I am writing this bound and determined to get an update in by midnight. I think I’ll make it as I’m only on my first beer and the saddle-stapler isn’t here to distract me.

We took a little more time off than we’d planned, but we’re well on our way to start 2012 out strong. In fact, Maurice Burford’s book is mostly done, and I’ve got a start on a couple others. The GOAL is to have three chapbooks out by the end of February 2012 (from Maurice, Mike Sikkema, and Matthew Lippman). We’ll be following those up with a book from Nicholas Liu.

I have some other manuscripts under review, including poetry from other finalists from the summer’s “contest,” which could yield books going into the late spring and early summer. I also plan to request work from some poets I’ve met recently. Additionally, I’m going to solicit poems for a fourth issue of Momoware.

It’ll be great if I can stick with my plan (resolution?). This past year has been really awesome for us. I’ve worked with some fantastic, supportive, and fantastically nice poets this year. If 2012 is half as fun (and not, as “predicted” by the Mayans, the end of time), we’ll be doing all right.

See you all on the other side.

Our schedule for the rest of 2011 and early 2012 coming soon.

This year’s chapbook contest winner is Maurice Burford with Rimbaud’s / Poems.  The second place chapbook was Mike Sikkema’s Wander Rooms and Outside Noise.  We ended up with five other finalists, including:

Matthew Lippman, Don’t Harrass the Garden
Nicholas Liu, Failure to Apply the Method
Lily Ladewig, Shadow Boxes
Zeke Hudson, People
j/j hastain, Riding the Lace Barometer Through

Honestly, I haven’t contacted ANY of the finalists directly about publication details but, officially, the winner gets a full run and the runner-up gets a limited-edition run (see post from July 14 below).  Beyond that, I will (very) likely be contacting other finalists about publication. I’ll know more in the next week or so.  I foresee doing planning and promotion for the next month and then coming out with a schedule for the fall and into 2012.  Anyway, congratulations for all the winners and finalists.  We enjoyed reading your work.

Speaking of, I have to thank Elisabeth Workman for taking this journey with us (me).  She is so gracious and great, and I’m sure we’ll do another book with her down the road. 

It turns out that we received two and a half times the number of submissions from last year. But we’re nearing the end of the list, the bottom of the pile (all in a good way). Then we’ll be able to announce the Finalists, followed soon after by our winners.

Additionally, we’re about to go to press with a limited edition chapbook of cinquains by Evie Ivy. More on that and more on the chapbook contest very soon.

UPDATE: Entries should be around 18 to 24 pages in length. If you have more than one manuscript, chose the best one and send that.  Please remove your name and/or personal identifiers from your manuscript.

Also in the “store,“ you can (finally) get a copy of our oil-spill memorial chapbook, Welcome to the Dark Water. It’s chock-full of awesome poets and poetry. Proceeds go to benefit Save Our Shores (Florida).

We have one more book in the queue and our “contest” kicks off in, like, FOUR DAYS. So . . . more (very) soon.

We’re going off the beaten path for our next chapbooks. First up is a collection of prose poems by Chandra Dickson, followed hard upon by a collection of cinquains. Daring to be different, right?

Before those come out, we’re having the “official” release of our oil spill-inspired chapbook, Welcome to the Dark Water. There will be a reading THIS Friday at Two Moon Trees here in Tallahassee. It’ll be a time.

And next month, we’ll be having a two-ish week “contest” (i.e., open reading period). Winners will be announced in August. Stay tuned for rules/guidelines. Several people have contacted me recently about doing a book. Here’s your chance!

I love it when presses offer such specials. I took the opportunity during one of these to order four or five books from DGP.  One of the books was by a poet with whom I wasn’t familiar; I chose it based on its title (How to Mend a Broken Heart with Vengeance) and cover (a drawing of a black-eyed, flying unicorn and a rainbow and shooting stars). It’s a very refreshing read.

Soon after reading that book, I decided to just cold-email Leigh Stein and offer to publish her. Hopefully she didn’t think that was creepy at all.  The resulting book, The Future Comes to Those Who Wait, is available now. 

These chapbooks—which featured a lot of Gulf/spill-related poems by a bevy of awesome writers—will be added to the store very soon. Proceeds will be directed to Save Our Shores. There’s also talk of doing a reading this summer.  Maybe to celebrate the “capping” of the well? 

More details as I come up with them.

We solicited manuscript submissions for a two-week period in July. There was no entry fee, and we received a manageable group of manuscripts. Sandra and I read all the manuscripts and scored them. The last four books we’ve published were at the top of the heap.
Elisabeth Workman’s Megaprairieland was our consensus first choice. For second place (planned for a “limited edition”), we chose Megan Kaminski’s carry catastrophe as a nice stylistic contrast. I decided on my own to publish two more books, the first of which was Jordan Stempleman’s Wallop; that was the first book I read for the contest and it really set the bar high.
The final book was Brian Ang’s Paradise Now, which is now available (under Titles). Very much a statement book, in all of its quasi-Marxist-post-flarf glee . . . how could I NOT publish it? As Brian has been doing some reading events, many of the “limited edition” copies have been sent out. Currently, I have 10 left. If there’s a run on them, the first 10 orders received will get them and the rest will get refunds. (UPDATE: This title has sold out.)

As for another chapbook “contest” (really an open reading), we’re planning to do again this year (shooting to kick off on Bastille Day) with last year’s winner, Elisabeth Workman, as the guest judge.