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 Moments + in 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

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

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.

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"

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)

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

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

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."

The China Issue (Asian Cha)

China: a large country in East Asia. One of the world's oldest civilizations. An emerging superpower. A country in a state of transformation...

Asian Cha now devoted a theme issue to capturing a sense of this complexity, to provide a view of what a few people, both Chinese and non-Chinese, think of this multi-faceted and remarkable country at this fascinating juncture in history: The China Issue.

"In these works, you will see a handful of microscope slides, cross-sections of the contemporary Middle Kingdom, which when read together will hopefully provide a glimpse of the whole."

The issue includes a rich and varied range of formats: Poetry and Poetry in translation, Fiction and Fiction in translation, Creative non-fiction, Art and art criticism, and an interview with Pallavi Aiyar, author of "Chinese Whiskers". And: a fine selection of book reviews, which for this issue are all related to China. The list of contributors is online at Cha, it reaches from Ai Weiwei to Zhen Lianjie.

Editorial
Two thoughtful editorials form the starting point to the issue: "The Chinese Curse" by guest editor Mai Mang, and "China: What it is, what it could be" by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming, who writes: "It is exactly because the country has become more confident and influential globally that we are interested in publishing a special issue of Cha devoted to the social, political and cultural forces that are shaping the nation. It is not an exaggeration to think that the once self-proclaimed "Middle Kingdom" is now coming back apt as ever as a metaphor to describe its current self-identified position in relation to the rest of the world. China is what it is or perhaps more accurately it is a near infinity of realities and possibilities."

A note: the Cha website is currently experiencing technical difficulties. You can also find an introduction to the issue + the editorials in the Cha blog.

Ayiti - Roxane Gay (Artistically Declined)

The debut collection from the vibrant voice of Roxane Gay is a unique blend of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, all interwoven to represent the Haitian diaspora experience. Official release date of Ayiti is October 11. Pre-Orders will ship on or before the release date.

Roxane Gay is the co-editor of PANK, and assistant professor of English at Eastern Illinois University. Her story "Do You Have a Place for Me" was shortlisted in the Million Writers Award Top Ten List 2011. For a story from her about Haitia, visit "Things I Know About Fairy Tales" at Necessary Fiction.

About Artistically Declined Press
Artistically Declined Press is devoted to the pairing of fantastic writing with great design, creating complete works of art. The press publishes books of fiction and poetry, the literary journal Sententia, and ADP.PDF's, a series of free ebooks, and is run by Ryan W. Bradley, who writes and lives in Oregon with his wife and two sons.

Roxane Gay: Ayiti
collection, $9

The Found Poetry Review #1: Summer 2011

The Found Poetry Review is a quarterly online poetry journal celebrating the poetry in the existing and the everyday. We publish found poetry, centos, erasure poems and other forms that incorporate elements of existing texts.

The first issue features found poetry by Christine Pacyk, Howie Good, Jill Crammond, Johnny Chinnici, Christina Burress, Jeanne Shannon, Mark Blaeuer, Clare Kirwan, Andrea J. Dickens, Claire Ferris, Jennifer Saunders, Guy Torrey and Ed Higgins.

The website also includes commonly accepted definitions of found poetry, links to examples of found poetry hosted elsewhere on the web, and guidelines to the fair use of existing texts, more here: About Found Poetry.

Submissions
The Found Poetry Review is accepting found poetry submissions through September 30, 2011, for its Fall 2011 issue. Guidelines: "Give us your poems made up of lines from newspaper articles, instruction booklets, dictionaries, toothpaste boxes, biographies, Craigslist posts, speeches, other poems and any other text-based source. Only found poems will be considered for publication; original poems, regardless of quality, will not be accepted."

related links: first issues, poetry, experimental

Nightfish - Kristine Ong Muslim (Shoe Music)

Nightfish is a collection by the accomplished author Kristine Ong Muslim. Her poems explore the existence possible in between the realities of times: past, present, future, and between solid form and phantoms.

Kristine Ong Muslim has short fiction and poetry accepted in over five hundred publications. Her work received several Honorable Mentions in Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. She also garnered five nominations for the Pushcart Prize and four nominations for the Science Fiction Poetry Association's Rhysling Award. Most recently, she was twice nominated for inclusion in Best of the Web 2011.

About Shoe Music Press
Shoe Music Press is a publisher of poetry and art through their serial publications Mastodon Dentist, Penny Ante Feud and Nefarious Ballerina, as well as full and chapbook-length book titles from new and established writers alike: "Through our numerous faces we offer a fresh yet experienced voice in the small press, without forgetting the community of writers and artists we belong to."

Kristine Ong Muslim: Nightfish
14 pages, $4

related links: poetry, blueprintreview contributor