We are so proud to nominate six collaborations (how can we choose just six?!) published by Broadsided Press for the annual Pushcart Prizes. We’re not sure what this venerable literary anthology will do with our collaborative approach and innovative publishing model, but we hope they will agree with us that these broadsides offer voices and visions that are vital and deserving of high praise. Choosing is difficult, because we fall in love with everything we …
We’re thrilled to announce that the 2021 issue of Provincetown Arts magazine (https://provincetownarts.org) features, as its poetry section, a folio of work past and future from Broadsided Press as well as a profile of Broadsided by Gemma Leghorn. The magazine’s featured artist is Esteban del Valle and the featured writer is Jaqueline Woodson (huzzah!!!! huzzahh!!!). Other articles shine a spotlight on artists, writers, and makers Francis Olschafskie, Susan Baker, Megan Hinton, Barbara Cohen, Jennifer Liese, …
BROADSIDED PRESS ANNUAL SWITCHEROO WANTED: Ekphrastic Responses to artist Meghan Keane’s painting “Untitled (Brooklyn)” DEADLINE: April 10, 2021 Broadsided Press is seeking submissions of poetry and short prose that respond to this painting by artist Meghan Keane. The winning submission of writing will be published on May 1, 2021 as a Broadsided collaboration to occupy the doors, utility poles, bus stops, and walls of the world. Submission guidelines and details follow. This the 18th Broadsided Press “Switcheroo.” What …
Voices Amidst the Virus: Poets Respond to the Pandemic Edited by Eileen Cleary and Christine Jones Lily Poetry Review Books, 2021 ISBN: 9781734786958 Get at Bookshop.org Black pandemic humor among writers: “But think of the books that will be written!” Sure, we guffaw as we struggle with jobs, families, health, community, and worry. Yet, the poems, stories, and novels are being written. In the past month, at least three anthologies of Covid poems have come …
Bring Now the Angels, Dilruba Ahmed University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020 Pitt Poetry Series ISBN: 9780822966074, Paperback, $17 Get at Bookshop.org Reviewed by Carolyn Ogburn Dilruba Ahmed’s second book of poems, Bring Now the Angels, offers an uncanny witness to our pandemic-ridden moment where so many are dying in a solitude defined by PPE and plexiglass. The first section of Bring Now the Angels was written as Ahmed’s father was dying, then dead, of “ailments …
New Poets of Native Nations Edited: Heid E. Erdrich Graywolf, 2020 ISBN: 978-1-55597-809-9 Get at Bookshop.org Reviewed by Sarah Shapiro When an important American poetry critic put out a call on social media for names of contemporary Native American poets and received what can only be called a dismal response, Heid Erdrich was inspired to change the outdated anthology game. In New Poets of Native Nations, Erdrich highlights rich poetry of people tied to Indigenous …
We’re nominating six collaborations published by Broadsided Press for the annual Pushcart Prizes. We’re not sure what this venerable literary anthology will do with our collaborative approach and innovative publishing model, but we hope they will agree with us that these broadsides offer voices and visions that are vital and deserving of high praise. Choosing is difficult, because we fall in love with everything we publish, and we are very selective. The editors went back …
In the Year of Ferraro Jennifer Martelli Nixes Mate, 2020 $12.50; ISBN 978-1-949279-26-9 Get from Bookshop.org Reviewed by Deborah Bacharach The speaker in Jennifer Martelli’s new chapbook In the Year of Ferraro dances under mirror balls, has sex in her dorm, does drugs, and becomes galvanized by Geraldine Ferraro’s 1984 vice-presidential candidacy. Martelli packs these poems with details from eighties pop culture and the streets of Boston, and in doing so she lets them fully …
The Death of Flying Things Poems by Gabriel Welsch WordTech Editions, 2012 ISBN:9781936370757 Reviewed by Kali Lightfoot At first glance, a reader might assume that Gabriel Welsch’s book, The Death of Flying Things, would embody loss, but it is much more a book about change: changes that happen in a moment or in a lifetime. The changing of seasons, too shape the book: seasons in nature across a year as well as seasons of …
In 2017, we began inviting former contributors to serve as guest editors at Broadsided Press. We wanted to introduce new voices and visions to our editorial process. The energy and insight each have brought have greatly enriched the conversations we’ve built. Please join us in welcoming our 2020-21 guest editor, Jennifer Perrine! Jennifer will join the team in reading submissions and selecting works for publication as well as partaking in editorial discussions about the direction …
