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
Showing posts with label Titles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Titles. Show all posts

Thursday, April 26, 2012

New Poems by Joel Allegretti from Poets Wear Prada: "Europa/Nippon/New York" Takes the Reader Around the World in 52 Pages

Poets Wear Prada announced today publication of “Europa/Nippon/New York: Poems/Not Poems” by the American poet Joel Allegretti, a cinematic travel log through space and time replete with airplanes, submarines, the expected cathedral stops, and surprise visits with pop culture icons, and other legends.


EUROPA/NIPPON/NEW YORK
Poems/Not-Poems
by Joel Allegretti
Paperback: 52 pages
ISBN-10:0615600204
ISBN-13:978-0615600208
Poets Wear Prada: 2012
list price: $12.00
Hoboken, NJ, April 27, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Poets Wear Prada announced today publication of “Europa/Nippon/New York: Poems/Not Poems” by the American poet Joel Allegretti. “The Kansas City Star” counted Allegretti’s "Father Silicon" among the "100 Noteworthy Books of 2006," a list that included Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” and “Against the Day” by Thomas Pynchon.

“Europa/Nippon/New York: Poems/Not Poems” is a cinematic travel log through space and time replete with airplanes, submarines, the expected cathedral stops, and surprise visits with pop culture icons and other legends. Publisher Roxanne Hoffman said, "Allegretti convincingly defies gravity in the best modern way: with verve, intelligence, marquee names and loads of special effects."

“The trip is shorter than Phileas Fogg's— the book takes but a fraction of the time to read; still, Jules Verne (who figures prominently in it) remains in the balloon’s gondola,” said Jack Cooper, who as production editor at Poets Wear Prada guided “Europa/Nippon/New York” to its elegant landing. “The difference is Fogg’s out and Allegretti’s pulling the strings,” he continued. Roxanne Hoffman called it a “vacation between book covers," adding "You go to Italy. It’s a day at the beach (and undersea) with nights at the movies combined: Phantom of the Opera, one time; howling at the moon, another.”

“‘Europa/Nippon/New York’ is my jet-setting, la dolce vita collection,” said Joel Allegretti. “I absolutely love the cover! It shows a side of Steve I never knew.” Steve Dalachinsky, a widely celebrated poet, created the collages featured on both front and back of the book.

This is Joel Allegretti’s second book project with Poets Wear Prada. In 2010, the Hoboken-based press brought out “Thrum,” Allegretti’s meditation on stringed musical instruments. His two previous collections “Father Silicon” and “The Plague Psalms” were released by The Poet’s Press in 2006 and 2000, respectively. Allegretti’s poetry has been set to music by Frank Ezra Levy for two song cycles: “A Cycle by the Sea” had its world premiere in 2009 at Kean University, and “Night Keeps Its Promise” was first performed in 2011 by Cantori New York at Holy Trinity in New York City.

Founded in 2006, Poets Wear Prada publishes beautifully designed, well-crafted poetry chapbooks from Sinatra’s hometown, birthplace of professional baseball.

“Europa/Nippon/New York: Poems/Not Poems” by Joel Allegretti (Hoboken: Poets Wear Prada, 2012), 52 pages, ISBN-10: 0615600204, ISBN-13: 978-0615600208, list price: $12.00, is available in paperback from Amazon Books and other popular booksellers.

Monday, November 1, 2010

HOT OFF THE PRESS: LANDSCAPES OF LIGHT, a Spiritual Road Trip from Athens to Jerusalem


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Contact:
Roxanne Hoffman
201.795.3810



HOT OFF THE PRESS: LANDSCAPES OF LIGHT
Takes Readers on a Spiritual Road Trip from Athens to Jerusalem


HOBOKEN, NJ (November 1, 2010):

Poets Wear Prada is pleased to announce the release of Philadelphian native B. E. Kahn's LANDSCAPES OF LIGHT. 24 poems take you on spiritual road trip from Athens to Jerusalem, intertwining Greek, Arabic and Jewish cultures, the ever present past, ancients myths and legends, tradition, relics and the transient present of our "gifted days." All the while Kahn's strong voice,  a bright & steady beacon, illuminates as she observes, reflects and questions, guiding the reader through sometime painful histories to the future possibilities, reminding us that "Our language differs, but smiles, gestures carry our thoughts across the wire of our minds."  The inviting front cover illustration "Let’s go to Greece," is by Lila Rostenberg of Fayetteville, Arkansas..


