SO DAMN SURE OF US poems by Bree...debuting at Snoetry 5 in Erie PA!

NightBallet Press is inordinately pleased at being able to announce the publication of so damn sure of us by Bree! 

so damn sure of us is the third NBP publication in this
New Year...and we will be releasing the book tomorrow at SNOETRY: A Winter Wordfest 5!

Saturday, January 24, 2015 is the fifth Snoetry: A Winter Wordfest celebration produced by Lix & Kix poetry partners John Burroughs and Dianne Borsenik.  This mega-event, which is coproduced with the Erie County Poet Laureate Initiative, will be held at the Avalon Hotel in Erie, Pennsylvania.  Featured poets from several states will be reading from 1pm to 11pm.  Among them will be Bree, who will have copies of her brand new book!

so damn sure of us is a 48 page book containing 37 poems by the one and only Bree.  The leatherette-textured ivory cover (with a woodsy-brown cardstock insert) boasts a lovely photo taken by Chansonette Buck.  The text is printed on creamy ivory paper.  The poems are mystical and magical, with intriguing titles such as "Big & Little Clifties", "Times New Roaming", "o i am in love with an ideal madly", "i wunder why a poet misspells sumtimes?", and "relax, nothing is under control".  Bree engages the reader with images conveyed through a distinct language that flows musically...her words beg to be taken on the tongue and savored.

 

Bree, from Pleasureville, Kentucky, is a poet, memoirist, artist and publisher with long-time ties to Cleveland, Ohio.  Since 2001 her Green Panda Press has put out chapbooks and anthologies.  Her work has appeared widely, including in magazines like Big Bridge, Arthur, ArtCrimes, and many others.  Crisis Chronicles Press published two volumes of her song lyrics.  Explore more at her Green Panda Press blog.


If you are attending Snoetry, you may purchase a copy of so damn sure of us directly from Bree.  Plus, BONUS, you can catch her featured performance there!

NightBallet Press will also have copies of Bree's book, along with other tasty poetry tomes, at Snoetry.  If you are unable to attend Snoetry, so damn sure of us is for sale on Amazon, or better yet, purchase a copy NOW through PayPal right here on this website - only $10 plus $3 shipping!

Our World Is Spinning with ROTATIONS by Jake St. John!

NightBallet Press is very pleased to present a book that will spin you "right 'round baby right 'round":
Rotations by Jake St. John!

cover photo by George Wallace, used with permission

 

 

Rotations by Connecticut poet Jake St. John is a 20 page book that contains, as John Dorsey has written, "daily offerings in the act of living".  St. John takes you on a walk through beautifully written meditations and reflections as he explores the world around him.  Don't be deceived by the brevity of this collection; St. John packs a punch of insight with every line. 

Dorsey writes about Rotations:

"Taken piece by piece the gems in Rotations may feel like pebbles in our shoes, but they are merely parts of a whole, meant to be experienced together and then sent back out into the world. This collection of daily offerings in the act of living is anything but routine. In fact, every time I go back to them they move just a little bit, changing color like fallen leaves. That’s all any of us can ask for, a little excitement from time to time as we walk down the street and around the corners of the sky we’ve chosen to dance beneath and maybe a few words of wisdom for all of our restless nights, this book is full of them, it will leave you changed like the seasons. At least I think so."

Jake St. John is the author of several collections of poetry and pamphlet poems, including I Talked to the Moon (Wandering Head, 2012), Looking for Sunflowers (Good Cop/Bad Cop, 2012), and Change of Address (Unarmed, 2010). His work has appeared in numerous literary and arts magazines, such as The Blue Collar Review, Big Hammer, and The People's Tribune.  Since 2007 he has served as the editor of Elephant and co-editor of Flying Fish.  A truly excellent video of St. John reading his poetry can be found here.

 

photo by Colleen St. John, used with permission

Rotations is printed on crisp white paper; the cover is a two-toned gray cardstock with a dark charcoal cardstock insert.  The striking cover photo is artistically rendered by NY poet George Wallace (no stranger to NightBallet Press readers!). 

Rotations is available beginning today, January  20, 2015, for only $5 plus $3 shipping/handling. The best way to experience this book is by going to a Jake St. John reading and having the poet sign a copy for you, but if you are unable to make that journey, you may order from this website through PayPal.  The book will also be available on Amazon.  Begin your journey, hand in hand with St. John, today!

RA Washington and The Paris Notebooks...très bon!

 

It is both an honor and a privilege to announce NightBallet's first 2015 publication: 
The Paris Notebooks by Cleveland's own RA Washington!

 

 

RA Washington, an iconic figure in the Cleveland poetry scene, is a true Renaissance man.  He is poet, novelist, artist, editor, publisher, musician, entrepreneur, DJ, helmsman at Guide to Kulchur, and so much more.  Sam Allard did a beautiful piece on Washington in Scene Magazine in June of last year (you can read it here).  In the article, Allard says:

"The bookshelves at Guide to Kulchur aren't just stocked, they're curated.  RA Washington has...been rocking and rolling at the helm of the westside's coolest book-and-culture warehouse for more than a year.  It's certainly much more than a bookstore.  Washington sells and repairs antique typewriters and has made the shop's basement a co-op workshop for the creation of 'zines.  The basement is also where the readings and performances go down—Cleveland's version of a Parisian salon."

