Bramble & Thorn Anthology

bramble&thorn (anthology) cover photo by: Olivia Edvalson

 from the introduction

We ask you to step into the dark forest with us, with these women and girls in poem—their sharp knives, those long fangs may protect you. Reach out—take the hand of the one beside you. Don’t worry if she seems hungry; she’s always hungry; she has her mind already made, blade sharpened to meet the wolf’s heart. (Porkbelly Press, 2017) » more information

contributors

Sarah Ann Winn, Donna Vorreyer, Robin Turner, Phoebe Reeves, Lori Propheter, Susan Milchman, Melissa Atkinson Mercer, Rebecca Macijeski, Minadora Macheret, Lindsay Lusby, Sally Rosen Kindred, Sonja Johanson, Alicia Hoffman, Jenn Givhan, Emily Corwin, Emily Rose Cole, Ava C. Cipri, Erinn Batykefer, Stacey Balkun, Stephanie Bryant Anderson, E. Kristin Anderson, & Cassandra de Alba.

covers & binding

bramble & thorn is a handbound anthology limited to an edition of 125. Our cover imagery was provided by Olivia Edvalson.

available in our shop » $9.50

SKY+SEA

SKY+SEA is an anthology of poetry, prose, and art inspired by the stars, planets, nebulae, comets, the depths of the ocean, Galileo, sailors navigating by constellations, omens, shooting stars, and divination. » more

the contributors

Stacey Balkun, Lori Sambol Brody, Zelda Chappel, A.E. Clark, Tyree Daye, Kelsey Dean, Carlina Duan, Chelsea Eckert, Jennifer A. Howard, Sonja Johanson, Anita Olivia Koester, Sandra Marchetti, Ryan Mattern, Laura Sloane Patterson, Nicole Rollender, Jason Sears, Erin Elizabeth Smith, Kitsuko Steinman-Arendsee, and Nicole Tong.

Myth+Magic Anthology

Myth+Magic anthology (cover: Angie Reed Garner)

Myth+Magic is a collection of modern takes on old myth, fable, and fairy tale. Nothing is quite what it seems to be. Discover it with us? Limited edition (125), bound by hand. This handbound booklet includes poetry & fiction curated by the joint efforts of Porkbelly & Sugared Water staff. | $10

contributors

Suzanna Anderson
Leah Browning
Andrea Blythe
Laura Bylenok
M. Brett Gaffney
Lisa Megraw
Lucas Olson
Marlana Patton
Monica Rico
Sarah Ann Winn

from the editors

Myth+Magic is a special edition outside of the regular submission period & subscription. We asked for updates of classics—new takes on old tales—and original work. Nothing here is quite what it seems to be. There is always more, and we welcome the deepening of the shadows on the path. All the best forests have them.

Included in this edition you’ll find short works inspired folk tale, fable, fairy tale, gods, monsters, myth, magic, tricksters, divination, witchcraft, and herbalism.

Prepare to be enchanted.

Very affectionately yours,

Sugared Water & Porkbelly Press

about the press

Porkbelly Press creates chapbooks in handbound, small editions. Launched in 2014, PP seeks works with a strong sense of voice, place, and just a touch of fabulism, folklore, or magic. We make our home on the banks of the Ohio River, in a little town called Cincinnati, where pigs fly. // porkbellypress.wordpress.com

colophon

40 pages, 5×7 inches, handbound & trimmed. 24lb bright white paper guts & Epson matte cover (inkjet printed). Garamond is our font of choice. Printed in August 2015.

cover artist

Our cover features a painting by Kentucky-born painter Angie Reed Garner. Garner is a second-generation narrative painter from Kentucky. The piece is “under water” (oil paint, 28×22 inches).

excerpts

from “Hunters” by M. Brett Gaffney:

After supper she pulls on boots,
prepares her heart.

The girl is small but carries the gun
like she would a baby, twig fingers light
on its tongue of a trigger.

Her father hoists his rifle, heavy with ammo,
the glint of his knife like teeth in the fading light.

They hunt at twilight, when wild things stumble
onto the roads like drowsy children,
thickets busy with thorns.

from “How to Fold a Dream” by Sarah Ann Winn:

You have to think first of the breakables.
The four mockingbirds growing smaller
on receding fence posts
must be stacked one inside the other
like nesting dolls. Wrap their song in a cyan silk scarf.
Place it in the smallest.
It must be tucked in carefully.

Take down Venus.
Pack it separately – it’s wish laden, fragile.

Reviews

Myth+Magic: A Review – via Christopher Morgan & Alien Mouth.

Words for Worlds

Words for Worlds, full cover

Words for Worlds is an anthology produced by Porkbelly Press in Cincinnati, Ohio. This 38 page handbound booklet includes poems from members of the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts poetry panel, also titled Words for Worlds. | open edition | $7.50

acknowledgements:

Some of the poems in this anthology are reprints and first appeared in such mags & books as: Azimov’s, Cthulu Haiku and Other Mythos Madness, Dissections, Drawn to Marvel, Goblin Fruit, Science Fiction Poetry, Strange Horizons, and others.

contributors:

Bruce Boston
Bryan Dietrich
Donna Hooley
Sandra Lindow
David Lunde
P. Andrew Miller
Donald Riggs
Marge Simon
Mary Turzillo
Gina Wisker

from the editor of the anthology:

There is stardust in each of us. It yearns to return to the vastness of space, the beauty of the cosmos. We reach for the stars with telescopes and space ships, probes and transmissions. Some of us reach through science and formulas. Others with paper and poetry. We create worlds from words and use words for worlds.

