April’s Good Stuff

News & new things from/with/about poets & writers in the Porkbelly family.

 

Pray, Pray, Pray by E. Kristin Anderson (cover: Nicci Mechler)

Set the Garden on Fire by Chen Chen (cover: Nicci Mechler)

Love Me, Anyway by Minadora Macheret (cover artist: Sharmon Davidson)

How Darkness Enters a Body by Sarah Nichols

Apples or Pomegranates (cover art: Anita Olivia Koester)

Dry Spell by Patrick Kindig (cover: Nicci Mechler)

Blackbird Whitetail Redhand (cover: Nicci Mechler)

The Girl by Donna Vorreyer (cover image: Alexandra Eldridge)

A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road by Amorak Huey (cover image: Alexandra Eldridge)

Found Footage by Maggie Woodward (cover: Nicci Mechler)

Dreamland for Keeps by Sarah Nichols (cover artist: Nicci Mechler)

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Dreamland for Keeps (Porkbelly Press, 2018) & How Darkness Enters a Body (Porkbelly Press, 2018) by Sarah Nichols » @onibaba37

• One of Sarah’s Elizabeth Short poems appears in Drunk Monkeys: “Elizabeth Short Visits the Black Lodge.” Interested in more poems like this? Dreamland for Keeps (Porkbelly Press, 2018) has released this month—it’s a whole chapbook of erasure poems.

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Found Footage (Porkbelly Press, 2018)
by Maggie Woodward

• 5 poems are up at inferior planets!
• Anna Sandy Elrod reviews FOUND FOOTAGE over at Real Pants!

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Set the Garden on Fire (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by Chen Chen » chenchenwrites.com

• Congratulations to Chen Chen on accepting the 2018 – 2020 Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence at Brandeis University!
• Chen’s “I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party” up at poem-a-day. You can hear him read it here!
• When I Grow Up, I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions) won the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry.

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Love Me, Anyway (Porkbelly Press, 2018)
by Minadora Macheret

• Congratulations to Minadora Macheret on winning the Justin Q. Owens Convention Theme: Creative Writing award from Sigma Tau Delta’s 2018 Convention!

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Apples or Pomegranates (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Anita Olivia Koester » anitaoliviakoester.com

• Anita’s manuscript Cartography of Grief was a runner-up in the Dorset Prize (selected by Dana Levin via Tupelo Press).
• “Cartography of a Missing Body” & “Cartography of a Keyhole” (two father poems) in the new issue if Up North Lit.

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Blackbird Whitetail Redhand (Porkbelly Press, 2018)
by Lindsay Lusby » lindsaylusby.com

• Lindsay’s manuscript Catechesis: a postpastoral was a finalist in the Dorset Prize (selected by Dana Levin via Tupelo Press).
• Blackbird Whitetail Redhand was released this month! The chapbook is handbound (Japanese stab binding) and features letterpress covers. » order

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A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road (Porkbelly Press, 2016) by Amorak Huey » amorakhuey.net

• “Captain Picard Teaches My Son to Throw a Football” is up at Beech Street Review.
• Congratulations to Amorak Huey for winning the 2018 Vern Rutsala Prize. His book Seducing the Asparagus Queen is due out in late-summer via Cloudbank Books.

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Dry Spell (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Patrick Kindig

• Patrick Kindig reads three poems at The Poets Weave.

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The Girl (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Donna Vorreyer

• a new piece, “Painting Which is in Fact Not a Sky” is up in Juxtaprose.

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Pray, Pray, Pray: Poems I wrote to Prince in the Middle of the Night (Porkbelly Press, 2015) by E. Kristin Anderson » www.ekristinanderson.com

• A new essay up at Cotton Xenomorph in their manifestos series: “Anderson’s Rules for Writing Found Poetry.”
• EKA’s essay “Everything Could Never Be This Real” is up at Memoir Mixtapes!

