February’s Good News & Good Reads

(News, reviews, happenings, and readings from our Porkbelly poets & authors)

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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’s poem “Jumping the Fuck Shark” appears in the new Tinderbox Poetry Journal.
  • another erasure, “The light fell in,” appears in Cotton Xenomorph.
  • Come As You Are (Anomalous Press, 2018), an anthology of 90s pop culture, edited by EKA, is just out!
  • Her new chapbook, Seventeen XVII (Grey Book Press, 2018), is available.
  • Other achievements, including a chapbook, are listed in her latest blog post!

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

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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

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

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

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

  • Minadora’s poem “Baba Yaga: Her Almost Origin Story” from Bramble & Thorn (Porkbelly Press, 2017) is nominated for a Rhysling Award.

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

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

  • Work in Come As You Are (Anomalous Press, 2018), an anthology of 90s pop culture edited by E. Kristin Anderson.

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

  • Work in Come As You Are (Anomalous Press, 2018), an anthology of 90s pop culture edited by E. Kristin Anderson.

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

  • Kanika Lawton interviews Melissa about her new collection, Knock (Half Mystic Press, 2018).
  • Featured on Sundress Publications’ The Wardrobe!

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Bodies in Water (Porkbelly Press, 2014)
by P. Andrew Miller » pandrewmiller.com

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Vein of Stone (Porkbelly Press, 2014)
by Sarah McCartt-Jackson » sarahmccarttjackson.com

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Says the Forest to the Girl (Porkbelly Press, 2018)
by Sally Rosen Kindred » sallyrosenkindred.com

  • We’ve accepted Says the Forest to the Girl, a chapbook of poetry, for our 2018 line of chaps!

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Never Leave the Foot of an Animal Unskinned (Porkbelly Press, 2018)
by Sara Ryan » sararryan.com

  • We’ve accepted Never Leave the Foot of an Animal Unskinned, a chapbook of poetry & creative nonfiction, for our 2018 line of chaps!

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Light Experiments (Porkbelly Press, 2018)
by Madeleine Barnes » madeleinebarnes.com

  • We’ve accepted Light Experiments, our very first chapbook of photography, for our 2018 line of chaps!

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May’s Good Stuff

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

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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

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

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

  • One of Sarah’s Holland Island pieces was nominated for WigleaF‘s long list!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Ariana has two new pieces in May’s beautiful issue of Hermeneutic Chaos.

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

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Melissa Atkinson Mercer’s My Own Strange Beast

Mercer’s My Own Strange Beast is a cluster of short poems, most under twenty lines, packed with evocative language, lush image, and the dichotomy of the delicate and the sharp. There’s a lingering darkness here, a follower, something haunting this speaker through dreams, the smell of lotus, candles, and salted bones. They feel mythic, these women (mother/daughter, aunt/niece) in these poems, carrying baskets of dead fish, sitting in the glow of a brick oven, surviving together, searching together: “Your heart like a thin-throated flower,” she writes, “the small lamp of your face beside me.” (Porkbelly Press, 2017) » more & excerpt

about the poet

Melissa Atkinson Mercer is the author of Saint of the Partial Apology (Five Oaks Press) and five poetry chapbooks, including Star-Blind in the Family of Fortune Keepers (Hermeneutic Chaos), After the Miracle Season (Seven Kitchens Press), and ghost exhibit (Glass Poetry Press). Her work has recently appeared in Ruminate, Zone 3, Blue Earth Review, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, and others and has been nominated for Best of the Net and a Pushcart Prize. She has an MFA from West Virginia University, where she won the Russell MacDonald Creative Writing Award in Poetry.

cover art

artist » Danial Powers
portfolio » Empress Dragon Arts

April Bacon

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

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

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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

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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

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February’s Goodness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

September’s Bacon

(News & happenings from/with/including/for our poets&writers)

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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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 work in TAB.

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

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Apples or Pomegranates (Porkbelly Press, forthcoming in 2917)
by Anita Olivia Koester

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

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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

  • Amorak’s chapbook Insomniac Circus (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2015) reviewed in KR Online‘s September micro reviews.

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What’s pink & shiny / what’s dark & hard (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
Sarah B. Boyle » www.impolitelines.com

  • Sarah’s long poem “Darling of the Wolf God” is September’s featured writer on Aspasiology. There are several responses to the poem (including one by Sonya Vatomsky), which is a pretty neat feature of the site.

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