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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April Bacon

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

MEXICAMERICANA by Eloisa Amezcua (cover artwork: Sharmon Davidson)

My Own Strange Beast by Melissa Atkinson Mercer (cover art by Danial Powers)

Ghost Skin by Wren Hanks (cover: Alexandra Eldridge)

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

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

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Dreamland for Keeps (Porkbelly Press, forthcoming)
by Sarah Nichols » @onibaba37

• Sarah’s chapbook She May Be a Saint (Hermeneutic Chaos Press, 2017) is reviewed by Sonja Johanson over at The Rumpus!
• 5 poems appear in Queen of Cups issue 48!
• “Be Careful” and “Red Light,” two erasure poems, are up at Public Pool.

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

• a review of Wren’s Prophet Fever (Hyacinth Girl Press) appears in Stirring vol. 19, issue 2.

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

• Feeding the Dead is delightfully reviewed at Rust+Moth.

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

• Mexicamericana is now available for pre-order! Free domestic shipping with pre-order & use of coupon code AMEZCUA. Offer expires May 29th.

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

• My Own Strange Beast is now available for pre-order! Free domestic shipping with pre-order & use of coupon code STRANGEBEAST. Offer expires May 8th.

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

• Gulf Coast‘s video of Chen Chen reading from When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017).
• Chen’s interviewed by Lone Star Literary Life: “Poet Chen Chen on arriving and belonging, the craft of writing, and Texas.”
• Post interviews Chen: “Writing is Part of How I Resist.” (via Mud Season 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 new poems in Daphne.

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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.)

October’s (possibly Haunted) Bacon

(news & good things from/with/including our poets & authors)

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

Pray, Pray, Pray by E. Kristin Anderson (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)

Threnody (Laura Madeline Wiseman)

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

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

Ghost Skin by Wren Hanks (cover: Alexandra Eldridge)

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

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

• lines from Chen’s work are currently on display (visible when it rains) in Boston c/o Mass Poetry.
• a review of Kissing the Sphinx (Two of Cups Press, 2016) is up at Stirring: a Literary Collection vol 18, edition 10.
• Chen’s When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Future Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017) is now available for pre-order for $16.
• Chen reads “Lone Star Kundiman (For the Guy Who Seized My Arm After I Accidentally Cut the Line for the Toilet in Austin)” by Patrick Rosal, and talks Lyric Essentials (“where writers and poets share with us a passage or poem which is ‘essential’ to their bookshelf and who they are as a writer”) over at Sundress’ Blog.

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Apples or Pomegranates (Porkbelly Press, forthcoming in 2917)
by Anita Olivia Koester » www.anitaoliviakoester.com

• One of 3 winners of the Vella Chapbook Contest. Arrow Songs is set to be published by Paper Nautilus in 2017.

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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

• EKA received a Best of the Net nomination for her poem “The Final Frontier” in DISTRICT LIT
• Best of the Net nomination for her poem “Sugar water, ugly bird” in Alyss.
• “This is How I Am a Monster” is featured on Glass: A Journal of Poetry.
• We’re Doing Witchcraft (Hermeneutic Chaos Press, 2016) is out!

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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

• Sarah’s nonfiction hybrid Field Guide to Alma Avenue and Frew Drive is available through Essay Press as a free e-chapbook!
• Sarah’s hybrid poetry, “The Grimm Forest Open Air Museum,” is currently up on talking writing.
• Six of Sarah’s poems won the Coniston Prize! These poems are up in issue 12 of Radar Poetry. You can listen to them there! “Dot & Bo in the Cobbler’s Den” is the first. The rest of these lovely poems: “Dot & Bo in Space,” “Dot & Bo Try Mid-Century Classic,” “Dot & Bo: Fever Dream,” “Dot is Inspired to Travel,” and “Dot & Bo: Yard Sale.”
• Sarah’s poem “Nature, Chrome Painted” appears in Heron Tree.

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Threnody (Porkbelly Press, 2014)
by Laura Madeline Wiseman » @drmadwiseman

• Best of the Net nomination for “Digger Troll” from Gingerbread House.

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

• a micro review of Ghost Tongue is up over on Crab Fat Magazine.
• Nicole’s Louder Than Everything You Love (ELJ Publications, 2015) is reviewed over at Literary Mama.