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End of Year News

How Darkness Enters a Body by Sarah Nichols

Apples or Pomegranates (cover art: Anita Olivia Koester)

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

Daughter Shaman Sings Blood Anthem (Kristi Carter) cover: Nicci Mechler

Feeding the Dead by M. Brett Gaffney (cover art: Mary Chiaramonte)

End of year news (December!) for our Porkbelly Press poets & writers:

Dreamland for Keeps (Porkbelly Press, 2018) & How Darkness Enters a Body (Porkbelly Press, 2018) by Sarah Nichols » @onibaba37

• “I Woke Up, I Found Her, That’s All I Know” is up at Rogue Agent!
• “The Monkey On My Back” is up in the December issue of Glass.
• You can listen to two poems by Sarah up at FreezeRay!

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Apples or Pomegranates (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Anita Olivia Koester » anitaoliviakoester.com

• “Coronation,” a sonnet crown, was nominated for a Pushcart by Pittsburgh Poetry Review.
• Anita’s poem “Avowal” won the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award.

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Love Me, Anyway (Porkbelly Press, 2018)
by Minadora Macheret

• “Baba Yaga: Her Almost Origin Story” from bramble & thorn was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

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MEXICAMERICANA (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Eloisa Amezcua » www.eloisaamezcua.com

• “Watching Underworld, Inc Episode 3: Human Cargo” from Mexicamericana was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

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Feeding the Dead (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by M. Brett Gaffney « blog

• “Hellhound, Lost” from Feeding the Dead was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

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Daughter Shaman Sings Blood Anthem (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Kristi Carter » @kristixcarter

• “My Mother Is Certain” from Daughter Shaman Sings Blood Anthem was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

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Blackbird Whitetail Redhand (Porkbelly Press, 2018)
by Lindsay Lusby

• We’re working on finishing up the design of the cover for this chapbook. Lindsay blogged some thoughts about letterpress. Blackbird Whitetail Redhand will ship in early 2018.

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November’s Good Stuff

Good news, interviews, happenings, & pubs from our Porkbelly family.

How Darkness Enters a Body by Sarah Nichols

Apples or Pomegranates (cover art: Anita Olivia Koester)

The Girl by Donna Vorreyer (cover image: Alexandra Eldridge)

Dry Spell by Patrick Kindig (cover: Nicci Mechler)

A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road by Amorak Huey (cover image: Alexandra Eldridge)

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Dreamland for Keeps (Porkbelly Press, 2018) & How Darkness Enters a Body (Porkbelly Press, 2018) by Sarah Nichols » @onibaba37

• “A Poem For Dope Sickness” is up at Rogue Agent.

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Apples or Pomegranates (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Anita Olivia Koester » anitaoliviakoester.com

• Apples or Pomegranates (Porkbelly Press, 2017) is available now!

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The Girl (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Donna Vorreyer » donnavorreyer.com

• “Some Magic” is up on SWWIM. A little spellwork as we go into winter.

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Dry Spell (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Patrick Kindig »

• a new poem, “PDA,” in The National Poetry Review.

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A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road (Porkbelly Press, 2016) by Amorak Huey » amorakhuey.net

• two poems in Four Way Review, including “FMK.”

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Apples or Pomegranates (Anita Olivia Koester)

Apples or Pomegranates (cover art: Anita Olivia Koester)

Apples or Pomegranates is an intimate exploration of the spirit housed inside a body, the failings and the strength in each. Sometimes erotic and at other times full of another kind of wanting, this micro chapbook delves into the experience of living boldly, step by step along the path—”a tight-rope walking girl, a pit of lions beneath.” This is the route she takes on these pages, hand out, palm up, if you’ve courage enough to join her. (Porkbelly Press, 2017) » more info & excerpt » available in our shop

about the poet

Anita Olivia Koester is a Chicago poet and author of the chapbooks Marco Polo (Hermeneutic Chaos Press) and Arrow Songs which won Paper Nautilus’ Vella Chapbook Contest. Her poems have been nominated for Best New Poets and Pushcart Prizes, and won Midwestern Gothic’s 2016 Lake Prize in Poetry, So to Speak’s Annual Poetry Contest, and the Jo-Anne Hirshfield Memorial Poetry Award. She is currently the poetry editor for Duende. Her poetry is published or forthcoming in Vinyl, CALYX Journal, Tahoma Literary Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, and elsewhere. Her work as been supported by the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Vermont Studio Center, and Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA). Visit her online at www.anitaoliviakoester.com.