LANDSCAPES OF LIGHT
Poems by B. E. Kahn
Perfect bound paperback: 34 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0-9841844-8-4
Publisher: Poets Wear Prada
Publication Date: October 28, 2010
 List Price: $12

Author B. E. Kahn
B. E. Kahn is a grant recipient of both the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts and the Pew Fellowships in the Arts.  Some of the poems in this, her second, collection previously appeared in Arts and Spirituality, Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal, Clockwise Cat, Lifeboat, New Verse News, Poetry Ink, Poetry Super Highway, and Schuylkill Valley Journal. A retired speech therapist, she now lives in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania and has taught poetry to intergenerational, interfaith groups. She is a member of the 34th Street Poets Cooperative. Her previous chapbook, SPRING APPLES, SILVER BIRCH was published October, 2008 by Greenleaf Press. For more information about the author, visit her website: http://www.bekahn.com/.

Artist Lila Rostenberg
Lila Rostenberg, discovered watercolor after graduating from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia where she majored in art. She also has worked in fiber arts, quilting, knitting and weaving, “making objects which are utilitarian as well as beautiful,” and teaching others as the owner and creative force behind Quilt Your Heart Out, a quilt shop in Fayetteville from 1993-2003.  The cover art is taken from a small 6"x6" recent painting, executed in acrylic on panel. Originally from Oklahoma, she lives with her husband in Arkansas. Visit her online at http://indigopears.blogspot.com/.

This is the 29th chapbook title released by Poets Wear Prada, a small literary press based in Hoboken New Jersey and founded in October of 2006 to develop and promote new and established narrative and lyrical poets.  Some of the poets previously published by the press are Susan Maurer, Peter Chelnik, Erik La Prade, Austin Alexis, Bob Heman, Jee Leong Koh, Maria Lisella and Joel Allegretti. In support of the long tradition of spoken word, Poets Wear Prada has also published slam champion Laura Vookles, poetry rocker Cyndi Dawson and performance poet Tantra-zawadi. Poets Wear Prada blogs at http://pwpbooks.blogspot.com/.

LANDSCAPES OF LIGHT: Poems by B. E. Kahn, is a perfect bound, 5.5" x 8.5" trade paperback; 34 pages contain 24 poems; ISBN-10: 0984184481, ISBN-13: 978-0-9841844-8-4; Publisher: Poets Wear Prada; Publication Date: October 28, 2010; List Price: $12.  Available online at Amazon.com (http://amzn.com/0984184481 ) and CreateSpace.com (https://www.createspace.com/3491300 ) and coming soon to your local independent bookstore.



Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Press Release "Outside Girl" by Punk-Rocker Momma, Cyndi Dawson

Poetry Rocks - Punk-Rocker Momma from N.J. Strikes a Pose with Her New Chapbook



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Patricia Carragon
917 679 5002
pcarragon@gmail.com

POETRY ROCKS TO AN ’80S BEAT
PUNK-ROCKER MOMMA FROM N.J. STRIKES A POSE WITH HER NEW CHAPBOOK

HOBOKEN, NJ (June 16, 2010) Cyndi Dawson’s Outside Girl, a new collection of poetry due out from Poets Wear Prada this June, focuses on the author’s experiences and reflections on her “coming of age” during the punk rock ’80s.

Ivan Kral, Grammy Award winning composer, and songwriter for U2, David Bowie, Patti Smith and Iggy Pop, among others, comments: “Cyndi, you’re a true poet! It seems like you so easily seize life’s major challenges, but also its tiny nuances. Your choice and placement of words are so much more than a technical skill. They’re charged with fire, wisdom, but also a child-like wonder. It’s as if you easily toss words onto a page and somehow magic appears. Easier said than done. Believe me, I know.”

Ms. Dawson writes her history into twenty poems. Readers will learn about her bartending days, the birthing of her daughter, cocaine addiction, go behind the scenes at CBGB’s and Danceteria, inhale the stench of punk rock, sex, booze, go-go girls, leather jackets, drugs and vomit, and of her collaboration with Venezuelan SoHo artist and friend, Rene i.a.t.b.a..

Rene has created the art for the book. They were “each other’s muses” when she collaborated with him in the ’80s. The first poem “Color Wheels” reflects how two art forms flowed together as one. She would read her poetry while his painted string sculpture hardened on her body creating Nudismos. The last, “Draw Me a Cover,” is about the author’s request for this book’s artwork: “Draw me a cover Rene / draw me a woman with fire in her eyes.”

Outside Girl will be available online at Amazon.com, CreateSpace.com and Lulu.com, and from Ms. Dawson at her upcoming readings. For more details, visit Poets Wear Prada at http://pwpbooks.blogspot.com/ and Ms. Dawson online at www.myspace.com/insideofoutside.

About Ms. Dawson

An actress in TV and film, she has stood in for Madonna and appeared on Law and Order. She curates the Poets and Angels music and poetry series in her home town of East Brunswick, and has performed in N.Y., N.J. and internationally. She has been published in numerous anthologies and journals. Her two previous books of poetry are Dream Sequences and Inside of Outside. Her spoken word has been featured on Going Down Swinging CD.

