What Does Paul Koniecki Do "After Working Hours"?

Happy Independence Day!
NightBallet Press is very excited to announce the publication of
After Working Hours (a salute to poets i admire)
by Paul Koniecki!

We first met Paul Koniecki of Dallas, Texas, in Kansas City at the 2016 Throwdown.  His dynamic performances left us hungry for more, and After Working Hours delivers with a punch!

 

This collection of poems is individually dedicated to poets Koniecki admires, including William Taylor Jr., Reverie Evolving, John Dorsey, Chloe Honum, Josh Weir, Jeanette Powers, Ezhno Martin, Jason Ryberg, Anne Hollander, Stevie Edwards, Courtney Marie, Jack Micheline, Saskia Stehouwer, John W. Sexton, Mishka Hoosen-Lewis, Frankie Metro, Lindsey Thomas, Nate Maxon, Rafael Andrade Garza, Michael Clay, Matthew Haines, Tom Ferris, Tomaž Šalamun, Johnny Olson, and Joe Milazzo.  In his foreward, Koniecki writes:

"After Working Hours is a tribute to artists who must find ways to navigate the adult working world, much like Bukowski and his post-office.  Many artists must ingest the poison of soul-raping day jobs, yet still find ways to funnel inspiration from the slavery of keeping-the-lights-on into the ability to be sensitive again, to be moved again to be creative again.  Art needs pain for relevance. You don't get to bear the scar of art if you haven't suffered the pain of the cut."

After Working Hours contains 44 pages of 21 poems, printed on brilliant white paper. The cover is a thick textured white, with a deep blue backing.  The cardstock insert is a textured periwinkle/soft denim blue.  The cover photo was taken at Mahall's Bowling in Lakewood, Ohio.  This, my friends, is a poetry book with balls!

 

Paul Koniecki hosts the Pandora's Box Poetry Showcase at Deep Vellum Books in Dallas, Texas.  His chapbook, Reject Convention, was published by Kleft Jaw Press and his poems have appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies since 1985.  Richard Bailey's film, One of the Rough, contains several of Koniecki's poems, and was shown at the Berlin Experimental Film Festival in December of 2016.  He has featured at the Fermoy International Poetry Festival in Ireland, and at the Kansas City Poetry Throwdown in Kansas City, Missouri. He was chosen for the Ashbery Home School Residency in Hudson, New York.  He and Reverie Evolving currently facilitate Stone Soup Poetry workshops for the Writer's Garret of Dallas. Find him at paulkoniecki.wordpress.com.

Koniecki will be performing his poetry in Portland, Oregon, at Contronym (A Fugue in E Minor), presented by Kleft Jaw and TRUST Art Collective, July 14, 15, and 16, 2017.  And YES, he will have After Working Hours with him! Don't miss this remarkable poet! (Bonus: John Burroughs, another NBP poet, will be reading there, as well!)

I can't think of a more fitting book release to celebrate the Fourth of July than Koniecki's After Working Hours!  It ignites, explodes, and thunders with words that soar, sizzle, and glitter! 

You can obtain a copy of After Working Hours for only $10 plus $4 shipping, right here on this website!  Just click the button "Buy Now," and have a debit or credit card handy.  You don't have to have a PayPal account to purchase!  (U.S. customers only; out-of-country buyers, please contact the publisher at nightballetpress@gmail.com for shipping costs.) Please note: due to the holiday, shipping on orders will not be before July 11, 2017.

It's a PATCH JOB by Chuck Salmons!

NightBallet Press is enormously pleased to announce the publication of Patch Job by Columbus poet—and Ohio Poetry Association's President—Chuck Salmons!

Patch Job is a collection of poems by Salmons that, in Cathryn Essinger's words, "are a homage to the men who shaped him, the machinists, mechanics, and carpenters, who taught him how to use spackle, to toss horseshoes, and to do a day's work, even when he knew that his job was to not be like my father." 

From "Patch Job" (excerpt)

When he and Mom argued,
Dad punched holes in our walls.
His fist pierced the drywall
like Yeager through the sound barrier.
Hand-sized holes every few months,
as if bumps and bruises
where our house had fallen again.

to "Sycamores" (excerpt)

Mother always taught me to jump
into summer's first swim.
To rip off a Band-Aid,
quickly, as if it were a leech.
To move headlong through life,
the way she faced cancer.

Salmons offers glimpses of a life spackled with hardship and humor, a life filling  with "Glory," "Cold," "Luck," "Whiteout," and "Slump Block."  Other poems in Patch Job find that "God Wakes Up with a Hangover on New Year's Day," stroll "Lakeside at the Pentwater Yacht Club, Michigan," go "Creekin'," and wake up in a "Bed and Breakfast."

Steve Abbott says "In poems both wistful and realistic, Patch Job reveals a poet comfortable with science as well as soul.  Chuck Salmons invites us to walk with him and embrace the wisdom of the natural world, the joy and pathos of memory, and a series of brisk metaphors that discover the infinite in the mundane."

Native Columbus resident Chuck Salmons is the current President of Ohio Poetry Association (OPA).  His work has appeared in various journals and anthologies, including Pudding Magazine, Evening Street Review, Paradigm, Red Thread Gold Thread, The Fib Review, and Appleseeds.  He won the 2011 William Redding Memorial Poetry Contest, sponsored by The Poetry Forum of Columbus, and regularly gives readings throughout the state of Ohio.  Salmons earns a living as Publications Editor for the Ohio Geological Survey.

                  

                         

Patch Job contains 36 pages of 25 poems. The white, linen-textured, cardstock cover features a beautiful primitive art piece, "Ask Again Later," by Kevin Eberhardt.  A rib-textured, deep blue, cardstock insert complements the cover.  The text is printed on brilliant-white paper. 

You can order your very own copy starting today, July 1st, 2017, for only $10, right here on this website through PayPal!  All you need is a debit or credit card.  Shipping is $4 (US customers only; out-of-country customers please contact the editor for shipping costs (nightballetpress@gmail.com).  Please note: shipping on orders will begin July 11, due to the holiday.