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

Monday, September 19, 2011

AFTER SHAKESPEARE a new book by George Held from Cervena Barva Press

"After Shakespeare: Selected Sonnets," a new book by George Held from Cervena Barva Press $15 + $3 S&H http://bit.ly/ptELlL


Červená Barva Press
Announces a New Book


"After Shakespeare: Selected Sonnets" by George Held
$15 | ISBN 978-0-9831041-9-3 | 71 pp.


George Held is a teacher, translator, writer, and poet whose work has appeared in such places as The Philadelphia Inquirer, Confrontation, Notre Dame Review, New York Quarterly, and Rattle, as well as on NPR and in two dozen anthologies. A five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, he has published a book, ten chapbooks, and two e-books of poetry and edited Touched by Eros, an anthology of erotic verse. He holds a B.A. from Brown, an M.A. from University of Hawaii, and a Ph.D. from Rutgers, taught at Queens College for 37 years, was a Fulbright lecturer in Czechoslovakia (1973-76), and serves on the executive board of The South Fork Natural History Museum, Bridgehampton, NY. He lives in Greenwich Village, with his wife, Cheryl.


George Held's new collection of sonnets, After Shakespeare, is, at every turn, funny, surprising, and sharply observed. In poem after poem, Held follows Ezra Pound's injunction and "makes it new." Whether they are about Edmund Spenser on the E-train, painter Alice Neel or the Kennedy family, Held's poems delight with their music, and at the same time offer a deep wisdom. I love the way Held reinvents poetic tradition here and the way these poems, as he writes in "Discord, bring "joy beyond harmonic motion."
Nicole Cooley


Beginning with his cheeky title (a chronological placement rather than a stylistic description) there is much to enjoy and admire in this new collection of sonnets from George Held. It is as though the awareness of his own belatedness is liberating to the poet, allowing him to explore all manner of interesting topics in a variety of sonnet forms and styles. Anyone interested in the vitality and accomplishment of the contemporary sonnet will want George Held's After Shakespeare.
Charles Martin


To Hope


You're the thing with feathers, flying skyward
To inspire us when we lack the divine
Afflatus, lifting our spirits, like prime
Vintage or even swill like Thunderbird.

You're what springs eternal in the human
Breast, though eternity remains unproved,
Just hyperbole to cheer an unloved
One or fodder for some preacher's sermon.

But skeptical as we may be, inured
To loss of jobs and sinking stock prices,
Unfaithful friends and false mistresses,
Past the point where pride can still be injured,
Ears still prick up to your springtime twitter,
Unhibernating souls long in winter.

Order online at http://www.thelostbookshelf.com/cervenabooks.html


After Shakespeare: Selected Sonnets  $15.00
Shipping & Handling                          $3.00
--------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                             $18.00




Send check or money order payable to:

Červená Barva Press
P.O. Box 440357
W. Somerville, MA 02144-3222

e-mail: editor@cervenabarvapress.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Send me______copies of "After Shakespeare: Selected Sonnets "

Total enclosed: $________

Name______________________________________

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Monday, August 29, 2011

Chocolate Water's Forthcoming Book Reviewed in "Lamba Literary Review"



Julie R. Enszer, reviews Chocolate Water's forthcoming collection "the woman who wouldn't shake hands" for "Lamda Literary Review."  Poets Wear Prada in conjunction with Eggplant Press will publish groundbreaking feminist writer Chocolate Waters's first new book in over three decades this Fall.


"... The thirty-one poems in the 'woman who wouldn’t shake hands' (Poets Wear Prada) are short. At times pithy, at times wise, Waters is always a performer. The poems of this collection are carefully-timed with tricky meters and hidden surprises that emerge when you read them aloud. Some of the poems are bon mots in the tradition of Dorothy Parker, if she were speaking openly about lesbianism. Other poems echo Gertrude Stein’s play with language, though Waters, unlike Stein, is concerned with concision ... ," writes Enszer.


To read Enszer's complete review online visit:
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/reviews/08/24/the-woman-who-wouldn%E2%80%99t-shake-hands-by-chocolate-waters-and-bad-wife-spankings-by-valerie-wetlaufer/

Author-signed copies of the books can be pre-ordered for $14  ($12 list price + $2 S&H) by check or postal order made out to Chocolate Waters from:

Eggplant Press, 415 W. 44th. St., Suite 7, New York, NY 10036 (USA).


or from Poets Wear Prada:

PayPal: roxy533 at myway dot com 
Mail Orders: Poets Wear Prada, c/o Roxanne Hoffman, 533 Bloomfield St., 2nd Floor, Hoboken, NJ 07030 (USA)




the woman who wouldn't shake hands
by Chocolater Waters
ISBN 978-0935060096
Soft Cover, Perfect Bound 46pp.
$12.00
Release Date: Fall 2010


911 Remembered in NYC with Encore Performance of “110 for 911” by Jed Distler

Poster for Jed Distler's '110 for 911' by Su Polo

On the 10th anniversary of 911, American composer/pianist Jed Distler reprises “110 for 911,” part of the "Crisis" project initiated by City Lore which incorporates the entire text of the collective poem “Tower Two” with contributions by 110 poets including Adrienne Rich, David Lehman, Denise Duhamel, Robert Creeley, Anne Waldman, Quincy Troupe, and Galway Kinnell. Distler’s performance will take place Sunday, September 11, 2011, 3pm at The Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson St., New York, NY 10013.

