February’s Good News & Good Reads

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

Ghost Skin by Wren Hanks (cover: Alexandra Eldridge)

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

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

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

The Autobiography of a Love Not Mine, Hilda Weaver

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

How Darkness Enters a Body by Sarah Nichols

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

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

Bodies in Water, P. Andrew Miller (special edition cover)

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

Vein of Stone, Sarah McCartt-Jackson (special edition cover)

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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

• a recent micro-review of Hilda’s The Autobiography of a Love Not Mine (Porkbelly Press, 2014) via Christine Brandel’s 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

• Two of Amorak’s poems appear in Tinderbox Poetry Journal: “God, the Father” & “Putting the Fun in Fungible.”

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

• Wren’s poem “Dear Ozma,” appears in Pittsburgh Poetry Review.
• Wren’s chapbook The Rise of Genderqueer was selected by Brain Mill Press for the Mineral Point Poetry Series (series editor: Kiki Petrosino). His chapbook is due out in August 2018!

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

• Chen Chen in conversation with Francesca Ekwuyasi at Winter Tangerine: “I Forget Myself When I’m Not In Conversation with Other Minds.”
• “The School of Song,” “Elegy While Listening to a Song I Can’t Help But Start to Move to,”  and “One Year Later: A Letter,” and “Summer” appear in Winter Tangerine‘s A LINEAGE OF MIRRORS.
• Work in Come As You Are (Anomalous Press, 2018), an anthology of 90s pop culture edited by E. Kristin Anderson.

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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

• Feeding the Dead (Porkbelly Press, 2017) is nominated for an Elgin Award.

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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

• Transforming Harry: The Adaptation of Harry Potter in the Transmedia Age (Wayne State University Press, 2018), edited by John Alberti & P. Andrew Miller, is freshly pressed and will be available for order in May!

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

• Sarah’s chapbook Calf Canyon was selected by Brain Mill Press for the Mineral Point Poetry Series (series editor: Kiki Petrosino). Her chapbook is due out in November 2018!

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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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How Darkness Enters a Body // Sarah Nichols

How Darkness Enters a Body by Sarah Nichols

“In this darkness, desire is safe,” begins the title poem for Sarah Nichols’ How Darkness Enters a Body. In this darkness, desire is safe. There are secrets here, confessions. The poet brings us to the photos of Diane Arbus, inspecting contact sheets and images, mining poems from silver embedded in emulsion. Black and white photographs transformed into ekphrastic lines, light and shadow, poet leading reader to artist to begin a conversation. The speaker’s voice is sure, whispering to us in the way Arbus’ images do, pools of darkness unexpected and edged, like shadows thrown under an eclipse. Confront her or take her hand—these and more choices are yours:  “Here is your tongue, sister. / Let me share it.”  (Porkbelly Press, 2018) » available in our shop » more info

 

about the poet

Sarah Nichols lives and writes in Connecticut. She is the author of three chapbooks, including She May Be a Saint (Hermeneutic Chaos Press, 2016) and Edie (Whispering): Poems from Gray Gardens (Dancing Girl Press, 2015). She also co-edits Thank You for Swallowing, an online journal of feminist protest poetry. Her poetry and essays have also appeared and are forthcoming in Queen of Cups, The RS 500, Rogue Agent, and Ekphrastic Review.

excerpt

SOMETHING WAS THERE AND NO LONGER IS

After Inadvertent Double Exposure of a Self Portrait and Images of Times Square, NYC, 1957, by Diane Arbus

I haunt this place now. Under the
neon, I pass between worlds. The

spirit photograph no one wants to
believe.

I catch my subjects so easily: the
woman, poised before the next cigarette,

almost recognizes herself in the
snare of my lens. Or the crowd,

thinking themselves safe in the light
of the next dime show miracle.

I don’t dare to shut my eyes.

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.

Lost Birds of the Iron Range // Amber Edmondson

Lost Birds of the Iron Range by Amber Edmondson (cover: Mary Woodworth)

Lost Birds of the Iron Range (Amber Edmondson) takes the imagery of birds and spins it into a landscape of imagined moments, underground, above ground, often a secret chamber, bird held in the reliquary of a chest or belly or a cavern, subsisting on what warm and wriggling things can be found in such places. This is an excavation of feather, bone, limestone and lace: “a stowaway, a secret, a weathered map, leading back home.” (Porkbelly Press, 2017) » excerpt & more

about the poet

Amber Edmondson is a poet and book artist who lives in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, near Lake Superior. Her work has appeared in Border Crossing, Menacing Hedge, and Stirring: A Literary Collection, among others. Her first chapbook, Darling Girl, is available from dancing girl press.

about the cover art & artist

Mary Woodworth » marywoodworth.com
title: “Navigating the Highlands”
media: collagraph
size: 30 x 22 inches

September’s Bacon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What’s pink & shiny / what’s dark & hard (stack of books)

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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

• One of Sarah’s poems, “Glinda at the Home Depot,” is up at GRAVEL.
• Sarah received a Best of the Net nomination for her poem “Appendix Bread” in Gingerbread House.

