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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First Bacon of Fall (September’s Good News)

 

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

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

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Haunting the Last House on Holland Island, Fallen into the Bay (Porkbelly Press, 2016) by Sarah Ann Winn » bluebirdwords.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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hiku [pull] (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by James A. H. White

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

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

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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

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

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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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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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March & Porkbelly

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

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

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The Girl (Porkbelly Press, 2017)
by Donna Vorreyer » donnavorreyer.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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Set the Garden on Fire (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
by Chen Chen » @chenchenwrites » chenchenwrites.com

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

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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

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

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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.)

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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

January’s Good Stuff

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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

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

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

November’s Bacon

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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

Anderson charts a path through the weight of the modern life—dancing with what is and resting on our individual ability to act, create, and appreciate beauty.

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

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

  • Chen has two poems in issue 2 of The Account.

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

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Ghost Tongue (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Nicole Rollender » www.nicolerollender.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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Ghost Skin (Porkbelly Press, 2016)
by Wren Hanks » tumblr

  • Nominated by Gigantic Sequins for a Pushcart Prize.

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

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October’s (possibly Haunted) Bacon

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

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

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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

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

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

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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

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

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

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