost her aunt and my cousin lost her partner. My deepest sympathies go out to all who loved them. And then February 8th was the fifth anniversary of Geri's passing. This all on the heels of so many other losses in recent years. I would like to say more about some of these, but such words are difficult for me at the moment.

While I'm here, though, I will update you on what else has been going on in my life (some of which you may already know if you follow my social media posts).

After a couple of years of having a ton of poetry events canceled (or not scheduled at all) due to the pandemic, I have a lot more things on my 2022 calendar. I emceed an in-person Ekphrastacy program on February 17th at Heights Arts and I have about twenty more poetry events confirmed (so far) for the rest of this year, beginning with a March 12th reading at Visible Voice Books with visiting poets Austin Davis (from Arizona), Brooke Nicole Plummer (Michigan) and Tim Heerdink (Indiana). (Click here to see the full event list, which is still being updated.)

My eighteen-year old granddaughter moved in with us on February 1st.

Also in February, I finished writing my first chapbook since 2017, You Can't Trust It to Remain, which will be published by Between Shadows Press on April 1st.

I'm serving on Heights Arts' Heights Writes Community Team and Lit Youngstown's Fall Literary Festival planning committee. And I still help maintain the northeast Ohio literary calendar at clevelandpoetry.com (I have another list of events I plan to add to it today).

Two of my poems appear in the new anthology I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing: Ohio's Appalachian Voices (edited by Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour).

Crisis Chronicles Press has gotten super busy again, working on publishing at least ten books in 2022 (after only publishing two in 2020 and one in 2021). It was a big deal to me to get William Merricle's Contempt of Gravity published in January before he passed away. When I got sick for three weeks in December and had difficulty working, I feared that it might not get done in time.

It also feels huge to have finally published Lisa Cihlar's Before the Next Ice Age. She first submitted it to me (with a different title) in December 2014. Talk about a long journey to publication. But once I finally received her perfect cover art in November, the process sped up and that became our second book of the year.

I'm currently working on our next three titles: Arroyo Chamisa by Alex Gildzen (due out in March), 47 Poems by Victor Clevenger (April 7th) and Ouroboros by Chansonette Buck with art by Jillian Mardin (April 22nd).

After that, Crisis Chronicles and I will team up with Tohm Bakelas and Between Shadows to put out a huge collection of poems by Kent Taylor.

Then later in the year (and likely into 2023), Crisis Chronicles plans to publish works by Brandon Johnson, Christopher Franke, Chris Howey, John Dorsey and Judith Mansour.

And well, I could keep going. There's always more. But I think I'd better stop writing this and get back to work.

I'm grateful for you.

Crisis Chronicles Press publishes Before the Next Ice Age by Lisa J. Cihlar

Crisis Chronicles Press is thrilled to announce our second new publication of 2022, Before the Next Ice Age by Lisa J. Cihlar. We've been huge fans of Lisa's work for well over a decade and are happy as can be to have had the opportunity to work with her again. 

Before the Next Ice Age features more than twenty prose poems on 34 pages, perfect bound, 5.5 x 8.5". The front cover painting is also by Lisa J. Cihlar. Published 22 January 2022. ISBN: 978-1-64092-953-1. First edition of 150 copies.

 

U.S. or International?

United States $10.00 USD International $14.00 USD

 

Before the Next Ice Age is available for only $10 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44143 (plus $3 for shipping in the United States). 

 

Or subscribe to our entire 2022 series (at least ten titles, plus a surprise or two) for $100 with free shipping.

Earlier praise for Cihlar's work:

"When I first encountered Lisa Cihlar's poetry, I sensed an electricity in the air, a subterranean movement that insinuated itself up from the ground into my bones. And then I felt flooded, suddenly, with the wonder only great art inspires. Cihlar's poetry is full of muscle and sinew, power and verve, a voice so undeniable that it wraps itself around your synaptic connections and becomes indelible, essential. This is poetry of the highest order, of the most terrific, breath-stripping power."