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

• You can read or listen to Chen’s “The Psychic Speaks to the Nonbeliever” via Poem of the Moment at Mass Poetry.
• Two poems: “invite the blue” and “memoir of the present moment” up on Phantom.
• Three poems: “memoir,” “A Gift,” and “The Professor of Russian Studies” in the new issue of Window Cat Press.

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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

• Congrats to Kelly. Her chapbook, The Fear Archives, is forthcoming from Two of Cups Press in 2017.
• Kelly’s chapbook I want to eat so many kinds of cake with you is newly released from dancing girl press.

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

• Sara’s chapbook Western Diseases is out via dancing girl press!
• Poems for Ivan reviewed by Paul David Adkins via Queen Mob’s Teahouse.

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

• Donna’s chapbook Tinder, Smolder, Bones, and Snow is out via dancing girl press.

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

• Wren reading!

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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

• Ghost Tongue released Sept 20th! (micro chapbook)
• Two poems in the Queen of Cups issue twenty, III of Cups.

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

• “Top Hats and Puppets” is up in Cleaver.

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

• “Come let us enter the body” (from forthcoming My Own Strange Beast) and “Here we are in our very own lives” are up at The Fem.
• “Where you journey, they await,” “They tried and tried,” and “At first I was river, I was witch” were published in the Neogoddesses issue of White Stag
• “Witch at the homestead”was nominated for Best of the Net by Hot Metal Bridge.

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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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Ghost Tongue // Nicole Rollender

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

Ghost Tongue is a stunning blend of bone, blood, and haunting. It’s as much about what we inherit as what we carry inside to carve out and give, palm up, and the traces that linger even after a piece is gone. It’s about body and salt, absence, sweet things and marrow. It’s the ghost that speaks, the hunger that slips in. (Porkbelly Press, 2016) | available in our shop | excerpt

about the poet

Nicole Rollender’s first full-length collection, Louder Than Everything You Love (ELJ Editions), was published in late 2015. She’s author of the poetry chapbooks Arrangement of Desire (Pudding House Publications), Absence of Stars (dancing girl press & studio) and Bone of My Bone, a winning manuscript in Blood Pudding Press’s 2015 Chapbook Contest. Her work has appeared in The Adroit Journal, Alaska Quarterly Review, Best New Poets, The Journal, Memorious, Radar Poetry, PANK, Salt Hill Journal, Thrush Poetry Journal, Word Riot and West Branch, among others. She is the recipient of poetry prizes from CALYX Journal, Princemere Journal and Ruminate Magazine. She earned her MFA in poetry at the Pennsylvania State University, and is the editor of Wearables magazine. Find her online at http://www.nicolerollender.com.

cover

The cover is inkjet printed on premium matte paper. It’s trimmed down to just under 6 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches and bound by hand with heavy thread.

cover artist » Susan Yount
portfolio » susanyount.tumblr.com

Haunting the Last House on Holland Island, Fallen into the Bay // Sarah Ann Winn

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

This is a dream landscape and it is underwater, all the house-things, human-things curled in between blades of red seaweed and pearl-filled oyster. It is a shimmer of sunlight filtering through from the surface, the glimmer of something faceted buried in silt. This micro chapbook is exploration and memory, the way we risk ourselves to look deep in search of some half-forgotten treasure, something we’ll always go back for, no matter how far down. (Porkbelly Press, 2016) | available in our shop  |  excerpt

About the Poet

Sarah Ann Winn’s writing has appeared or is upcoming in Five Points, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Little Patuxent Review, Massachusetts Review, and Passages North, among others. Her chapbooks include Field Guide to Alma Avenue and Frew Drive (Essay Press, 2016), and Portage (Sundress Publications, 2015). She holds a Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing Poetry from George Mason University, as well as a Masters in Library Science from Catholic University of America. She teaches creative writing workshops and dispenses book recommendations as a free-range librarian in Manassas, Virginia, where she lives with her husband, two lovely beagle/lab mixed dogs, and one bad cat. Visit her at bluebirdwords.com or follow her @blueaisling.