Poetry has been part of the literature of the Fantastic for a very long time. After all, the first epic poems were all fantastic in nature. At the International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts, poetry is celebrated with the Words for Worlds panels. First organized by poet Judith Kerman, the panels have hosted many current poets of the fantastic who, each year, share their visions of words and worlds. This chapbook features the poets who have been regulars at the conference and the poetry panels for many years. It is my pleasure to put this chapbook together.

If you ever have the chance to attend ICFA, please stop by the poetry panels. Until then, please enjoy our words for worlds.

P. Andrew Miller, February 2015

about the editor:

P. Andrew Miller is the author of the short story collection In Love, In Water and Other Stories (Post Mortem Press), as well as the lyric comic The Legacy of the Turquoise Knight (Finishing Line Press), and the prose chapbook Bodies in Water (Porkbelly Press). He has been an attending author at ICFA since the mid 90’s. He teaches at Northern Kentucky University.

Words for Worlds (ed. P. Andrew Miller), cover art by Jonathan Rountree

colophon:

Cover Art: “The Nursery” (24 x 18 inches, acrylic on canvas) by Jonathan Rountree. Design & Production by: Nicci Mechler, Porkbelly Press. The cover is printed on either acid free cardstock (laser) or Epson Ultra Premium Matte paper (inkjet). All are handbound.

Emily, an anthology of Dickinson inspired works

Emily (antho), limited edition, via Sugared Water & Porkbelly Press, Feb 2015

Emily is a 40 page anthology in limited edition (125). The cover art is a composed from detail shots of two pieces of art (see below). The binding is sewn by hand with heavy thread. | $8.50

Emily is a special edition outside of the regular submission period & subscription. We asked for works inspired by Emily Dickinson’s life and letters, suggesting only broad themes. We’re enamored of the smart, savvy poet, the woman who lowered cookies from her window for neighborhood children, baked bread for neighbors, and coconut cake for friends, penned over 1,700 poems, shared so much of herself in letters, and maintained intimate correspondence with her brother’s wife, Suzie, from across the hedge for all of those years.

Included in this edition you’ll find works inspired sweet Emilie and found poetry pulled from bits of her lines & letters.

Very affectionately yours,

Sugared Water & Porkbelly Press

Contributors

E. Kristin Anderson, Natasha Arora, Sarah Feldman, Laura Garrison, Karen George, Sonja Johanson, Sarah Nichols, Jeremy Pataky, Nicole Tong, Robin Turner, Loretta Diane Walker, Hilda Weaver, & Laura Madeline Wiseman.

Cover

Cover Art: Front: detail, “One Need Not Be a Chamber to Be Haunted” (monotype + mixed media on wood, 10¼ x 17 inches). Back: detail, “Open Me Carefully” (5 ¼ x 8 x 1½ inches, assemblage with found objects + mini spikes).

Cover artist: Nicci Mechler | damnredshoes.wordpress.com

Nicci Mechler is a Cincinnati artist. Her work has appeared in several mags. She edits Sugared Water and lives with a cadre of rescue animals and delightful people specializing in troublemaking & joy.

Readings

Laura Madeline Wiseman reading “With Death at the Funeral Home” from Wake, also one of her 2 poems in Emily. | youtube

(Bonus) Artwork:

Below: a little piece of art by Nicole Tong, which we really quite like as a companion to this antho. (Nicole submitted this as part of her packet, but didn’t have a file large enough as to be printable, so we’ve decided to feature it here instead!)

“Answer” by Nicole Tong

Epistolary, the Art of Letters (Anthology)

Epistolary: the Art of Letters (anthology) via Porkbelly Press & Sugared Water (limited edition)

Epistolary is a 60 page anthology in limited edition (125). The cover art is a collage of gouache, tissue, ink, and paper. The binding is sewn by hand with heavy thread. | $9.50

the special edition anthology: a sweet treat

Epistolary is a special edition outside of the regular submission period & subscription. We asked for the “intimate and specific, letters full of evocative language, short, funny notes, or passionate remembrances,” fictional or poetic, unsent or scrawled on a postcard, inspired by a submission to Sugared Water that we just couldn’t refuse (see: “Morocco Mon Amour”).

Some of the snippets you’ll read are true, some invented, but all are intended for some kind of audience. It’s a little bit like sneaking a look inside someone’s journal, or wandering through a garden of secrets.

The art of letter writing is one that’s fallen out of fashion, and it’s with a nod to just this sort of archaic (or nostalgic!) practice that we bind by hand and produce our magazine in limited edition. We adore the physicality of a book you can hold in your hands, hand to a stranger, or gift to a loved one. We want you to secret us away or post us across an ocean—carry us. This edition is our fond epistle to you, dear reader.

XO,

Sugared Water
& Porkbelly Press

Contributors

Lori Brack, Marilyn Cavicchia, Emily Rose Cole, Kelly DuMar, Ruth Foley, Karen George, Mary Hammerbeck, Barbara Harroun, Joy KMT, Ross Losapio, Fayroze Lutta, Sarah McCartt-Jackson, Meredith McDonough, Lisa Megraw, P. Andrew Miller, Joe Nicholas, Julia Park Tracey (& Doris), Jonathan Travelstead, & Meg Tuite.