Poets Wear Prada is a poetry publishing house with excellent poets and affordable books with beautiful covers. Have you had your poetry today?--Meredith Sue Willis, Books for Readers * * * Stylistically, these beautifully designed and produced chapbooks bear their own distinctive signature.--Linda Lerner, SMALL PRESS REVIEW

Thursday, October 6, 2022

2023 Best of the Net Nominations

Best of the Net Logo


Jack Cooper and I are pleased to announce our 2023 Best of the Net Nominations, selected from online The Rainbow Project: A Literary Place of Sanctuary from These Trying Times. Six poems, one piece of fiction, and one photograph have been nominated. Congratulations and best of luck to all the nominees!

 

 

POETRY:

 

Susan Justiniano aka RescuePoetix, “Rasberry Kisses,” posted 06/01/2022

Lynne Shapiro, “I’ve Read the Room,” posted 02/22/2022

Carrie Magness Radna, “This Thin Red Line,” posted 02/13/2022

Akshaya Pawaskar, “Red Blush,” posted 02/07/2022

Zev Torres, “Revelations Beyond Red,” posted 02/07/2022

Megha Sood, “Crimson Robe,” posted 02/04/22

 

 

FICTION:

 

David Huberman, “Nighttime Rainbow,” posted 01/10/2022

 

 

ARTWORK:

 

Belle Koblentz, “Tulips,” posted 03/01/2022

 

 

Please visit The Rainbow Project at: https://rainbowliterary.blogspot.com/.

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

2022 Pushcart Prize XLVI: Best of the Small Presses


Jack, the envelope please! Drumroll! Drumroll! Guess Who? Congratulations and Good Luck to ALL the Nominees! @anthonyrobertgibbons @onagritz @irisnschwartz @akshaya_pawaskar #pushcart #pushcartprize #nominations #prize #smallpress #poetswearprada @repoocejjj #litcommunity #literarylife #goodluck #congratulations #books #anthologies #2021publication #goodnews
Ona Gritz / “Persuasion,” “Troll Pox” / Present Imperfect

Robert Anthony Gibbons / “While Round Increase Rising Hills of the Dead” / Whom the Higher Gods Forgot (Kindle Edition)

Bob Heman / “Cone Melts” / Cone Transformed: Twenty-one Episodes from the Remarkable Life of Doctor Ephrastus Cone Medieval Metaphysician & Conjurer (Kindle Edition)

Iris N. Schwartz / “Golden Opportunity” / My Secret Life with Chris Noth (Kindle Edition)

Akshaya Pawaskar / “Indian Summer” / The Rainbow Project (Online Anthology),  Editors Roxanne Hoffman & Jack Cooper



Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Present Imperfect by Ona Gritz Available in Paperback


Paperback Edition of Present Imperfect by Ona Gritz
Paperback Edition of  Present Imperfect by Ona Gritz

A day early! In my hands this past Sunday — my copy of Ona Gritz’s new book, Present Imperfect, her essays — from The New York Times, The Rumpus, Brevity, and more! Now available in paperback as well as Kindle from Poets Wear Prada and Amazon. Get your brain fuel! DM me for more info. @onagritz @repoocejjj #newbook #hotoffthepress #essays #nonfiction #memoir #motherhood #sisters #sisterlove #runaways #truecrime #disabilityawareness #supportyourlocalwriter #independentpublishing #presentimperfect @amazonkindle @amazonbooks


Get your brain fuel!
Purchase your copy of the $15 paperback edition today:

or Go Green with a Kindle Edition for only $9.99 ($5.01 off the $15 paperback price, over a 30% savings!):

Sunday, October 10, 2021

Preorder Present Imperfect by Ona Gritz on Kindle

Amazon Listing for Kindle Edition of Present Imperfect by Ona Gritz

Get your brain fuel! Pre-order your Kindle Edition today for $9.99, $5.01 off the forthcoming paperback's $15 price tag (over 30% discount!). On 10/15 the title will automatically be loaded to your Kindle device or the free phone app.   The Kindle edition includes advance features such  X-ray for your reading enjoyment. 

Note that, on 10/15, the title will be made available to A Kindle Unlimited subscribers for FREE.


Here is the link to pre-order your copy:
https://amzn.to/3zZ4k7N

This debut essay collection by the NY Times-published writer and longtime columnist for Literary Mama, reads like a blockbuster movie. There is a heroine with cerebral palsy, likeable and indefatigable. There is family conflict, romance, and true crime. Ona writes on disability, family dynamics, and the murder of her sister's family with candor and passion. A critically acclaimed essayist, two Notable mentions by Robert Atwan, The Best American Essays, a Best Life Story in Salon, among the recent accolades, Ms. Gritz has gathered some of the best of her work from the NY Times Disability series, The Rumpus, Brevity, and more for this fine and most riveting read. 