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

• released this month! More on our Ghost Skin press page.
• Ghost Ocean Magazine 19 includes an interview with Wren about Prophet Fever, with a mention of forthcoming gar child (Tree Light Books) & Ghost Skin (Porkbelly Press).
• Wren’s poem “The Ghost Incites a Genderqueer Pledge of Allegiance” appears in Best New Poets!

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

• Sonya’s full-length collection, Salt is for Curing, is reviewed over on Entropy.

This slim, seemingly unassuming book of poems has the power to gut us with its honesty, disarm us with its vulnerability, and enchant us with its inventive language and imagery. Salt Is For Curing is a powerful spell to read over and over again. | more at Entropy

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bindweed & crow poison (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Robin Turner

• “crow poison” is included in Sonja Johanson’s “The Growing Season” blog post over on The Best American Poetry.
• “east texas, twilight” was nominated for Best of the Net by Nonbinary Review.

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Feeding the Dead (Porkbelly Press, forthcoming 2016)
by M. Brett Gaffney

• “Outside the Haunted House, a Dancing Doll” and “Tarantula Fever” are up at So to Speak.

Bacon (Good Stuff) March

All the good things (we’ve heard about) from our contributors (in March):

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

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

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

My Heart in Aspic (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by Sonya Vatomsky // @coolniceghost

• Multiple haunting/haunted poems up at Potluck: “5 Sonya Vatomsky & Friends“
• 5 poems & an interview in West Trade Review. (Spring 2016 issue)
• Sonya’s at it again with an interview up at Paper Darts: “A Bit of Spellcasting“

I love that traditionally underrepresented groups are able to get exposure through smaller presses/journals and self-publishing, and I love destroying that idea that there’s some kind of difference in “quality” between what’s on a bestseller list or in the canon and what’s being produced online, that some writing is “real writing” or whatever. // more at Paper Darts

• Oh, and guess what else? They’re blogging for the Poetry Has Value project! (In which Sonya reveals their very serious indy press book habit. V. serious.)
• Sonya’s collection Salt is for Curing (Sator Press, 2015) went into its second printing!

via Sator Press

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

• Chen is a Best of the Net winner! “Write a Letter to Your Mother About Your Longest Winter” (orig. published in Maps for Teeth, also appears in Set the Garden on Fire)
• Linda Ashok reviews Set the Garden on Fire at The Rumpus!

“Each poem in this collection is like a booth with the reader or the poet but one telephone that connects to the world of multifarious affairs. In fact, there’s a pattern that an interested mind may discover which is so intricate and amazing, sharp and endearing.” // more

• Chen’s chapbook Kissing the Sphinx is available for pre-order at Two of Cups Press (and was a 2015 chapbook contest finalist)! Chen gets good blurb:

“There is so much love in these poems it seems Eros is nibbling at the ear of Chen Chen, and through him, at ours. Listen―yes, listen!―closely to this sensuous, tender and bold new voice in American poetry…” —Curtis Bauer

Kissing the Sphinx (Chen Chen) via Two of Cups Press

• Chen’s first full-length book of poems was a finalist for the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize.
• Chen Chen has won the Poulin Poetry Prize via BOA Editions “for his collection When I Grow up I Want to be a List of Further Possibilities. The collection was selected by highly-acclaimed poet Jericho Brown. Chen will receive a $1,500 honorarium and book publication by BOA Editions, Ltd. in spring 2017.”

“Chen Chen refuses to be boxed in or nailed down. He is a poet of Whitman’s multitudes and of Langston Hughes’ blues, of Dickinson’s ‘so cold no fire can warm me’ and of Michael Palmer’s comic interrogation. What unifies the brilliance of When I Grow up I Want to be a List of Further Possibilities is a voice desperate to believe that within every one of life’s sadnesses there is also hope, meaning, and—if we are willing to laugh at ourselves—humor. This is a book I wish existed when I first began reading poetry. Chen is a poet I’ll be reading for the rest of my life.” – Jericho Brown //  more

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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 // @ek_anderson

• EKA’s chapbook, Fire in the Sky, is forthcoming from Grey Book Press in spring.

via Grey Book Press

via ELJ Publications

• Anderson’s really on fire here—Acoustic Battery Life will make an appearance in spring via ELJ Publications.
• While you’re waiting for those two beauties, you can pick up her short chapbook of Prince inspired poems, sometimes lovingly referred to as the B-side of Pray, Pray, Pray, from ELJ‘s magpies line: 17 Days.

via ELJ Publications