NightBallet Press: Gratitude, Revelations, and Love

As NightBallet Press transitions from a numbingly cold 2017 into a brighter, and Oh-We-SO-Hope-Warmer, 2018, we give gratitude, from the bottom of our hearts, to the awesome writers who trust us with their words, the artists and photographers who give us permission to use their stunningly beautiful work, the supportive hosts who offer venues and opportunities for our poets to have their physical voices heard, the bookstores and libraries who offer our poets the opportunities to have their literary voices heard, the lifetime subscribers who invested in us from the beginning, the thoughtful angels who surprise us with donations throughout the year, two very special local businesses: Elyria Print Shop and Hollo's Papercraft, and the readers like YOU, who continue to believe in us and the editing/publishing we do. You have given us six-going-on-seven wonderful years, with the promise of much more to come.

We are truly grateful to the Wingman Club members, those who annually subscribe to our books and who continue to sustain us by offering encouragement and financial assistance to this small, independent, hands-on, poetry-and-art book press. This generosity is much appreciated.

                                                                
As we move into 2018, we invite you to fly with us as a member of this special club. A wingman is described as one who supports a friend or associate. We offer membership to the Wingman Club in the form of a one-year subscription to NightBallet Press.

This means you, for fifty dollars, will receive every book published by the press between September 2017 and September 2018, with a guaranteed minimum of ten titles, many of them full-length collections. The total worth of this season's books is estimated to exceed one hundred dollars. This subscription offers an additional bonus: no charge for postage! That's a huge savings, in addition to the incredibly low cost of a subscription.

Please note: you will receive all the books published between September 2017 and September 2018, no matter what month you join the club. The first shipment contains all the books published up to the date of joining.

NightBallet Press is founded on the principal that a poet's work belongs to the poet, and that these wonderful words deserve to be presented as a package of beauty. We respect the art and craft of poetry and we strive to give it excellence, in every aspect of our publishing. NightBallet Press exists and produces without grants or endowments, and we do not take money from our poets for the production of their books. Expenses are out-of-pocket for the publisher.

Being a Wingman means you would fly alongside this publisher as she creates new books for poets across the United States. Your subscription money would be an investment in the poets themselves; every penny would go toward the ink, cardstock, paper, staples, envelopes, packing tape, and other printing needs that make NightBallet publication possible.

Feel the wind beneath your wings this New Year and join NightBallet Press' Wingman Club...subscribe, and become a Wingman today!

And now, NightBallet Press celebrates life and offers all of you love, light, and best wishes for a very Happy New Year!  Bring on the bubbly! We have a fresh new year to celebrate!

Refugees Whose World Was Taken—The Aleppo Poems by Lyn Lifshin

As its first publication in this New Year of 2018,
NightBallet Press is extremely honored to present its fifth Lyn Lifshin collection,

Refugees Whose World Was Taken—The Aleppo Poems

 

 

In this series of thirty-four poems, Lifshin explores the everyday lives of ordinary people facing the extraordinary events in Aleppo, and she does so with empathy and grace.

In the title poem, "We Don't See Politics," (which appears on the back cover of the book),
Lifshin says "...there are no 'us' and 'them' / only what we do together":

WE DON'T SEE POLITICS

we meet people all over
the globe whose world
was taken away from them.
Everywhere similar stories
of sorrow and pain.  Every
where young women
weep for those sunny
afternoons sipping dark
coffee under the shade of
terebinth branches.
In all these places, therapists
committed to dealing
with crisis. They leave politics
out of it. Some say it tis
the Israelis who understand
pain well. Here there
are no "us" and "them"
only what we do together

Christina Zawadiwsky, author of The Hand On The Head Of Lazarus, and winner of a National Endowment of the Arts Award, wrote this about the book:

"Bombs, nightmares, death, no food, pregnancy and birth and fearful families huddling together in their apartments—these are people's daily lives uncomplicated by frills and beauty. Lyn Lifshin is there amongst Syria's inhabitants, shivering, anticipatory, waiting to leave and attempting to be courageous amidst unbelievable restrictions, yet always clinging to a sense of poetry—the poetry of refugees, the poetry of staying alive."


Lifshin's poems touch our hearts with their titles: THE LAST GARDEN IN ALEPPO, WHEN THE BOMBARDMENT IS AT ITS WORST, and ONE FAMILY HAS BAD FEELINGS FOR THE NUMBER SEVEN,

The collage art on the front cover of Refugees Whose World Was Taken—The Aleppo Poems is "She's Golden 10.21.16," by the artist Bree. The photograph from which the collage was made is included inside the book. You can see more of Bree's work at www.theartistbree.com. The cover is a textured coffee-with-cream card stock, with a heavy, textured, black card stock insert.  The text is printed on ivory paper.

 

Lyn Lifshin won the Jack Kerouac Award for her book Kiss the Skin Off, and is the subject of the award-winning documentary film Not Made of Glass. Lifshin earned the distinction "Queen of the Small Presses" for her dedication to the small presses which first published her, and for surviving on her own apart from any major publishing house or academic institution.  Her most recent books includes Little Dancer —The Degas Poems (NBP, 2017), and Oct Tongue 2 (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2017), an anthology of eight poets with thirty-one-plus poems each. For much more, visit www.lynlifshin.com.  

Refugees Whose World Was Taken—The Aleppo Poems is only $10 plus $4 shipping/handling. We will take advance orders for this book, which will be available for mailing January 15, 2018.  You may obtain your very own copy by ordering now through PayPal, right here on this website. You don't have to be a member of PayPal to order; just have a debit or credit card handy. Order your copy today!