Sundress Publications surveys the best Internet writing each year and selects their “Best of the Net” awardees. This year, we’re nominating three poems published at Broadsided Press between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020. What a difficult decision! We publish so selectively — one collaboration a month — that we already have to say no to a lot of work we admire. The work we do publish, we, quite simply, love. In reviewing what …
Elegy, Winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award Poems by Mary Jo Bang Graywolf Press, 2007 ISBN-13: 978-1555975401 Buy at Bookshop.org $15.00 Reviewed by Risa Denenberg I’ve owned a hard copy of Elegy by Mary Jo Bang for many years, and have returned to it often during my own flareups of grief. Written as a journal during the year following her son’s death at age 37, it performs grief’s relentlessness and a survivor’s …
Territory of Dawn Eunice Odio Translators: Keith Ekiss, Sonia P. Ticas, & Mauricio Espinoza Bitter Oleander Press, 2016 ISBN 978-0-9862049-3-7 Reviewed by Keene Short In Territory of Dawn, Eunice Odio juxtaposes intimacy and urgency so closely that the two often become synonymous. She pairs moments of joy with uncertainty, sadness with determination. Born in San Jose, in 1919, Eunice Odio became one of Costa Rica’s most well-known poets of the twentieth century. Like other poets …
Leave Smoke Jeff Walt Gival Press, 2019 $15; ISBN: 9781940724249 Purchase at Bookshop.org Reviewed by Deborah Bacharach Jeff Walt grew up in coal country where the men went “Into the shaft, / lung by lung.” The dangers he faces come not just from the coal mines but from violence, bad sex, “worship down / at Tony’s liquor store,” and soul numbing jobs. The speakers’ responses in Leave Smoke, Walt’s first book of poetry, are complicated, …
See the final folio of broadsides (published July 15, 2020). 5/5/2020 Update: DEADLINE EXTENDED to 5/15/2020 We’ve been getting remarkable submissions…. and a few queries about offering a bit more time with these mind-bending prompts. Happy to offer! Much as other deadlines are being pushed into the future, it feels like it’s the right gesture for the moment. Submit Work to Written Prompts Engaging “A Sense of Home” A “Broadsided Responds” Feature With so many …
We Are Meant to Carry Water Poets: Tina Carlson, Stella Reed, Katherine DiBella Seluja Sculptor of The Nutmeg Princess: Lena Kilde, Photographer: Howard Clarke Three: A Taos Press, 2019 (buy from the press) $25.00, ISBN: 978-0-9994848-1-4, 91 pages Reviewed by Kali Lightfoot In her acknowledgements at the end of We Are Meant to Carry Water, poet Katherine DiBella Seluja says: To my surprise, I am grateful to the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. …
BROADSIDED PRESS ANNUAL SWITCHEROO WANTED: Ekphrastic Responses to artist Janice Redman’s “Ouroboros.” DEADLINE: April 10, 2020 Broadsided Press is seeking submissions of poetry and short prose that respond to “Ouroboros ” a sculpture piece by Broadsided artist Janice Redman. The winning entry will be published on May 1, 2020 as a Broadsided collaboration to enliven the doors, utility poles, bus stops, and walls of the world. Submit writing in response to the image below—details follow. This …
The River Where You Forgot My Name Poems by Corrie Williamson Southern Illinois University Press, 2019 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry, Open Competition Award ISBN 978-0-8093-3747-7, $15.95 Buy at Bookshop.org Reviewed by Risa Denenberg In Corrie Williamson’s The River Where You Forgot My Name, a poet wanders through her world, straddling distance and time, uncovering curious bits of nineteenth century history, and observing natural and human landscapes. As she does, the sadness of remnants …
Pennsylvania Furnace Julie Swarstad Johnson Unicorn Press 2019 $18; ISBN 978-0-87775-058-1, 91 pages Editor’s Choice Selection, Unicorn Press First Book Series Reviewed by Carolyn Ogburn Industrial furnaces were the mechanized heart of many 19th century industrial townships. Through these furnaces, forests were converted to charcoal and coal smelted to iron. Today, all that remains are traces of brick, stone, and iron chimneys. In her debut collection, Pennsylvania Furnace, Julie Swarstad Johnson listens to the voices of …
Native Voices: Indigenous American Poetry, Craft and Conversations Edited by CMarie Fuhrman and Dean Rader Tupelo Press, 2019, $29.95 [paper], 978-1-946482-18-1 521 pages Reviewed by Jennifer Key CMarie Fuhrman’s and Dean Rader’s new contribution to literary studies, Native Voices: Indigenous American Poetry, Craft and Conversations, is a wonderful, vast, and eye-opening anthology containing the work of forty-four Indigenous American poets. One of its strengths is its wide-ranging repertoire, culling the best poets from different regions, …
