Book Cover Debut: Carey McHugh’s ‘American Gramophone’

The poems in American Gramophone are menacing—spiked with hazards, threats, warnings and spells—yet the contained lines and composed forms temper the peril with delicacy: a pin curl in the palm, glass shelves full of violets. The collection explores this sharpness and splendor in an agrarian landscape where earth is both burden and livelihood. Here, beneath the music of machinery and birdsong, the trap is set.

Read an excerpt from American Gramophone, and then come back Wednesday for another book cover debut from our upcoming 2015 catalogue. For automatic updates, follow this blog in the right bottom corner.

Find out more about Carey McHugh and American Gramophone. And don’t forget…

Augury’s Reading Period Is Open for Prose and Poetry May 1 – July 31, 2015

Submit now via Submittable, and thank you for your interest in sending your work to Augury Books!

BEAST Reviewed in Philadelphia Review of Books

A detail from Photographs from a séance with Eva Carrière (1913), courtesy of Public Domain Review

 

Frances Justine Post’s BEAST (Augury Books, 2014) has recently been reviewed in the Philadelphia Review of Books. Poet Nina Puro examines the ways in which Post’s work questions the social boundaries and expectations of femininity.

Beast has an enigmatic interiority that plays out in an exploration of feminine selfhood and self-characterization. Post’s personas are shifting, complex, and increasingly vengeful as the book advances. […] Cecelia Bennett called Post’s work “frustrating” in Sabotage Review —this is accurate, but the frustration seems to me intentional: performance in protest. The frustration is not an occlusion to the reader—it’s a query. Post is not posturing to baffle or belittle; she is eliding definition in order to perplex, to incite curiosity. Post’s personas seek to dismantle; they will not be pinned down.”

Read the full review on the PRB‘s site.

More on BEAST

Augury’s Reading Period Is Open for Prose and Poetry May 1 – July 31, 2015:

Submit now via Submittable, and thank you for your interest in Augury Books!

Halina Duraj’s The Family Cannon Receives San Diego Book Award

Congratulations to Augury author Halina Duraj, recipient of this year’s San Diego Book Awards! Duraj’s The Family Cannon received the award in the category of best published anthology/short story collection. Other finalists include Matthew Pallamary for A Short Walk to the Other Side (Mystic Ink Publishing) and Bonnie ZoBell for What Happened Here (Press 53).

To view the complete list of winners for 2015, visit the SDBAA website.

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Kate Angus in New Poetry from the Midwest

Augury’s Michigan-born editor Kate Angus has recently been featured in the 2014 edition of New Poetry from the Midwest, published by New American Press. New American Press is an independent literary publisher focusing on contemporary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and translations from across the United States and around the world. Also featured in this anthology are Nin Andrews, David Baker, Karen Craigo, Lee Upton and Joe Weintraub. 

Check out the anthology on Amazon!

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Augury Books’ spring/summer 2015 reading period is now open for submissions in poetry and prose. For guidelines and general information, please visit our submissions page.

We’re Halfway Through Our Reading Period!

The Covent Garden Night Mare, by Thomas Rowlandson, courtesy of the Public Domain Review

We are just halfway through our reading period, which is still open through July 31, 2015. We are currently accepting full-length manuscripts in the categories of poetry and prose.

You can view our submission guidelines and send your work for consideration on Submittable.

Thanks to all of you in advance for sharing your work with us, and thanks to those who have already submitted their work this summer!

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Trainless Magazine Now Accepting Submissions!

Trainless Magazine is now accepting submissions! Trainless Magazine focuses on travel and the unique ways of learning about a country through athleticism, extended stays, and cross-cultural relationships. See trainlessmagazine.com for more details.

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Augury Books’ spring/summer 2015 reading period is now open for submissions in poetry and prose. For guidelines and general information, please visit our submissions page.

Upcoming Readings by ‘Hook’ Author Randall Horton

Photo: Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Augury is excited to announce some upcoming readings from Randall Horton, author of Hook, forthcoming from Augury Books in 2015.

 

June 12th, 6-8pm: 

CUNY School of Professional Studies

Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education, Urban and Labor Studies

25 West 43rd Street, New York, NY.

 

June 13th, 1pm:

Worker Writers Summer School on Governor’s Island

Building #20A in Nolan Park.

 

June 16th, 8pm:

Over the Eight

594 Union Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

 

In addition to these readings, Horton will be reading with Meg Kearney and Anne-Marie Oomen on Saturday, July 11 at 7:30 pm. This will include readings from Hook: A Memoir, as well as his poetry collection Pitch Dark Anarchy. Readings will be held in the Founder’s Room of Pine Manor College, 400 Heath Street, Chestnut Hill, and are free and open to the public.

Check out an excerpt from Hook on our blog.

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Augury Books’ spring/summer 2015 reading period is now open for submissions in poetry and prose. For guidelines and general information, please visit our submissions page.

INTERVIEW: Angee Lennard on the 11th Annual Printers Ball

This year marks the 11th annual Printers Ball, a day of performances, live printmaking demos, and exhibitions surrounding poetry and literary culture. Founded in 2004 by Poetry magazine’s Art Director Fred Sasaki, Printers Ball strives to bring together printers, writers, publishers, artists, readers, collectors, students, teachers, makers, and consumers. This year, the Ball will be hosted by Spudnik Press Cooperative at the Hubbard Street Lofts in Chicago, with a central theme of “push and pull.”