blurbs

In this collection, Koester gives us three central lessons. One, it is not always necessary to be loud to be ferocious. Two, there are unlimited ways to be naked, most of which happen clothed. Three, even longing that begins with nostalgia can blossom into something altogether and luminously new.

—Marty McConnell

Apples and Pomegranates unravels and interrogates a universe set on its denial of the body feminine. Artistic canon, the expectations and consequences of relationships, biology itself, and even language (its translation or mistranslation) are called into light by Koester’s words. “Travelling the fallopian tubes of the Milky Way” is a tender prospect in every sense of the word. Koester’s command of passion and utterance is that kind of double-edged wonder.

—Keith S. Wilson

Anita is also the cover artist for her chapbook.

October’s Bacony Goodness

Good news, interviews, happenings, & pubs from our Porkbelly family.

Apples or Pomegranates (cover art: Anita Olivia Koester)

How Darkness Enters a Body by Sarah Nichols

My Heart in Aspic by Sonya Vatomsky (cover: Shannon Perry)

The Girl by Donna Vorreyer (cover image: Alexandra Eldridge)

A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road by Amorak Huey (cover image: Alexandra Eldridge)

Dry Spell by Patrick Kindig (cover: Nicci Mechler)

Feeding the Dead by M. Brett Gaffney (cover art: Mary Chiaramonte)

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The Girl (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Donna Vorreyer » donnavorreyer.com

• a poem, “Detente,” in the October issue of Glass.
• “Declaration” appears in The Indianapolis Review.

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A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road (Porkbelly Press, 2016) by Amorak Huey » amorakhuey.net

• two prose poems in Pithead Chapel.
• Amorak’s essay “Where the River is Shaped Like Words and the Words Are Shaped Like Blades” appears in The Collagist.

Have you watched a skilled butcher break down a side of beef? Such precision, such devastation, the way the final product is not recognizably related to the slab of meat we started with—this teaches us something important about art. About hunger.

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Dreamland for Keeps (Porkbelly Press, 2018) & How Darkness Enters a Body (Porkbelly Press, 2018) by Sarah Nichols » @onibaba37

• She May Be a Saint (Hermeneutic Chaos Press, 2016) was part of the Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange!
• Four poems up at Anti-Heroin Chic: “Are You Pregnant?,” “Skyfall,” “This is Not a Redemption Story, Part One,” and “This is Not a Redemption Story, Part Two.”

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Apples or Pomegranates (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Anita Olivia Koester » anitaoliviakoester.com

• Apples or Pomegranates (Porkbelly Press, 2017) is available for pre-order & releases November 14!

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My Heart in Aspic (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by Sonya Vatomsky » www.sonyavatomsky.com

• Recent articles like: “Death Becomes Her” for Bitch Media, “The Movement to Bury Pets Alongside People” for The Atlantic, “Creature Comfort” for Southwest The Magazine, and “What to Wear at the End of Someone Else’s Life” for Racked.

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Daughter Shaman Sings Blood Anthem (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Kristi Carter » @kristixcarter

• Kristi’s book Cosmovore (Aqueduct Press, 2017) is available!

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Dry Spell (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Patrick Kindig »

• “fascinations: thumbnail” is up at Juked.

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Feeding the Dead (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by M. Brett Gaffney « blog

• a mini review of Feeding the Dead courtesy of Michelle Castleberry.