—Terri Brown-Davidson, Author, Pulitzer Prize Nominee, The Carrington Monologues

 

Lisa J. Cihlar's poems have appeared in Blackbird, Gargoyle Magazine, South Dakota Review, Crab Creek Review, and Mid-American Review. She has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and a Best of the Net award. Her three previous chapbooks are The Insomniac’s House from Dancing Girl Press, This Is How She Fails from Crisis Chronicles Press, and When I Pick Up My Wings from the Dry Cleaner (winner of the 2013 Blue Light Poetry Prize) from Blue Light Press. Cihlar lives in rural southern Wisconsin.

 

Crisis Chronicles Press offers 2022 subscription: Everything for $100

Crisis Chronicles Press is back at it, hot and heavy, catching up on our pre-pandemic commitments and so forth. We're putting out 10 titles by some of my favorite writers in 2022, including the just released Contempt of Gravity: The Complete Published Poems, 1981–2020, by William Merricle (a $20 value) - soon to be followed by works by Lisa J. Cihlar, Chansonette Buck, Kent Taylor, Victor Adam Clevenger, Alex Gildzen, Christopher Franke, Brandon Johnson, John Dorsey and more.

Subscribe! Donate $100 to receive all ten 2022 titles and an extra surprise or two.

 

Folks keep asking when we will be taking submissions again, and I've been responding with some variation of "hopefully in the near future when I'm caught up." Well, it looks like we will finally be caught up later this year. But whether we can eventually take on new books and keep going beyond 2022 is gonna depend on whether we can make the press sustainable (which has been a larger challenge than usual during the pandemic with so many events unable to happen). 

 

So please consider treating yourself by picking up a subscription to Crisis Chronicles Press - and thereby also help us to get through 2022 and possibly continue beyond that. Many thanks to the very kind indie lit lovers who have been supportive of this work so far (for nearly 14 years). May the universe smile upon you.

 

PayPal to jc@crisischronicles.com

CashApp us at $crisischronicles

paypal.me/crisischronicles

The End is Coming for Crisis Chronicles Press

This has been on my mind for several months, and off and on for longer than that, but I've kept waffling and putting off the announcement because I wasn't sure, and I wanted to keep my options open (including the option of changing my mind) and I didn't want to dampen enthusiasm for our forthcoming books or upcoming events. But I am shutting down Crisis Chronicles Press (or at least placing it on hiatus) at the end of this year or after we have fulfilled our current publishing commitments, whichever comes first. We still have a lot of work to do, as we will be publishing ten excellent new books in the near future, participating in a ton of book fairs and other events, and keeping most of our catalog in print indefinitely. When it's done, I may still work part time in publishing, or reserve the right to do a random unanticipated Crisis Chronicles Press project here or there. But life is short and there are many more things I want to do, including focusing more on my own writing and perhaps completing my memoir and not spending every moment thinking about all the things I have to do or catch up on with seemingly no end ever in sight. I am super grateful for all the interest and support the press and I have received over the past eleven years. And what an honor and privilege it is for me to have worked with (and continue to work with) some of the best writers in the country (and several from other countries) and many from right here in Ohio. You're gonna love the new books we have coming out by Nicole Hennessy, Carolyn Srygley-Moore, Chansonette Buck (with Jillian Mardin), Alex Gildzen, Lisa Cihlar, Nick Gardner, Julie Marchand, Kent Taylor, Christopher Franke, D.R. Wagner.... And there may be a surprise tossed in as well. I love you all.

John Burroughs
Founding Editor

Twelve books I've read in January 2015

Vending Machine: Poetry for Change, Volume 5 [2014, The Poet's Haven Press]
Double Life by Heather McNaugher [2014, NightBallet Press]
When I Pick Up My Wings from the Dry Cleaner by Lisa Cihlar [2014, Blue Light Press]
Where You Are by Jason Irwin [2014, NightBallet Press]
Unscathed by Jennifer Hambrick [2014, NightBallet Press]
Sister, Blood and Bone by Paula Cary [2013, Blood Pudding Press]
oh yes, this was earned: blood poems for non-violent lovers by Kate Sopko [2005, self published]
They Talk About Death by Alessandra Bava [2014, Blood Pudding Press]
Be Closer for My Burn by Robin Wyatt Dunn [2015, Crisis Chronicles Pres]
Men and Their Whims by Laura Madeline Wiseman [2013, Writing Knights Press]
Blink-Ink #18 edited by Doug Mathewson [2015, Blink Ink Print]
Rotations by Jake St. John [2015, NightBallet Press]

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