Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Fat Girl - Jessie Carty (Sibling Rivalry)

In Fat Girl, Jessie Carty asks us to strip and stand naked in front of a mirror. These poems are our own reflection. Bittersweet in nature, they are self-perception. They size us up and tell the truth: that man or woman, we all struggle to feel at home in our own skins.

Hunger, desire, overindulgence, shame, fitting in, transformation, and acceptance — these are the realities of human existence.  In these unblinkingly honest poems, Jessie Carty covers them all, examining, revealing, and redefining individual and iconic images of self, femininity, and humanity. - Scott Owen, author of Fracture World

For a vibe of Fat Girl, try this poetry video:  Class Reunion. There also is an author talk with Jessie Carty in this blog.

Jessie Carty’s poetry, fiction, and non-fiction have appeared in publications such as Iodine Poetry Journal, Main Street Rag and The Dead Mule. Previous to Fat Girl, she authored two chapbooks, At the A & P Meridiem and The Wait of Atom. Her first full length of poetry collection, Paper House, was published by Folded Word in 2010. When she’s not busy writing, Jessie teaches at RCCC in Concord, North Carolina, and edits the online journal Referential Magazine.

About Sibling Rivalry Press
Sibling Rivalry Press is a small publishing house based just outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. Their mission and vision: "to develop, promote, and market underground artistic talent – those who don’t quite fit into the mainstream. Our vision? To create literary and poetic rock stars."
Recent and forthcoming titles include: "Burnings" - a poetry collection by Ocean Vuong, "Voices Through Skin" by Theresa Senato Edwards and "Collective Brightness - Poets on faith, religion & spirituality".


Jessie Carty: Fat Girl
poetry
$12.00; 48 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-9832931-6-3
release: September 15th.
Now Available for Pre-Order at 20% Off!

Monday, August 29, 2011

The Conversation Papers 1.1

The Conversation Papers is the magazine of the Conversation International project, a not-for-profit publisher that aims to publish poetry from people and places often marginalised for reasons of capital or political culture.

The Conversation Papers 1.1, online at Issuu, feature a conversation with George Messo on translation, an article on the problems of publishing in Zimbabwe, and "Dialectisism": the first in a series of essays on dialectical approaches to poetry. Poetry by: Fabiano Alborghetti, Wirndzerem G. Barfee, Nancy Charley, William Doreski, Nigel Holt, Susanna Lang, Ruzvidzo Mupfudza, Gonca Özmen and Doug Pugh.
For more articles and bilingual poetry, visit The Conversation Papers 1.2

About the Conversation Paperpress
The Conversation Paperpress is the publishing arm of the Conversation International project: "We are a not-for-profit publisher co-operatively run by volunteers, working with the donated contributions of writers and editors. Through our international anthologies we aim to publish poetry from people and places often marginalised for reasons of capital or political culture, and we have gained critical attention for their promotion of emerging and unheard voices. Our developing pamphlet and paperback series promote original and exploratory poetry, including first collections and works-in-progress. As the mouthpiece of this movement and ambition, the publications of the Paperpress are part of an open dialogue; a conversation."

Upcoming anthologies: From This Bridge: Contemporary Turkish Women Poets and Next Stop, Omdurman: The Lost Poetry of 1980s Sudan

The Conversation Papers
international magazine
available online at Issuu

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Book Sale at Lulu

The small press print+distribution service Lulu announced a book sale:

SITE WIDE SALE 
20% off any order
* The sale ends on August 27th at 11.59pm.
* The code can only be used once per account.

link: page with code

Several books and small presses that are featured in this book blog are printed and distributed through Lulu

1) overview
try this link for an overview of lulu-books featured in this blog:
blueprint blog books at Lulu

2) selected suggestions (with direct Lulu links):
Here some suggestions with a focus on blueprintreview authors, with direct links to each Lulu book page
- The Book of It  by Daniela Elza
- triskelion, tiger moth, tangram... by Marcia Arrieta
pay attention: a river of stones - collection
- mo(nu)ment - blueprintreview anthology
- Masala Momentsin transit by Dorothee Lang
- Walking Accidentally in the Dark by Margot Miller
- God Damsel by Reb Livingston
- let a thousand dictionaries bloom by Sean Burn

3) additional link: small presses with Lulu books:
- Otoliths books - authors: Paul Siegell, Mary Kasimor, Joel Chace and many more
- No Tell Motel books - Bedside Guide + poetry collections
- avantacular press - authors: andrew topel, john m. bennett, jim leftwich, john crouse

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Freight - Mel Bosworth (Folded Word)

Freight by Mel Bosworth is an unflinching, quirky novel that follows a flawed yet lovable everyman as he searches for Home. We never learn his name. Nor do we learn her name—the woman whose freight is still too much for him to carry. But we know he likes soft things. We know he works through pain. We know his childhood still clings to him, despite his graying hair. And through knowing him and all his freight, ours is easier to bear.

You can read an excerpt at Darksky: I Lost. And in Brooklyn: I Found. For an unwritten tune of Freight, try this Freight video.