About Poets Wear Prada

PWP is a small press based in Hoboken, New Jersey, devoted to introducing new authors through high-quality chapbooks primarily of poetry, since October 2006. Please visit us online at http://pwpbooks.blogspot.com/.

Have you had your poetry today?

POETS WEAR PRADA
533 BLOOMFIELD ST., 2ND FL., HOBOKEN, N.J. 07030 • 201 795 3810 • http://pwpbooks.blogspot.com/

###



Sunday, May 16, 2010

Tantra-zawadi | Gathered at Her Sky

Tantra-zawadi, an award winning poet/artist/filmmaker from Brooklyn, New York, has performed to standing-room audiences in the USA, South Africa, London, Germany and Toronto. Her new book, GATHERED AT HER SKY, contains excerpts from her off-Broadway production SOLDIER BLUES, and her one-woman performance piece GIRL: A CHOREOSPECTIVE, as well as the text of previously recorded spoken word tracks.


Gathered at Her Sky
Life Poems by Tantra-zawadi
ISBN 978-0-9841844-6-0
Trade Paperback, 42 pp.
List Price: $12.00
Poets Wear Prada, May 2010

Soon Available from Lulu.com, CreateSpace.com and on Amazon.com

“Tantra-zawadi is one of the finest and greatest female poets who undoubtedly has ushered in a new era and genre that will take the 21st century into one where humanity will move forward. She rejuvenates the weak mind, shakes and
moves hard hearts. If one wants the power of poetry, then Tantra’s is the
holistic package.”

Betty Makoni, Founder of the Girl Child Network
and a 2009 Top Ten CNN Hero



“Tantra-zawadi's poetry speaks of a global consciousness and ambassadorship; each word of every line reminds us of the connection we have to one another in the race to win.”

Tshombe Sekou Harris, Founder/Host of Freedom Verse Café



“Tantra's writing oozes with the passion of Neruda and the sensitivity of Sonia. Her words can warm the coldest of hearts.”

Bruce George, Co-Founder of Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam



“The power in her words percolates; the truth in her story persuades; and the activism in her message is victorious.”

Chuma Whahid Rasul, Founder/CEO of Chuma Spirit Books, LLC,
and author of The Third Eye of a Butterfly


About the Author:

Tantra-zawadi, an award winning poet/artist/filmmaker from Brooklyn, New York, has performed to standingroom audiences at venues as far away as South Africa, London, Germany and Toronto. She has performed original works in off-Broadway productions including Soldier Blues, and her one-woman performance piece, Girl: A Choreospective. She is known for being on the cutting edge as an artist regarding issues such as HIV and AIDS awareness. Tantra’s poem and video, “Scarlet Waters,” was featured on the Product (RED) video wall to raise awareness for HIV/AIDS in Africa and her short documentary, A Silent Genocide ~ A Brief Insight into HIV/AIDS edited by Oliver Covrett, takes another look at the personal impact of the disease.

Follow Tantra-zawadi online:


www.tantra-zawadi.com
www.facebook.com/tantrazawadi
www.myspace.com/tantrais
www.youtube.com/tantrazawadi

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Austin Alexis | For Lincoln & Other Poems



[cover thumbnail]


FOR LINCOLN
& OTHER POEMS
by Austin Alexis
ISBN 978-0-9841844-3-9
soft cover - saddle-stitched - 36 pp.
$10 (+ $1.50 S&H)
Poets Wear Prada
Release Date: March 2010

Austin Alexis contemplates the way time's passage alters our sense of artists such as Chopin, Haydn, Poe, and Martha Graham as well as, among others, grandparents, Einstein, and presidents Lincoln and Obama. The way the poet cultivates sound, sense, and form, he grows, as he writes George Sand did for Chopin, "the branch he needs / in order to soar."
— George Held, author of Phased, Grounded, and other poetry collections

By use of precise imaginings, Austin Alexis allows us an intimacy with select artists: Chopin, or a street poet, or Lincoln, that great artist of rhetoric and vision. An engaged and observant poet, Alexis reveals grace, connection, legend and mortality. This book is an ode to all of us.
— Sarah Sarai, author of The Future Is Happy

The poet's vision enables the reader to see connections between Einstein and Merce Cunningham whose choreography "penetrates... the mysteries of space time [and] weight," and how Lincoln's last day actually culminates in another with the inauguration of Barack Obama: "each verse a fetus / waiting to be born / in the heart of a reader."
— Linda Lerner, author of Something is Burning in Brooklyn, and thirteen other collections



About the Author


Poems and stories by Austin Alexis have appeared in journals such as Six Sentences and Tuesday Shorts and in the chapbook Lovers and Drag Queens (Poets Wear Prada, 2007). Recently he served as a panelist for The Bronx Council on the Arts Literary Fellowships. One of his poems won a prize in the 2008 Poets for Forest Competition. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in a number of anthologies, including Bowl of Stories (Oregon Council of Teachers Anthology Winners Publication), Off the Cuffs (Soft Skull Press), Dinner with the Muse (Ra Rays Press), Art's Buoyant Felicity: Art/Healing/Creativity (Lickle Nine Press), and And We the Creatures (Dream Horse Press), among others.

