FREE Kindle Version of Alice in Wonderland Anthology (April 8-10, 2020)

As the world is in crisis and people are quarantined, we want to help bring some cheer! That’s why we’ve decided to convert some of our books to Kindle versions and offer them, at first, for free (Amazon only permits publishers to list titles as free for a few days each quarter) and then at the lowest possible selling price that Amazon allows. The Kindle version of our Alice in Wonderland Anthology is available for FREE from Wednesday, April 8 through Friday, April 10, 2020. Find it at this link.

Released on November 26, 2015 — exactly 150 years after the 1865 publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — the Alice in Wonderland Anthology features work by 63 writers, artists and photographers.

Contributors include: Mary Jo Bang, Virginia Barrett, Sabina C. Becker, Roxanna Bennett, Rebecca Bokma, Ed Bremson, Kari Bruck, Cathy Bryant, Kathy Burkett, Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll, Maureen E. Doallas, Kallie Falandays, Nettie Farris, Jamie Feldman, Jennifer Finstrom, Jackie Fox, Kristin Geber, Sandra Herman, Joanie Hieger Fritz Zosike, Trish Hopkinson, Valerie Hunter, Tatiana Ianovskaia, Justin Jackley, Mathias Jansson, Laura M. Kaminski, Kevin Korb, Jo Anna Elizabeth Larson, Ae Hee Lee, Renee Mallett, Char March, Alwyn Marriage, Karen Massey, Kim Naboshek, Michael O’Connor, Donatella Parisini, Erin Parker, Marybeth Rua-Larsen, Jayme Russell, Rizwan Saleem, Albert Schlaht, Anita Schmaltz, Elvis Schmoulianoff, Dustin Scott, Shloka Shankar, Sheikha A., M.M. Shelline, A.E. Stallings, Katarina Stanic, William Stok, Wendy Strohm, Robyn Sykes, Eileen Tai, Christina Tam, John Tenniel, Pablo Valcarcel, Amy Schreibman Walter, Lynn White, Martin Willitts Jr, Rachelle Wood, Andrew Woodham, Emily Yu.

We hope you enjoy this offering — and hope the collection brings you cheer!

Celebrating the books published by Silver Birch Press in 2015

As we start the new year, we’d like to tip our hat to the books published by Silver Birch Press in 2015.

The Hollywood Catechism, poems by Paul Fericano (March 2015) — a 110-page collection that shines a bright searchlight on our addiction to pop culture, our fixation on celebrity worship, and our suspicion of religious ideas. Each poem is a small lens flipped to reveal an alternate universe into which the reader enters bravely with no exit sign in sight. Fericano’s unique perspective is marked by a skill and talent that blends socio-political satire with suffering and sentiment. In the process, he manages to acknowledge our shenanigans and celebrate our humanity.

Kissing My Shadow, poems by Merrill Farnsworth (May 2015) — a 60-page collection of poetry that features 42 poems charting the author’s soulful sojourn from childhood onward. The book has earned high praise from critics as well as readers.

The Great Gatsby Anthology (June 2015) — a collection of poetry and prose inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel from 80 established and up-and-coming authors around the world.

 

 

Dual Impressions: Poetic Conversations About Art by John Brantingham & Jeffrey Graessley (August 2015) — a discussion between John Brantingham and Jeffrey Graessley about art and life in the form of over 90 poems that cover themes such as war, poverty, and social justice. The collection also includes an interview with the authors — where they explain the genesis for the project as well as their collaborative methods, and discuss their museum visits and art research — plus links to the artwork that served as inspiration for the poems.

Found & Lost, found & visual poetry by George McKim (August 2015) – a collection of repurposed and remixed Found Poetry and Visual Poetry. George McKim has repurposed and remixed the work of poets ranging from Tristan Tzara to Lyn Hejinian and has transformed their words into a fascinating collection of strangely haunting Found Poems. Augmenting these poems are fourteen vintage dictionary pages that have metamorphosed into full color Visual Poems.

IDES: A Collection of Poetry Chapbooks (October 2015) — Silver Birch Press decided to celebrate the year 2015 by asking 15 poets each to contribute 15 pages of poetry to a chapbook collection entitled IDES (released on the ides of October 2015). The result is a diverse mix of poetry by authors from coast to coast.

