HOLLYWEIRD by Alan Catlin

 

NightBallet Press is excited to announce the publication of
Alan Catlin's new book of poetry,
Hollyweird!

 

 

For those of you familiar with Alan Catlin's work, you know you're in for a treat.  With such teasing and tantalizing titles as "Zombie Strippers," "Elevator to the Gallows," "Betrayed by Rita Hayworth," and "Pulp Fiction," Hollyweird explores and exploits the attraction of the strange. Cynical and sharp-tongued, these poems will follow you down dark streets, breathe on the back of your neck, and invite you to blur the division between what is seen on film and what is experienced in life:

Elevator to the Gallows

They must stay up nights
thinking up stupid cocktails
to foist off on the young
impressionable, cynical shit
made with stuff that doesn't go
together, like gin, vodka, rum
and rye, partial shots of each topped
off with Irish cream and stirred,
served as a shooter and given
gross names with sexual connotations,
knowing full well that the name will sell
the drink and all they will taste is
Irish cream until they chuck it all up.
None of the names will turn up in
an over the counter bar guide:
Bloody Orgasms, Blow Jobs, Blow Jobs
with Extra Tongue, Purple Jesus Motherfuckers;
cumshots, we call them in the trade,
and I'm willing to bet there is some
slick, greasy, smartass fuck in NYC
who's taking all the credit for inventing
the trend. If there is, and someone finds him,
this Between the Eyes with a Silver Bullet
is for him.

Hollyweird boasts stunning cover art, "Blue Plate Special," by Ohioan Kevin Eberhardt. The cover is white linen cardstock, with a textured cool-green cardstock insert. The text is printed on bright white paper. Hollyweird, forty pages long, contains thirty-one poems printed on bright white paper.  Alan Catlin has had over sixty chapbooks and full length collections published over five decades, among them, Beautiful Mutants (NBP, 2015), Blue Velvet, the 2017 Slipstream chapbook contest winner, and Walking Among Tombstones in the Fog (Presa Press, 2017).

Hollyweird was scheduled to appear in October to accompany the publication of Kevin Eberhardt's book Before the Puppets Could Sing, but unavoidable personal issues delayed its printing. NBP warmly thanks Alan Catlin for his kind patience and understanding. 

                       

Hollyweird is available right here, right now, through PayPal, for only $8.00.  You don't have to be a member of PayPal to order; all you need is your debit or credit card number.  Shipping is only $3.00. 

BONUS OFFER!  Order before midnight on December 31, 2017, and NBP will include a copy of Kevin Eberhardt's new book, Before the Puppets Could Sing, for free!

Artifacts by Kerry Trautman

NightBallet Press is very pleased to announce the publication
of two new titles by two fantastic Ohio poets:

Artifacts by Kerry Trautman and Beyond the Sidewalk by Jonie McIntire!

The actual print date was November, but due to some unforeseen and unavoidable delays, NightBallet was unable to announce publication until today. These two books are incontrovertible proof that some things are well worth waiting for!

 

 

(This is one-half of two announcements.  For Jonie McIntire's Beyond the Sidewalk, please go here.)

Artifacts is a stunning journey of discovery. Its thirty-two pages contain twenty-two poems, all rich in language and masterfully written. Among Trautman's "Archeological Surveys" are those of "the CD Collection of a Somewhat-Poor Girl," "a Curated Native American Clothing Exhibit," and "Drummers and Poets." Trautman does not hold back, does not flinch, as she explores themes of both darkness and light.

The Archeological Survey of a Girl Who Stumbles Over Words

She's dead now,
       so she doesn't fear in-class presentations

       and unplanned conversations.

Or, at the grocery store, bumping into
someone she doesn't know well but really likes.

Notice how her fingertips are clenched into her palms.
Note the nailmarks.
See where sweat would have pooled--
        the armpits and between the breasts--
where panic would liquefy and try to escape her body
        when she herself could not escape her body,
        could not stop pretending she was true.