Cover Art

The cover is inkjet printed on premium matte paper. It’s trimmed down to just under 6 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches and bound by hand with heavy thread.

cover artist » Angie Reed Garner
portfolio » angiereedgarner.com

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

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

 

These tiny poems are fierce records of women & girls—even the youngest are deeply rooted, even the shortest lines packed with vivid imagery hold an edge—even those pretty yellow petals float on dark, and there’s no way to know how deep it goes, or what lies underneath, except to brave it. | available in our shop | excerpt

About the Poet

Robin Turner lives, works, and daydreams in Dallas, Texas. She is a teaching artist in museums, youth shelters, and community centers, and serves as an online writing guide for homeschooled teens. Her work has appeared in Anima Poetry, Ilya’s Honey, Nonbinary Review, Red River Review, Referential Magazine, Friends Journal, and in numerous other print and online publications.

» robinsmithturner.tumblr.com

Cover Art

The cover is inkjet printed on premium matte paper. It’s trimmed down to just under 6 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches and bound by hand with heavy thread.

artist » Anita Olivia Koester
portfolio » anitaoliviakoester.com

July’s Smokin’ Hot Bacon

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

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

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

Rooed by Thirst // Tina Mozelle Braziel (cover art: Kathleen Piercefield)

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

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

• We All Have to Keep Our Heads, Sara’s newest micro chap of poems, is out from Ghost City Press!

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

• Beth’s poem, “Strip-Mall Bakery,” is featured over at Storm Cellar.

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Rooted by Thirst (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Tina Mozelle Braziel

• Tina’s poem is featured at Poetry Breakfast.

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

• Sonya’s poem “Mourning Hair, Don’t Care” is up (with audio!) at Nostrovia! Tavern.

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

• Chen’s “Playing in the Square” received a Best of the Net nom from TheThe Poetry.

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

• Nicole’s “No One Asks” received a Best of the Net nom from TheThe Poetry.
• “Sorrow Singing,” “Somewhere, Another Woman Tells Her Husband Why She Doesn’t Want Another Child,” and “The Story About the Dog” appear in v3 i2 of Tinderbox Poetry Journal.

June’s Crispy Bacon

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

Everything I Own by Angela Just (cover: Nicci Mechler)

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

Rooed by Thirst // Tina Mozelle Braziel (cover art: Kathleen Piercefield)

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

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

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

All the good news (we’ve heard about) from our contributors:

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

• “But You Haven’t,” an erasure of pages from The Old Man and the Sea, is up over on Nostrovia! Tavern.
• Poems for Ivan was released 11 June 2016!

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Ghost Skin (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Jennifer Hanks

• Jennifer’s chapbook Prophet Fever (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2016) was just released. (Her chap from Porkbelly is forthcoming as of this writing.)

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

• hiku [pull] was released 24 June 2016!

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Everything I Own (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Angela Just

• Everything I Own was released on 7 June 2016!

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Rooted by Thirst (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Tina Mozelle Braziel

• a blog interview at Live Your Poem with Irene Latham, in which she says things like “We plan to burn lines of poetry into walls of our house.” Yesssss.

Emerson claims that “Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the work-yard made.” That rings true to me, especially when I discover words like “rock-bar” and “squarings” that feel so invigorating. Lately, I’ve been thinking about the term “sistering” which means nailing one board against another for additional strength. Such concepts and words recalibrate my perspective of what makes a home, what it means to claim a place as our own. And that feeds my writing. // more

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My Heart in Aspic (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Sonya Vatomsky // @coolniceghost

• Sonya interviews Kate Litterer at Cosmonauts Avenue.

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Set the Garden on Fire (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Chen Chen // chenchenwrites.com

• “I am reminded via email to resubmit my preferences for the schedule” is part of the American Academy of Poets poem-a-day series at poets.org.
• Four poems (with audio!) at Infoxicated Corner: 2016 Spotlight Series via Thethe Poetry.

“Except let’s not hold off on the giant cake. & let’s not hold off on being

irreversibly in love. Happiness needs no preparation or warrantee
or reason. I’m ready to say that. I’m ready to watch any romcom/action
combo where two people topple tyranny, fall in love. I’m ready
for the movie where four people topple tyranny, fall in love,

& make consensual arrangements to keep it open.
Or six people just stay in & become best friends. Or seven
billion people befriend themselves…” | more

• Episode 55 of the SAFTAcast features Chen Chen. (SAFTAcast is a Sundress Academy for the Arts production.) This is a podcast pretty much about everything but writing, though they do sneak in a little bit about the art of translation.

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Pray, Pray, Pray: Poems I wrote to Prince in the middle of the night (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by E. Kristin Anderson // @ek_anderson

• EKA’s poem “Between 50 and 64% of rats will self-administer diazepam” is up at The Boiler!

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