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=261321720558319

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Poets Wear Prada
Roxanne Hoffman
201.253.0561
roxy533@yahoo.com

911 Remembered in NYC with Encore Performance of “110 for 911” by Jed Distler


New York, NY (August 29, 2011) — On the tenth anniversary of the 911 terrorist attacks, American composer/pianist Jed Distler will reprise his performance of “110 for 911,” his extended solo composition for speaking pianist and electronics, which incorporates the entire text of the collective poem “Tower Two,” initiated by City Lore and curated by Bob Holman. Distler’s performance will take place Sunday, September 11, 2011, 3pm at The Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson St., New York, NY 10013


The “Crisis” poem project was initiated by Steve Zeitlin, folklorist, writer, cultural activist and founding director of City Lore and curated by New York poet Bob Holman to reconstruct the Twin Towers with words. “In the days and weeks following September 11th, New Yorkers were numbed by the gloomy silence that fell upon Lower Manhattan…[When] a student from NYU laid out a sheet of butcher block paper in Union Square, New Yorkers broke the silence with stories, poems, rituals and commemorative art. At the heart of the response were words — words at first written in the dust near Ground Zero, on Missing Posters, makeshift memorials … The idea to build the towers back up in the way that only poets can in words came a few weeks later. Each poem tower would be 110 lines, one for each story of the Trade Towers,” writes Zeitlin.


For “Tower One” people from all over the world submitted lines in response to an open call. For “Tower Two,” one hundred and ten established poets were invited, including Adrienne Rich, David Lehman, Denise Duhamel, Robert Creeley, Anne Waldman, Quincy Troupe, and Galway Kinnell, to contribute one line each. Holman and the poet Eileen Myles open “Tower Two” with the invitational line, “In times of crisis, poets lose words. Find some:.” Both tower poems were displayed along with poetry from the shrines as a part of “Missing: Streetscape of a City in Mourning” at the New York Historical Society from March 12, 2002 to July 7, 2002.


Subsequently, Zeitlin and Holman invited Distler to incorporate music into their project. Distler had been developing piano theatre, speaking text while working with the piano, and was starting integrate subtle electronics into his compositions, at the time. He worked with director Arnold Barkus to shape the performance of his collaborative composition “110 for 911” before its premier in February 2003 at New York’s landmark West-Park Presbyterian Church.



Jed Distler
Jed Distler is hailed as "an altogether extraordinary pianist" (“Newark Star-Ledger”) and New York's “Downtown keyboard magus” (“The New Yorker”). He has premiered works by Frederic Rzewski, Lois V. Vierk, and Virko Baley, among others, many written especially for him, and has received commissions from Jenny Lin, IonSound, and Song in Music.


Dubbed a member of the “Poetry Pantheon” by “The New York Times Magazine” and featured in a Henry Louis Gates, Jr. profile in “The New Yorker,” Bob Holman founded the Bowery Poetry Club in 2002. His collection of poems, “A Couple of Ways of Doing Something,” a collaboration with Chuck Close, was published by Aperture.


City Lore was founded in 1986 to produce programs and publications that convey the richness of New York City's cultural heritage. Its staff includes folklorists, historians, anthropologists, and ethnomusicologists, all of whom specialize in the creation of programs and materials for public education and enjoyment. City Lore is located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, 72 East 1st Street, New York, NY 10003.


Contributors to “Two Towers” include Bob Holman, Eileen Myles, Martin Espada, Ed Sanders, Anselm Hollo, Kamau Braithwaite, Clifton Joseph, Tish Benson, E. Ethelbert Miller, Honor Moore, Maureen Owen, Naomi Shihab Nye, Joe Dobkin, Jill Bialosky, Kimiko Hahn, David Lehman, Kathleen Masterson, Ed Friedman, Bob Hershon, Ntozake Shange, Hettie Jones, Alex Jacobs, Cecilia Vicuña, Meena Alexander, Martha Rhodes, Andrei Codrescu, Edward Hirsch, Roger Bonair-Agard, Wanda Coleman, Dara McLaughlin, Lee Briccetti, John Yau, Nancy Mercado, C.D. Wright, Edwin Torres, Max Blagg, Everton Sylvester, Suheir Hammad, Jessica Hagedorn, Eliot Weinberger, Galway Kinnell, Maggie Dubris, George Tysh, John Kulm, Michael Warr, Nick Carbo, Toni Blackman, Jan Clausen, Tato Laviera, Anselm Berrigan, Dave Johnson, Carla Harryman, Steve Colman, John Rodriguez, Robert Creeley, Bart Droog, Maria Damon, David Trinidad, Denise Duhamel, Elaine Equi, Willie Perdomo, Russell Leong, Terry Gelber, Robert Kelly, Regie Cabico, Hal Sirowitz, Reesom Haille, Sarah Jones, Indran Amirithanayagam, Thomas Lynch, U Sam Oeur, Robert Chambers, Luis Rodriguez, Jeff McDaniel, Kenneth Goldsmith, Raymond Federman, Eliot Katz, Lucy Grealy, Jerome Rothenberg, Joan Retallack, Chris Funkhouser, Richard Martin, Emily XYZ, Vicki Hudspith, Janet Hamill, Gary Mex Glazner, Adrian Castro, Danny Shot, Marcella Harb, Sandra Esteves, Brenda Coultas, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Patricia Smith, Saba Kidane, Mary Ann Caws, Maggie Balistreri, Bill Berkson, Gary Lenhart, Michael Gizzi, Vincent Katz, Marjorie Welish, Staceyann Chin, Jerry Quickly, Anne Waldman, Charles Bernstein, Tony Medina, Quincy Troupe, Marie Howe, Adrienne Rich as well as anonymous contributors.