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First Bacon of Fall (September’s Good News)

 

Apples or Pomegranates (cover art: Anita Olivia Koester)

hiku [pull] by James A. H. White (cover: Nicci Mechler)

A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road by Amorak Huey (cover image: Alexandra Eldridge)

Set the Garden on Fire by Chen Chen (cover: Nicci Mechler)

Haunting the Last House on Holland Island, Fallen into the Bay (Porkbelly Press, 2016) by Sarah Ann Winn (cover: Angie Reed Garner)

MEXICAMERICANA by Eloisa Amezcua (cover artwork: Sharmon Davidson)

Dry Spell by Patrick Kindig (cover: Nicci Mechler)

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Apples or Pomegranates (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Anita Olivia Koester » anitaoliviakoester.com

• “Constellation with False Moon” is up at Glass Poetry Journal.

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Love Me, Anyway (Porkbelly Press, 2018)
by Minadora Macheret

• “She Called Them All Bandit-God or How My Grandmother Survived the Holocaust” is up at Red Paint Hill.

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Haunting the Last House on Holland Island, Fallen into the Bay (Porkbelly Press, 2016) by Sarah Ann Winn » bluebirdwords.com

• Haunting reviewed by Kimberly Ann Southwick at Ploughshares blog.

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A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road (Porkbelly Press, 2016) by Amorak Huey » amorakhuey.net

• A Map of the Farm reviewed by Kimberly Ann Southwick at Ploughshares blog.
• “Prayer for What I Do Not Want” is up at Third Point Press.

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hiku [pull] (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by James A. H. White

• hiku [pull] reviewed by Kimberly Ann Southwick at Ploughshares blog.

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Set the Garden on Fire (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by Chen Chen » chenchenwrites.com

• When I Grow Up… was long-listed for the National Book Award! (poetry)
• Set the Garden on Fire turned two this month!
• When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities reviewed by @shitty_book_reviews:

Because the word will not save you. Because an elegy is a body’s warm light unfolding. Because the tree cannot hold all of you. Because love’s glossolalia isn’t translatable. Because translation is a kind of murder. Because language is both the bread and the knife. Because we could all stand to be a little more like flowers. When I Grow Up I Want To Be A List Of Further Possibilities pairs well with a date to the zoo, the works of Paul Celan, and New York tap water. Chen Chen’s poems are hearts too big for their bodies. // @shitty_book_reviews

• Chen’s interviewed by Allison Peters for Michigan Quarterly Review.
  

  “I want to write and to read poems with this kind of scrappy don’t-fuck-with-me-but-also-gahh-I’m-a-human-ness,” says Chen. // more

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MEXICAMERICANA (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Eloisa Amezcua » www.eloisaamezcua.com

• “Watching Underworld, Inc. Episode 3: Human Cargo,” (from Mexicamericana), was selected for Best New Poets 2017.

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The Girl (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Donna Vorreyer » donnavorreyer.com

• a review of The Girl is up on Glass! (review by Amorak Huey!)

These are poems to be believed. This experience is real. Fraught and complex and contradictory and imaginative and impossible, naturally, but real nonetheless.

… Vorreyer starts this collection with a bit of a mystery, our heroic girl stopping “mid-stride in the center of a crosswalk.” The world does not know what to make of her, frozen like this, getting in the way of things. The girl’s parents, the police, a priest — all of them are unable to persuade her to move. The poem ends that way: the world freaking out, the girl unflinching. // more

• Best of the Net nomination from Compose for “Because Ignorance is a Country with Many Coasts.”

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Dry Spell (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Patrick Kindig » pdkindig.wordpress.com

• new work in Timber Journal.