Friday, August 13, 2021

HOT OFF THE PRESS: A NEW EXPANDED EDITION OF DOCTOR CONE FROM BOB HEMAN!

HOT OFF THE PRESS: 
A NEW EXPANDED EDITION OF DOCTOR CONE FROM BOB HEMAN!
Cone Transformed: Twenty-One Episodes 
 from the Remarkable Life 
 of Doctor Ephrastus Cone 
 Medieval Metaphysician 
 & Conjuro
as recorded 
by Bob Heman 
Poets Wear Prada: 2021 
ISBN-13: 978-1946116222 
Paperback: 40 pages 
List Price: $12.00 

 Get your brain fuel. Shop Amazon:

Friday, June 25, 2021

Preorder Present Imperfect by Ona Gritz

 

Author Ona Gritz with Present Imperfect (proof copy)
Author Ona Gritz with Present Imperfect (proof copy)

Poets Wear Prada is pleased to announce Present Imperfect by Ona Gritz, among our fall 2021 offerings.  This debut essay collection by the NY Times-published writer and longtime columnist for Literary Mama, reads like a blockbuster movie. There is a heroine with cerebral palsy, likeable and indefatigable. There is family conflict, romance, and true crime. Ona writes on disability, family dynamics, and the murder of her sister's family with candor and passion. A critically acclaimed essayist, two Notable mentions by Robert Atwan, The Best American Essays, a Best Life Story in Salon among the recent accolades, Ms. Gritz has gathered some of the best of her work from the NY Times Disability series, The Rumpus, Brevity, and more for this fine and most riveting read. 

Get your brain fuel.  Preorder your copy of the paperback edition today. Get FREE S&H plus other goodies. (For a limited time only.)

Click this book cover to preorder your copy.
Present Imperfect
by Ona Gritz
Poets Wear Prada: Fall 2021
ISBN-13: 978-1-946116-23-9
Paperback: 104 pages
List Price: $15.00

Click this book cover to preorder your copy, today!

Thursday, October 10, 2019

FLASH SALE: National Coming Out Day Celebration


Image result for national coming out day
FLASH SALE! Just in time to celebrate National Coming Out Day on October 11th, Poets Wear Prada is offering 3 titles, 3 contemporary LGBTQ classics -- PAYDAY LOANS by Jee Leong Koh, THE SLIP by Michael Montlack, and THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN'T SHAKE HANDS by Chocolate Waters -- all at a special discounted price. Please use the links here or on the right side bar for the discount. These books will be available starting today through this weekend on Amazon for the special price of $6 a copy. (They normally list for $12 a copy.) GET YOUR PRIDE ON!

THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN'T SHAKE HANDS by Chocolate Waters  
Release Date: October 12, 2011 
ISBN 978-0935060096 
Paperback: 46 pages 
List Price: $12.00  $6.00
Now available on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2AZhIvi


Payday Loans
Poems by Jee Leong Koh
Saddle-Stitched Chapbook: 2007
Mass Market Edition: 2010
ISBN-13: 978-0981767895
Paperback: 36 pages
List Price: $12.00  $6.00
Now available on Amazon:


 The Slip
by Michael Montlack
First Printing (Saddle-Stitched Chapbook): October 2009
Mass Market Edition: 2010
ISBN 978-0-9841844-2-2
Paperback: 32 pages
List Price: $12.00  $6.00
Now Available on Amazon:


Have you had your poetry today? Get your brain fuel from Poets Wear Prada.

Monday, April 8, 2019

April Reads: More Short Fiction by Iris N. Schwartz

April Reads: More Short Fiction by Iris N. Schwartz; SHAME: And Other Stories
Shame: And Other Stories
by Iris N. Schwartz
Poets Wear Prada: 2019
ISBN-13: 978-1-946116-01-7
Paperback: 72 pages
List Price: $12.00


Iris N. Schwartz uses her razor-sharp prose to write about what no one wants to talk about. Here are 15 unforgettable, fiercely honest, sometimes darkly comic, more often unnerving stories about the human struggle to conceal, circumvent, and transcend shame. Successively Iris's pen goes in and twists -- till you say uncle and confess your shames. Cathartic!

Look Inside / Buy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2UGshQp


Charles Rammelkamp calls these stories "succinct and dreamlike, hypnotic and enchanting" and says they have "a sort of New York Jewish sensibility and magic that make one think of Bernard Malamud."  Read his complete review in North of Oxford.