# # #

Friday, August 26, 2011

Poets Wear Prada at Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday September 18th



Brooklyn Book Festival 2010,
Columbus Park
[Credit: Tantra-zawadi]
 Hoboken, NJ, August 26th, 2011 --   Poets Wear Prada, a small independent literary press based in Hoboken, New Jersey, will be showcasing and selling its thirty-plus poetry titles at this year's Brooklyn Book Festival.  The 6th Annual Festival,  the largest free literary event in New York City and one of America’s premier book festivals, will take place Sunday, September 18th, 2011 in downtown Brooklyn, in and around Borough Hall (209 Joraleman Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201) and the nearby Columbus Park.


Publisher Roxanne Hoffman,
2010 Brooklyn Book Festival
[Credit: Tantra-zawadi]
This will be the second year that Poets Wear Prada joins the vast array of literary stars, emerging authors, publishing industry leaders, editors, and literary insiders participating at the Festival and who represent the exciting world of literature today.  Roxanne Hoffman, Publisher and Senior Editor of Poets Wear Prada who shared a table with another small press, Pleasure Boat Studio, last year  will have her own table this year and states she is already "gearing up" for the event. 


The mostly outdoor festival takes place rain or shine. Last year, despite inclement weather, hundreds of book lovers stopped by to meet and chat with the authors and editors of  Poet Wear Prada as more than 20,000 visitors and media from around the world converged on Borough Hall. "It rained a little, but there were lots of smiling faces, readings, authors and so many delicious books to choose from.  Even with a few rain drops and a chill in the air, folks stopped by to chat with us and share a few stories. I enjoyed hanging out with Roxanne Hoffman, my publisher, authors Patricia Carragon and Joel Allegretti. It was also great sharing a table with Pleasure Boat Studio authors and enjoying the positive vibe,"  blogs Tantra-zawadi, author of "Gathered at Her Sky: Life Poems" (Poets Wear Prada, 2010).
Author Tantra-zawadi & Young Book Lover.
2010 Brooklyn Book Festival
[Credit: Tantra-zawadi]


Poets Wear Prada will be at canopied table no. 62 at the center of Columbus Park a few steps from the park entrance at intersection of Court and Montague Streets.


“Bookend” literary-themed events also return this year, with venues in clubs, parks, bookstores, theaters and libraries across the borough from September 15 through September 18.   For more details visit the Festival website at http://www.brooklynbookfestival.org/. Also follow the Festival on Facebook and Twitter @bkbf.


About Poets Wear Prada:
Poets Wear Prada is a small press based in Hoboken, New Jersey, devoted to introducing new authors through high-quality chapbooks primarily of poetry, since October 2006. Visit us online at pwpbooks.blogspot.com. "Have you had your poetry today?"


Contact:

Poets Wear Prada
Roxanne Hoffman
poetswearprada at myway dot com
201.253.0561



Read Poetry from Poets Wear Prada on Your iPhone

Hoboken, NJ, August 25, 2011 -- With three poetry titles now available on Apple's iBookstore, Poets Wear Prada expands its entry into the eBook market. "Dead Reckoning," a 50-page full-length poetry collection by Gene Auprey, originally released as a paperback last year, April 2010, recently joined the two chapbook titles already listed in the iBookstore catalogue -- "Thrum: Poems by Joel Allegretti" and "Gathered at Her Sky: Life Poems" by Tantra-zawadi. The iBook titles sell at a significant discount off the list price for the corresponding paperback editions -- iBook versions of the two chapbooks list at $4.99 -- an almost 60% savings off the paperback editions which each sell for $12  -- while Auprey's full-length collection sells for $8.99, about a 40% discount off the paperback version which lists for $15.  And of course there is never any shipping and handling.

Roxanne Hoffman, Founder and Senior Editor at Poets Wear Prada, was curious to see how well the books would transition to Apple's popular personal hand-held mobile devices.  She enlisted the assistance of Ms. Patricia Carragon, who curates the Brownstone Poets reading in Brooklyn, and who spent last summer working as a Marketing Intern for Poets Wear Prada, and owns a iPhone.  Ms. Carragon agreed and after first registering for iTunes, she downloaded the free iBooks app to her iPhone and then samples of the two chapbook titles from the iBookstore to take a look.



Patricia Carragon with her iPhone's personal iBookstore Library.
 
"Thrum: Poems" by Joel Allegretti Front Cover Display on Ms. Carragon's iPhone


Her first response "OMG, this is so cute! You've got to see the little bookshelf!" Today, Ms. Hoffman got to do just that when the two met in NYC's Little Korea at Kum Gang San for lunch and snapped the photos shown here.  Ms. Carragon was not able to display the cover for "Gathered at Her Sky" due to the WIFI  traffic at the busy restaurant but Ms. Hoffman was able to scroll through the sample pages with just a touch to the iPhone's  screen.  While she found taking photos of the luminous iPhone screen "challenging" she said she did not find it a challenge to read the sample interior pages for the iBooks.  "I'm not sure if this is the  best way to read a detective story or a best selling novel but for short poetry like  the haiku Patricia Carragon often writes and for micro fiction  -- what I like to call "subway stories" -- anything short enough to read as you commute standing up in crowded rush-hour mass transit -- it works and completely makes sense in  today's fast-paced environment and for the constantly texting and gaming on-the-go 'digital natives' of  Generation Z."

