Finishing the Old Year with (exciting) New Work!

2012 may be drawing to a close, but here at NightBallet Press, exciting new works by poets Andrew Rihn and Erren Geraud Kelly are keeping those New Year mirror balls bouncing around at a feverish pace!

Published today is Ohio poet Andrew Rihn's The Hunger Dictionary:

 

 

Andrew Rihn, a popular Kent-area poet who describes himself as a "Scholarly Vegetarian Atheist Radical Socialist Feminist Pacifist Childfree Poet", has had dozens of poems published in various journals, and has had several previous chaps published, including Rust Belt MRI (Pudding House) and Foreclosure Dogs (New Sins/Winged City Press).  Visit his blog Midwestern Sex Talk at http://arihn.wordpress.com to explore his poetry, videos, non-fictional prose, and much more. 

Andrew Rihn's The Hunger Dictionary has magical properties:  it both satisfies your appetite for delicious poems full of satire and wit, and it leaves you starving for more of those tasty little nuggets.  The cover cardstock is an eggshell cream, with a heavy black textured cardstock insert, and the (20 pages of) printed paper are smooth soft-white cotton.  A delight to both hold in your hands and to read and savor, The Hunger Dictionary is available on Amazon!

Watch this blog and posts on Facebook for more about this fantastic poet and upcoming places to hear him read from The Hunger Dictionary!

Also stay tuned for an announcement about the publication of Erren Geraud Kelly's Disturbing the Peace... coming very very very very very soon!  ;)

12-12-12! The Eater of the Absurd by John Burroughs!

NightBallet Press is very excited and immensely pleased to announce the publication of The Eater of the Absurd, a brand-new, sixty-page collection of poems by Ohioan John Burroughs. This long-anticpated thematic book of new work by Burroughs is stunning, thorough, and masterfully executed, and is quintessential John Burroughs-wordplay in its punning and juxtapositioning.  It also contains his poem/performance piece "Lens", which was nominated for the 38th annual Pushcart Prize! 

Packaged in a textured white cover with a heavy, deep olive green cardstock insert, and printed on creamy soft-white cotton paper, The Eater of the Absurd makes a striking statement of (in John Burroughs' own words) "pleasure, pain, and deprogramming."
         
To celebrate the publication of The Eater of the Absurd, NightBallet Press is honored to join with Suzanne DeGaetano and Mac's Backs Books on Coventry to present A Book Release Party with Burroughs, de Blas & Borsenik tonight, Wednesday evening 12-12-12,  in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. You can view the event page HERE   The festivities will commence promptly at 7pm, with NBP editor Dianne Borsenik reading from her own new chap of poems, Fortune Cookie, recently published by Kattywompus Press. Bonné de Blas will read from her (excellent) new NBP chap The Act of Dwelling. And then John Burroughs will present poems from The Eater of the Absurd, some of which he's never read in public before (even this editor hasn't heard him read them aloud). Open mic will follow the features. And there will be refreshments- wine, cheese, crackers, and maaaaaybeee even Christmas cookies!

Please plan on joining us for what promises to be an unforgettable evening of unrestrained grooviness!


Book Release Party with Burroughs, de Blas, & Borsenik
Mac's Backs Books on Coventry
1820 Coventry Road
Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Wednesday December 12, 2012 at 7pm (that's 12-12-12!)

Book Release and Reading PAR-TAAAAAY! with Burroughs, de Blas, & Borsenik

NightBallet Press is very excited and immensely pleased to announce the imminent publication of The Eater of the Absurd, a brand-new, sixty-page collection of poems by Ohioan John Burroughs.  This long-anticpated thematic book of new work by Burroughs is stunning, thorough, and masterfully executed, and is quintessential John Burroughs-wordplay in its punning and juxtapositioning.