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Excerpt from Kimberly Ann Southwick’s reviews of three Porkbelly Press titles on Ploughshares blog this month:

Porkbelly Press is a Cincinnati-based press that puts out chapbooks and micro-chapbooks as well as a literary magazines and anthologies. It describes itself as an “indie queer-friendly, feminist press” and produces chapbooks that are hand-stitched. Porkbelly is as diverse as its description claims, boasting titles like Eloisa Amezcua’s Mexicamericana, Billie R. Tadros’ inter: burial places, and Wren Hanks’ Ghost Skin, in addition to those reviewed below, which exemplify the high-quality writing the press values. // more

Titles reviewed include: hiku [pull] by James A. H. White, A Map of the Farm Three Miles From the End of Happy Hollow Road by Amorak Huey, and Haunting the Last House on Holland Island, Fallen Into the Bay by Sarah Ann Winn.

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Porkbelly Press tabled at the Kentucky Fried Zine Fest (Lyric Theater & Cultural Arts Center, Lexington, Kentucky). We met some fab people & scooped up cool stickers, patches, & zines! Thanks for the welcome and all the writing&activism&life conversation, KFZ!

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June’s Bacony Goodness

Strangest Sea (Ariana D. Den Bleyker) cover artist: Nicci Mechler

The Peace of Wild Things by Ariana D. Den Bleyker (cover: Jonathan Rountree & Nicci Mechler)

Dry Spell by Patrick Kindig (cover: Nicci Mechler)

My Body Is a Poem I Can’t Stop Writing by Kelly Lorraine Andrews (cover art by : Jessica Earhart)

Ghost Tongue by Nicole Rollender (Cover art: Susan Yount)

MEXICAMERICANA by Eloisa Amezcua (cover artwork: Sharmon Davidson)

A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road by Amorak Huey (cover image: Alexandra Eldridge)

bindweed & crow poison: small poems of stray girls, fierce women by Robin Turner (cover: Anita Olivia Koester)

Pray, Pray, Pray by E. Kristin Anderson (cover: Nicci Mechler)

Set the Garden on Fire by Chen Chen (cover: Nicci Mechler)

The Girl by Donna Vorreyer (cover image: Alexandra Eldridge)

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Dry Spell (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Patrick Kindig » pdkindig.wordpress.com

• 3 poems in yalobusha review :  “Prayer of Commendation,” “Boys’ Time,” & “Cento.”
• “presto“—a gorgeous poem—appears in the inaugural issue of Underblong.
• … which inspired a micro review from Joyce Chong via wildness!

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Ghost Tongue (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Nicole Rollender » www.nicolerollender.com

• “Ways of Blessing” & “My Words Stuck in My Daughter’s Throat,” two new poems, are up at diode poetry journal.

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MEXICAMERICANA (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Eloisa Amezcua » www.eloisaamezcua.com

• “Teaching My Mother English Over the Phone” & “My Mother’s Been Trying to Kill Me Since the Day I Was Born” appear in diode poetry journal. (Both appear in her Porkbelly Press chapbook.)
• pre-orders have been mailed & this chapbook launches the first week in July!

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bindweed & crow poison: small poems of stray girls, fierce women (Porkbelly Press, 2016) by Robin Turner » website

• “sundays I would go missing” is up at Psaltery & Lyre.

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Strangest Sea (Porkbelly Press, 2015) &
The Peace of Wild Things (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by Ariana D. Den Bleyker » arianaddenbleyker.com

• a review of Cutting Eyes from Ghosts (Blood Pudding Press, 2017) appears in Glass via Mary Riley.

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My Body Is a Poem I Can’t Stop Writing (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Kelly Lorraine Andrews » kellyandrewspoetry.com

• My Body Is a Poem I Can’t Stop Writing will be out next month!

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A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road (Porkbelly Press, 2016) by Amorak Huey » amorakhuey.net

• “Yes, And” is up over at Rise Up Review.

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Pray, Pray, Pray: Poems I Wrote to Prince in the Middle of the Night (Porkbelly Press, 2015) by E. Kristin Anderson » www.ekristinanderson.com

• One of her Prince poems, “You’re Always in My Hair (after Prince),” is up at Cleaver.
• “Pillow, Screwdriver,” an assertive erasure of SK’s Christine, appears in the inaugural issue of Underblong.