Ms. Carragon's haiku response: "iPhone library/easy reading/on a mini shelf."  Her third book, "Cupcake Chronicles," a chapbook length collection of micro fiction, will be published by Poet Wear Prada this winter. "iPad and iPhone users, keep a look out for this perfect additon to your iBookstore library," advises Ms. Hoffman.

About Poets Wear Prada:


Poets Wear Prada is a small press based in Hoboken, New Jersey, devoted to introducing new authors through high-quality chapbooks primarily of poetry, since October 2006. Visit us online at pwpbooks.blogspot.com. "Have you had your poetry today?"


Contact:
Poets Wear Prada
Roxanne Hoffman
poetswearprada at myway dot com
201.253.0561



Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Poetry from Poets Wear Prada Now Available from iTunes


Poets Wear Prada announced its entry into the lucrative e-book market with the availability of two of its titles, “Gathered at Her Sky: Life Poems” by Tantra-zawadi and “Thrum: Poems” by Joel Allegretti, on Apple’s iBookstore and iTunes.


Hoboken, NJ, August 17, 2011 -- Poets Wear Prada today announced its entry into the lucrative commercial e-book market with the availability of two of its titles on Apple’s iTunes (UK). “Gathered at Her Sky: Life Poems” by Tantra-zawadi (http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/gathered-at-her-sky/id443593407?mt=11), and “Thrum: Poems” by Joel Allegretti (http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/thrum/id450632962?mt=11) are now available for immediate download. Both titles were converted to e-publication format and submitted to Apple's iBookstore by Lulu.com, which publishes and carries print-on-demand paperback editions of several Poets Wear Prada titles. Lulu has partnered with Apple to ensure that as many Lulu titles as possible are “available to every potential customer on the planet, starting with the 120 million plus readers who own an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and shop at the iBookstore.” Lulu converts selected titles from its catalogue and handles their submission to Apple at no cost to its authors and their publishers but an iBookstore listing is not guaranteed.

Roxanne Hoffman, Senior Editor and Founder of Poets Wear Prada, was first contacted by Lulu.com in March about the free e-book conversions with an invitation to "join the ranks of Lulu authors who have already sold 60,000 e-books through the iBookstore." She received word in June that the two titles were converted and submitted to Apple, informed the two authors involved, and started her anxious wait to see if the titles would make the cut. “Gathered at Her Sky” was picked up July 11 and “Thrum” four days later. Both chapbooks are now available on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iBooks, and via computer with iTunes to registered Apple and AOL users.

Her wait finally over, and the two titles now available for sale as e-books, Ms. Hoffman says she is “excited and looking forward to future of publishing and being a part of it.” Poets Wear Prada switched to print-on-demand in 2010 after using local Hoboken mom-and-pop print shops since 2006 to publish the traditional saddle-stitched chapbooks, and after a larger printer failed to deliver the initial 800 copies of what would have been the press's first full-length collection. Ms. Hoffman said, “The quality of the print-on-demand books is better -- we can now offer perfect bound editions -- and the headache of direct mail orders is now handled by two experts in on-line distribution, Amazon and Lulu -- no more trips to the post office -- and best of all, my home office doesn't look like a warehouse. We had been looking at various options to convert our books for Kindle, Nook, iPad and the other competing tablets all of which require their own proprietary format. Then Lulu made the announcement it would do free conversions for the iPad. Sometimes it pays not to be on leading edge ahead of the curve. In this case, my procrastination paid off.” Lulu promises that these e-publication files will be available for further distribution to its ever expanding list of eBook retail partners.

Tantra-zawadi, author of “Gathered at Her Sky” says "I am delighted to join the ranks of authors in the ever expanding e-book market. Poet's Wear Prada has seized the opportunity to reach a broader audience in the digital community with easier access to my book and on-line spoken word musical collaborations. This is an exciting and well integrated introduction into a new technological era!”

Poets Wear Prada also continues to expand its paperback distribution. Six poetry chapbook titles from Poets Wear Prada are now available from Tower Books at Tower.com: "Gathered at Her Sky: Life Poems" by Tantra-zawadi, "Thrum: Poems" by Joel Allegretti, "Green Rain" by Mary Orovan, "The Slip" by Michael Montlack, "Payday Loans" by Jee Leong Koh and "Detailed Still" by Karen Neuberg. The six paperback titles were added to the on-line music store catalogue August 10th, 2011 through Amazon's CreateSpace.com's extended distribution program. [http://www.tower.com/tower_search/search_2.cfm?keywords=poets%20wear%20prada&div_id=1]

Author Joel Allegretti says, “It seems appropriate that my Poets Wear Prada collection is available through an online music store because ‘Thrum’ deals exclusively with musical instruments. Its international availability is a real bonus because it now has a channel it otherwise would not have.”

# # #

About Poets Wear Prada:
Poets Wear Prada is a small press based in Hoboken, New Jersey, devoted to introducing new authors through high-quality chapbooks primarily of poetry, since October 2006.  Visit us online at pwpbooks.blogspot.com. "Have you had your poetry today?"

Contact:Poets Wear Prada
Roxanne Hoffman
poetswearprada at myway dot com
201.253.0561

Friday, August 12, 2011

Joel Allegretti Joins Ravi Shankar for an Evening of New Poetry at RAW in Hartford, CT

Poet Ravi Shankar Launches "Deepening Groove" with Joel Allegretti, Susan Frischkorn & Lisa C. Taylor in an Evening of New Poetry at RAW, Hartford, CT.


