Listen... It's The Almost Sound of Snow Falling... by Robert Walicki

NightBallet Press is very happy to announce the publication of The Almost Sound of Snow Falling by Robert Walicki!

 

The Almost Sound of Snow Falling is 44 pages long and contains 30 poems, with such titles as "In the Years Before Color," "Black Angel of Death Love Song," and "Reading in Between the Lines of an Email to the Laurel Garden Apartments on Trying to Get My Security Deposit Back."  The intriguing cover photograph is an original collage by New York poet and artist Tsaurah Litzky, titled "Blue Soul Rising."  The cardstock is a textured light cocoa, and the cardstock insert is a rich cocoa brown.  The text is printed on textured ivory paper. 

Of the poems, Sandra Marchetti says

"Through live-wire language, shimmering colors, and brute physicality, he presents us with blue-color family portraits not to be forgotten....Walicki's poems are Whitman-like: 'gloriously unapologetic and beautiful'."

Nancy Krygowski says

"In poems that explore the mysteries of childhood to the mysteries of masculinity (check out the work poems!) to the mysteries of domesticity, we hear the sounds of real people inhabiting real and complex worlds.  Walicki's sharp language will leave you whispering, yeah, I know what you mean and wow! simultaneously."

Nancy Chen-Long says

"...Walicki explores the role of sound in memory.  He gifts us with sensory-filled and evocative poems that are surprising in their detailed precision....Walicki's balanced use of the narrative and lyric deftly moves us through the quiet and disquiet of a life and delivers us ultimately to a point of temperate hope...."
Robert Walicki, the curator of VERSIFY, a monthly reading series in Pittsburgh, PA, has had his work appear in HEArt, Stone Highway Review, Grasslimb, and on the radio show Prosody.  He won 1st runner up in the 2013 Finishing Line Open Chapbook Competition, and was awarded finalist in the 2013 Concrete Wolf Chapbook Competition.  Redbird Press published his first chapbook, A Room Full of Trees, in 2014.

The Almost Sound of Snow Falling is available beginning today, December 9, 2015, for only $10 plus $4 shipping/handling.  Best of all, you can get your copy signed by the author and hear the poems in his voice, if you come to the book release/featured reading tonight at Mac's Backs in Cleveland!  This reading cofeatures the one and only Christine Howey, so between Walickis and Howey, it's going to be one hell of a show. And yes, there's an open mic.  That's Mac's Backs Books, 1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, at 7pm!  If you absolutely, positively can't make it, order your copy today and I'll have him sign it tonight!

You can order right here, through PayPal.  Get your very own copy of The Almost Sound of Snow Falling today!

Is Lenny DellaRocca The Sleep Talker? Yes, He Is!

NightBallet is very pleased to announce the publication of
The Sleep Talker by Lenny DellaRocca!

 

 

The Sleep Talker takes you on a dreamlike waltz through a surreal, but comforting, landscape.  In this book, you will encounter an old wizard, an architect, a library of imagined books, mirror people, a genie, a window collector, a man who teaches children to fly.  DellaRocca's sweet phrasing compels the reader to journey deeper and deeper into the poems:


"This is a wizard's spell cast by pen and wires, pipes, footsteps and sawhorses, a man dreaming in blue geometry."

"I arrive when the sun dusts the world with a burning feather, carry a sack of broken mirrors, on each shard instructions written in moonlight: How Not to Fall Off the World:"

"And now a piece of the Little Dipper slips through the window.  The sun comes up.  There's a small white feather on the floor."


 

The Sleep Talker is 28 pages long and contains 21 poems.  The cover, which boasts a gorgeous and somehow haunting photograph taken and artfully rendered by George Wallace, is the palest green. The textured cardstock insert is a midnight blue, and the text is printed on textured white paper. 

Lenny DellaRocca has had poems published in many journals and magazines since 1980, including Nimrod, Seattle Review, Long Island Quarterly, and Chiron Review.  A Pushcart nominee, he is former president of the Hannah Kahn Poetry Foundation,which facilitated workshops and readings by Denise Duhamel, Michael Hettich, Richard Blanco, and others.

Denise Duhamel has this to say about The Sleep Talker:

"Lenny DellaRocca gives us fabulously fabulist prose poems in The Sleep Talker, a chapbook of dreamy utterances, miniature philosophies, and shape-shifting epiphanies.  Della Rocca is a poet of great intelligence, wit, and skill.  He does what every poet (and driver on wet roads) should do—he steers into the skid."