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Apples or Pomegranates (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Anita Olivia Koester » anitaoliviakoester.com

• a new poem, “Constellation in a Cornell Box” is up at The Shallow Ends.

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Set the Garden on Fire (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by Chen Chen » chenchenwrites.com

• When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017) reviewed by James Davis May via The Rumpus.
• Chen released the inaugural issue of Underblong, the online mag he co-edits.

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The Girl (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Donna Vorreyer » donnavorreyer.com

• “I Forecast Your Elegy” is up at Breakwater Review.

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Dreamland for Keeps (Porkbelly Press, 2018)
by Sarah Nichols

• “Little Fires” is up at Ekphrastic Review.

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March & Porkbelly

(Good news, happenings, publications, awards, and general good stuff by/with/for our poets & writers.)

The Girl by Donna Vorreyer (cover image: Alexandra Eldridge)

A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road by Amorak Huey (cover image: Alexandra Eldridge)

Feeding the Dead by M. Brett Gaffney (cover art: Mary Chiaramonte)

Set the Garden on Fire by Chen Chen (cover: Nicci Mechler)

Dry Spell by Patrick Kindig (cover: Nicci Mechler)

Pray, Pray, Pray by E. Kristin Anderson (cover: Nicci Mechler)

Ghost Tongue by Nicole Rollender (Cover art: Susan Yount)

How to Leave a Farmhouse (Beth McDermott, cover: Nicci Mechler)

Haunting the Last House on Holland Island, Fallen into the Bay (Porkbelly Press, 2016) by Sarah Ann Winn (cover: Angie Reed Garner)

Ghost Skin by Wren Hanks (cover: Alexandra Eldridge)

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Feeding the Dead (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by M. Brett Gaffney » blog

• Feeding the Dead was released just this month!

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The Girl (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Donna Vorreyer » donnavorreyer.com

• “Our Bodies Are More Than 50 Percent Water” is up in Waxwing.
• “In the Hand, In the Bush” appears in Whale Road Review.
• Published a review of Portrait of the Alcoholic (by Kaveh Akbar) in Tinderbox Poetry Journal.
• The Girl is now available for pre-order & releases the first week of April!

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A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Amorak Huey » amorakhuey.net

• Three poems this month in Masque & Spectacle!

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Set the Garden on Fire (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by Chen Chen » @chenchenwrites » chenchenwrites.com

• “Self-Portrait As So Much Potential” appears in The New York Times Magazine.

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Dry Spell (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Patrick Kindig » pdkindig.wordpress.com

• Three poems in minor literature[s].
• Three poems up at Hobart!
• “What Will Survive of Us Is Love” appears in Hermeneutic Chaos Journal.

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Pray, Pray, Pray: Poems I wrote to Prince in the middle of the night (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by E. Kristin Anderson » www.ekristinanderson.com

• “Even a Song” appears in Southern Women’s Review this month!
• “Flowers at Lunch” appears in Quaint Magazine issue 6.

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Haunting the Last House on Holland Island, Fallen into the Bay (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Sarah Ann Winn » @blueaisling » bluebirdwords.com

• work in Southern Women’s Review this month!
• “Evaluating an Elegy Based on a Rubric” appears in Tinderbox Poetry Journal. You can hear it as well as read it there.
• Sarah’s Exhibition Catalogue Pamphlet from the Grimm Forest Open Air Museum has been accepted by Yellow Flag Press! Congrats, Sarah! ❤

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Ghost Tongue (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Nicole Rollender » nicolerollender.com

• Congrats on a 2017 New Jersey Council on the Arts poetry fellowship!
• Nicole has joined the staff of Thrush as an associate editor.
• Hear Nicole read “Gift” published in Tinderbox Poetry Journal.
• (Essay) “The Obligation to Be Happy” reprinted, originally appearing in Ruminate Magazine‘s blog in 2014.