 

Kerry Trautman is a founding member of Toledo's Almeda Street Poetry Co-op, the Toledo Poetry Museum, and ToledoPoet.com. She is often seen at local poetry readings and events, such as Artomatic 419, Back to Jack (Toledo's annual Jack Kerouac tribute), 100 Thousand Poets for Change, and the Columbus Arts Festival.  Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in various journals and anthologies, including Midwestern Gothic, The Fourth River, Hawaii Pacific Review, and Journey to Crone (Chuffed Books Press, 2013). Previous books include Things That Come in Boxes (King Craft Press, 2012), and To Have Hoped (Finishing Line Press, 2015).

Artifacts is printed on creamy ivory paper.  The ivory, linen-textured cover features a magnificent art piece by Bree, "Raven Gorget 3.29.16," which is complemented by the deep grape-colored cardstock insert.  Artifacts is available beginning today, December 10, 2017, for only $8 plus $3 shipping!  (For customers outside the U.S., please contact NightBallet Press for postage pricing.)  Get your copy today to unearth its "artifacts" of beauty and truth!

Beyond the Sidewalk by Jonie McIntire

NightBallet Press is very pleased to announce the publication
of two new titles by two fantastic Ohio poets:

Beyond the Sidewalk by Jonie McIntire, and Artifacts by Kerry Trautman!

The actual print date was November, but due to some unforeseen and unavoidable delays, NightBallet was unable to announce publication until today. These two books are incontrovertible proof that some things are well worth waiting for!

 

  

This is one-half of two announcements.  For Kerry Trautman's Artifacts, please go here.
 

                                 

Beyond the Sidewalk is a beautiful homage to McIntire's beloved city, Toledo.  Its thirty-two pages contain twenty-four poems and one photo, including several of her "zip code" poems, written in response to Toledo City Paper's "Ode to the Zip Code" contest. Among the gems contained within its pages are "I Hate the Factory that Takes You So Often" and "What the Dog Buried."  McIntire's love for her hometown shines throughout the book, and her wry humor takes you along with her as you both travel "beyond the sidewalk."

Cycles
(for the poets Toledo has lost)

The open-palmed pushes
of John, Patrice, Don,

Greg move us all
sidewalk blocks forward.
Even after they let
go, we roll on,
peddling our poetry.


 
(photo by Chuck Schmitt, used with permission)

 

Jonie McIntire is poetry editor of the Toledo Streets Newspaper, a founding member of the Toledo Poetry Museum and Almeda Street Poetry Co-op, and organizer of the annual 100 Thousand Poets for Change events in Toledo.  Her work has appeared in Red Fez, Sam and Andy's Uptown Cafe (Westron Press, 2001), and the 2016 Hessler Street Fair Anthology (Crisis Chronicles Press), among others.  A number of her poems have been stamped into cement as part of the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo's Sidewalk Poetry series (a photo of one of her poems is included in the book).  She is the author of Not All Who Are Lost Wander (Finishing Line Press, 2016). 

 
Beyond the Sidewalk is printed on crisp, thick, white paper.  The white linen-textured cover contains stunning artwork by Kevin Eberhardt, his "The Memory of Sun in an Aqueous Sky," which is complemented by the deep aqua cardstock insert.  Beyond the Sidewalk is available beginning today, December 10, 2017, for only $8 plus $3 shipping!  (For customers outside the U.S., please contact NightBallet Press for postage pricing.)  Get your copy today and discover what treasures exist "beyond the sidewalk"!

Halloween and Dia de los Muertos! Part One, Kevin Eberhardt!

 

It's the end of October, and NightBallet Press is pleased to announce the publication of TWO fantastic poetry collections by TWO fantastic poets,
Kevin Eberhardt and Alan Catlin! 
This is Part One of two posts; stay tuned for Part Two: Alan Catlin next weekend!

Part One:  Kevin Eberhardt: Before the Puppets Could Sing

 

Before the Puppets Could Sing by northeast Ohio poet and artist Kevin Eberhardt is a dark fantasy "upon the scrimshawed sea" to lands where "pillar shaped clouds/hold up the sky," where "there's a darkness in the water" and "skeletons dance/on splintering ropes."