Niles Reddick says: "Iris N. Schwartz keeps the reader’s attention, keeps the reader turning pages, and at the end, keeps the reader wanting more of her stories. . . . For the flash fiction connoisseur, Shame is a must read." Read his complete review in Tuck Magazine.

Order your signed copy directly from the publisher.  Contact us with your shipping address and payment information or send us personal check. If you are in the USA,  please add $3 to the list price to cover shipping and handling for a single signed copy.  If you are ordering outside the USA or if you wish to order multiple copies, please contact us for more details.


Monday, August 27, 2018

A Note on the Type: Constantia

Jack Cooper and I love type and we've decided to share that love with you by posting excerpts from the colophons we have written about the typefaces we use in our books. Here's the first installment about Constantia, written by Jack Cooper.


Designed by John Hudson, a multilingual specialist in the depiction of scripts ancient, exotic, and arcane (Ogham, Sinhalese, and Cherokee, for example), Constantia achieves benchmark fluency for continuous text, the lingua franca of contract lawyers. One of six typefaces created in conjunction with Microsoft’s ClearType text-rendering technology (and the initial letter “C”), Constantia, released in 1983, takes its name from Latin, meaning “constancy.” At odds with company lawyers whose fear of trademark infringement continued to narrow the choices of possible nomenclature, Hudson, one evening, singing psalms during vespers, heard “constantia” intoned. He later confessed that the sight of seabirds had made him regret that he hadn’t chosen to call the typeface Cormorant.

Friday, December 1, 2017

2018 Pushcart Nominations


C/O Roxanne Hoffman
533 Bloomfield Street, Second Floor
Hoboken, New Jersey 07030
201.253.0561

November 30, 2017

PUSHCART PRESS
P.O. Box 380
Wainscott, NY 11975

RE: Nominations for the 2018 Pushcart Prize

Dear Bill Henderson:

Here are our six nominations for the 2018 Pushcart Prize:

Author / Book

Title of Poem / Story / Chapter

Daniela Gioseffi
Waging Beauty: As the Polar Bear Dreams of Ice
Vases of Wombs”
Daniela Gioseffi
Waging Beauty: As the Polar Bear Dreams of Ice
Some Slippery Afternoon”
Jason Morphew
what to deflect when you’re deflecting
Evangelical Christianity”
Iris N. Schwartz
My Secret Life with Chris Noth: And Other Stories
The Light Show”
Iris N. Schwartz
My Secret Life with Chris Noth: And Other Stories
My Secret Life with Chris Noth”
Patricia Carragon
The Cupcake Chronicles
Saturday After Midnight, August 5, 2023”



Thanks for your time and consideration.

Sincerely yours,


Roxanne Hoffman, Publisher/Editor

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Appel à textes poétiques : Poésie de l’amour et de la paix


533 BLOOMFIELD STREET, SECOND FLOOR — HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY — TELEPHONE 201.253.0561

Appel à textes poétiques : Poésie de l’amour et de la paix
Echéance : 15 mars 2018

Hoboken, le 15 Novembre 2017

Messieurs et Mesdames les Poètes de la France;

Les éditions Poets Wear Prada, maison dédition américaine, lancent, sous la direction de John Edward Cooper, un appel à textes poétiques écrits par des poètes de la France sur le thème de lamour et de la paix. Les poèmes sélectionnés seront publiés en français avec traductions en anglais américain dans une anthologie bilingue, en ligne et imprimée, pour le public américain.
Pour commencer, nous vous invitons à vous exprimer sur le 1er sous-thème « l’amour n’a pas de frontières ». Dans les mots de William Butler Yeats : « Il n’ya pas d’étrangers ici mais simplement des amis
» que vous n’avez pas encore rencontrés. »
Ouvert à tous les poètes de la France. Les contributions doivent être rédigées en français. Oeuvres non publiées uniquement. Envoyer un maximum de trois poèmes. Les poèmes soumis ne doivent pas dépasser 40 lignes. Les contributions doivent être accompagnées d’une note biographique d’environ 100 mots. Ne pas oublier votre nom et vos coordonnées : prénom, nom, adresse postale, mail, et téléphone. Et éventuellement votre nom d’auteur (vrai nom ou nom de plume).
Toutes les contributions devront être envoyées pour le 15 mars 2018 à John Edward Cooper (jack@poetswearprada.com) et Roxanne Marie Hoffman (roxy@poetswearprada.com) avec pour sujet
« Soumission : + votre nom de l’auteur ».