Hartford, Connecticut, August 14, 2011 -- Real Art Ways’ Writers and Reader Series is pleased to announce an evening of new poetry with acclaimed poet, Ravi Shankar, who will launch his new book “Deepening Groove,” winner of the 2010 National Poetry Review Prize. Three notable authors will join Shankar, each reading from their new works -- Joel Allegretti, Susan Frischkorn and Lisa C. Taylor -- on Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 6 pm, at Real Art Ways, 56 Arbor St, Hartford, Connecticut 06106. Connecticut Poet Laureate Dick Allen, who has hailed Shankar as “one of America’s finest younger poets,” will introduce “Deepening Groove.”



“Deepening Groove,” described as “a book of savvy, delicious surprises" by Wyn Cooper, author of” New Calm,” is a collection of poems comprised of detailed observations about animals, trees, flowers, fish, the weather, and the human condition. Many of the poems are set in New England where Ravi Shankar lives. Poems from the collection have been featured by the Academy of American Poets and have appeared in such journals as “Blackbird,” “Barrow Street,” “Fulcrum,” “The Mississippi Review” and “Slope.”


Ravi Shankar is founding editor of “Drunken Boat,” an international online journal of the arts, and Co-Director of Creative Writing at Central Connecticut State University. A recipient of a Pushcart Prize, he has published five other books and chapbooks. With Tina Chang and Natalie Handal, he edited W.W. Norton's “Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from Asia, the Middle East & Beyond,” called "a beautiful achievement for world literature" by Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer.


Joel Allegretti is the author of two full-length volumes of poetry from The Poet’s Press: “The Plague Psalms” and “Father Silicon,” selected by “The Kansas City Star” as one of 100 Noteworthy Books of 2006. Poets Wear Prada released his third collection, “Thrum” (2010), a chapbook of prose poems and poetic essays about musical string instruments. Poets Wear Prada will publish his fourth collection, “Europa/Nippon/New York: Poems/Not-Poems,” in 2012.

Suzanne Frischkorn is the author of “Girl On A Bridge” (2010), and “Lit Windowpane” (2008) both from Main Street Rag Publishing. In addition she is the author of five chapbooks, most recently “American Flamingo” (2008). Her honors include the Aldridge Poetry Award for her chapbook “Spring Tide,” selected by Mary Oliver, a 2009 Emerging Writers Fellowship from the Writers Center, an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.

Lisa C. Taylor is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently a collaborative collection with Irish poet and writer Geraldine Mills, “The Other Side of Longing” (Arlen House/Syracuse University Press, 2011). They were both named 2011 Elizabeth Shanley Gerson Readers of Irish Literature at University of Connecticut. She has a new collection due out in 2012.
Writers and Readers is a social gathering for people who love books. Readings will be preceded and followed by an informal discussion providing an opportunity to talk with others interested in reading, writing and thinking. Newly released publications will be available for purchase. Admission is open to the public, free for all Real Art Ways’ members; $5 for non-members.

Real Art Ways (RAW) is an alternative multidisciplinary arts organization, founded in 1975, that presents and supports contemporary artists and their work, facilitates the creation of new work, and creatively engages, builds, and informs audiences and communities. The RAW live arts program has featured poets Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, Martin Espada and Sonia Sanchez among others. Real Art Ways, 56 Arbor Street, Hartford, CT 06106, phone: 860.232.1006, fax: 860.233.6691, email: info@realartways.org , website: http://www.realartways.org/.

Contact:
Real Art Ways
Meghan Maguire Dahn
860.232.1006 x109





Monday, August 8, 2011

Boog City Hosts Poets Wear Prada at ACA Galleries, New York City in September



Boog City will host a reading featuring writers from Poets Wear Prada on Tuesday September 27th, 2011. David A. Kirschenbaum, editor of Boog City, will host the event on:

Tuesday, September 27, 2011, 6pm
@
ACA Galleries
529 W. 20th St., 5th Floor
New York City


Featuring:
Austin Alexis
Joel Allegretti
Jee Leong Koh
Richard Marx Weinraub
Dorinda Wegener
Karen Neuberg
Maria Lisella
Carol Wiezerbicki


Please come out and support the writers, Poets Wear Prada, and Boog City at the reading!

Check out Boog City online at http://welcometoboogcity.com/



Austin Alexis has published poetry and flash fiction most recently in First Literary Review--East, Nomad's Choir, Mobius: The Poetry Magazine, Rusty Typer, Dance Macabre, Come Hear (an anthology), Quill and Parchment and Vox Poetica. His second chapbook, For Lincoln & Other Poems (Poets Wear Prada), was named a Small Press Review "Pick of the Month" and contains a Pushcart Prize nominated poem. One of his short stories was performed at the 2010 Woodstock-Diamond Dance Festival.


Joel Allegretti (www.joelallegretti.com) is the author of two full-length volumes from The Poet’s Press: The Plague Psalms (2000) and Father Silicon, selected by The Kansas City Star as one of 100 Noteworthy Books of 2006, a list that included novels by Cormac McCarthy and Thomas Pynchon. In 2010 Poets Wear Prada released his third collection, Thrum, a chapbook of poems and poetic essays about musical instruments. Allegretti’s work has appeared in The New York Quarterly, Margie, Fulcrum, Voices in Italian Americana, and Sentence: a Journal of Prose Poetics and many other national journals, as well as on the Best American Poetry blog. Allegretti’s poems were the basis of two song cycles by Frank Ezra Levy, whose symphonic work is available in the American Classics series on Naxos.