Alice in Wonderland Anthology (November 2015) — a 148-page collection of writing, art & photography from 63 contributors around the world to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s masterwork,  Alice in Wonderland. Available in black and white and full-color versions.

New Release: Alice in Wonderland ANTHOLOGY

In June 2014, Silver Birch Press issued a call for submissions for poetry, prose, art, photography, and other work inspired by Lewis Carroll’s masterwork, Alice in Wonderland.

We received submissions from authors and artists around the world, and have prepared the Alice in Wonderland Anthology to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of the book that continues to offer inspiration and insight generation after generation. The Alice in Wonderland Anthology has an official release date of November 26, 2015, exactly a century and a half after its namesake’s publication.

Published in 1865, Alice in Wonderland remains one of the world’s most popular books—and is still relevant and respected in 2015, a phenomenon that is sure to continue in the years to come.

The Alice in Wonderland Anthology features work by 63 writers, artists & photographers: Mary Jo Bang, Virginia Barrett, Sabina C. Becker, Roxanna Bennett, Rebecca Bokma, Ed Bremson, Kari Bruck, Cathy Bryant, Kathy Burkett, Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll, Maureen E. Doallas, Kallie Falandays, Nettie Farris, Jamie Feldman, Jennifer Finstrom, Jackie Fox, Kristin Geber, Sandra Herman, Joanie Hieger Fritz Zosike, Trish Hopkinson, Valerie Hunter, Tatiana Ianovskaia, Justin Jackley, Mathias Jansson, Laura M. Kaminski, Kevin Korb, Jo Anna Elizabeth Larson, Ae Hee Lee, Renee Mallett, Char March, Alwyn Marriage, Karen Massey, Kim Naboshek, Michael O’Connor, Donatella Parisini, Erin Parker, Marybeth Rua-Larsen, Jayme Russell, Rizwan Saleem, Albert Schlaht, Anita Schmaltz, Elvis Schmoulianoff, Dustin Scott, Shloka Shankar, Sheikha A., M.M. Shelline, A.E. Stallings, Katarina Stanic, William Stok, Wendy Strohm, Robyn Sykes, Eileen Tai, Christina Tam, John Tenniel, Pablo Valcarcel, Amy Schreibman Walter, Lynn White, Martin Willitts Jr, Rachelle Wood, Andrew Woodham, Emily Yu.

The 148-page Alice in Wonderland Anthology is available in a black and white version for $12 USD and a full-cover version for $20.

The books are also available on Amazon sites around the world. 

Call for Submissions: Alice in Wonderland Anthology

November 26, 2015 will mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll — one of the most influential books ever written (for children or adults). To celebrate the occasion, we’re planning ahead — and getting started with the Silver Birch Press Alice in Wonderland Anthology, a collection of poetry, prose, art, collage, photography, and other work that celebrates this deep and delightful book.

WHAT: Poetry, prose, paintings, drawings, photographs, and other work inspired by Alice in Wonderland.

TYPES OF WRITTEN MATERIAL:

• Poems (up to three — either original work or found/erasure poetry based on Alice in Wonderland)
• Short stories (up to 2,000 words)
• Essays (up to 1,500 words)
• Creative nonfiction (up to 2,000 words)
• Short plays or screenplays (approximately 5 typed pages)
• Other literary forms (up to 2,000 words)

TYPES OF VISUAL MATERIAL (send jpg files of approximately 1MB):

• Photographs
• Collage
• Paintings
• 
Drawings

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: December 31, 2014

RELEASE DATE: Fall 2015 (150th anniversary of  Alice’s 1865 publication)

HOW TO SUBMIT: Please email written entries as MSWord attachments (title the file with your last name, e.g., Smith.docx or Jones.doc) and visual entries as jpg attachments to silver@silverbirchpress.com along with your name, mailing address, email address, and one-paragraph bio. (If submitting an erasure poem, provide the edition and publication date. If erasure is taken from one page, please also provide scan of original erasure.) Write “Alice Submission” in email subject line.

PAYMENT: All contributors will receive a copy of the Silver Birch Press Alice in Wonderland Anthology.