This is the editor's favorite poem in the book:

Holy Storms

A congregation of
Clouds gather for
Prayer the sermon
Same as yesterday
& the one before of
Apocalyptic damage
To an unexpected
Town got nothin' to
Do with sin or the
Breaking of any
Commandment
W/out warning & un
Prepared for that
Which they were
About to receive
A renegade cold
Front moves in
Spouting a torrent
Of tornadoes in
A schizophrenic
Language only
Angels under
Stand / repent
For the wrath of
God is upon us
Halleluiah
Amen

Before the Puppets Could Sing contains 28 pages of 21 poems and a Kevin Eberhardt illustration, "'Tis the Season."  The cover is a stark white textured cardstock with an Eberhardt art piece, "The Gate" in red and black. The cardstock insert is thick and double-sided, black and red. The text is printed on brilliant white paper. While the poems are often brief, they contain an astonishing array of wordplay and vivid imagery. 

Kevin Eberhardt, in recent years, has expressed himself in found/primitive/folk art. His striking and distinctive art has appeared on numerous NightBallet Press covers, and has been featured at JoAnn DePolo Studios and Gallery in North Olmsted, Ohio, and at www.agentofchaos.com.  Eberhardt's poetry has appeared in various publications, including ArtCrimes, The City Poetry, Deep Cleveland Junkmail Oracle, and the Fuck Poetry anthology (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2011).  He is the author of two previous chapbooks, Transitory Innocence (NBP, 2013), and Burnin' Shadows (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2011).  He also published a collaborative book of poems and photos, Rockin' at the Ace Cafe, with U.K. photographer Richard Byerley.  Learn more at www.octoberconspiracy.blogspot.com.

Before the Puppets Could Sing is only $5 plus $3 shipping.  To purchase a copy, simply click on the PayPal button (you don't have to have a PayPal account to use it).

Out-of-country purchasers, please contact the press at nightballetpress@gmail.com for information on shipping costs.

RIKKI SANTER WANTS YOU "To Make Me That Happy"!

 

NightBallet Press welcomes everyone to our 7th year (season)
of making works-of-art books for poets across the United States!


We are thrilled to announce the first book published this season is
by one of Ohio's most gifted poets, Rikki Santer. 
Her new full-length collection, Make Me That Happy,
makes us...well, That Happy!

 

 

Make Me That Happy, with dynamic cover art ("Do-Si-Do 6.26.17") by Bree (www.theartistbree.com), is a full-length collection, containing 42 poems on 64 pages.  This saddle-stitched book has a cover cardstock of warm tan, with a deep blue, textured, cardstock insert. The poems are printed on bright white paper. Santer writes about "Condiments as a Way of Knowing," about "Arguments for Furniture', about "Still Life with Whoopee Cushion," and "Taxidermy for Erotica." Her poems are dancers in a conga line, inviting the reader to join in the rhythm and kick, the joyful weaving of words, from the first page to the last!


"Reading Rikki Santer's Make Me That Happy this Saturday morning was kind of like sitting down to a glorious, sumptuous brunch.  Here's Santer describing a gorgeous summer evening: "We sit cross-legged on the lawn / for a rod and cone picnic." A rod and cone picnic! One of the functions of poetry is to show us the world afresh, to restore its glorious strangeness. Rikki Santer goes a step farther by reminding us how wondrous and strange language itself can be.  I hear echoes of my favorite Surrealist/Absurdists here, like Dean Young and Caroline Knox and Russell Edson.  But no one sounds quite like Rikki Santer.  I love watching her brew up her crazy, beautiful, magical sentences."  George Bilgere, Blood Pages (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018)


Rikki Santer's Make Me That Happy is a masterfully nuanced book, brimming with poems both insightful and deeply funny. The imagery and turns of phrase in this new collection, from "a bouquet of geese / glinting into formation" to "a hub-capped sun," make us see the familiar anew.  Ohio is lucky that it can claim a poet with such intelligence and warmth."  Maggie Smith, Good Bones (Tupelo Press, 2017)


"In Make Me That Happy, Rikki Santer offers up a saucy collection of spirited poems that makes me want to laugh, cry, and celebrate. Whether she is writing about dead parent, bumper stickers, or kitchen cabinets, she is at once witty and ironic, clever and entertaining. Each poem is a carefully crafted delicacy--unique and lyrical."  Nin Andrews, Miss August (CavanKerry Press, 2017)



                                                

Rikki Santer has worked as a journalist, a magazine and book editor, co-founder and managing editor of an alternative city newspaper in Cleveland, and as poet-in-the-schools. She earned an M.A. degree in journalism from Kent State University, an an M.F.A. degree in creative writing from Ohio State University.  Her work has won honors from The Poetry Forum, Black Lawrence Press, and the Ohio Poetry Association, as well as Pushcart and Ohioana Book Award nominations, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her work has appeared in Slipstream, Main Street Rag, The Atlanta Review, Rhino Literary Journal, and many others; previous books include Kahiki Redux (Wexner Center for the Arts, 2015), Fishing for Rabbits (Kattywompus Press, 2013). Clothesline Logic (Pudding House, 2009), and Front Nine (Kalupi Press, 2005). Santer lives in Columbus, Ohio.  Find her at www.rikkisanter.com.