Michael Hettich says:

"In these beautifully nuanced, artfully crafted poems, Lenny DellaRocca takes us into worlds where magic and dream sing to us like almost forgotten memories, in language as clear as the very air we breathe.   This is soulful, heartfelt, wonderfully strange poetry that teems with luminous images and satisfies with the magic of its narrative drive.  Though reminiscent of folk-tales and magical-realist fables, DellaRocca's poems are his own original and fresh creations.  His is a mature voice and a welcome addition to the choir of contemporary American poetry."

The Sleep Talker can be yours for only $5 plus $3 shipping/handling.  Order your copy and allow DellaRocca's magic to take you by the hand and lead you into another world of moonlight, white feathers, and libraries with long corridors.

Reviews of Rented Mule and Lipsmack! Year Four by Tony Moffeit

NightBallet Press recently had the honor of sending Tony Moffeit, the cofounder, with Todd Moore, of the Outlaw Poetry Movement, a couple of NightBallet Press books: Rented Mule by Wolfgang Carstens, and Lipsmack! A Sampler Platter of Poets from NightBallet Press Year Four 2015.  He generously sent back these great reviews.  Thank you, Tony Moffeit!

"RENTED MULE is a knockout! I feel Wolfgang Carstens' poetry is a working man's blues, but a working man's blues with a sense of humor! The blues and the humor are enhanced by Janne Karlsson's illustrations! The main character here is the Rented Mule, working the MegaMart! The incredible irony of life situations is played out both in the MegaMart and in the home life! Carstens is the master of the slender poem eliciting a whole greater than the sum of its parts, as in "I think": "you spelled/my name tag/wrong,"/I said,/grabbing my mop/and bucket,/"it should say/rented mule." Karlsson's illustrations enhance this hallucinatory world. Carstens yields his own brand of immortality in the poem "some men": "so,/when my time comes,/bury me/with my name tag/and plant my tombstone/on the hill/overlooking/the MegaMart." The humor in this book ranges from the belly laugh to metaphysical irony! The poems and illustrations work together to provide a kind of Zen Drama or Existential Opera! Read this book for an unusual and evocative journey!"
 
"I've had a chance to read LIPSMACK! and love it! First of all, the design is magnificent! I particularly like the photos of the authors on the back cover and the red endsheets! The cover design, with that great cover stock, is incredible! The legend/description of the authors on the back cover is perfect on the verso of the title page.

The mini-history of your press described in the Editor's Introduction is crucial to the reader, such as me, who is new to viewing the poetry of your press and excited about what you are doing.

The first poet I went to, because she is one of my favorite poets, is Lyn Lifshin. Her WHEN I SEE JOAN OF ARC DRESSED IN ARMOUR PRAYING is a fascinating poem very Lifshin-like in its uncanny narrative, jazzy linebreaks, and history combined with irony. Lyn somehow weaves her own identity or persona into the "other" which or whom she is writing about.

The second poet I found fascinating was George Wallace, whose ALLEGORY BEAUTY ILLUSION FEAR is a gorgeous contrast to Lyn's poem, like the organ grinder's monkey in the rain "this sweet, practical, tubercular, enigmatic, american song." Like so many poems in this volume, the history/narrative is combined with the lyric/irony.

The third poet I found fascinating was Alan Catlin. I love Catlin's poetry. Again, the narrative, the extreme irony, the jazzy rhythms, the coming at things from a different angle. The Same Damn Thing is a beautiful slice of life.

The fourth poet I found fascinating was Andy Roberts. Excellent phrasing. Jazz improvisation with a touch of surrealism. You Know the Type is a gem.

The fifth poet I found fascinating was Margie Shaheed. In her Overheard Conversation #5, Zen meets the backstreet in a marvelous parable."

If you want to check out these fantastic books for yourself, just follow the PayPal links and I'll pop the books in the mail today!  The first button is Lipsmack!; the second is Rented Mule.

Please choose your country

United States $10.00 USD Canada $14.00 USD

Pushcart Prize 2016 Nominees

NightBallet Press is pleased once again to participate in the nominations process for the 40th Annual Pushcart Prize:  Best of the Small Presses XL, which will be published both in hardcover and paperback in late fall 2016.  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 (2014), 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 is December 1st.  Notification of selection for Pushcart Prize inclusion will be in April of 2016.  