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How to Leave a Farmhouse (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by Beth McDermott

• new work appears in Bayou issue 66!

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Apples or Pomegranates (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Anita Olivia Koester » www.anitaoliviakoester.com

• poem “Tapestry with White Columns” won the Sable Books Poetry of Protest contest judged by Shadab Zeest Hashmi

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Ghost Skin (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Wren Hanks » wrenhanks.tumblr.com

• Prophet Fever (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2016) was nominated for an Elgin Award.

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February’s Goodness

(News & happenings with/from/about our poets & writers.)

Set the Garden on Fire by Chen Chen (cover: Nicci Mechler)

Haunting the Last House on Holland Island, Fallen into the Bay (Porkbelly Press, 2016) by Sarah Ann Winn (cover: Angie Reed Garner)

Feeding the Dead by M. Brett Gaffney (cover art: Mary Chiaramonte)

My Heart in Aspic by Sonya Vatomsky (cover: Shannon Perry)

A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road by Amorak Huey (cover image: Alexandra Eldridge)

Pray, Pray, Pray by E. Kristin Anderson (cover: Nicci Mechler)

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Set the Garden on Fire (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by Chen Chen » chenchenwrites.com

• Chen’s first full length collection of poetry, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, was just released by BOA Editions!
• Possibilities was reviewed by Travis Chi Wing Lau via Up the Staircase Quarterly, also featured at BOA Editions.
• A conversation with Chen Chen is up at The Adroit Journal.
• Chen Chen & Emilia Phillips are leading the summer 2017 Poetry Retreat at Sundress Academy for the Arts, 26 May to 28 May. The retreat takes place on the lovely Firefly Farms in Knoxville, TN.

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Apples or Pomegranates (Porkbelly Press, 2017 forthcoming)
by Anita Olivia Koester » anitaoliviakoester.com

• One of Anita’s poem appears in unsplendid.
• “Confessions of a Childless Woman (Fig. 1 & 2)” appears in Tupelo Quarterly.

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Haunting the Last House on Holland Island, Fallen Into the Bay (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Sarah Ann Winn » bluebirdwords

• “Lunar Chart, Lost Year” appears in Tupelo Quarterly.
• Even After the End Matter (a chapbook) is forthcoming at Hermeneutic Chaos Press!

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Feeding the Dead (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by M. Brett Gaffney » blog

• Feeding the Dead (Porkbelly Press, 2017) is now available for pre-order.

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My Heart in Aspic (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by Sonya Vatomsky » www.sonyavatomsky.com

• Three new poems in Lockjaw.

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A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Amorak Huey

• Huey’s Ha, Ha, Thump (Sundress Publications, 2015) reviewed at Blogging the Numinous by Janeen Pergrin Rastall.

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Pray, Pray, Pray: Poems I wrote to Prince in the middle of the night (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by E. Kristin Anderson » ekristinanderson.com

• Two poems nominated for the Rhysling Award.

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My Own Strange Beast (Porkbelly Press, 2017 forthcoming)
Melissa Atkinson Mercer

• Melissa’s Star-blind in the Family of Fortune Keepers (Hermeneutic Chaos Press, 2017) was just released! (Hermeneutic Chaos Press will donate $1 to the Parkinson’s Foundation for every copy purchased.)

Goodbye, 2016 Bacon – AKA December News

(News, events, & good things from our poets & writers.)

Poems for Ivan by Sara Adams (cover: Nicci Mechler)

My Heart in Aspic by Sonya Vatomsky (cover: Shannon Perry)

A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road by Amorak Huey (cover image: Alexandra Eldridge)

Ghost Tongue by Nicole Rollender (Cover art: Susan Yount)

The Autobiography of a Love Not Mine, Hilda Weaver

bindweed & crow poison: small poems of stray girls, fierce women by Robin Turner (cover: Anita Olivia Koester)

Pray, Pray, Pray by E. Kristin Anderson (cover: Nicci Mechler)

inter: burial places by Billie R. Tadros (cover: Jolene Costello Hartig)

Ghost Skin by Wren Hanks (cover: Alexandra Eldridge)

Midnight Blue by Vanessa Jimenez Gabb (cover art: Nicci Mechler)

Set the Garden on Fire by Chen Chen (cover: Nicci Mechler)

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Poems for Ivan (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Sara Adams » kartoshkaaaaa.com

• A new interview over at Speaking of Marvels! One of our favorite pieces of advice, aside from ditching projects that suck: “Have a cat. He will love you no matter how many words you can put together.”

