"Black Anecdote" by Poetry Finalist Andrew Seguin

Photo courtesy of Sofia Verzbolovskis

Andrew Seguin is a poet and photographer. He is the author of the chapbook Black Anecdote (Poetry Society of America, 2010), and has a new chapbook forthcoming from Tammy. His photographic work explores the intersection of imagery and language. Andrew has received fellowships from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, Poets House and the United States Fulbright Program. You can find him on the web at www.andrewseguin.com

PICS: Frances Justine Post + Others Read at Poets House Showcase

Wednesday, July 23rd, Frances Justine Post (Beast, Augury Books, 2013) read at Poets House with fellow poets Emily Abendroth, Brett Fletcher Lauer, and Wendy S. Walters, as part of the 22nd Annual Poets House Showcase series coordinated by Stephen Motika. The reading series accompanies an annual exhibit at Poets House of every poetry and poetry-related text published in the United States each year. See some photos from the night below.

Left to right: Wendy S. Walters’ ‘Troy, Michigan’ (Futurepoem Books, 2014); Frances Justine Post’s ‘Beast’ (Augury Books, 2013); Brett Fletcher Lauer’s ‘A Hotel in Belgium’ (Four Way Books, 2014); Not pictured: Emily Abendroth’s ‘] Exclosures [‘ (Ahsahta Press, 2014). Photo: Nicolas Amara

Stephen Motika. Photo: Nicolas Amara

Emily Abendroth. Photo: Nicolas Amara

Brett Fletcher Lauer. Photo: Nicolas Amara

Frances Justine Post. Photo: Nicolas Amara

Wendy S. Walters. Photo: Nicolas Amara

Poets House, located in Battery Park City, is a poetry library, writing space, and venue, free and open to the public, that houses 60,000 volumes of poetry. Poetry workshops and readings are regularly held, and the building features an open floor with space for writers to browse books or create their own work. A full recording of Wednesday night’s reading is available to stream on the Poets House website—head over and listen!

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Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!

Frances Justine Post to Read at Poets House on Wed, July 23

Frances Justine Post

On Wednesday evening, Frances Justine Post (BEAST, 2014) will be reading at Poets House in NYC as part of the Showcase Reading Series. Joining Post are poets Brett Fletcher LauerEmily Abendroth, and Wendy S. Walters.

The event will take place in association with the Annual Poets House Showcase, a remarkable initiative to collect and exhibit to the public, free of charge, every book of poetry published each year, making the Poets House stock among the most comprehensive open-stacks collections in the country.

So go for the reading, stay for the books—or vice-versa—on Wednesday, July 23, 7pm, at Ten River Terrace (at Murray Street) / New York, NY  10282.

Learn more about the Poets House showcase and other readings this week in the New Yorker.

Post will also be reading with Augury at the New York Poetry Festival on Saturday. Stay tuned for more information on the festival and readers later this week.

More on BEAST

 

 

Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!

Kate Angus Writes on Poetry Readership and Keeping Poetry Sales Alive

“Ripple Effect on Water” courtesy of Sergiu Bacioiu, Wikimedia Commons

Augury editor Kate Angus’s article on The Millions today discusses the audience for poetry (wider than people often think!) and strategies that independent presses such as Augury are using to increase sales. In her article, Angus shares the idea that because of the increased capability of reading poetry outside of a bookstore or a library, Americans might in fact be reading more poetry than ever. Things like the “Poetry in Motion” project in New York, along with the increase of sharing poetry through social media, have sparked a higher readership in the US, and people have access to more poetry than they did in the past.

Thanks to the ease of sharing poems through email and social media, it’s possible that poetry’s audience might be greater now than ever. According to The Academy of American Poets director Jen Benka, the Academy’s Poem-a-Day has over 300,000 readers, so large an audience that the Hearst Corporation recently partnered with the Academy to include the poems in their online and print newspapers and magazines.”

While the readership for poetry might have increased, book sales are down overall when it comes to people wanting to actually buy poetry. In her article, Angus outlines some of the ways that smaller presses are trying to keep poetry sales alive, such as widening readership in general by branching out to publish other genres in hopes that someone reading a short story might see what else a press has published, therefore becoming interested in the published poetry.

Our hope is that readers who like the prose we publish may discover, as they poke around our catalog, that they like the poetry too (and vice versa). “

For more on poetry readership, as well as many other ways that presses are trying to increase the sale of poetry, check out Angus’ full article here.

Only 10 days left in Augury’s reading period – Submit your manuscript now!