Make Me That Happy is $15 plus $4 shipping/handling, and is available directly from NightBallet Press through PayPal.  You don't have to have a PayPal account to purchase; all you need is a debit or credit card.  You may also buy it on Amazon. Get your copy now! (Out-of-country buyers, please contact the editor for information on additional shipping costs.  Email nightballetpress at gmail.com.)

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.

Listen to Tim Staley: The Most Honest Syllable Is Shhh!

NightBallet Press is thrilled to announce the publication of
The Most Honest Syllable Is Shhh by Tim Staley!

 

 

 

 

 

The Most Honest Syllable Is Shhh is saddle-stapled, and boasts a lovely color collage, "Stag 10.21.16" by Bree (www.theartistbree.com), printed on textured ivory cardstock, with a warm, light-coffee cardstock insert.  The text is printed on ivory paper.  It contains thirty-two pages of twenty-three poems.  And, oh!  What poems they are!  This is but a sample of the rampant coolness within the book:

The Sky Is Bursting with Rainlight
—for Angela Humphreys Staley (1965–2016)

I see a woman playing tennis.
She has no voice,
only the muted thump
of the ball kissing the racket,
the sound of a snowball
rolling into a river.

She is a woman of light,
light slicing into a smile,
into a quick set of smiles,
a million laughing, easy returns.

With sunset comes rain
and the sky glows with it.
The sky is bursting with rainlight.
It sweeps the court of people.
Even the giant moths
circling the overhead lights
hang it up for the night.

And for a while we stand together
against the fence, our fingers
hanging from memories like hooks.
The moon closes
what the sun begins.

On the empty court
puddles of moon light.
Tell me Angela can’t be smiling there
in that light, in that bright,
trembling light, and we won’t
turn the lights off on her,
not tonight, not ever.


Tim Staley was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1975.  His debut poetry collection, Lost on My Own Street, was released by Pski's Porch Publishing in 2016.  His work has appeared in various journals, including Anti-Heroin Chic, Chiron Review, San Pedro River Review, and Sin Fronteras.  His awards include the 2004 Peter Harris-Kunz Endowed Award in Poetry, the 2012 Luminaire Award for Best in Poetry, and the 2016 Dona Ana Arts Council's Arts in Education Award.  In 1992, Staley founded Grandma Moses Press, where he continues to serve as editor.  He lives with his wife and daughter in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  For tour dates and more, visit www.poetstaley.com.  Find him on Facebook and on YouTube!

 

 

 

NightBallet Press was first contacted by New Mexico poet Tim Staley in September, 2015.  He sent a marvelous manuscript we couldn't resist...and then followed that up by a) teaching one of this editor's poems in his classroom ("Incontinence"), and by b) coming to Cleveland to do a reading with me (at Mac's Backs).  Although his book is eight months overdue to be published (due to some unavoidable personal issues), he has been nothing but polite and patient, and we here at the press are very grateful.  So, listen up:  we highly recommend you get a copy of The Most Honest Syllable Is Shhh...when you read it, you'll find yourself shouting for joy!

The Most Honest Syllable Is Shhh is only $5 plus $4 shipping, and is available beginning today.

You can order right here through PayPal, with a credit or debit card of your choice.
(U.S. customers, only; non U.S. customers, please contact the editor at nightballetpress@gmail.com for information on postage costs) Don't miss out on this exciting colletion...order today! 

Andy Roberts Says "You Know the Type"!

NightBallet Press is truly delighted to announce the publication of
You Know the Type by Andy Roberts!