It was extremely difficult for me to choose among the numerous excellent, unique, exciting and delectable poems 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:

"Forsythia" by Kathleen Cerveny, from her book Coming to Terms

"The Maples Hang On" by Lyn Lifshin, from her book Moving Thru Stained Glass

"Imbued, Resonance, Rendering" by Geoff Landis, from this year's Lipsmack! anthology

"Half-Moon Bay, Jamaica" by Connie Willett Everett, from her book What Keeps Me Awake

"Rhyme and Rituals (Part 1)" by Margie Shaheed, from her book Onomatopoeia

"In Due Season" by John Burroughs, his ekphrastic poem from his book Beat Attitude.

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.

Stay tuned for the Ohioana Book Award nominations, and for the two new titles coming out before the New Year!  December is going to rock you, I promise!

Presenting RENTED MULE - Poems by Wolfgang Carstens, Illustrations by Janne Karlsson!

NightBallet Press rarely posts back-to-back announcements, but this past month has been unusual, so here we go!

It's always exciting when a new manuscript comes sliding across NightBallet Press' desktop, and this one promised to be exceptional from the start. The themed poems are straightforward narrative delivered with wry humor, and the skillfully-rendered illustrations accompany the poems like a sweet but twisted music.

Rented Mule with poems by Wolfgang Carstens and illustrations by Janne Karlsson kicks...er, well, it kicks ass! 

 

 

 

Rented Mule contains 21 poems and 15 illustrations, printed on textured, palest-of-pale gray paper. The dove gray cover boasts a color photograph taken by Jeffery Alfier.  The cardstock insert is a textured concrete gray. 

Of the book, Rob Plath (former student of Allen Ginsberg and author of A Bellyful of Anarchy) says

"This slim collection of unadorned, narrative poems...and dark, heartbreaking drawings...belongs in the back pockets of all who suffer the soul-crushing teeth of the daily or nightly grind."

Tony Moffeit, cofounder of the Outlaw Poetry Movement, says

"Wolf Carstens takes us down the dark avenues of a strange world and the haunting reverberations of the MegaMart, the hopelessness of being a "rented mule."...Janne Karlsson's artwork enhances this strange and supercharged landscape."

Trilok,

i asked you

to work the freezer today
and yet, for the last three hours
you've been spinning the milk cartons.

hell, you've spun them so much
the milk has started to curdle
and customers are complaining.

what i'm trying to say here, Trilok,
is that your 70s porn moustache is offensive,

your Old Spice aftershave is really getting on my nerves,

and don't think i haven't noticed
the way you've been stroking the Ukrainian sausage.

ahh, fuck it, Trilok.
just get back to work, you smarmy bastard

and for fuck sakes
stop spinning the goddamned milk!

 

Go here for a Live Reading of "Trilok" by Wolfgang Carstens!

Wolfgang Carstens, in his own words, lives in Canada with his five kids, wife, grandson, dog, mortgage, and death.  His poetry is printed on the backs of unpaid bills. You can find him at www.wolfgangcarstens.com.

Janne Karlsson, in his own words, is a Swedish artist who uses pens as therapy.  His dark, surreal art is widely spread over the globe.  For more information, visit www.svenskapache.se.

 

                   

 

 In these sample pages taken from Rented Mule, Carstens refers to the NBP book Louisiana Calling by Bill Gainer.

Rented Mule is officially published today, and you may order your very own copy right here on the NBP website!  For buyers in the USA, the cost is $10 + $4 postage/handling.  Please note that Canadians will pay $14.00 but will still pay only $4 postage handling.

Please choose your country

United States $10.00 USD Canada $14.00 USD

Be among the first to obtain this fantastic, collaborative book by Carstens and Karlsson...order now!
  

Get Ready to Smack Your Lips Over Season Five (and Lipsmack Over Season Four)!

Welcome to Season Five of NightBallet Press!  The season, or year, officially began in September of 2015 and will continue to September, 2016.  We traditionally begin the new season with the publication of an anthology containing new poems by the poets published  the previous season.  To continue this fine tradition, we are very pleased to announce the release of Lipsmack! A Sampler Platter of Poets from NightBallet Press Year Four 2015.  If you think the title is a mouthful, just wait until you sink your teeth into the delicious nuggets of poetry contained within!