Jee Leong Koh is the author of two books of poems, Payday Loans (Poets Wear Prada) and Equal to the Earth (Bench Press). His new book Seven Studies for a Self Portrait was released by the same press in March 2011. Born in Singapore, he lives in New York City, and blogs at Song of a Reformed Headhunter.


Related to the Marx Brothers through his mother, Richard Marx Weinraub was born in New York City in 1949; he was a Professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico from 1987 through 2010. A book of his poetry entitled Wonder Bread Hill was published in 2002 by the University of Puerto Rico Press. His poetry has appeared in many journals including The Paris Review, Asheville Poetry Review, South Carolina Review, The Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, Green Mountains Review, North American Review, Measure, The Evansville Review, Slate, and River Styx. A
Spanish translation of Wonder Bread Hill was recently published by Terranova Press. A chapbook of his poetry entitled Heavenly Bodies was published in 2008 by Poets Wear Prada Press, and a poem from it was nominated for a 2009 Pushcart Prize.


Maria Lisella's Pushcart Poetry Prize-nominated work appears in Amore on Hope Street (Finishing Line Press) and Two Naked Feet (Poets Wear Prada). Her poetry has appeared in The New York Quarterly, Skidrow Penthouse, Paterson Literary Review and New Verse News among others; her latest short story appears in Sweet Lemons 2, Writing with a Sicilian Accent (Legas Press). She co-curates the Italian American Writers Association monthly literary readings at Cornelia St. Cafe on the 2nd Saturday of each month. She is a travel writer by profession.


Karen Neuberg lives in Brooklyn, NY and West Hurley, NY. Her
poems have appeared in numerous publications including Big City Lit, decomP, elimae, NewVerseNews, Pirene’s Fountain, Stone Telling, and the anthology Child of My Child. She’s a two-time Pushcart and a Best of the Net nominee, holds an MFA from the New School, and is associate editor of Inertia Magazine and of First Literary Review, East. Her chapbook, Detailed Still was published by Poets Wear Prada Press and is available from Amazon. For more information and links to her on-line work, please see her website at http://karenneuberg.blogspot.com/


Carol Wierzbicki is a published poet, editor and reviewer. She has run poetry readings in New York City, and is co-editor of the Unbearables Worst Book and Sex anthologies. Her latest chapbook is Top Teen Greatest Hits, poems about teen angst (Poets Wear Prada, 2009). Her short story, “Mending,” will appear in the summer 2011 issue of Many Mountains Moving.


Dorinda Wegener holds a MFA from New England College where she was a Joel Oppenheimer Award recipient. Her poems have been published in The Antioch Review, Indiana Review, Hotel Amerika, and Mid-American Review, among many others. Dorinda has had the honor of reading with the louderARTS Project in New York City. Her poems, “The Harvest” and “Evening Service,” were both finalist for the Marlboro Prize as judged by poet Edward Hirsch. She currently resides with her husband and daughter in Staten Island, New York, where she’s a teaching artist of poetry for Teachers & Writers Collaborative. In 2011, she will present a reading and discourse on William Carlos Willams at the Williams Center for the Arts, Rutherford, New Jersey, as well as join the editorial staff of Green Mountains Review as a reader.


Boog City is a small press now its 16th year, and East Village community newspaper of the same name. The press has published more than three dozen volumes of poetry and various zines, featuring work by Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Ed Sanders, Eileen Myles, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Bernadette Mayer among many others, and theme issues on topics ranging from baseball to women's writing, Louisville, Ky. to The Ramones and Talking Heads making the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Lesbian Activist Debuts First New Book in Decades



Groundbreaking feminist writer Chocolate Waters will publish her first book in over three decades with Poets Wear Prada, it was announced today by Roxanne Hoffman, Publisher and Senior Editor. Written for anyone who has loved and lost, queer, straight, male or female, "The Woman Who Wouldn't Shake Hands" will be released as a trade paperback this summer. Waters, the "Poet Laureate of Hell's Kitchen," is one of the first openly lesbian poets to publish in the U.S.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:
Caitlin Foster
cmf3@williams.edu
413.652.8277



Lesbian Activist Debuts First New Book in Decades:
A Look in the Mirror, "The Woman Who Wouldn’t Shake Hands"

Hoboken, NJ, Jul 03, 2011 – Groundbreaking feminist writer Chocolate Waters will publish her first book in over three decades with Poets Wear Prada, it was announced today by Roxanne Hoffman, Publisher and Senior Editor. Written for anyone who has loved and lost, queer, straight, male or female, "The Woman Who Wouldn't Shake Hands" will be released as a trade paperback this summer. Waters, the "Poet Laureate of Hell's Kitchen," is one of the first openly lesbian poets to publish in the U.S. Her contribution is documented in "Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975" (University of Illinois Press, Barbara Love, ed.).

With apologies to Diane Wakoski who got a whole book, "The Man Who Shook Hands," from a rebuff by a man who shook her hand after spending the night, Waters writes of a woman who wouldn't even, despite an intimate friendship. Publisher Roxanne Hoffman says "Leave it to a lesbian activist to write a roadmap to get us out of the woes of relationship hell with a book of poems in the form of little rants" that Stephanie Dickinson describes as "revelatory, lucid, luscious and laugh out loud funny but so psychologically astute." "Waters writes without inhibition, inviting readers to tag along on her journey of self-discovery. You'll take comfort in the fact that another human being has been there, done that, and written a poem about it," adds Caitlin Foster, Editorial Intern for Poets Wear Prada.