Who is posting the Vectorizations on the Broadsided Instagram? We’d like to introduce you. The Vectors-at-Large go out into their neighborhoods (in Miami, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles) and find interesting, engaging places to post broadsides. Love letters to the world, they inspire us all to bring art and literature to the streets of our communities. To welcome the new year, we asked each of them to choose a quote that matches her artistic vision …
Who is behind the posts on Twitter? For the past five years, it’s been Gabrielle Bates, whose poem “This is Life” we published in 2014. Immediately recognizing Gabby’s energy and spirit in her own Twitter feed, we asked if she’d like to tweet for us. She said yes! Of her time with Broadsided, Gabby says: It’s been such a pleasure to be the Twitter editor for Broadsided the last five years. In addition to being …
The Last Mastodon Christina Olson Rattle, 2019 ISBN: 978-1-931307-43-7 Reviewed by Sarah Shapiro Christina Olson’s The Last Mastodon, the Rattle Chapbook Series 2019 winner, was inspired by her time as poet-in-residence at a 2017 paleontology conference and exhibition (“The Valley of the Mastodons”) at the Western Science Center in Hemet, California. In the opening poem, “Catalogue of Damages,” published at Broadsided Press, Olson logs human hubris. The poem highlights layers of history with precision: mastodon …
Rain Scald Tacey M. Atsitty University of New Mexico Press, 2018 ISBN 978-0826358677 Reviewed by Carolyn Ogburn The silence surrounding trauma lies at the heart of Rain Scald, the shattering first collection by poet Tacey M. Atsitty. The first section, “Tséyi’,” draws on the accidental death of Atsitty’s mother and barely-older sister, to whom the book is dedicated. These are poems are filled with sudden, jarring, palpable absences: It looks like— we shouldn’t speak, so …
Ode to a Heart Smaller than a Pencil Eraser Luisa A. Igloria, foreword by Mark Doty Utah State University Press $19.95 Hardcover; ISBN: 978-0-87421-952-4, 70 pages Reviewed by Kali Lightfoot Luisa A. Igloria’s parents taught her to read when she was three and also signed her up for piano lessons around the same age, she shares in an interview with Červená Barva Press. She continued with the lessons for the next 12 years, and says …
Pelvis with Distance Jessica Jacobs White Pine Press, 2015 $16; ISBN: 978-1-935210-66-5, 135 pages Reviewed by Kali Lightfoot Pelvis with Distance: A Biography-in-Poems / Self Portrait by Proxy To read Jessica Jacobs’s 2015 debut collection Pelvis with Distance is to read yourself for a brief time into the lives of Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacobs, and, to a lesser extent, Alfred Stieglitz. This book exists in a liminal space – not quite biography, not quite memoir. Its …
by Julie Swarstad Johnson, Senior Library Specialist at the Poetry Center This summer, the Jeremy Ingalls Gallery at the University of Arizona Poetry Center is a space for magic. Another Person’s Magic: Collaborative Books presents works composed collaboratively, mainly drawn from the Poetry Center’s library collection of over 50,000 titles but also incorporating a special feature of broadsides by Broadsided Press. The exhibit title comes from poet Jane Miller in 1994, discussing collaboration during an …
Traveling for No Good Reason George Franklin Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2018 $17; ISBN: 978-1-7329406-0-4 Reviewed by Deborah Bacharach In his second book, Traveling for No Good Reason, George Franklin shoots the reader straight into Zeno’s paradox of the arrow: in any instant, nothing moves. As he writes in “Scrapbooks:” Of paper and silver oxide, the distance between lives Can always be divided into an infinite number of points. The arrow let loose will never reach its …
In 2017, we began inviting former contributors to serve as guest editors at Broadsided Press. We wanted to introduce new voices and visions to our editorial process. The energy and insight each have brought have greatly enriched the conversations we’ve built. Please join us in welcoming our Fall 2019 guest editor, Chanda Feldman. She will join the team in reading submissions and selecting works for publication. We are eager and grateful to see what her …
published Jan. 26, 2019 updated April 26, 2019 “Field Work,” a show at Georgia Southern University over the month of January, features all the broadsides ever published at Broadsided Press and, on the opposite wall, photographs and writings from editor Elizabeth Bradfield’s forthcoming book, Toward Antarctica. The broadsides are displayed “street-style,” wheatpasted to seven raw plywood panels mounted to the gallery wall. The director of the gallery, Jason Hoelscher, loosely organized the installation by following …