Lipsmack Year Four contains 16 new poems of moonlight communion, the Terminal Tower and Mountain Dew, of allegory, beauty, illusion and fear, of a singing bird, a red-eyed bull, a yellow lotus and endless, foreign blue, of Joan of Arc and the Big Gulp, of shoegazers and moonbeamers and coat pockets sewn up, of instant cinéma vérité and overheard conversation, cranberries and juice jars, and ekphrastic ice cream...the shape of dreams by these outstanding poets:

Steve Brightman
Marisa Moks-Unger
Jake St. John
George Wallace
Ra Washington
Russ Green
Margie Shaheed
Alan Catlin
Lyn Lifshin
Connie Willett Everett
Geoff Landis
Mary Turzillo
Kathleen Cerveny
Mike Finley
Andy Roberts
Bree

You can get your very own copy of this delectable serving of poems for only $5 plus $3 shipping by buying it through PayPal right here, or you can find it on Amazon!  Order Lipsmack Year Four here:

NBP will be producing one book a month for Season Five, and we are excited that we've already published September's book:  Beat Attitude by John Burroughs!  You can read about it and then order it here:

Stay tuned for more exciting news...and a very special publication - October's offering! -  to be announced tomorrow!

NightBallet Press has set the table, everyone's welcome, and mouths are watering...so smack those lips...and dig in!

John Burroughs' BEAT ATTITUDE Is Gonna Be Right On at BEATSTREET CLEVELAND!

 

Hey all you groovy guys and cool kitties, hey all you BeatStreet Cleveland beauties, guess what day it is? It's John Burroughs' birthday!  And oh daddio, do we have a way to celebrate! 

Today, we announce the publication of Beat Attitude, a new collection of poems
by John Burroughs!

 

 

 

  

 

Beat Attitude is the 1st title to be released in the 5th season of NightBallet Press--the 80th NBP book--and we couldn't be more pleased that we can tie it in with the upcoming BeatStreet Cleveland event!  The book will be officially released at BeatStreet, where John will be performing his poetry accompanied by trumpeter Étienne Massicotte.

The book, with a pale ivory cover and burnt orange cardstock insert, boasts a photo of a vivid art piece, "The Tell-Tale Heart," by local artist/poet Kevin Eberhardt.  Beat Attitude will pulse in your hand; you can feel the beat in poems that range from the two-lined "Baloney" to the two-paged "Invocation."  The book is 32 pages long and contains 23 poems, many of which make specific references to Beat poets, music, or poetry.  One of them is "Cannot Believe William S. Burroughs Is Dead."

Cannot Believe William S. Burroughs Is Dead

dream
spectral old man
gaunt
beside me
in a large late
sixties sedan
north on route fifty-seven
through mid-Ohio
seventy-five miles per hour
no other cars

of the accelerator he says
"Hit it like you live,
hard"
when WHOA!
a sign directly in front of us says
LEFT but
there's no control
in the steering wheel and
foot still on the gas
we launch
straight
into the sign
no matter what
press forward
awaken

The legendary outlaw poet, publisher, artist, author of The Book of Rabbits and In the Season of Open Waters: Selected Poems, Tom Kryss, had this to say about Beat Attitude:

"Burroughs takes up the sledgehammer lying at the base of the wall, and like a tray of glassware hurtling down an elevator shaft, centrifugally levitated, romances blown sunflowers forever drawn to the guard rails."

Beat Attitude is only $5 plus $3 shipping (if you are ordering from outside the U.S., please email the editor at nightballetpress(at)gmail.com for a price quote on shipping). 

And HEY!  Get this:

If you can't make it out to Cleveland for BeatStreet, order it today and I'll pop it in the mail this afternoon; with any luck and the help of the postal service, you might have it in time to celebrate with us--albeit remotely--on Saturday!

(photo by Michael Spear, used with permission)

John Burroughs is a dynamic and engaging performer of his poetry, and he appears regularly at venues throughout Ohio and neighboring states. He is the author of The Eater of the Absurd (NBP, 2012) and numerous chapbooks.  His work has appeared in many publications, including  Rosebud, Pudding Magazine, Rubicon: Words and Art Inspired by Oscar Wilde's De Profundus (Sybaritic Press, 2015), Writer Digest's Red Heart::Black Heart, and Polarity.  His poem "Lens" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  Since 2008, he has served as editor and publisher for Crisis Chronicles Press.  Read much more at www.crisischronicles.com.




(As for being "Beat"?  What, did you really think it was a coincidence that Mr. Lix (of the Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza days) looked like John?  "Be There or Be Square, Baaaaaay-beeee!")

