Good Stuff

Porkbelly’s Pigasus

Be on the lookout:

(April) Sugared Water‘s second issue, a lit mag.
(May) l’appel du vide by Christina Cooke, a poetry chapbook.

Inaugural Chapbook Call for Manuscripts:

4 days remain! Submissions close April 1 at midnight (Eastern).

It’s our goal to complete 6 beautiful handmade chaps in 2014. Will yours be among them?

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who’s supported us so far, including you (you, reading this now, yes…), and you, presses to professors, readers who give of their time, and everyone between, particularly the writers and poets who’ve trusted us with work (whether we accept or reject it—especially when we reject it and you submit again), you who’ve emailed with us and generally made us feel welcome in the conversation. Thank you. Please keep it up; so will we.

Artful books are our passion, and we’re beyond chuffed to make cool stuff worth carting around, reading, re-reading, and scoping out with a cup of tea (or wine, whiskey, whatever you adore). We look forward to presenting you with these offerings once they’re compiled, edited, illustrated, printed, collated, stabbed (gently), and sewn up into book form.

As this first reading period comes to a close, we’re definitely feeling the love.

Our first 3 titles: a lit mag, zine, and chapbook.

Forthcoming – l’appel du vide – Christina Cooke

Porkbelly Press is happy to announce the acceptance of Christina Cooke’s chapbook of poetry entitled l’appel du vide. | pre-order

Christina pulls from a well of gender, identity, and sexuality, peppers it with a hint of Jamaican rhythm and language, and presents it to us in this chapbook. She coaxes words together in love-lust, examines the gaze, and brings us into the place of a woman-body walking over hot asphalt, the rain on her skin, and the taste of mango jam on her tongue. She does not shy away from the internal voice, self-doubt, or the anxious churning of a wanton body.

Perhaps our favorite thing about the chapbook is the irreverence with which it ends (but we won’t spoil that for you). It’s the attitude that first drew us in, and we are not disappointed at any page-turn.

Excerpt from l’appel du vide:

her, me

her hair
falls against my chest
cowlicks curling up
beckoning,
“come.”

reaching along her cheek, her neck
catching loose strands
as she cupsflattenscradles
palming my breasts.

fingers to warm skin
with both hands i hold her
just hold
her
swells of skin curving
not pale, flat

she exhales
makes space between her knees.

Christina Cooke currently lives and writes on the occupied and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples (Vancouver, Canada). Her prose appeared in Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society (CA) and Sou’wester (US); her creative non-fiction appeared in HYSTERIA: A Collection of Feminisms (UK); her poetry is forthcoming from Matrix Magazine (CA). She is also an editorial collective member of the feminist literary journal Room Magazine (CA). To learn more about her writerly endeavours, follow her on Twitter, @cjctlc, or her blog, Of That Close Kerning, So Splendiferous, Repletes.

Bodies in Water, P. Andrew Miller

Bodies in Water (P. Andrew Miller) is Porkbelly Press’ first offering in a new line of chapbooks. Miller’s hybrid chap. combines a piece of short fiction with a creative nonfiction essay. The book is handsewn and numbered by hand, and the special edition cover is limited to a run of 75. // more

Cover design & layout: Nicci & Jonathan