We congratulate t’ai freedom ford and her incredible book & more black for winning the 2020 Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry!
Lambda judges are cited as saying & more black is “percussively suave and strikingly sonic” and said ford “makes every sound, every image, every idea, every movement devastatingly liquid and lyrical.”
Today I’m asking folks to buy books from independent publishers. A lot of small presses are struggling, and the resources we rely on are either grinding to a halt or have become severely impaired/impacted by the coronavirus.
Brooklyn Arts Press & Augury Books sell PDFs & ebooks for $9 or less.
AWP – Booth 1418 – March 5-7 / Whale Prom – March 7
If you’re a writer, publisher, or book enthusiast coming out to AWP this year in San Antonio, please read on to learn what Brooklyn Arts Press / Augury Books has planned for you!
Nothing. We have nothing planned.
Between the coronavirus freaking everyone out, last minute cancelations, and my finger getting sliced open in an Uber en route to the airport (which led to a fun tetanus shot in Austin), it’s been decided that we are going to wing it. Everything. We are winging everything.
Which so far has been awesome. They have breakfast tacos here that put your breakfast tacos to shame. The weather is a comfy 68 degrees. I just watched The Invisible Man at the Alamo Drafthouse and might go swimming today, because people swim here. We’re living life to the fullest with a hybrid rental and friends to knock back drinks with. A grackle swooped down to attack me this morning, because Texas, and I’m happy to report that following some bargaining involving a tostada, we are now friends, and he will be staying with us in Brooklyn this summer. See if I’m kidding.
Here is what we can promise. Next week, starting Thursday March 5th, we will be selling some of the best small press books on the market at Booth 1418 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, where they keep inventing the Alamo. We will be sporting two enormous bottles of Purell and unmitigated pride in what we do. We will arm-bump you, we will discuss literature and movies and Netflix with you, we will be collecting your hotel toiletries to hand out to Haven For Hope, a nonprofit center for the homeless that sports a teaching campus and living facilities. Awesome blossom. Concurrently, on Saturday the 7th, we will have a table at Whale Prom, that iconoclastic anti-AWP popup where all the cool and anti-cool kids hang out. Our book discounts will be so amazing that people will ask if we’re kidding.
Augury Books is excited to announce that we will be opening our doors to reading full-length Poetry manuscripts, from January 1-31, 2020. We will not be reading for any other genres at this time.
Please check the above “Submissions” button at the top of the Augury Books home page for more information.
Former US Poet Laureate Tracy K Smith chose t’ai freedom ford’s poem “from here i saw what happened and i cried” for commentary and reading on her show The Slowdown on Minnesota Public Radio, NPR.
The writer and visual artist discuss their experiences as black creatives, intended audiences, gentrification, gender, Toni Morrison, and a whole host of other interesting topics related to their work.
Rachel Zucker speaks with poet, musician, and Jewish educator Alicia Jo Rabins about her new book, Fruit Geode, and her lifelong passion for writing: click to listen.
We had a full house at Greenlight Bookstore for t'ai freedom ford's book party for & more black. A big special thanks to readers jayy dodd, francine j. harris, and Donika Kelly. The crowd was feeling it and the mood was joyous! Congratulations t'ai!