 

Monsters! Whimsy! What more could you ask for?

When both Mary Turzillo and Geoffrey Landis sent manuscripts to NightBallet Press, we couldn't resist the opportunity to release the books of these two dynamite  poets simultaneously, as a Big Bang at the end of NBP's fourth season.  Therefore, we are ecstatic and excited to announce the publication of  

A Guide to Endangered Monsters by Mary Turzillo
and
The Book of Whimsy by Geoff Landis!

 

 

 

 

These books are full of secret things, wondrous things, whimsy, and yes, monsters both physical and metaphysical.

Mary Turzillo's A Guide to Endangered Monsters is packed with many of her award-winning and most-popular poems, everything from the deliciously salacious "We Made Poetry" to the devilishly hysterical "Aesthetics of Evil"...and including some of her haiku

Wandering teacup
Where has the mistress left it?
Ah. Wandering mind.

 

 

...and some of her science-fictional, apocalyptic pieces rendered in the way that only Turzillo can do it:

(stanzas excerpted from "This Is Just to Say")

This is just to say
I have eaten the hadrosaurs
that were grazing in the meadow
and which you were probably saving for further evolution.
Forgive me:

they were so tender and juicy
and also noisy;
they made my teeth itch.

This is just to say
I have blasted a crater
the size of Hyperion
in the Yucatan peninsula.
Forgive me:
it was so green and fertile
and it was in my way.

A Guide to Endangered Monsters contains 44 pages of 37 poems.  The cover is a very pale green cardstock with a rich olive green cardstock insert.  The text is printed on creamy soft white paper.  The cover image, "Spiders from Mars," is an art piece by Ohio artist-poet Kevin Eberhardt*.

The Book of Whimsy by Geoff Landis is subtle and profound, whimsical and witty, with poems such as "Ode to My Lover's Small Intestine" and "Sending My Mother to Mars."  A master of various poetic forms, Landis uses pathos, humor, and often, deft rhyming to write poems that grab you by the shirt collar and pull you in close for a kiss.

Offering whimsy:

November roses
the last late blooms of summer--
wistful memories.

(Mary replies)

Those wistful roses
still blooming in November:
I think they're plastic.


and discovery:

Shout

I have to shout.

I have to shout
inside my head.

I have to shout
inside my head
to drown out the voices.

I have to shout
inside my head
to drown out the voices
of sanity and reason.

I have to shout
inside my head
to drown out the voices
of sanity and reason
so I can reach the madness.

I have to shout
inside my head
to drown out the voices
of sanity and reason
so I can reach the madness
in which genius is hidden.

The Book of Whimsy contains 44 pages of 39 poems, with the text printed on bright white paper.  The cover is a textured white cardstock, with a cerulean blue-gray textured insert.

The Book of Whimsy and A Guide to Endangered Monsters are $10 each, with postage and handling charges of $4 each.  But buy both books together for $20 and NBP will pay the postage!  What a powerhouse team!  And Mary says there are some poems in Geoff's book that even she has never seen before!

Select the PayPal button of your choice below, and get the books of this powerhouse team for your very own!  Soon to be available on Amazon, too!

                                     photo by Irene Vartanoff, used with permission

Mary Turzillo's 1999 Nebula Award winner for Best Novelette "Mars Is No Place for Children" and her Analog novel An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl are recommended reading on the International Space Station.  Her poetry collection Lovers & Killers won the 2013 Elgin Award.  She has been a finalist on the British Science Fiction Association, Pushcart, Stoker, Dwarf Stars and Rhysling ballots, and Sweet Poison, her Dark Renaissance collaboration with Marge Simon, was a Stoker finalist and is on the 2015 Elgin ballot.  She's working on a novel, A Mars Cat and His Boy, and lives in Berea, Ohio, with her scientist-writer husband, Geoffrey Landis.  Find her at www.maryturzillo.com.

Geoff Landis is a writer, scientist, and poet.  He has won the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Science Fiction, and has twice won the Rhysling Award for Best Poem.  As a poet, he has published several hundred poems in magazines and anthologies ranging from The City to 3Lights: a journal of micropoetry to The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror.  His poetry chapbook Iron Angels was published in 2009 by VanZeno Press.  He is also the author of the novel Mars Crossing and the story collection Impact Parameter (and Other Quantum Realities).  As a scientist, he works for NASA on Mars exploration, and on developing advanced technologies for spaceflight.  He lives in Berea, Ohio, with his wife, poet Mary Turzillo, and four cats.  More can be found at www.geoffreylandis.com.