Consignes :
  • Chaque poème devra être transmis sous format .doc, .docx, .odt ou .rtf exclusivement, et comporter obligatoirement un titre.
  • Police Times New Roman, taille 12, interligne simple, marges de 2 cm partout.
  • Au début de chaque poème soumis, indiquez : votre nom d’auteur (vrai nom ou nom de plume), vos coordonnées (adresse postale, mail, et téléphone), le titre du poème, nombre de signes (espaces compris).

Il est demandé une exclusivité de soumission, c’est-à-dire que les textes qui seront soumis à cet appel ne devront pas être proposés à d’autres supports (concours, revues, anthologies…), tant que l’auteur n’aura pas reçu de réponse à sa proposition.
Les auteurs gardent les droits et la propriété intellectuelle des textes publiés. Les auteurs ne sont pas rémunérés pour leur contributions. Ils recevront un exemplaire gratuit et bénéficieront également dune réduction sur chaque exemplaire acheté (jusqu’à dix exemplaires par auteur.)
Alors, à vos plumes et claviers !

Mme. Roxanne Marie Hoffman
Rédacteur en chef

Friday, September 15, 2017

Praise for Have You Seen CindySleigh? by Diane Stiglich

Reprinted from Mom Egg Review, Book Reviews, August 26, 2017 



Have You Seen CindySleigh? & Other Stories by Diane Stiglich


Review by Lara Lillibridge


Diane Stiglich, a writer and painter in Hoboken, New Jersey, captivates readers with her debut novel. A quick read at 134 pages, it is officially three interconnected stories, but they flow into each other so seamlessly that it feels like one continuous tale.

A dreamlike work of magical realism, Have You Seen CindySleigh? takes us down many unexpected paths, filled with randomly appearing bottles of champagne, iPods, and a truck named Karen. We encounter a priest, gods, demons, and shape-shifting animals. In what feels like a dream within a dream, The Author herself appears to defend Cindy from El Diablo. “I, like you, sir, have no actual spoken name. I am referred to as the Author” (53).

It is as if we have entered a painting and it has come alive:

In her mind, she creates a drawing, a self-portrait, graphite on paper: in a frontal stance, perfectly calm and normal, although her chest is open to expose her heart. No bone, muscle, or skin protect it from all of the feelings and emotions that spin around her like a whirlwind. This self-image make sense. In it, as throughout her entire life, her eyes are askew. (25)

This feeling that we have wandered onto a canvas is refined as the chapter progresses: “Details of Van Gogh paintings have been recreated on each wall; Starry Night swirls across the ceiling” (27).

This is reinforced again further on: “The empty space with a moving shadow, so much like a moving painting. Sand made a great negative space for the shape and figure of Cindy’s shadow as she danced in the desert” (55).

It is a story of transition, acceptance, and desire. As CindySleigh tells Mephistopheles,

I am a virgin of sorts, for no matter how many lovely, sordid sexual things I have done in this lifetime, I could never create a child…Vases are beautiful in and of themselves, but there is something so much better when they are filled with flowers: even one flower would make all the difference. (60-61)

CindySleigh is given a demon child, called D.C., whom she tries to love into domesticity, but he is feral, shape-shifting and untamable. Yet the fulfillment of this desire is not the end of the story, but rather only one path it takes.

The book is a dream-like art-come-to-life world, where there are truths that are as immutable in this reality as in the one on the page, and stumbling across these truths is as if we find something solid to hold onto—grasping a rock after clawing at clouds:

One conundrum in life is that one can simply not go back. You can never go back to the way anything was, and what you remember rarely ever proves to be what was, anyway. (64)

This loss cannot be found; this loss cannot be replaced. When you feel this non-feeling, your body takes on a surreal lightness. That is the numb. Yet, there also is a deep heaviness that gives all movement the sensation of stretching limbs though earth rather than air. (86)

I don’t read much magical realism. I found the story hard to describe but achingly beautiful: “Pieces of pain were scattered about in the form of a broken mirror” (116). I felt a connection to CindySleigh as if I had entered someone else’s dream and dreamt it myself—the swirls of emotion and imagery lingered long after I closed the book.

Have You Seen CindySleigh? & Other Stories
by Diane Stiglich

Poets Wear Prada, 2016, $20.00
[paper] ISBN 9780997981117
134 pp



Lara Lillibridge recently won both Slippery Elm Literary Journal’s Prose Contest and The American Literary Review’s Contest in Nonfiction. Lara’s memoir will debut in fall of 2017 with Skyhorse Publishing. Some of her work can be found on her website: http://www.laralillibridge.com/.