 

You Know the Type is saddle-stapled and features a stunning collage, "Coyote 04.30.17," by Bree on its ribbed cardstock cover.  (Bree has graciously allowed NBP to use her work for several recent covers; check out her fabulous and groundbreaking work at www.theartistbree.com.) 

This collection contains 26 poems on 36 pages.  In his poems, Roberts says "you know the type...the shoegazers, the moonbeamers"; his poems reflect on lucky byways in life, and offer stirring recollections of an earlier time, memories shared in time by common experience.

Coelacanth, 1969
I remember Dark Shadows at three in the afternoon,
the moon shot, picture of the coelacanth
in the World Book Encyclopedia.
I would learn tricyclics, MAO Inhibitors, encehalopathy.

But things weren't all bad.
The moon shot inspired me and I was
proud to be an American.
The Jets beat The Colts in Super Bowl 3.
The Monkees broke up.

I lost the key to memory a long time ago.
Drowned anything close to an answer.
Learned things in the deep
could be reeled up
no one had ever seen.

Nancy Scott, editor of U.S. 1 Worksheets and author of Ah, Men and The Owl Prince, says about these poems:

"His poetry filled with unswerving wisdom and humor, Roberts has succeeded in convincing us that life does not have to be orderly to be lived well."

Andy Roberts, a Columbus, OH, poet, has three previous books from NightBallet Press: Yeasayer, Pencil Pusher, and The Green World, and we are honored and pleased by his trust in our press. Roberts has seen his work appear in a wide array of literary journals and small press publications for over thirty years, including Atlanta Review, Chiron Review, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Mudfish, Pudding Magazine, and Slipstream.  His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize several times. Roberts handles finances for disabled veterans, a sometimes frustrating, and often rewarding, occupation. 

You can order You Know the Type for only $5 plus $4 shipping through PayPal, with the credit or debit card of your choosing. (U.S. customers only; non U.S. customers may contact the editor at nightballetpress@gmail.com to discuss shipping charges.)  Find us on Amazon!

You'll Go Wild for The Wildness of Flowers by Beverly Zeimer!

We here at NightBallet Press are publishing our 100th title,
and we couldn't be more pleased or excited about this milestone!

It is our pleasure to present The Wildness of Flowers by Beverly Zeimer!


,

  

The Wildness of Flowers, a poetry collection by Ohio poet Beverly Zeimer, is the long-awaited follow-up to her award winning chapbook Pick a Way (Pudding House Publications, 2009). From burning movie magazines to keep warm, to playing Grandma and Jesse James, to the mama doll she got for Christmas one year, Zeimer remembers, explores, and celebrates, with vivid detail and a deft hand, rural life in southern Ohio.

Beverly Zeimer was awarded a grant by the Greater Columbus Arts Council in 2013 to further her work in encouraging aspiring writers to preserve their varied traditional cultures in poetic form. She has been published in various journals and anthologies, including Love Poems and Other Messages for Bruce Springsteen (Pudding House, 2009), A Community of Voices: Reflections on Identity and Diversity (College of Wooster, 2010), and Every River on Earth: Writing from Appalachian Ohio (Ohio University Press, 2015).  She lives in the Darby Valley near Big Darby Creek, where she enjoys the quiet of nature.

Excerpted from her author's statement in Pick a Way:

"My interest in poetry dates back to childhood when my mother, inspiring a lifetime love for the language, taught me verse.  Migrating from the Appalachia, my grandparents, and parents, were tenant farmers, and our family learned to make the most of its resources, the ancient tradition of poetry free for the taking.  I spent hours memorizing poems, and each Sunday, I recited a piece in church.

A member of a writer's group, I work with other regional poets, welcoming their critiques, and I revise many times to mold my poems into colorful detail.  I write in narrative free verse, as in keeping with the freedom of rural living.

My desire is to record these stories and pass them on, assuring that no account of my relationship with Ohio's rich cultural heritage is left out.  My hope is that one day, the lifestyles of tenant families, migrant workers, and farm laborers will be preserved in a larger, comprehensive collection of poems."

The Wildness of Flowers contains 28 pages of 21 poems, and is printed on crisp white paper.  The cover is a textured white cardstock with a bright coral cardstock insert, and a cover photo (taken at the OPA's recent ekphrastacy anthology release) Photo Pro-ed by the editor.  But the best parts of the book are the poems contained within!