Meet the Author at the Following Events:


Sunday March 28
5:30PM - 7:30PM
Phoenix Reading Series
~ presents ~
*Linda Lerner, Erica Mapp & Austin Alexis*
@ Bengal Curry
65 West Broadway
(Between Murray & Warren Sts. 11/2 blocks South of Chambers)
New York, NY 10007
212.571.1122
$3 Donation
Dinner, Snacks & Soft Drinks Available for Purchase
Hosts: Michael Graves & George Spencer
Take A, C, 1 to Chambers or E to last stop WTC

* * *



Saturday, April 24 @3:00

~presents~
HEIDI SCHWARTZ & AUSTIN ALEXIS & TBA
@
NYPL - EpiphanyLibrary
228 East 23 Street
New York, NY 10010
(212) 679-2645
http://www.nypl.org/locations/epiphany
FREE!


* * *


Saturday May 1st
4PM-6PM
(Note: open mic sign up ends at 5PM)
The Shout Out
~AUSTIN ALEXIS~
Otto's Shrunken Head
538 East 14th Street
Between Avenues A&B
Hosted by Hobo Bob and Obsidian
$3 Hobo Fee (and please patronize the bar!)
Time Square Shout Out!: timessquareshoutout.blogspot.com
Hobo Bob:
theadventuresofhobobob.blogspot.com
OBSIDIAN:
obsidianthemystic.blogspot.com
A SHOUT OUT AT OTTOS! Anthology Blogsite:
theshoutoutatottos.blogspot.com

* * *

Monday July 12th
7:30PM till 10PM
Saturn Series
~AUSTIN ALEXIS~
Nightingale Lounge
213 2nd Avenue at East 13th Street
New York, NY
Age 21 & up
Open Reading
$3 Suggested Donation + 2 Drink/$10 Minimum at the Bar
Hosted by Su Polo & David Elsasser
http://www.supolo.com/


Monday, March 8, 2010

Joel Allegretti | THRUM




THRUM by Joel Allegretti


THRUM
Poems
by Joel Allegretti
ISBN 978-0-9841844-4-6
soft cover, saddle-stitched, 40 pp.
$12.00 (+ $1.50 S&H)
Release Date: March 2010




"In Thrum Joel Allegretti, deftly and delightfully, strums his magical musical instrument, which is poetry, as he forges fresh forms of songs and stories that are inspired by strummers' strings. “Context is everything,” Allegretti reminds us, and we’re planted in the heart of a global ancient/modern orchestra. Prepare yourself for the revelatory performance."

Martine Bellen
Author of Tales of Murasaki and Other Poems,
1997 National Poetry Series selection


"Joel Allegretti's latest collection of poems is as enjoyable as it is different. Thrum takes the reader on a journey that explores known musical instruments, such as the mandolin, dulcimer and fiddle, as well as some not-so-known instruments, such as the oud, koto and theorbo. But what makes this journey unique is that each instrument is in a sense personified as the emotive element of each instrument is brought to life. Allegretti does a wonderful job tuning every poem so that the music of each instrument is realized again and again in the words on the page. An intriguing and must read for anyone who has a sense of all that culminates in the commingling of the arts."

Raymond Hammond
Editor, The New York Quarterly



About the Author
Joel Allegretti is the author of The Plague Psalms, which appeared in 2000 and is now in its third edition, and Father Silicon, selected by The Kansas City Star as one of 100 Noteworthy Books of 2006. Allegretti’s work has appeared in many national journals, including The New York Quarterly, Margie, The Laurel Review, Art/Life Limited Editions, Rattapallax, Slipstream, Confrontation, and Xcp Cross-Cultural Poetics. He is represented in the anthology Chance of a Ghost (Helicon Nine Editions, 2005), and his poem in that collection received an Honorable Mention in the 2006 edition of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, published by St. Martin’s Press. In April 2009, Kean University in New Jersey presented the world premiere of a song cycle based on Allegretti’s poetry, “A Cycle by the Sea” by Frank Ezra Levy, who served several decades as cellist with the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra and whose symphonic work is available in the American Classics series on Naxos. Allegretti is a graduate of New York University and lives in Northern New Jersey. His website is www.joelallegretti.com


