Second Week of National Poetry Month!

The second week of National Poetry Month here at NightBallet Press begins with the announcement and unveiling of the first four broadsides in the 2012 Series! 

The entire 2012 Series will be available for sale through PayPal at the end of the year. However, if you absolutely cannot wait (and who could blame you? These poems are fantastic!), NightBallet has figured out a way to make these first four broadsides available to you right away. Buy any NightBallet chapbook, and I will include these first four broadsides in the order free of charge. This is a limited-time offer, good only until the next batch of broadsides are announced.

The first four broadsides are:

"La Seducción en Español" by Skylark Bruce  (This delightful performance poem written in English and Spanish will thrill you with its musical wordplay! Canton, Ohio poet Skylark Bruce comes across as both naughty and nice in this first broadside in the 2012 Series. For a sophisticated chuckle, grab a Spanish dictionary and get bilingual with Bruce. And you simply MUST try to catch a live reading of this poem!)

"Of Ashes and Dreams"/"Dike 14" by Miles Budimir (Written with Cleveland in mind, and with a nod to dan smith's poem "I Am Down With You, Crooked River", these two poems, "Of Ashes and Dreams" and "Dike 14", are a must-read for any northern Ohio denizen. Miles Budimir's clear, narrative style will grab your heart and not let go. Thanks to John Burroughs for the cover photo.)

"Contradance", a collaborative poem by Shelley Chernin, Joshua Gage, T. M. Göttl, Geoffrey Landis, and J. E. Stanley (This is NightBallet's first broadside to feature a collaborative poem. Written at Cleveland Poetics by (alphabetically) Shelley Chernin, Joshua Gage, T. M. Göttl, Geoffrey Landis, and J. E. Stanley, this poem is a stunning display of five fine poets working together to achieve a strange beauty. Science fictional in tone and masterfully structured, "Contradance" is not to be missed. Thanks to Steven B. Smith for the cover photo.)

and a mini-collection of musical tribute poems titled "Noteworthy Travelin'", by Renay Sanders ("Noteworthy Travelin'"), John Burroughs ("No More Dark Horse" and "Danger Cruise"), Jane Rosenberg LaForge ("Rock Star Watching"), and J. E. Stanley ("Wayfaring Pilgrim" and "Humbuckers").  (This broadside is another first for NightBallet Press, with a (very) short collection of poems written on the subject of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, and the rock-n-rollers who make the music happen. Featuring a wonderful poem by Renay Sanders, "Noteworthy Travelin'", two insightful "rock-ku" by John Burroughs, and tribute poems by New Yorker Jane Rosenberg LaForge and Ohioan J. E. Stanley, this one-time, one-of-a-kind broadside pays homage to the Hall of Fame induction festivities taking place in Cleveland, Ohio during the month of April.)


With a projected total of 12 broadsides in the series, NightBallet promises to satisfy every possible poetic taste with outstanding poems by a broad spectrum of diverse poets. Stay tuned for more announcements!


Note:  The poets in the collaborative poem "Contradance" have been listed alphabetically.  If you wish a "key" to which poets wrote which lines in "Contradance", send a request to nightballetpress@gmail.com, and I'll email it to you.  Thanks to J. E. Stanley for providing the key!

Happy National Poetry Month!

April is National Poetry Month, and NightBallet Press is celebrating all month long!  To kick off the festivities, we posted the exciting video "Lens" by John Burroughs yesterday; for an exclusive peek at his amazing performance, go here. 

To continue the joyous celebration and appreciation of poetry, NightBallet Press is extremely pleased and honored to announce the publication of Elise Geither's new chap Monologue for Poets!

With three sections of monologues (Poetry, Excerpts from Plays, and Performances for Two Poets), this chap is a treat for the mind, ear, and tongue.  Elise Geither's Voice is strong and consistant throughout, and her images will burn themselves into your retinas and into your hearts. 

NightBallet is deeply grateful to John Burroughs's granddaughter Jada for the beautiful smile that graces the cover of Monologues for Poets, and to the artistpoet (yes those two words are inseparable) Bonné de Blas, who graciously permitted the use of three of her artbook photos for the chap. 

Beginning today, Monologues for Poets is available for sale right here on the website, and of course, Elise Geither will have a number of her own for sale.  Stay tuned for announcements concerning upcoming readings where you can experience Elise live, on stage, aloud, and monologuing!

NightBallet promised we'd wallow in poetry this month, and wallow we shall:  there will be a number of publications following Elise Geither's Monologue for Poets. 

The first of the poems in the NightBallet Broadside Series 2012 will be printed during April; the first two are "La Seducción en Español" by Skylark Bruce, and "Of Ashes and Dreams" & "Dike 14" by Miles Budimir.  Both broadsides feature very different Voices, and NightBallet is proud to present them to you for your poetic  pleasure.  I'll post photos when they've been printed and are available.

We'll be publishing another chap within the coming week or two:  Map Wrapping Paper Cradle Dangler by recent Kent State University grad Kara Johnston.  Her delightful poems interweave themes of ocean, sunlight, wings, and love in a quietly sensual way. 