This book is available now, for only eight dollars (which includes the three dollars postage). And best of all?  You can order it right here, right now, through PayPal!  You don't have to have a PayPal account to order--just a debit or credit card. NightBallet Press also takes checks and money orders, but please contact the editor first.

Help us celebrate the release of our 100th title(!) and treat yourself to the loving and soulful reminiscence that permeates Zeimer's The Wildness of Flowers!

A One Year Subscription to NightBallet Press has been made available, with eight titles already available for mailing, plus several more scheduled to be published by September 2017, and The Wildness of Flowers is one of those eight!  This incredible offer means that you'll receive every book that NBP publishes during its sixth season--September 2016 to September 2017--free of postage charges--for a one-time payment of only fifty dollars/$50.00!  If you wish to be a "wingman" and celebrate with us the art and heart of poetry, hit the PayPal button below and I'll put your package of books in the mail pronto!

You'll Be Begging for A Beggar's Prayer Book by Nathanael William Stolte!

To continue National Poetry Month festivities, NightBallet Press proudly announces the publication of A Beggar's Prayer Book by Buffalo poet Nathanael William Stolte!

A Beggar's Prayer Book is NBP's 99th book, and we couldn't be more pleased about it. We met Nathanael when we read with NBP poet Joey Nicoletti in Buffalo last year.  He is an engaging and dynamic performer, and his poems touch both heart and soul with their insights and longing.

 

                                                         photo by Amanda Giczkowski,
                                                               used with permission


Nathanael William Stolte is the acquisitions editor for CWP Press.  His poems have appeared in GTK Creative Journal, Poems-For-All, and numerous online publications.  He is the author of four previous chapbooks, some of which can be found at www.cwp-press.com.  Stolte is a madcap, flower-punk, DIY, Buffalo-bred and corn-fed poet; he was voted Best Poet in Buffalo in 2016 by Artvoices' "Best of Buffalo."

A Beggar's Prayer Book is 20 pages and contains 12 poems.  The cover is a textured, pale ivory cardstock with a heavy cinnamon-and-cream cardstock insert.  The text is printed on matching textured ivory paper. 

You will beg for more, more, MORE, once you've read Stolte's poems in A Beggar's Prayer Book!  It can be yours for only $5 plus $3 shipping/handling.  You can order it HERE, right through PayPal!  It will also be available on Amazon. 

Get Ready...Get Set...Get LIPSMACKED! (Year 5, at long last)

NightBallet Press is enormously pleased (and relieved) to publish Lipsmack! A Sampler Platter of Poets from NightBallet Press, Year Five 2016, just in time to celebrate the beginning of April, National Poetry Month!  And no, this isn't an April fool's joke!

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we had to postpone Lipsmack's publication from October, 2016 until April, 2017.  But the poems have been marinating all this time, and man, are they ever suh-weeeet and tasty now!

This anthology contains eleven poems by eleven super poets, plus an illustration by an amazing artist, all of them published this past season by NightBallet Press. The poems, poets, and the NBP books published this past year, are listed: 

DANCE WITH IT STEADY by George Wallace    (Drugged by Hollywood)
Graveyard Shift by Andy Roberts                        (Yeasayer)
Head & Shoulders by Joey Nicoletti            (Counterfeit Moon)
California Dreamin’ by Chansonette Buck          (unfinished litany)
Sibyl by John Burroughs                                      (Beat Attitude)
End of the World 2.0 by Lenny DellaRocca        (The Sleep Talker)
The Pink Chamber by D. R. Wagner                   (The Generation of Forms)
Critique of Certain Vacation Photos by Steve Abbott (The Incoherent Pull of Want)
Freaks by Robert Walicki                                      (The Almost Sound of Snow Falling)
now by Wolfgang Carstens                                   (Rented Mule)
illustration for “now” by Janne Karlsson                (Rented Mule)
How I Got Here by M. J. Arcangelini                    (Room Enough)

(To check out or buy any of the books listed, simply click on the title and you will link to the original blog and a PayPal button.)
With a succulent cover photo by the talented photographer Chandra Alderman, Lipsmack! is a mouthwatering treat!

Yes, we were rather male poet oriented last year—except, of course, for Chansonette Buck—but this, too, was beyond our control.  While we strive to maintain a balance, several of our female poets slated for year five publication opted to have their manuscripts moved to a later time in the year.  That means year six will have no less than nine women poets represented!

