Valentine Day Massacre (Cervena Barva)

It all started in February 2010, when author Susan Tepper put up a note in the fictionaut writing forum for a Valentine Writing Challenge with an egde. Here's the short version of it: "Get your Feb. 14 (V-Day Massacre) stories or poems ready to post. Only criteria: use the word "heart" or "hearts" somewhere in your piece."

The first stories and poems trickled in, more followed, and at some point, the challenge started to snowball. "Just wading through the challenge submissions - what I particularly like is how the pieces all present a dense network of heart & intellect - pure joy to read all of it on this special day," Marcus Speh commented.

More submissions kept arriving, sparking the idea for a printed collection. Which now, for Valentine 2011, came together: Valentine Day Massacre, edited by Susan Tepper, and published by Cervena Barva Press. The collection includes Valentine Massacre stories and poems by Meg Pokrass, Nora Nadjarian, Frank Hinton, Sheldon Lee Compton, xTx, Sam Rasnake, Susan Gibb, Ajay Nair and many others.

Susan Tepper is the author of Deer & Other Stories (Wilderness House Press, 2009) and the poetry collection Blue Edge. Over 100 of her stories, poems, interviews and essays have been published in journals worldwide. Susan hosts the reading series FIZZ at KGB Bar, and is Assistant Editor of Istanbul Literary Review.

Cervena Barva Press was inaugurated in April 2005. In a mere 5 years, Publisher Gloria Mindock has released 52 chapbooks and 20 full length books. Projected for this year are 7 more books. Cervena Barva Press has published authors Gary Fincke, Lucille Lang Day, CL Bledsoe, Nancy Mitchell, Kathleen Aguero, Linda Nemec Foster, George Held, Eric Greinke and many other unique voices.

Valentine Day Massacre
49 pages, $7.00