Time and the gods permitting, NightBallet plans the publication of at least one additional chap after Johnston's, and perhaps even two, during the month of April, so stay tuned for further news!

NightBallet strongly urges you to write poems, read poems, attend poetry readings, submit your poems to journals, support your local poets by buying their chaps, versify, rhymify, rappify, shout it from the rooftops, howl during this National Month of Poetry.

Thank you for your past and continued encouragement and support.  NightBallet Press is proud to present the musicality of language and originality of expression, and could not do so without the many wonderful Voices of all you poets who make up my world.  I love poetry, and I love you.

For more information on National Poetry Month, please visit Poets.org.

John Burroughs performs his poem "Lens" w/ music at Nia Coffeehouse 03-2...

NightBallet had the good fortune to attend the Nia Coffeehouse poetry reading on Tuesday, March 27, 2012. The theme was "BEING AT PEACE IN OUR COMMUNITY": Poems of Power, Words of Life Against Violence and Brutality, and the event was held at St. Alban Episcopal Church, Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Cavana Faithwalker emceed and John Burroughs featured, along with Steven B. Smith and Kathy Smith, and Vince Robinson and the Jazz Poets (joined by Wanda Sobieska) dazzled with cool jazz grooves. "Lens", a new poem written and published--in a very limited edition of 30 by Crisis Chronicles Press especially for the event by John Burroughs earlier in the day--debuted with a bang. 

John Burroughs was published by NBP last year in the broadside "Low Kay Shun"; Steven B. Smith has two poems in the upcoming NBP anthology Buzzkill: Apocalypse, and Kathy Smith is working on a manuscript of poems entitled Firecracker Mandelas for NBP. Now, if we could only figure out how to get that sweet jazz between NBP covers!

April is National Poetry Month, and NightBallet has plenty of surprises in store for you!  Stay tuned for more exciting videos as we continue to gather the spoken word performances of NBP poets, and watch for the release of several new chaps over the coming weeks.  We're going to WALLOW in poetry, people!

CALL FOR PHOTO SUBMISSIONS

As most of you know, NightBallet Press will be publishing Buzzkill: Apocalypse, an End of the World Anthology, this year.  Along with "end of the world" poems (see an earlier blog on this site for details), I'm interested in ORIGINAL photographs that might fit the theme.  Let me be clear here:  I'm NOT interested in images taken from Google or some other photo site.  I want only your OWN original photos.  Suggestions of what I'm looking for include photos of air raid or tornado shelters or signage, tornados or giant hail, damage done by tornados, hurricanes, forest fires, etc, atomic symbols, graffiti or signage that might say something apocalyptic, and so on.  You can send me a link to the photo, or include it in the body of an email to nightballetpress@gmail.com, with PHOTO SUBMISSION- (your name) in the subject line, so I can find it when I need it.  The deadline for both poetry and photograph submissions is May Day, May 1, 2012, with a projected publication date of Summer Solstice, June 21, 2012.  I can't wait to see what you send me!

Sometimes, Illinois by Steve Brightman is published!

Ohio poet Steve Brightman's brand new NightBallet Press chap Sometimes, Illinois, is published!

 It debuted at the Mac's Back's event in Cleveland Heights last night, where Steve Brightman gave a simply delicious reading from his book:

NightBallet is very pleased to publish this fine poet, who uses both brevity and wit to create pithy little poems that pack a punch.  Seek him out and buy a copy of Sometimes, Illinois, or order yours on this website from NightBallet today!

Ohio poets Jim Lang (Coyote Moon, NightBallet Press 2012) and Bree (the melody, I swear, it's just around that way, Crisis Chronicles Press, 2011) also gave fantastic readings last night.  Jim Lang brought his own unique brand of performance, along with his wonderful, autobiographical poems:

Crisis Chronicles poet Bree began her reading with a song, and continued with a good number of beautiful, lyrical poems:

Many thanks to these three poets, who made March's combined NightBallet Press/Crisis Chronicles Press/Mac's Back's Books on Coventry event an exciting, satisfying, outstanding evening of poetry!  Special thanks to Suzanne DeGaetano for giving NightBallet and Crisis Chronicles the opportunity to bring this event to life.

Brightman, Bree and Lang, PLUS Updates!

NightBallet is very pleased to announce the upcoming Jim Lang- Steve Brightman- Bree reading, a NightBallet Press/Crisis Chronicles Press/Mac's Backs collaboration.  The event will take place at Mac's Back's Books on Coventry, 1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Hts, OH, on Wednesday, March 14, at 7 PM.  That's only one week from today!  Jim Lang will be reading from his new chap, Coyote Moon, published just last month by NBP, Bree will be reading from the melody, i swear, it's just around that way, published recently by CCP, and Steve Brightman will be reading from his brand new chap, Sometimes, Illinois, which NBP will be publishing this weekend!  Open mic will follow the features.  Having been intimate with both Lang's and Brightman's poems, and having read Bree's book as well, I promise you an evening of poetry you won't soon forget- hope you can join us!