Update: Freight will be released on the 9. September + received review praise by the Publishers Weekly: "...subtle and delightful... fantastically innovative..." (whole review)

Mel Bosworth lives and breathes in Western Massachusettes. He's never met a cup of tea he didn’t drink, a donut he didn’t eat, or a cat he didn’t try to pet. When Mel isn’t consuming things or making new feline friends, he’s usually busy writing. He is the author of the short fiction chapbook When the Cats Razzed the Chickens and Other Stories (Folded Word, 2009) and the novella Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom (Brown Paper Publishing, 2010). There's an author talk with him and Jessie Carty online at Daily s-Press: author talk: Mel Bosworth & Jessie Carty on breathing, writing, scares, yielding, greed and more

About Folded Word (+PicFic + unFold + Heron)
Folded Word is an independent press that continually seeks new ways of connecting readers to new literary voices. Though we do sell our books and chapbooks, we offer free poetry and fiction to the public in our Twitter-zines PicFic and unFold, as well as our print broadside, Heron. We also value craftsmanship, both of literary works and the medium in which they are rendered--as demonstrated by our handcrafted Signature Series chapbooks. Folded Word is managed by J.S. Graustein with the support of Rose Auslander, Casey Murphy, and the entire Folded family of contributors.

Mel Bosworth: Freight
release date: 9. September
209 pages
paperback: $14 + 1$ shippping worldwide
e-book: $3.50

Thursday, August 18, 2011

100 Thousand Poets for Change: 24.9.

100 Thousand Poets for Change is an event that is happening in over 350 cities around the world on September 24th. This event seeks to connect poets around the USA and across the planet in a demonstration/ celebration of poetry to promote serious social and political change.

"The first order of change is for poets, writers, artists, anybody, to actually get together to create and perform, educate and demonstrate, simultaneously, with other communities around the world. This will change how we see our local community and the global community. And of course there is the political/social change that many of us are talking about these days. There is trouble in the world. Wars, ecocide, the lack of affordable medical care, racism, the list goes on..."

Invite to join
100 Thousand Poets for Change is inviting participants by local region, city, or state, and looking for individuals in each area who would like to organize their local event.

There is a facebook-page: 100 Thousand Poets for Change/facebook + a twitter-account. There also is a web site with registered locations and further information: 100 Thousand Poets for Change/website.

About the event
100 Thousand Poets for Change is the idea of Michael Rothenberg, poet and editor of Big Bridge Press and zine (website) and Terri Carrion, associate editor and visual designer of Big Bridge Press and zine (website).

Moon Willow Press / Ecologue
Thanks to Mary Woodbury at Moon Willow Press for spreading the news! 2 connected links: the new science+nature blog from Moon Willow: Ecologue, and their new eco-poetry collection: The Sacred River of Consciousness by Tom Hibbard.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Spiral Jetta - Erin Hogan (University of Chicago)

Erin Hogan hit the road in her Volkswagen Jetta and headed west from Chicago in search of the monuments of American land art: a salty coil of rocks, four hundred stainless steel poles, a gash in a mesa, four concrete tubes, and military sheds filled with cubes. Her journey took her through the states of Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. It also took her through the states of anxiety, drunkenness, disorientation, and heat exhaustion. Spiral Jetta is a chronicle of this journey.

Spiral Jetta is the current free e-book of the month at Chicago Press. There also is an interview with Hogan online.

"Hogan’s pilgrimage, sparsely illustrated, is part well-informed art historical travelogue and part light foray into self-discovery."—Publishers Weekly

Erin Hogan is director of public affairs at the Art Institute of Chicago.

About the University of Chicago Press
The Books Division of the University of Chicago Press has been publishing books for scholars, students, and general readers since 1892. The Books Division has published over eleven thousand books since the Press was founded. It has more than five thousand books in print at the present time.

Erin Hogan: Spiral Jetta
e-book: e-book-of-the-month page
190 pages, 2008
non-fiction, art, travel

editor's note: there is a related review on this book online in the editor's blog, including photo+video links to some of the featured land art, quotes, and a "Spiral Jetty" travel report of an art blogger: "Spiral Jetty & Arches - a road / art trip"

Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Reprint - "The end of the world" issue

"Here is where the world ends. Put down your Mountain Dew Slurpee and your iPhone. The universe is collapsing and this issue of The Reprint is the edge...."

The Reprint August issue is all about the end of the world. It features stories by xTx, Kirsty Logan, Aubrey Hirsch, Meg Pokrass, Travis Hessmann, Adam Moorad and Roxanne Gay.

All stories are illustrated with fabulous artwork by Joe Scarano, more of the jazz can be found on his website. The issue also includes bonus material: interview with author Travis Hessman, and with Annalemma Editor Christopher Heavener.

Make sure to check out the upbeat apocalyptic introduction to the issue by Reprint editor Sarah Rose Etter: "Everything in this issue of The Reprint is covered with the fingerprints of the end. Stand on the edge and balance yourself like a tightrope walker. Each one of these stories is a finger pressing up against your spine, pushing you a little, daring you to keep your balance. Stand on the edge. The end of the world couldn’t be more brutal or more beautiful."