Meet the Author at the Following Events:
Sat., March 13:
Smalls' Jazz Club
183 W. 10th Street, NYC
5PM-7PM
Sun., March 28:
Literary Lounge
Studio Luna
406 Tompkins Street, Orange, NJ
3PM-5PM
Sun., April 11:
Polestar Literary Series
NATIONAL POETRY MONTH SOIREE
Cakeshop
152 Ludlow Street, NYC
4PM-6PM
Sun., May 2:
Polestar Literary Series
NIRVANA NEVERMIND NIGHT
Cakeshop
152 Ludlow Street, NYC
5PM-7PM
Sat., May 15:


Greek American Writers Association Reading Series
Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia Street, NYC
6PM-8PM

Sat., June 12:

Fort Washington Library
535 West 179th Street
(between St. Nicholas & Audubon Aves.)
New York, NY 10033-5799
(212) 927-3533
Host: Patricia Eakins
2PM-4PM
Sat., June 26:
North Jersy Literary Series
The Classic Quiche Cafe
330 Queen Anne Road
Teaneck, NJ
8PM-11PM
Tues., July 13:

Word for Word
Bryant Park
6th Ave. between 41 & 42nd Sts., NYC
12:30PM to 1:45PM



POETS WEAR PRADA
C/O Roxanne Hoffman
533 Bloomfield Street - 2nd Floor
Hoboken, NJ 07030
http://pwpbooks.blogspot.com/
http://poetswearprada.blogspot.com
http://issuu.com/pradapoet

POETS WEAR PRADA is a small press based in Hoboken, New Jersey devoted to introducing new authors through limited edition, high- quality chaplets, primarily of poetry.

Proud Member of CLMP

Have you had your poetry today?

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Brant Lyon | Your Infidel Eyes





Brant Lyon recites "Hash House Blues" in NYC at Bowery Poetry Club on New Year's Day 2006






YOUR INFIDEL EYES
by Brant Lyon
soft cover/saddle stitch/12 pp.
$6.25 (+ $1.50 S&H)



Photo Credit: D. Cloherty





Not to be confused with the championship bicycle racer from Canada with the same name, BRANT LYON has for more than a decade tirelessly pedaled his words and music throughout New York City’s poetry circuit and beyond. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Bowery Poetry Club, The Cornelia Street CafĂ©, Galapagos Art Space, and elsewhere in New York City, in the Catskills, as well
as in his native New Jersey. Brant currently curates “Hydrogen Jukebox,” a ‘jazzoetry’ series where the recombinant DNA of word, rhythm, and tone metamorphoses in improvisatory chrysalises and re-emerges as musical logo-imagoes. His poetry has most recently appeared in print and online in Rattle, Big City Lit, Lullwater Review, The Long Islander, Medicinal Purposes, Rogue Scholars Collective and one cheesy anthology best forgotten. Once a clinical social worker and an administrator of juvenile justice, for now, he leaves it to others to work out their problems, as he frequently bounds out the door for adventure in far-flung places. For the past eight years he has tracked the digital revolution in Egypt, where he and his partner have just opened an internet cafĂ© in a neighborhood of greater Cairo so obscure only a homing pigeon could find. He otherwise resides in Brooklyn, New York.






THE PECKING ORDER ON SHARIA AS-SOUQ, ASWAN

At dusk, when the market simmers down,
then cools--a pot brought back to boil by noon
next day--what won't be thrown into that pot
is tossed onto a heap in the middle of Sharia as-Souq
that nightly grows then disappears:

Bone and gristle from the butcher shop,
soggy mint leaves from the corner café,
a crate of tomatoes trampled by a donkey cart,
rotten lemons not even the careless
or desperate would buy...

Donkeys lower their muzzles into the pile
and are led away; sheep and goats, a few stray
dogs and cats, pick over the trash and take their fill;
next ducks, chickens, and geese furiously peck.

Finally, the mound is set on fire.
Flames feed, in turn, licking air.


Ricki Stuart | Freak Show





FREAK SHOW
by Ricki Stuart
soft cover/saddle stitched/12 pp.
$6.25 (+ $1.50 S&H)







Ricki Stuart


I consider poetry my spiritual path. Using the magic of word and the divine power of inspiration, I try to process my life. I obtain my material from dreams, worlds travel and the inner voyages all artists live by. I’m extremely grateful to all those poets “on the circuit” who have helped me in my journey. I have been fortunate enough to have been published in various magazines including Chimes From the Clock Tower published by members of the New York Public Library Jefferson Market Branch, Nomad’s Choir, Lucidity Magazine, and others.