Best deal!  Get both Guide and Whimsy for only $20 with free shipping!

Get Mary Turzillo's A Guide to Endangered Monsters for $10 plus $4 shipping

Get Geoff Landis' The Book of Whimsy for $10 plus $4 shipping

(*Publisher's note: All of Kevin Eberhardt's art, including the one pictured on Turzillo's book, is for sale; if interested please contact Dianne Borsenik at NightBallet Press for details.)

 

When Newspaper Taxis Appear on the Shore, Mike Finley Gets Going!

NightBallet Press is enormously pleased to present a new collection of poems by Pushcart Prize-winning poet and native Ohioan Mike Finley...
Newspaper Taxis Appear on the Shore!

 

                                        

                        

The pale buff cardstock cover of Newspaper Taxis Appear on the Shore boasts a gorgeous color photo of a three-dimensional sculpture, "Waiting," by artist James Shefik (www.jamesshefik.com), and the text is printed on soft ivory textured paper. 

The last time Mike Finley visited Cleveland in August 2013, NightBallet Press published a twenty-page mini chapbook, For the Young Poets of Cleveland, which contained eleven poems.  Newspaper Taxis Appear on the Shore is twice that size, at forty pages of thirty-seven poems!  And oh, what wondrous poems they are!

 

 

The Revolving Door at Higbees, 1968
Seeing the old man step tentatively
into the glass cylinder,
the girl slowed down,
the two tiptoed around one another,
palms high.
He smiled at his partner,
and she, who had never before
danced the minuet,
stepping out with the old,
stepping in with the new,
did likewise

 

 

Irradiated Love                                                                                              

How I enjoy seeing you
in your paper shoes and hat
and lilac scrubs.
Do with me what you will, Aurelia—
enlighten me the way you do,
I want to shimmer and scramble your screen.
I love the merry expression I see in your eyes,
the jokes the two of us make
as you put me in the position,
then disappear behind the lead-lined door.

 

   

Mike Finley is a professional communicator with 30 years of experience in print, broadcast, in-person and online, as a best-selling writer, poet, and videographer.  Finley is one of only two Lorain County poets, and one of only three Cleveland-area poets, who's won the prestigious Pushcart Prize in poetry!  He's also written for the Rolling Stone, and in the Rock and Roll city of Cleveland, that's no small thing to note! In 2013, his book Growing Up in Amherst was published online, describing through poetry and prose his childhood in the small town of Amherst, Ohio.  He now lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

A recent article about his upcoming visit to Ohio was recently published in the Chronicle-Telegram:


               

Oh, did I neglect to mention...YOU CAN HEAR MIKE FINLEY READ FROM HIS BRAND NEW BOOK OF POEMS THIS MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 6, 2015 AT MAHALL'S IN LAKEWOOD, OHIO!

Yes, that's right!  Mike Finley will be one of the features, along with poetry cohort Danny Klecko, and Erie, PA poets extraordinaire Marisa Moks-Unger and Tracie Morell at Mondays at Mahall's, 13200 Madison, Lakewood, Ohio!  You may recall that NBP published Moks-Unger's book, Mud and Stars, about seven weeks ago, in June (the same time Crisis Chronicles Press published a book for Morell).  This will be a smashing event, a blow-the-roof-off reading, and you won't want to miss this Powerhouse Four!

        Danny Klecko and Mike Finley       
  Marisa Moks-Unger and Tracie Morell

                        

Finley's book (along with Moks-Unger's book) will be available for purchase at the reading.  At only $10 each, both are a steal, and you can save on shipping charges!  Unable to attend?  You may also order a copy through PayPal or on Amazon! 

 

So, see you tomorrow at Mahall's at 7:30pm, and prepare to have your flip-flops flipped!  Woohoo!

Connie Willett Everett's WHAT KEEPS ME AWAKE: Fireworks in July!

Happy week after Independence Day from NightBallet Press, where we are honored to announce
the publication of
What Keeps Me Awake by Connie Willett Everett!


 

 

 

 

What Keeps Me Awake by Columbus, Ohio poet Connie Willett Everett is a 48 paged book of 39 poems...haunting and evocative poems with titles such as "Where We Lived," "Half-Moon Bay, Jamaica," "Pedicure," "For Sale in Bangkok," "Nuclear Fallout," and "Planetary Signs."  Her poem "Leaving Paradise" captures perfectly some of the things that "keep her awake":

                                                                                         

Leaving Paradise

Somewhere near Jupiter I realize paradise is well behind me.
I’m driving against the steady Atlantic ebb, beach deserted,
sun gone down and nothing but stuttering shadows, a full moon
harangued by dark clouds.