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My Heart in Aspic (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by Sonya Vatomsky » sonyavatomsky.com

• Sonya’s Salt is for Curing (Sator Press) is going into a fourth printing!
• article “Stripcraft: Lux ATL’s Spells for the Revolution” up at Slutist.
• co-guest edited Anthropoid‘s Folk issue.

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A Map of the Farm Three Miles from the End of Happy Hollow Road (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Amorak Huey » amorakhuey.net

• A Map of the Farm… was released early this month!
• an interview over at Writer’s Digest (via Robert Lee Brewer).
• “Happy/Hollow” and “Everything I Know About Life I Learned from 1980s Action Shows” are up at Split Lip Magazine.
• BIG CONGRATS to Amorak on an NEA creative writing fellowship! 😀
• A Map of the Farm… is reviewed by Donna Vorreyer at The Rumpus.

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Pray, Pray, Pray: Poems I wrote to Prince in the Middle of the Night (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by E. Kristin Anderson » www.ekristinanderson.com

• a Stephen King erasure is up on Storyscape: “Cherry bomb world.”

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Feeding the Dead (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by M. Brett Gaffney

• “How to Know if Your House is Haunted and What to Do” is up at Apex.

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The Autobiography of a Love Not Mine (Porkbelly Press, 2014)
by Hilda Weaver

• Hilda’s poem “Fear in the Stretch of Years” is out via Pidgeonholes.
• in these cups (Dancing Girl Press, 2016) by Wild Soft is available.
• how wild & soft you are (Hermeneutic Chaos Press, 2016) by Wild Soft is also out!

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Ghost Tongue (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Nicole Rollender » www.nicolerollender.com

• Ghost Tongue is beautifully reviewed at Screaming with Brevity.

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bindweed & crow poison: small poems of stray girls, fierce women (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Robin Turner

• a micro review of Robin’s chapbook via James Brush & Via Negativa.

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Apples or Pomegranates (Porkbelly Press, forthcoming 2017)
by Anita Olivia Koester

• Anita is winner of the Midwest Gothic Lake Prize, poetry.
• her work received a Pushcart nomination from Shot Glass Journal.

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inter: burial places (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Billie R. Tadros

• inter: burial places was released in late December 2016!

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Lost Birds of the Iron Range (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Amber Edmondson

• Lost Birds is  available for pre-order!

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Ghost Skin (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Wren Hanks

• Mark your calendars! Wren’s release party for this book is scheduled at Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop on January 7th, 2017 from 6-9pm.

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midnight blue (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by Vanessa Jimenez Gabb

• Vanessa will also be reading at Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop on January 7th, perhaps even from her own Porkbelly Press title, midnight blue, and probably from her very recently released full-length book!

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Set the Garden on Fire (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by Chen Chen

• Chen’s forthcoming book, When I Grow Up, I Want to be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions), is listed as one of the most anticipated titles of 2017 (in an article at Bustle).
• Chen is co-editor of a newly launched journal Underblong.
• Pushcart nomination from Gulf Coast Journal for “Self Portrait as So Much Potential.”
•  Pushcart nomination from Two of Cups Press, publisher of Kissing the Sphinx.
• another Pushcart nomination from The Account: A Journal of Poetry, Prose, and Thought.
• Check out some of his new work in IDK Magazine‘s 3rd issue.

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Goodbye, 2016! See you soon, 2017.