I have been featured in readings at New York Poetry Forum, Green Pavilion, Unitarian Church of Brooklyn, Moroccan Star, Jushi’s Riding Centerfold CafĂ©, Pita Petra, among others. As a docent of the Brooklyn Museum for many years and in my world travels, I had an opportunity to experience many cultures. I have organized readings in New York City and Florida and was on the staff of the New York Press where I was an editor.





I AM THE HAIR THAT WON’T LIE FLAT

I am the hair that won’t lie flat!
   I tried to be happy
With my husband the doctor
   Who told me
After reading his medical books
   Again
That my spiritual experiences
   Were the first signs of madness

Religious mania
   That I badly needed therapy —
I said I badly needed to be
   Rid of him
And so I did!

I am the hair that won’t lie flat
   For the deniers of life
There is safety in a net
   I’d rather be the fish
In the open sea
   And risk
Being swallowed by a shark
   And also risk
The greatness I was born to be.



Alex O. Bleecker | Found in a Cord





FOUND IN A CORD
by Alex O. Bleecker
soft cover/saddle-stitch/12 pp.
$6.25 (+ $1.50 S&H)






Photo Credit: Gloria Buono



Alex O. Bleecker is a high school English teacher in New York City. He curates a monthly poetry series called diVerseCity, now in its second year, at La Negrita on the Upper West Side. His publication credits include both print and online journals, with his poetry featured most recently in Shampoo and Motel.




DISORIENTING REPORTAGE

Prior to the first shoot
a star is photo-shaped. It gets
touched. Studies show

8.68% of reported disorientations
event from too many lights
to determine. The eye, the object

that objectifies. Banking
on liquid displays, backers
invest in faces. Contribute.

Celebrate symmetry. Flashlights
& other transient sources
1.8% a portion of that false.






Click my Hypster playlist to hear my entire interview by Art Waves Host Anne Cammon on WKCR FM NY, originally aired on Friday August 24, 2007 at 9PM EST.





Monday, March 1, 2010

Iris Berman | The Little Book of Fairy Tales & Love Poems



Iris Berman in NYC at The Back Fence on January 8, 2006
(Video by Roxanne Hoffman)/





THE LITTLE BOOK OF FAIRY TALES
& LOVE POEMS
by Iris Berman
soft cover/saddle stitched/24 pp.
$10.00 (+ $1.50 S&H)




Credit: Bayridge Film Center, Brooklyn



Iris Berman is a graduate of Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont and also attended The Art Students League in Manhattan. Her major influence was Richard Pousette-Dart from whom she learned much about art and spirituality. Her artwork has been exhibited in several solo and many group exhibitions. After many years of not writing, she walked into a poetry reading and started writing again. She has since studied with Louise Gluck, Barry Goldensohn and William Packard to name just a few. Her most recent workshop was led by Patrick Rosal at Poets House.

She has published locally in journals such as Rogue Scholars' Rogue Gallery, Nomads Choir, Home Planet News, Park Slope Poetry Project’s Erato, and nationally in Song of the San Joaquin and Backstreet Poets Quarterly. She has appeared at open mics and has been a featured reader at many poetry venues throughout New York City.>


Click Here to read review of this book from
Small Press Review, Sept - Oct 2007, Vol. 39, Nos. 9 - 10, Issues 416 - 417, Reviews, "Magic" by Linda Lerner







It was the little girl’s hair
They worried about

Shining, golden nuggets
Of light leaping from strand
To strand

It made them afraid, curious,
Awesome, dumbstruck, blind,
In hate and in love

So they hid her away
Forbid her to leave
The dark and lonely room

And there she sat
Year after year
Framed in the backlit
Picture window

Singing to herself
And the birds answered back

One spring day
A fine young man
Followed the beautiful music
To the one in the window

The old ones were afraid
They sent her far away
To a barren desert
Where she wouldn’t stray

But a song filled with the lute
And the flute and dancing in May
Possessed the young man
Led him to her little house

And there they stay
Together to this day.



Laura Vookles | John on the Chrysler




What is so evident in Laura Vookles is the ring of the 'quiet truth'. What would be drums and trumpets in the hands of other poets becomes the symphony of the understated in her hands. I do not mean that you will find soft-strings sugaring-over sharp edges of grief; quite the opposite. In her works grief is met in a quiet room. The discussion is civil. The sound you hear is your heart breaking for her. There are not harsh lights in LV's work. Still, her words do not give anything any place to hide.
Ryk McIntyre, Poet, Dad, Cantab Lounge CoHost and Self-Appointed Unitarian Pope


Click here to read
Small Press Review, Mar - Apr 2008, Vol. 40, Nos. 3 - 4, Issues 422 - 423, Reviews, "Smoke" by Linda Lerner, a review of Laura Vookle's John on the Chysler (Poems of Love and Grief).