Lipsmack! A Sampler Platter of Poets from NightBallet Press, Year Five, 2016 is on the table. To obtain your bite, simply click on the PayPal button below, and it will be delivered to your door, ready for consuming.  ONLY $5; NightBallet Press will pay the postage!

(sorry!  postage free only in the U.S.! outside the U.S., please contact me for payment details)  

Celebrate Women's History Month with Lyn Lifshin's LITTLE DANCER

Please join us as NightBallet Press celebrates Women's History Month with the release of Lyn Lifshin's newest collection of poems, Little Dancer - The Degas Poems!

 

Little Dancer -The Degas Poems is the fourth NightBallet Press book by the legendary American poet Lyn Lifshin.  (The first three were Moving Thru Stained Glass - The Maple Poems, Tangled as the Alphabet - The Istanbul Poems, and Knife Edge and Absinthe - The Tango Poems.)  In this newest book, Lifshin imagines and explores the world of Marie Van Goethem, the "Little Dancer" sculpted by Edgar Degas. 

In her introduction, Lifshin writes:

"Now loved, Degas' original wax version of the little dancer was hated, though his paintings had been greeted enthusiastically.  His sculpture of The Little Dancer, Aged 14, was considered shocking and unsettling, like a little monkey.  It is said one father cried, 'God forbid my daughter should become a dancer.'  Many were shocked by her pose and the material used: human hair, beeswax, silk.  Degas loved the opera and ballet but this statue was called 'repulsive' and 'vicious,' a threat to society.  It forced viewers to look at the seamy side of life since most of the young girls came from very poor slums and working class families.  Others were horrified that she seemed to champion ugliness and depravity.  Degas never again exhibited the sculpture.  And, though he painted ballerinas all his life, The Little Dancer was largely forgotten until it was rediscovered with dozens of other sculptures.  His fascination with making sculpture was little know in his lifetime, unlike his portraits, history paintings, scenes from modern life, the world of horse racing, and the theater and ballet." 

Christina Zawadiwsky, winner of a National Endowment Award, and author of The Hand on the Head of Lazarus, wrote this review:

"We now recognize The Little Dancer sculpture by Degas as arresting and compelling, but there was a time when she was considered scandalous and disturbing.  Lyn Lifshin's poems celebrate her creation as a symbol of so many young and impoverished French female dancers who attempted to fill our world with grace, energy, and beauty.  And Lifshin's insightful and incisive Little Dancer poems remind us to remember her name, Marie Van Goethem, so that she will never fade into obscurity."

Little Dancer - The Degas Poems contains 29 poems on 40 pages, printed on creamy white paper in a clean Arial 10 font. The front cover cardstock is a pale dove gray, and the heavy cardstock insert is a rich gray-green.  The cover photo and inside photos were taken by Albert Jordan at the National Gallery of Art. 

                              
Lyn Lifshin won the Jack Kerouac Award for her book Kiss the Skin Off, the Paterson Poetry Award for Before It's Light, and the Texas Review Award for The Licorice Daughter: My Year with Ruffian.  She's been praised by Robert Frost, Ken Kesey, and Richard Eberhart, and is the subject of the award-winning documentary Not Made of Glass.  Lifshin earned the distinction "Queen of the Small Presses" for her dedication to the small presses which first published her.  Her most recent books include Secretariat: The Red Freak, the Miracle (Texas Review Press, 2014) and #AliveLikeALoadedGun (Transcendent Zero Press, 2016).  For much more, visit her website at www.lynlifshin.com.             

Little Dancer - The Degas Poems is available beginning March 19, 2017, for only ten dollars plus four dollars shipping/handling, right here, directly through PayPal. (Canadians and overseas buyers, please do not use the PayPal button.  Contact the press - nightballetpress at gmail dot com - for your shipping costs.  Thank you!)

Mention "Women's History Month" in the order's "note to the seller" section, and I will include another NightBallet Press book authored by a woman (my choice) for free! 

You can also find Little Dancer on Amazon, and of course, it will be available from Lifshin herself at her website. Order your copy today!

Catch Some Dreams With Margie Shaheed's Dream Catcher!