The Woman Who Wouldn't Shake Hands by Chocolate Waters (Poets Wear Prada, 2011)
Waters hopes that "the pain, and the humor in our pain, will pave the way for something sweeter to come." She "dedicate[s] this collection to all of us who have loved and been rejected (in other words, all of us) — whether out of the fear of loving or the fear of being loved."

"I first met Chocolate Waters in July 2004 at the New York Ear Inn Reading Series hosted by Michael Broder. I was taken in by her poetic confession of embracing femininity after years of living the dyke stereotype, her ability to write with candor, simplicity and great wit about what was still considered controversial, and that trademark non-stop wry delivery. An instant fan I ran up to Waters to introduce myself and took home a signed copy of 'To the Man Reporter From The Denver Post.' Glad to say seven years later I have the opportunity to publish my favorite funny feminist poet and that she's back on the scene and in fine form," says Roxanne Hoffman.

About Chocolate Waters:

A pioneer in women's publishing and in the art of performance poetry, Waters has toured throughout the U.S. but makes her home in Manhattan. Her three earlier collections: "To the Man Reporter From The Denver Post," "Take Me Like a Photograph," and "Charting New Waters" were produced by Eggplant Press in the late '70s and are considered classics of the early women's movement. "Chocolate Waters Uncensored," her CD spanning three decades of groundbreaking work, was released by Eggplant Productions in 2001.

Chocolate Waters is available for interviews, public readings and book signing events.


About Poets Wear Prada:

Poets Wear Prada is a small press based in Hoboken, New Jersey, devoted to introducing new authors through high-quality chapbooks primarily of poetry, since October 2006.
"Have you had your poetry today?"

Poets Wear Prada
c/o Roxanne Hoffman
533 Bloomfield St., #2.
Hoboken, N.J. 07030
201.253.0561

###

Pears, Prose & Poetry: LGBT Poets at NYC's Fresh Fruit Festival Fight Intolerance


Fresh Fruit Festival Logo

Pears, Prose & Poetry: LGBT Poets at NYC's Fresh Fruit Festival Fight Intolerance


The 9th Annual All Out Arts' Fresh Fruit Festival presents Pears, Prose & Poetry, Mon. July 11, 2011 at The Center, 208 West 13th St., NYC. Showtime: 7pm. 17 poets read. FREE. Hosted by Roxanne Hoffman & Robert Urban.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Roxanne Hoffman
201.253.0561


Fresh Fruit Festival LogoPRLog (Press Release) – Jul 10, 2011 – This year marks the 9th anniversary of the All Out Arts’ Fresh Fruit Festival created in 2002 to support and present LGBT Art and Artists to fight intolerance. The July 11, 2011 Pears, Prose & Poetry event at The LGBT Community Center in Greenwich Village, New York City, will feature the work of 17 poets, some past "fruities" and some new faces.

The 17 poets include: Austin Alexis • Joel Allegretti • Dorothy Friedman August • Davidson Garrett • Melinda Goodman • Dean Kostos • Michael Montlack • Carol Polcovar • John Marcus Powell • Jessica Reed • Vittoria repetto • Jason Schneiderman • Sinclair Sexsmith • Robert Urban • Chocolate Waters • Chavisa Woods • Richard Marx Weinraub.

Robert Urban of Urban Productions will also act as emcee along with Roxanne Hoffman, publisher and editor of Poets Wear Prada. Poets Wear Prada has published an anthology for the event including work by the 17 featured poets. Pre-release copies will be available for sale at the event.

The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th Street, New York, NY 10011
The LGBT Community Center is located at 208 West 13th Street (just west of 7th Avenue) in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City.

What is LGBT poetry? "For those who need to know — I don't know if I could every fully explain just what 'LGBT' poetry is. ... I daresay, underneath the same-sex surface — it looks, smells, sounds and tastes just like hetero poetry. Yet not a day goes by that I don't thank the world for blessing me and my kindred spirits with the alienation, distance and perspective that being queer adds to our special way with words. There's something to that." says Robert Urban.

Roxanne Hoffman,  who co-hosted the Rainbow Reading Series at Pisces Cafe in Babylon, New York,  adds "Want to find out what LGBT poetry is all about? Come to The Center on Monday evening and hear for yourself. You'll also meet some of best writers in New York. "

"The Festival’s refreshing, innovate approach to LGBT arts allows audiences to sample a wide range of poetry from writers representing different ages, ethnicities, sexualities, and gender orientations. Attendees are certain to find something fresh and innovative to inspire them." says Caitlin Foster, Editorial Intern at Poets Wear Prada and co-editor of the anthology.

The Fresh Fruit Festival prides itself on the diversity of its performers and equally diverse audiences. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.

The mission of the All Out Arts’ Fresh Fruit Festival is "to fight prejudice and homophobia by celebrating LGBT art and artists."

For more about the Fresh Fruit Festival visit http://www.freshfruitfestival.com/.

# # #

Poets Wear Prada is a small literary press based in Hoboken, New Jersey, devoted to introducing new authors through high-quality chapbooks primarily of poetry, since October 2006. "Have you had your poetry today?"