Updates:  My day job has been brutal lately, and I've fallen a little behind on my publishing schedule.  However, if you are one of the NBP poets waiting to have your chapbook published, be assured I haven't forgotten you.  I've been working on multiple manuscripts, formatting whenever I had the time, and I'll be publishing several more chaps soon.  The next one is Elise Geither's Monologues For Poets, a truly delightful collection of themed poems and play excerpts.  She has seen the proposed chapbook cover, so I'm posting it here (Steve Brightman has not seen his cover, so I'm going to save his for a future posting).

The photo, by the way, is from a pic taken at John Burroughs' house at Christmas- it's the beautiful smile of his granddaughter, Jada.

Check out the new video in the left column- Chansonette Buck reads poems from her NBP chap blood oranges.   I'll be posting more videos of poets in the future, so stay tuned.

Heather Ann Schmidt tells me that she was stopped by an Indian woman on the street in Chicago, who bought her chap Batik on the spot.  Have poetry, will travel!

Cleveland poet Jean Brandt has promised me a manuscript (yay!) and so has Elyria poet John Burroughs.  And I've started collecting poems for the 2012 NightBallet Press Broadside Series, including a half-English, half-Spanish poem from Skylark Bruce. We'll have an exciting year here at NBP!  I'll be posting more updates as we go along.  For now, hope to see you at a local poetry reading soon!

NightBallet Poet Chansonette Buck (blood oranges) Reads in Berkeley!

THIS JUST IN!

New York poet George Wallace will be coming to Cleveland for a special reading Friday May 11, 2012 at the Gypsy Beans and Baking Company, 6425 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, 6 PM.  The last time he read here was for Green Panda Press's Tres Versing the Panda event in May of 2009, so you know the opportunities to experience Wallace's marvelous poems in his own voice are few and far between.  Our thanks go to Charlotte Mann for hosting him at this reading. 

NightBallet Press was honored to publish George Wallace's 22nd chapbook of poems, sleeping beauty's revenge, in 2011, and we are super-excited to announce that NightBallet will be publishing a brand new chap of poems for him, the hard stuff, on May 11 to celebrate his Cleveland appearance!

Mark your calendars, clear your schedules, and save your shekels- don't miss out on this reading!

sleeping beauty's revenge is available for sale on this website.

Howl at the Coyote Moon! Night/Chronicles-Crisis/Ballet reading at Mac's Backs tonight!

Tonight, three poets will bring their own unique brands of poetry to a very special event:  the first joint NightBallet Press/Crisis Chronicles Press featured reading, in conjunction with the famous Mac's Backs Books reading series.  Call it our Night/Chronicle-Crisis/Ballet event!

T. M. Göttl will debut her book A Hurricane of Moths (published New Year's Day 2012 by NightBallet Press), J. E. Stanley will read from his new chap Rapid Eye Movement (published late 2011 by Crisis Chronicles Press), and Terry Provost will perform poems from An Uncountable Infinity Of Orgasms (published late 2011 by NightBallet Press).  The poems contained in these chaps hum with energy and echo with excitement, and you won't want to miss the opportunity to hear them read by the poets themselves!

Of course, these chaps will be available at the reading, through the authors who will have copies for sale, though publishers Dianne Borsenik and John Burroughs, and from Mac's Backs- Suzanne DeGaetano bought several copies to sell at the store. 


Also tonight, Cleveland poet Jim Lang's new chapbook Coyote Moon debuts!!!  Published yesterday on the February full moon, this book contains classic and new poems, graphics, and insights from seven decades in the life of a legendary poet/photographer.  Jim Lang will be a featured reader at next months's Mac's Backs/NightBallet/Crisis Chronicles event, March 21, but you don't have to wait a month to read his book!  Get your copy tonight and be a step ahead of the crowd!

Tonight!  See and experience T. M. Göttl, J. E. Stanley, and Terry Provost, get first look at Jim Lang's new chap Coyote Moon, and get your poetry groove on at Mac's Backs Books, 1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, 7pm.

Get your copy of Coyote Moon HERE:

Hot Off the Press- Batik by Heather Ann Schmidt!

Hot off the press and published today, Batik!  This lavishly sensual and sensitive chapbook by Michigan poet Heather Ann Schmidt contains 32 pages of poems and photos that will delight your senses, satisfy your poetic thirst, and leave you aching for more:

Even better news is that Heather Ann Schmidt will be reading (Cleveland) locally TOMORROW, Thursday January 26, 2012, at the Writing Knights:  Thirty Years of Knight event at Bela Dubby, 13321 Madison, Lakewood, Ohio, at 7PM (to 11PM).  Nothing beats hearing poems read in the poet's own voice, and tomorrow is sure to be a special treat, as Heather will also be singing during her feature.  You won't want to miss it!

Batik is available for sale beginning today, here on the NightBallet Press website- PayPal makes it easy.  And Heather will have her chaps with her tomorrow night, at the Writing Knights feature.