It’s late when I pull under the flashing VACANCY.
A lap dance of neon undulates across my salt-crusted windshield.
I slouch into a damp room tuned to the hoarse rattle of
a dying air conditioner.

Long ago I saw a rocket launched near this coastal town,
a small light in the dark, earth trembling with possibility.
Tonight, on this thin shell of de León’s dream, it’s the tide
I hear close by.

The rooms here square a courtyard around the parking lot.
Travelers, like me, lank in open doorways of skeletal light,
smoke slow cigarettes, tiny constellations in the dark,
not yet ready to sleep.

With deft hand, steady eye, open mind and a caring heart, Everett explores the underbelly of the American Dream, the scenes behind the screens at vacation resorts, the commercial and the crass, the American perspective and the soaring of human hope.

What Keeps Me Awake boasts a stunning cover photograph taken by artist/poet Kevin Eberhardt of his art piece "Full Sail," printed on textured ivory cardstock. The book contains a rich golden cardstock insert, and the text is printed on thick ivory paper. Beginning today, July 4, 2015, you may order What Keeps Me Awake from NightBallet Press for only $10 plus $4 shipping/handling!

                                         photo by Stephanie Matthews, used with permission

Connie Willett Everett received degrees from Ohio University and Bowling Green State University, including an MFA in creative writing.  She is a member of the National League of American PEN Women and of Columbus Poetry Salon.  She is senior editor for Pudding House Productions, and her reviews appear in Ohioana Quarterly.  A former teacher of English, writing, and Women's Studies, Everett has presented workshops for public schools, women's retreats, juvenile detention centers, writers' workshops, and other groups.  Everett co-coordinates The Poetry Forum in Columbus, Ohio, and has produced and emceed many poetry and mixed media events.

Her poems and fiction have been published in numerous journals and several have won national and regional awards.  Previous chapbooks include Mothers, Daughter and Dreams (Bottom Dog Press, 1995) and As Good As It Gets, Sometimes (Pudding House Publications, 2008).  Everett helps run a family business, and is a committed community, political, and arts activist.  She has two grown children and lives in Worthington, Ohio with her husband, a cat and a dog.

 

Don't wait!  Order your copy of What Keeps Me Awake today!

 "Full Sail"

 
Editor's note: all of Eberhardt's art pieces are for sale, including this one.  If you wish to obtain this evocative piece, you can contact him at KE767@hotmail.com, or contact NightBallet Press for additional information.
  

Moks-Unger Sees Stars...MUD AND STARS!

NightBallet Press is enormously pleased to debut Erie, PA poet
Marisa Moks-Unger's brand new book of poetry:

Mud and Stars!

The title of the book is taken from a quote by the Reverend Frederick Langbridge (1849-1922): "Two men look out through the same bars.  One sees the mud, and one the stars."  Many of the poems in Mud and Stars were birthed in a four-story walkup on Clinton Street in the Lower Eastside of Manhattan during the summer of 2012.  In these poems, Moks-Unger explores themes of social injustice and identity: "At the Station for the Spiritually Declining," "Crylaughingly: Williamsburg Bridge as Canvas," "A Confluence of Feminine Energies in a Four-Story Walkup." Her voice is strong and true.

Marisa Moks-Unger is a poet, workshop leader, public speaker,  and social activist.  Her work has appeared in Midwestern Gothic Literary Magazine, Pressure Press Poetry, Guide to Kulchur Creative Journal, Voices of Lake Erie, and others. She lives in her hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania, with her husband Tom.  Mud and Stars is her first book of poetry.

 

Printed on textured white cardstock, the front cover of Mud and Stars boasts a striking photo of an art piece by Ohioan ***Kevin Eberhardt, titled "Neurotic Masonic." A matching aqua cardstock insert complements the cover photo.  The text is printed on  white textured paper. Mud and Stars is only $10 plus $3 shipping and handling.  You can order one through PayPal right here on this website...but better still, come to the mega-event book release FRIDAY JUNE 12, 2015 at 5:30pm at Poets and Painters at PACA, 1505 State Street, Erie, PA, and get a signed copy from the poet herself!