Which leads us to The Paris Notebooks, a series of poems and essays based on his visit to Paris in 2013.  The pieces fearlessly comment on culture (both French and American), justice, relationships, identity, and the fruitless pursuit of tabac with the wry humor and clear vision that characterizes Washington's work. 

If you have the chance to hear RA Washington read, by all means, do so!  He is a powerhouse of words and a masterful performer.  If you are really lucky, you might get to hear him read Tabac (a personal favorite of NBP's)!

 

The Paris Notebooks is 28 pages long, and contains 12 poems/essays.  Published today, January 18, 2015, it is available for immediate purchase for only $5 plus $3 shipping/handling. 

Or, you can swing by Guide to Kulchur at 1386 West 65th Street in Cleveland, Ohio (Tues, Wed, Thurs 1pm-9pm, Fri 12 noon- 1am, Sat 1pm-9pm, Sun 1pm-6pm) and have the man himself sign a copy for you!  While you're there, check out the wide selection of books published by various Cleveland-area small presses...it's a truly awesome collection, and all for sale!  NightBallet Press supports and celebrates the independent bookstore!

Again, folks, get yourself a copy of The Paris Notebooks by RA Washington...you'll be glad you did!

Beginning of the Year Address: Updates and Upcoming!

 

Hello dear friends, and welcome to NightBallet's Beginning of the Year Address!  We've turned over the last calendar page of 2014 and begun a brand-new year.  These are exciting times here at NightBallet Press, and it's all because of YOU!                  

 

 

******

 

We are very pleased and extremely honored to announce that Pittsburgh Magazine's January 2015 issue contains an article by Kris Collins about the five Pittsburgh titles NBP released back in summer of 2014:

NB Publishes the Work of 5 Local Poets by Kris Collins (Pittsburgh Magazine-Jan 2015 issue)

The five Pittsburgh poets are Jason Baldinger, Jason Irwin, Karen Lillis, Heather McNaugher, and Nikki Allen.  Check it out!  Thank you Kris Collins for the great article, and thank you Karen Lillis for suggesting these books for review to Kris!

                                         ******                                         

Four poems from The Paul Simon Project by Karen Lillis are featured in Fusion Magazine: HERE

******

We've had a lot of great reviews (will post more as I find them in my emails):

Review of Irwin's Where You Are by CL Bledsoe (Revolution John Magazine)

Review of Lillis' The Paul Simon Project by Michael Fournier (Cabildo Quarterly)

Review of Litzky's Jerry in the Bardo by Mindy Kronenberg (Mom Egg Review)

Review of Burroughs' The Eater of the Absurd by Kristin D. Scott (Knot Magazine)

******

Our books now appear as part of the permanent collections in both the Ohioana Library (Columbus, OH), and the Lockwood Library (University of Buffalo).   

******

Big congrats to Margie Shaheed, who has sold over 800 copies of her chapbook Mosaic!  NightBallet Press first published Mosaic in May of 2013, and Margie has ordered at least 40 copies a month since then, spreading her poetry throughout Ohio, Tennessee, and New York.  I wish we could bottle her magic!

******

NightBallet Press now uses a local professional print shop for our covers, Elyria Print and Copy LLC, instead of a big-box store's printing services.  We are getting more personalized service, and the print jobs are consistently excellent.  I strongly urge you to use small-business services wherever possible; they are unbeatable and invaluable!

******

 

We've had a lot of outside individual orders for titles, and we've had a lot of orders for reprints. This means our poets are out there doing readings and advertising their product.  I've been very busy doing the actual printing, which has slowed down my working on new titles.  But the upswing of it is that more and more people are buying NBP titles, and we are succeeding in getting the Poetry Word out there!

Thank you, thank you, to all the wonderful people who have made this past year a huge success:  you, the poets who have entrusted me with your fine...nay, outstanding!..work, and you, the (obviously discriminating!) readers who have supported us through buying books and attended featured readings by NBP authors.  A big thank you to the artists and photographers who have given us permission to use your work on our covers and helped to make us look so classy.  A bear hug and thank you to you who have sent donations to support the press throughout this past year...I appreciate you, from the bottom of my heart.

******

We've had several inquiries about one-year subscriptions, so as a SPECIAL THANK YOU for your support, I am making the NightBallet Press Season Four titles available to you as a one-year subscription for only $100.00 (one hundred dollars).  For this one-time payment of one hundred dollars, you will receive a copy of each and every NBP title, as they are published, between September 2014 and September 2015, including the Lipsmack! anthology to be published in September 2015.  This will include the already-published George Wallace's Riding with Boom Boom and Russ Green's Gimme Back My Radio (published Oct 2014), plus brand new books (scheduled) by

Lyn Lifshin,
RA Washington,
Alan Catlin,
Geoffrey Landis,
Mary Turzillo,
Andy Roberts,
Kathleen Cerveny,
Connie Everett,
Margie Shaheed,
Marisa Moks-Unger,
Steve Brightman,
John Burroughs,
Jake St. John,

and who knows who else!  Postage is included with this special offer.  Many of these books will be selling individually for $10 plus $4 shipping/handling, so you can see where the savings can be had in purchasing a one-year subscription.  I guarantee your money's worth!  The subscription button appears at the top of the right column.  (Please inquire if you wish a subscription to any previous year, and I'm sure we can work it out.)

 

******

If you know of any reviews I've missed or special events I should report, please let me know at nightballetpressATgmail.com.  Thank you thank you thank you, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I can't wait to see what this year has in store!