NightBallet Press has released a brand new book of poems
by Margie Shaheed, Dream Catcher!

We are extremely pleased to continue the tradition of spotlighting a fantastic Black poet during the month of February to honor and commemorate Black History Month.

(Yes, we realize this is the first day of March, but we are claiming this book as February's title.)

Dream Catcher is filled with poems garnered in the past year of Shaheed's life: 
conversations, lovemaking, triumph in aging, political and historical happenings, friends' influences, anger at injustices, all steeped in the rich tradition of African-American storytelling.  Her strong and unique voice shines through such wonderfully titled poems as "So Dis Ain't Home Sweet Home: Adjust," "What to Do with a Nipple," and "Kneel and Be Spotted."  Here's a delightful sample poem from Dream Catcher:

Hair 101
for Ms. Thick

my club sister suggestedi get braids in my hair
said i would look cute
i told her i have an aversion
to fake hair—never did like it
now what i will do is
get my three inches
of natural hair twisted
into a short braid-like style
see how she likes that

This is Margie's third NightBallet Press book, and she continues to be our most prolific seller.  The number sold of her two previous NBP books total well over a thousand copies, so you know her poetry is on fire!

Margie Shaheed is a community poet, writer, and dyamic performance artist.  Her work has appeared in, among others, Essence Magazine, Black Magnolias Literary Journal, and Split This Rock.  Books include Mosaic (NBP, 2013), Onomatopoeia (NBP, 2015), and Playground (Hidden Charm Press, 2015).  She is also the author of Tongue Shakers: Interviews and Narratives  on Speaking Mother Tongue in a Multicultural Society (Hamilton Books, to be published later this year of 2017).   She can be contacted at m_shaheed@yahoo.com.

Of Margie's work, people have written:

*Dream Catcher is another word for the poet Margie Shaheed, who gathers pieces of life in her net from both her own experience and the evening news.  These poems name names and cultural moments. Their scope is large. They draw attention to racial oppression, to incarceration as the new slavery.  They celebrate heroes who heal us, like George Washington Carver and Colin Kaepernick. They call out puritanical hypocrisy, affirming the body and love. They sing the ordinary and the not-so-ordinary in a series of haiku. Shaheed offers elegies for an educator, a blues singer, a sister, and the victims of unjust law enforcement....The poet listens, filing nuggets away for when the time for writing comes, when she creates startling images like “a palm full of brown sugar/thrown into a pot of boiling corn” and striking figures like “grandchildren sewn into the hem” of a skirt.

Charlene Fix, Professor Emeritus, English Columbus College of Art & Design


*Margie Shaheed's work is as real as it gets, and Dream Catcher may be her best work yet.  In it, Shaheed tears down walls, pulls back muscle and exposes the bones and soul of a unique but often all-too-common American experience.  Especially now, this chapbook is essential reading.John Burroughs, author of The Eater of the Absurd, founder and editor of Crisis Chronicles Press
John Burroughs, poet, author of The Eater of the Absurd, founding editor of Crisis Chronicles Press
* Margie Shaheed’s resonant poetic voice is teeming with keen insight on life and the human condition. Her observations of reality and skillful narrative compel one to listen intently.

Vince Robinson, poet, photographer, musician

*In a literary world of fantasy and make believe, Dream Catcher presents an in-the-moment pulse for the reader to experience our vigorous world.  This is a collection of work with a sundry canvas of simplistic characters yet beautifully audacious words, challenging the art of gravity with sullen and euphoric truths.
Nikki Skies, author, poet, playwright


*Margie Shaheed's Dream Catcher poems are eloquently woven word quilts.  Life filled, sensual, powerful, tender, courageous and unapologetic, her poems are beautiful, richly crafted testaments, written by a woman who knows and understands life.  Her poems...remind us why we read and love poetry.  Clearly, she is one of America's leading and unique voices of poetry.
Lorraine Currelley, founder and executive director of Poets Network & Exchange, Inc.


Dream Catcher contains 29 poems on 32 pages, printed on thick white textured paper.  The cardstock cover is a very pale dove gray, and the thick cardstock insert is a rich mauve.  Released today, Dream Catcher is available for only $10 plus $4 shipping and handling, right here, right now!  Why wait?  Order your copy now, and avoid the rush!