Poets and Painters at PACA will feature the book releases of Tracie Morell's Matilda's Battle Waltz by Crisis Chronicles Press and Marisa Moks-Unger's Mud and Stars by NightBallet Press, and the Gallery Opening for the surrealistic works of Ken Johnson and Kris Risto.  Joining them will be Ohio poets John Burroughs, Dianne Borsenik, and Juliet Cook,  and Erie poets Veronica Hopkins and Shawn King, with music by Rodger Montgomery.  Light refreshments in the form of food-art will be provided by Lisa Heidelberg and Tammy Lyn Fox.  You know what Lix & Kix would say...be there or be square, baaaaaay-beeeeeee!

***Kevin Eberhardt's art is for sale; if you are interested in checking it out, go to www.octoberconspiracy.blogspot.com.  You may contact the artist through NightBallet Press.

 

Alan Catlin Has Found...BEAUTIFUL MUTANTS!

NightBallet Press is pleased to present Beautiful Mutants by New York poet Alan Catlin!

Beautiful Mutants is from a long work in progress by Catlin under the working title of Alien Nation, which includes four thematically related chapbooks.  A master at taking verbal snapshots of the unfortunate, the disenfranchised, the ignored, and the misbegotten, Catlin strings these snapshots together into an album of "beautiful mutants"—"Senior Citizen Day at the Supermarket," "The Naughty Mamacita," "Beached Great Whales to the Bar," "The Kevorkian Cocktail"— and invites us to sit down, page through, and marvel at the collection.  Replete with references to song lyrics, Bukowski's poems, old movies, and various books, his poems surprise, delight, and prick the reader with crystal-clear descriptions.  The denizens of Catlin's "mutant" world leer, brag, lurch, and bang their way into your mind and heart...you'll find yourself unable to look away.

Beautiful Mutants contains 48 pages of 34 poems, presented on textured ivory paper.  The cover is a thick ivory cardstock, with a lime green cardstock insert.  A copy can be yours today—only $10 plus $3 shipping/handling!  Just use the PayPal button below, or in the right column.  Beautiful Mutants will also be available on Amazon.  

 

            
Alan Catlin, who has had over 65 books of poetry and prose published and has appeared in innumerable publications, has received twenty Pushcart Prize nominations.  Publications include Drunk and Disorderly (Pavement Saw Press), a selection of poems taken from his (50) chapbooks 1978-2000. Catlin edits Misfit Magazine.  Recently retired from working as a barman in various establishments, he lives in Schenectady, New York.  

Steve Brightman says History, Too, Is A Simple Machine.

It's going to be a glorious weekend here in northern Ohio, and what better way to celebrate than a fantastic new chapbook of poetry by Steve Brightman?  History, Too, Is a Simple Machine has arrived, flaming-hot off the press, on the NightBallet shelves!

History, Too, Is a Simple Machine boasts a stunning cover photograph taken by Ohio artist/poet/photographer Kevin Eberhardt of his original art piece, "The Simple Machine."  (Eberhardt was calling it "Untitled" and graciously gave editor Dianne Borsenik permission to name it.  I'm truly honored to have done so.)

History, Too, Is a Simple Machine contains 36 pages of 28 poems. The cover is a textured ivory, and the thick cardstock insert is a rich goldenrod yellow. The text is printed on textured ivory paper.

The titles of the poems alone are intriguing; they tempt you to turn the pages, step inside the Wonderful World of Brightman, and discover such gems as "Wild Honey in There," "The History of Coaxial Cable," "And Radius Is," "Upon the Snout," "Tracing the Perforation," and of course, " History, Too, Is a Simple Machine."  Brightman's poetry is addicting; the more you read, the more you want!


Steve Brightman, a prolific poet who writes every day, lives in Akron, Ohio.  He firmly believes in two seasons: winter and baseball.  About his biography, he says "Short version: my writing is my author statement.  Long version: my writing is definitely my author statement."  His first full-length collection, The Wild Gospel of Careening and Other Sermons from the Rumble Strip, was recently released by Red Orchid Publishing. NBP has published two previous chapbooks of poetry for Brightman: Sometimes, Illinois, and, based on a season of the Cleveland Indians, In Brilliant Explosions Alone.  Both are available through this website, and on Amazon. 

                                           photo by Christina Brooks, used with permission



History, Too, Is a Simple Machine is only $5 plus $3 shipping/handling, and is available right here on this website!  Get your copy today!