This book is currently in the printing stage and has not yet been listed for sale.  If you wish to pre-order a copy, please contact me at nightballetpress@gmail.com and I will let John Burroughs know.  I'd like all initial sales to go through and to him.  An active PayPal link will appear on this website and on Amazon after the book's release on 12-12-12.  John plans on posting an active PayPal link on his Crisis Chronicles (www.crisischronicles.com) website soon.  Don't worry; if you want a copy, we'll make it happen.  Again, pre-orders should be sent via email to nightballetpress@gmail.com.  Thank you!

To celebrate the publication of The Eater of the Absurd, NightBallet Press is honored to join with Suzanne DeGaetano and Mac's Backs Books on Coventry to present A Book Release Party with Burroughs, de Blas & Borsenik this coming Wednesday evening in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.  You can view the event page HERE.  The festivities will commence promptly at 7pm, with NBP editor Dianne Borsenik reading from her own new chap of poems, Fortune Cookie, recently published by Kattywompus Press.  Bonné de Blas will read from her (excellent) new NBP chap The Act of Dwelling.  John will present poems from The Eater of the Absurd, some of which he's never read in public before (even this editor hasn't heard him read them aloud).  Open mic will follow the features.  And there will be refreshments!

Please plan on joining us for what promises to be an unforgettable evening of unrestrained grooviness!

Book Release Party with Burroughs, de Blas, & Borsenik
Mac's Backs Books on Coventry
1820 Coventry Road
Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Wednesday December 12, 2012 at 7pm  (that's 12-12-12!)

Pushcart Prize Nominations 2012

NightBallet Press is pleased once again to participate in the nominations process for the 38th Annual Pushcart Prize:  Best of the Small Presses XXXVIII, which will be published both in hardcover and paperback in late fall 2013. 

As editor of a small press, I was invited to make up to six nominations from work published by my press since December of last year (2011), or from a manuscript about to be published in the coming month.  If selected, both the press and the author will receive a copy of the Pushcart Prize book.  The deadline to nominate was December 1st.  Notification of selection for Pushcart Prize inclusion will be in April of 2013.  

It was extremely difficult for me to choose among the numerous excellent, unique, exciting and delectable poems, short stories, and plays that NBP has had the pleasure and honor of publishing this past year.  I truly struggled with the final decisions.  After all, I'm the one who accepted the works to publish in the first place because I loved them.  But to waffle and decline to nominate because I don't want to make hard and fast choices would be unfair to all those whom I've published.  I feel I have an editor's responsibility to participate.  After all, I've promised you respect, readings, reviews, and recognition wherever and whenever possible.  

Please know that if your work was not nominated, it had nothing to do with merit.  Your work deserved nomination, no doubt.  Your work is truly excellent, or it would never have appeared as a NBP publication.  As far as I'm concerned, you're all winners! 

But there were certain pieces that glistened, reverberated, ensnared, transcended, or just plain persisted in the editor's mind/heart/soul/body.  These are the six pieces that are this year's nominees:

Jack McGuane's poem "Deep Purple Desperado" from Lipsmack! A Sampler Platter of Poets from NightBallet Press Year One 2012

Terry Provost's poem "Consolations for a Cleveland Winter" from Lipsmack! A Sampler Platter of Poets from NightBallet Press Year One 2012

Steve Brightman's poem "Sputter and Fuse" from Sometimes, Illinois.

Jim Lang's poem "10 26 03 sexualize" from Coyote Moon.

Elise Geither's short play/prose poem "The Stone" from Lipsmack! A Sampler Platter of Poets from NightBallet Press Year One 2012
and

John Burroughs's poem/performance piece "Lens " from the very-soon-to-be-forthcoming The Eater of the Absurd.

I hope you will join with me in heartily and joyfully congratulating these six who are nominated by NBP this year!

For more information on the Pushcart Prize, please visit www.pushcartprize.com; for more information on Pushcart Press visit www.pushcartpress.org.   For this year's Pushcart Prize collection, or for past years' collections, go to www.Amazon.com.   And keep in mind that there will be numerous opportunities to participate in NBP publications next year, including in at least two anthologies (the theme for the 2013 NBP anthology will be announced around the New Year’s holiday, so stay tuned).