This is a highly recommended collection any reader cannot fail to be moved by. For those of us who've tried to make ourselves heard through the barrier of death, reach someone who is gone, these poems will especially resonate.
Linda Lerner, Author of 12 chapbooks including City Woman (March Street Press, 2006) and Living In Dangerous Times (Presa Press, 2007).


Click here to read Chiron Review, 2008, Book Reviews, A more complete review of Laura Vookle's John on the Chysler (Poems of Love and Grief) by Linda Lerner.



JOHN ON THE CHRYSLER
by Laura Vookles
soft cover/saddle stitched/17 pp.
$6.25 (+ $1.50 S&H)





Laura Vookles (a.k.a. LV) is chief curator at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, NY, where she has worked for over 20 years. Her most recent scholarly essay is featured in Westchester: the American Suburb, co-published by the Hudson River Museum and Fordham University Press. Her poetry has been included in two anthologies Look! Up in the Sky! An Anthology of Comic Book Poetry (Sacred Fools Press), HIS RIB: Stories, Poems & Essays by HER (Penmanship Books) and has been published in Ballard Street Poetry Journal as well as online at RogueScholars.com and November3rdClub.com. She writes memoir about growing up in Memphis, her grandmothers, motherhood, her husband's death and middle-aged romance. She has featured for the Worcester Storytellers, the Poetry Asylum New Year's Prom, GotPoetry Live, the louderARTS UPPERCASE series, The Back Fence, The Brownstone Poets, among other venues. She won the first ever White Plains Library Slam, joined the Westchester National Slam Poetry Team and competed this past August [2007] in Austin, Texas.






John’s Karmann Ghia

Who knows what became of John’s
sun yellow Karmann Ghia?
Perhaps, as I imagined many times,
a gust of wind lifted the body,
joints weak from rust,
off that chassis and bore it heavenward?
Perhaps it did not truly exist
after it ceased to be his baby
and, languishing in another driveway,
the sun simply slipped past the horizon?
But that German coupe is never far from me
when I think of him. One in the same.
Vintage cool and showing its age.
James Dean of the museum staff parking lot.
I hate yellow cars but I made an exception.
Real chrome, with dents and scratches
to match a chiseled nose and
wayward bronze whiskers in a silver beard.
Smoky leather interior like his old bomber jacket.
Engine turning over like a biplane, more bark than bite.
Not a comfortable ride
but intriguing and exciting.
A car to put sex on the brain but no place to do it.
All pent up and screaming for attention,
while John pretended to keep a low profile,
Joy Division blaring in the wood workshop.
Unique like him, a relic in 1990.
I only ever saw one other on the road.
Robin’s egg or was it wide blue sky?—
looking for a yellow sun.







Laura Vookles recites her "1960 Baby" at Bowery Poetry Club, New Year's Day 2008
[Video Credit: Roxanne Hoffman, Poets Wear Prada]






Laura Vookles is an astonishing poet who rises from life's heartwrenching path only to forge a bridge to all our hearts through brilliant observation and the witness of words.
Su Polo, Curator of the Saturn Series Poetry Reading, NYC



If we consider that each poem is a gesture, and that gesture may be turned inward, toward the poet's self, or directed outward, toward an object or other, this book becomes an opening of hands, an offering not just to John, the direct beloved, but to each of us, reading, a soft unfolding of palms insisting, “I have many train stories, but this is yours.”
Marty McConnell, member of the Piper Jane Project and co-curator of louderARTS, NYC



Two of the hardest topics to write about are Love and Loss. So many times they are written about superficially, lacking depth, context, or explanation as to why it should be important to the reader. LV manages to tread this territory with the skill of a seasoned tour guide, covering the important touchstones while pointing out small details that give the larger picture depth. Even at its most emotionally raw points, LV's poetry presents itself with a grace and beauty rarely found when discussing such hefty topics as Love and Loss. She manages to capture small moments with the exacting eye of a war photographer, leaving us with word pictures both gorgeous and heartbreaking in their honesty. She also talks about some cool cars.
Bill MacMillan, Founder of the Worcester Poets' Asylum and member of the 1996 National Slam Champion team, Providence, R.I.