About The Reprint
The Reprint is an online magazine with the mission to bring new life to already printed material. It also features reviews of online journals and an online literature calendar at Zine-Scene.
Submissions: "The Reprint is looking for previously published fiction up to 8000 words. The work must have been published in a print magazine and must not be available online... As for our aesthetic, we lean more toward experimental than high literary. We like risks, we like stories that breakdown boundaries, we like stories that challenge the establishment." (Guidelines)

Monday, August 08, 2011

Open City - Teju Cole (Random)

Teju Cole's novel Open City tells the story of a young Nigerian-German psychiatrist in New York City five years after 9/11.

Published by Random House and reviewed in the New Yorker, this novel technically doesn't exactly belong into this blog on indie books and online literary magazines. Yet if you visit the Links section of the author's page, you arrive at a very indie note in section 4. Right between links to the African Cities Reader and Vanity Fair  Teju Cole states: "I’m a frequent contributor to the excellent online journal Qarrtsiluni."

Small open world, it is. This cross connection also reflects in 2 recent reviews from fellow bloggers Jean Morris and Parmanu, who both are contributors to qarrtsiluni - and to BluePrintReview.

"It’s not a total surprise to see a friend first encountered through the different blogs he’s kept now find considerable success with his first novel. Not a surprise, but a new and engaging experience," notes Jean Morris in her blog post "Open City opens here". And if you follow the contributor link above, you arrive at the visualization of this cross connection: Ekphrasis 1: Jean + Teju Cole.

The second blog post, by Parmanu, is actually a letter to Teju Cole with a reflection on reviews in general, and also on the difference the earlier connection makes: "Looking at these reviews I sometimes wonder how I would have responded if I had known nothing about the author. Would it have been a different book for me?" - The Review Cycle

About Teju Cole
Teju Cole was born to Nigerian parents and grew up in Lagos. His mother taught French. My father was a business executive who exported chocolate. At fifteen he published cartoons regularly in Prime People, Nigeria’s version of Vanity Fair. Two years later he moved to the United States. Since then, he spent most of his time studying art history, except for an unhappy year in medical school. He currently lives in Brooklyn.

Teju Cole: Open City

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

and see what happens - Ursula Vaira (Caitlin)

In her first book of poetry And See What Happens - The Journey Poems, Ursula Vaira captures the rugged and challenging beauty of the West Coast landscape and writes the poetry of 3 transformative journeys in British Columbia's wilderness.

The first, told through a set of linked poems, describe her thirty-day, thousand-mile paddle from Hazelton to Victoria. As a Caucasian civilian, the only woman in the canoe, Vaira bears witness.

"A heck of a wind/ bounces me into the mountains... " - So begins the second poem, the story of a woman's stay in an isolated hunter's cabin in the northern Rockies. The third and final journey in Vaira's new collection is a poem of place, of landscape and of westcoast imagery from a twenty-two-day kayaking journey that rounded Cape Scott and Cape Cook on Vancouver Island.

"These poems are talismans of grace, beauty and healing." - Lorna Crozier

Ursula Vaira grew up in northern BC and taught school in the Arctic and on the northwest coast. Her poems have been published in literary journals and in anthologies. Ursula worked at Oolichan Books for ten years then founded her own publishing house, Leaf Press, in 2001.

About Caitlin Press
Caitlin Press publishes culturally significant books, including fiction, non-fiction (both historical and creative), and poetry. It was established in 1977 by Carolyn Zonailo as a feminist literary press. In the 1980s, Caitlin Press moved from Gabriola Island to Vancouver and expanded its mandate to that of a BC literary press.

Ursula Vaira: and see what happens
poetry
ISBN: 978-1-894759-58-8
112 pages, $ 16.95

Monday, August 01, 2011

Lea Graham - Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You (No Tell Motel)

Lea Graham's poetry collection Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You is now available from NoTellBoooks, and was selected by Sean Singer for the Rumpus Poetry Book Club:

"Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You creates energy by relentlessly kneading its central questions. It mixes sophisticated word choice with images gleaned from mythology and popular culture, but these blur past the reader, like images seen through the window of a train."
— Sean Singer (more here)

Lea Graham is the author of the chapbook, Calendar Girls (above/ground Press). Her poems, translations, collaborations, reviews and articles have been published in or are forthcoming in journals such as Notre Dame Review, American Poetry Journal, American Letters & Commentary, The Capilano Review, and Shadow Train. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

NoTell Motel To Close Doors
Launched in August 2004 by Reb Livingston and Molly Arden, No Tell Motel published over 2000 poems by almost 300 poets so far, and various poetry pooks and No Tell Motel collections as No Tell Books.

This book is the last that NoTell will publish for a while, and also marks the closure of the NoTell Online poetry magazine, with archives to remain online. Here's the note from editor Reb Livingston: "In case you haven't heard, No Tell Motel will be closing its doors in October. It's been a fabulous 7+ years of publishing the magazine and we're going to stop while we're on top. Thank you to everyone who contributed work and helped support the magazine. The full statement is online here: NoTellMotel To Close Doors."