Angee Lennard, founder and director of Spudnik Press Cooperative, discussed the event in depth with Augury’s assistant editor, Nicolas Amara.

 

Nick: What prompted this year’s theme of “Push & Pull”?

Angee: Despite how short and sweet the theme is, there was a ton of thought behind it. This year, we had two big goals in mind. First, we plan for this Printers Ball to be more tactile than ever. The Printers Ball Marketplace features publications and prints that are best enjoyed and appreciated in their physical form. The Spudnik Press Printshop will be hosting a variety of workshops allowing guests to run our presses and make their own prints. The Steamroller Spectacular will be highlight the tactile-ness of print. The physicality of pushing and pulling indicates our hands-on approach to this festival.

Second, we want to deepen the level of conversation among participants and guests. We’ll have more ways for guests to contribute their own voice. “Push & Pull” signifies to us complete engagement from everyone involved, including attendees, and hints at the healthy tension that can come from true dialogue.

 

Nick: Spudnik’s mission states that the cooperative was “founded on the premise that art should be a democratic and empowering medium.” The press release for this year’s Ball emphasizes that festival programs aim to blur the line between author and audience, creating an interactive, collective environment. Is this break down of hierarchy integral to the Ball’s mission?

Angee: This is a very acute observation, and in short, I do believe that Printers Ball has no need for traditional hierarchy. The event has always been first and foremost a celebration. It is an event for everyone: professional poets, readers, hobbyist writers, printers, students, self-publishers, and the simply curious.

When we began planning the 2015 Printers Ball, we gave a lot of thought to the evolution of Printers Ball. Since Printers Ball began, and perhaps in part because of Printers Ball, Chicago has seen tremendous growth in the number and quality of reading series and small press publishers. For example, Curbside Splendor host fantastic pop-up book shops year round and throughout the city. Sector 2337 grew out of Green Lantern Press, and has a permanent brick and mortor location. We felt that the level of artistic output in Chicago is fantastic and that we could fill a different role than simply presenting work. We craved dialogue, and we hoped that this could be a place for the creative community to not perform, but to talk with each other about their art form, their city, and their community, and leave invigorated. Luckily, this all ties in very nicely with our democratic mission and how we approach all programming at Spudnik Press Cooperative!

 

Nick: What role do you see Spudnik and the Printers Ball playing in the larger surrounding community? Though it is clear both are going strong, given this is the Ball’s 11th year, how has reception been?

Angee: This Printers Ball will be the third that Spudnik Press has organized and hosted, and each year keeps getting better. Spudnik Press offers rich programming year round that in ways address the same goals as Printers Ball (community, collaboration, and artistic production). However, Printers Ball allows us to present programming on a scale that is usually beyond our means. Printers Ball allows us to think much bigger and connect with an impressively broad audience. Under Spudnik’s pervue, we have been able to expand the scope of Printers Ball by getting our entire building involved and bridging poetry with photography, design, installation, and traditional printmaking. Printers Ball has always been a free-spirited event with reinvention every few years, and I expect it will continue to evolve as our larger surrounding community does the same.

 

Nick: Aside from showing up the day of, how can artists, writers, and other community members get involved with the Ball?

Angee: One way for artists to be involved is through contributing a carved woodblock to our Steamroller Spectacular. We’ve collected carving from about 300 artists, ranging from middle school students to professional artists. On Saturday, June 27th, all blocks, collaged in various 8-foot long combinations, will be printed in our parking lot using a construction steamroller. We are also seeking lightly used and affectionately discarded books for our Printers Ball Book Drive, benefiting Open Books. Publishers can also contribute books to our “Book Butcher,” where guests can order different cuts of magazines and books from revered publishers, big and small, across the nation.

Once people do show up, there are endless ways to get involved. G.E.E.E. is asking writers to stop by Plantlets for Poems, and select a few donated poems to read aloud. Story Club Chicago will give audience members the chance to perform live at Printers Ball. The more serious, round table conversations include “Gender, Sex, and Honesty,” “Curation as a Tool to Intersect Communities,” and “The Intersection between Art, Politics, and Community Building.” In the Printshop, we’ll have presses running all day with an ongoing collaborative letterpress poem project, screenprinted tattoos, mononprinting, and more.

For more information, visit the event website.

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Augury Books’ spring/summer 2015 reading period is now open for submissions in poetry and prose. For guidelines and general information, please visit our submissions page.

Maureen Alsop Featured on Poetry.LA!

The Orangerie by James Gillray courtesy of the Public Domain Review

Maureen Alsop has recently been featured on Poetry.LA for her reading with Lissa Kiernan at Fourth Sundays. Fourth Sundays is a monthly poetry series held at the Claremont Library in California. Poets reading this month include Maurya Simon and Jennifer K. Sweeney. The poems read include “Butcher’s Wife” and “Spinnaker Shift,” both appearing in Apparition Wren. To watch the reading, head over to Poetry.LA!

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Augury Books’ spring/summer 2015 reading period is now open for submissions in poetry and prose. For guidelines and general information, please visit our submissions page.