Friday, June 17, 2011

Short Play by AUSTIN ALEXIS at BOOG CITY 5 in August in NYC

WELCOME TO BOOG CITY

Poet and playwright AUSTIN ALEXIS will have a short play performed this August at the 5th annual WELCOME TO BOOG CITY festival in NYC. The play will be performed Sunday August 7th at 5:45pm at Zinc Bar located at 82 West 3rd Street in Manhattan. The 3-character short play explores the sustainability of friendship during crisis.

Austin Alexis is the author of 2 poetry chapbooks,  LOVERS AND DRAG QUEENS and FOR LINCOLN & OTHER POEMS, both from POETS WEAR PRADA.

POETS WEAR PRADA, Austin's publisher will also have a table at the festival's small press bookfair taking place Saturday August 6th and Sunday August 7th in Brooklyn's Prospect Heights neighborhood at Unnameable Books, located at 600 Vanderbilt Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11238. For more information about the bookstore call (718) 789-1534. Unnameable Books is Open Daily 11am-11pm. Austin's lastest book as well as other books from the press will be available for purchase.  Another PWP author TBA will be reading at the bookfair.



The 5th Annual BOOG CITY festival presents 5 days of Poetry & Music from Friday August 5th to Tuesday August 9th with events in Manhattan and in Brooklyn. This year's festival marks the 20th anniversary of BOOG CITY, edited and published by David A. Kirschenbaum.

The poetry readings are curated by Jim Behrle, Joanna Fuhrman, and David A. Kirschenbaum. The music is booked by Brian Speaker.

Among the festival highlights are:
  • our levy lives: celebrating the renegade press series devotes a night to Black Radish Books;
  • our 8th annual small, small press fair, with exhibits from a host of small presses, and readings by their authors;
  • Poetry’s First Responders: 9/11, A Time When Poetry was Always Still Possible, a panel curated and moderated by Douglas Rothschild;
  • Poet Rebecca Woolf reading and in conversation with poet Alan Gilbert
  • Poets’ theater plays from: Austin Alexis • Charles Borkhuis • Maria Brandt • Joel Chace • Jenny Hill • Vincent Katz • Matt Reeck;
  • Poetry readings from: Alex Abelson • Rachel Aydt • Cara Benson • Sean Cole • Joanna Penn Cooper • Jim Dunn • Will Edmiston • Alan Gilbert • Christine Hamm • Monica Hand • Jibade-Khalil Huffman • Brenda Iijima • Ish Klein • Austin LaGrone • Mark Lamoureux • Tanya Larkin • Sheila Maldonado • Debrah Morkun • John Mulrooney • Ekoko Omadeke • Jean Paul Pecqueur • Douglas Piccininni • Brett Price • Greg Purcell • Douglas N. Rothschild • Kathrin Schaeppi • Toni Simon • Kimberly Ann Southwick • Mary Austin Speaker • Jill Stengel • Mark Statsman • Nicole Wallace • Meredith Walters • Ian Wilder • Jeffrey Wright • and more;
  • Poetry readings on Black Radish Books night: Mackenzie Carignan • Bruce Covey • Carrie Hunter • Mark Lamoureux • Marthe Reed • Kathrin Schaeppi • Jill Stengel • David Wolach;
  • music performances by: Crazy and the Brains • Emily Einhorn • Dan Fishback • Greg Smith band • Charles Mansfield • Justin Remer • Cat Rockefeller • and more; and
  • tabling presses and artisans: Bone Bouquet • Don’s Saddles • Furniture Press • Gigantic Sequins • Litmus Press/Aufgabe • Lunar Chandelier • Ping Pong • Poets Wear Prada • Stonecutter Journal • Vanitas magazine • White Rabbit zine.

The full schedule will be released shortly. If you need any additional information or want to advertise in the festival program issue of Boog City you can reach David A. Kirschenbaum at 212-842-BOOG (2664) or editor@boogcity.com or at the address below:

David A. Kirschenbaum, editor and publisher
Boog City
330 W. 28th St., Suite 6H
NY, NY 10001-4754
For event and publication information:

http://welcometoboogcity.com/  T: (212) 842-BOOG (2664)

June 20: GENERATION BEAT at Yippie Museum Café in NYC

The Yippie Museum Cafe

GENERATION BEAT

Date: Monday, June 20, 2011

Time: 6:30 – 8:30 pm
 
Place:
THE YIPPIE MUSEUM
CAFE & GIFT SHOP
9 Bleecker Street
(near the Bowery)
New York, NY 10002
(212) 677-5918
Admission: $2

Host: Gordon Gilbert
 
Featured Readers:
(Reading Their Favorite Beat Writer
& Their Own Work)

ALAN BAXTER
*
PETER CHELNIK
*
BOB HEMAN
CINDY HOCHMAN
ROXY HOFFMAN
EVY IVY
KIM KALESTI
*
RONNIE KORPAL
*
JOSH MEANDER
*
ORION 0.62
*
EVE PACKER
*
PUMA PERL
*
BOB QUATRONE
CHRISTINE TIMM
JOHN J. TRAUSE
RICHARD WEST

Sorry, This is Not an Open Mic.

Beverage and Snacks Availalble at the Refreshment Stand.

COME EARLY
for 4 pm screening of a Lawrence Ferlinghetti documentary by Chris Felver.


Mummy Cartoon
Publisher Roxanne Hoffman will be performing "The Mummy Piece" by William S. Burroughs and her "Mum's The Word."

Author John J. Trause will be presenting the work of Gregory Corso and, time permitting, his own poetry. 

Other PWP Authors reading at the event include Bob Heman and Peter Chelnik.