In “John on the Chrysler”, boundary-defying poet LV has given us a powerful and modern elegy. Tenderly cataloguing her late husband's life with clear and thoughtful verse glittering with detail, LV allows us to join her as she attempts to make sense out of what is ultimately senseless -- the early death of a husband and father. Heart-breaking yet resilient, mournful yet hopeful, this collection may long for what might have been, but it also shows a profound and brave understanding of what is. It is testament to the power of LV as a writer that one leaves this book – a book so inextricably tied to death--with a grateful sense of awe, wonder and triumph.
Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, Founder & Host of Urbana Slam at NYC’s Bowery Poetry Club




Sheryl H. Simler | Parenthesis




Not unlike Emily Dickinson’s poetry, many of the poems in this collection also seem to be important for what they purposely do not say; the spaces between the lines demand thought, and then you think again while reading the line.
Dr. Alfred Dorn, director of The World Order of Narrative and Formalist Poets, former Vice President of the Poetry Society of America



Whether sharing a story, amusing us, or asking important questions, Simler’s striking poetry often has an eye for the urban, and always an ear to the heart.
Patricia Kelly, poet, Tarotphile and blogger


With her direct style, sly humor, and subtle warmth, Sheryl H. Simler takes you places you thought you’d been before and makes you look again.
Sondra Audin Armer





PARENTHESIS
by Sheryl H. Simler
soft cover/saddle stitched/12 pp.
$6.25 (+ $1.50 S&H)





Credit: Israel Fishman








Sheryl H. Simler is a poet, monologist, singer-songwriter, actor, artist and natural foods chef from New York City. As a graduate of New York University’s School of Social Work, her poetry often reflects upon “the ways of the world” and its inhabitants. She studied the craft of writing poetry at The Hudson Guild with Sondra Audin Armer, and has been a featured poet and singer at most of the popular reading series in N.Y.C., including television and radio programs. During the past twenty years her poems have been published in over thirty literary journals and anthologies.









Entanglement

West 4th Street subway couple

   out of luck:

           his green Mohawk,

                  caught

     in her pierced eyebrow ring,

              halts

                       their parting kiss.











Jee Leong Koh | Payday Loans





Jee Leong Koh in NYC at The Back Fence on January 15, 2006 (Video by Roxanne Hoffman)



GOOD NEWS


Jee Leong Koh's poem “Brother”, originally appearing in Ledge Magazine, has been selected by Natasha Trethewey for Meridian magazine's 2007 Best New Poets, an anthology to be published by the University of Virginia Press. Each year, Best New Poets sponsored by Meridian and Samovar Press features the work of fifty emerging poets selected from nominations by writing programs, literary magazines, and an Open Internet Competition.



Smart, irreverent, often unnerving, these sonnets smirk, smile, argue and bless. Jee Leong Koh has taken a month of days and rendered a very contemporary version of the artist as a young man. Cash in your paycheck and buy this book.
Marie Howe



...this book refreshes our sense of what can be done in a traditional form when the poet uses his wits and has the wit of Jee Leong Koh.
George Held


Click here to read Held's entire review for Home Planet News



PAYDAY LOANS
by Jee Leong Koh
soft cover/saddle stitched/30 pp.
$10.00 (+ $1.50 S&H)




Credit: Jee Leong Koh




In 2006 the Singaporean government banned the reading of his poem, “Come on, straight boy, and make gay love with me” (from this book) at ContraDiction, the second national gay pride poetry reading. The ban makes Jee Leong Koh out to be more dangerous than he is. Born in Singapore, he read English at Oxford University and studied creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Singaporean anthologies and American journals such as Crab Orchard Review, The Ledge and The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide. Based now in New York City, he blogs at http://jeeleong.blogspot.com.





Click my Hypster player to hear me read selections from my chapbook and discuss the book on Art Waves with Host Anne Cammon. (Originally aired on WKCR 89.9 FM NY on Friday August 24, 2007 at 9PM EST.)



Get Your Own Free Hypster.com Playlist.
Click here for more information about these tracks





April 10, Sunday

My love is curling dumbbells to his chest
because he thinks I don’t love him enough
and since he thinks I don’t love him enough
my love is curling dumbbells to his chest.
I turn the page of a flesh mag, obsessed
with groping bodies beautiful and buff.
Groping for bodies beautiful and buff,
I turn the page of the flesh mag, obsessed.
My love is groping dumbbells to his chest
to turn his body beautiful and buff
because he thinks I don’t love him enough
since I am curling the flesh mag. Obsessed,
my love is curling as I turn the page,
because he thinks I love a beautiful image.

April 11, Monday

I pound and pound this what-do-you-call-it,
Elliptical, EFX546,
pumping the body all that chemical shit,
shooting morning its new daily fix,
instead of pondering over a new sonnet:
a little song to turn the body cold;
a debt requiring its pound of meat;
a Mini made from an injection mold.
It’s true I haven’t moved although I’ve run
3 miles and, like my writing, I’m as far
from what the mind wants and the mirror sees,
and though it’s true I pound like everyone
on these mass-produced wheels, my chariot-car
signals I’ve lost four hundred calories.