10 Essential Surrealist Books for Everyone, list by Shane Jones

While researching authors I wanted to contact about contributing a poem or story to our upcoming Alice in Wonderland Anthology, I ran across an interesting article at Flavorwire entitled “10 Essential Surrealist Books for Everyone” — featuring a list curated by Shane Jones, author of Light Boxes. I figured I’d contact the living authors and check out their work — some are familiar names, while others were new to me.

Here’s the list (with my notes):

The Hundred Brothers by Donald Antrim (I subsequently found this novel at my favorite used bookstore and am looking forward to reading it.)

The Vet’s Daughter by Barbara Comyns (I really want to read this one — sounds fascinating.)

Nothing by Blake Butler (I recently checked out Blake Butler‘s 2011 novel There is No Year — one of the most original books I’ve come across in a long, long time.)

The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich (I checked out this book from the L.A. Public Library — it features the thinking person’s zombies.)

The Man Suit by Zachary Schomburg (We ran a poem — “Experiment in Invisibility” — from this remarkable collection a few weeks ago.)

The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs (From the King of Surrealists.)

Wide Eyed by Trinie Dalton (I checked out a library copy and read a few stories — she’s got a voice!)

Zirconia by Chelsey Minnis (We ran an amazing poem — “The Aquamarine” — from this collection a few weeks ago and received a terrific response. Chelsey Minnis has some serious fans out there.)

The Way Through Doors by Jesse Ball (I recently checked out Jesse Ball’s novel Silence Once Begun — fascinating.)

In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan (A perennial favorite from an all-time favorite author.)

Alice in Wonderland, poem by Mary Jo Bang

ALICE IN WONDERLAND
by Mary Jo Bang 

Such a fall! Watch fob and waistcoat.
How late the mistake is made.
How long the clamoring lasts.
 
Who are you? Bending against a blade
of green grass. Smoke fills
the Caterpillar. Smoke floats
 
over the polka dot snow.
Have you really changed, do you think?
This is the best part of the dark edge of down.
 
Down, down, she fell. This is the best part
of the edge where one is not one-
self. Don’t I know it, Alice says,
 
blinking her eyes once twice.
She took down a jar from one of the shelves
as she passed it; it was labeled “ORANGE
 
MARMALADE.” The game was changing.
There are games where one never wavers.
There are games where one follows
 
a dot-by-dot disturbance.
There is falling, and about to
fall, and ground giving way.
 
There is the beautiful
act of turning
to buy two and getting a free beach bag.
 
Perfect for picnics or toting and such.
A flavorful favor to take on a trip
to a mountain where chocolate is eaten
 
on weekends and during the week
it’s placed on your pillow
right next to your head which is swimming
 
in visions. She could almost envision it.
A pool with a placid surface,
mist shrouding a peak
 
that poked through at the top
to speak of impossible heights.
But, no. The peak was a spike
 
on the encephalogram
and she was dreaming again in a sleep-clinic bed.
Father was petting her forehead;
 
Mother was stirring a soup.
She’d be ever more
reckless if never she woke.
 
Now that was not said right.
Some of the words had got altered.
A row of button mums hedged the walkway.
 
She stopped
to enter this datum
in her Rite as Reign notebook.
 
She knew what the button mums meant.
Another fall.
Dying must happen quite often, said Alice.

IMAGE: “Alice in Wonderland” by Sigmar Polke (1971), mixed media on patterned fabric (The National Museum of Art, Osaka).

SOURCE: “Alice in Wonderland” appears in Mary Jo Bang‘s collection The Eye Like a Strange Balloon (Grove Press, 2004).

NOTE: We are honored to feature “Alice in Wonderland” by Mary Jo Bang in the Silver Birch Press Alice in Wonderland Anthology (January, 2015).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mary Jo Bang is the author of six books of poems, including The Bride of E: Poems (Graywolf Press, 2009) and Elegy (Graywolf Press, 2007), which won the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry and was a 2008 New York Times Notable Book. Her first book, Apology for Want (Middlebury College, 1997), was chosen by Edward Hirsch for the 1996 Bakeless Prize. Bang’s work has been selected three times for the Best American Poetry series. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a “Discovery”/The Nation award, a Pushcart Prize, a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, and a Hodder Award from Princeton University. Her books Louise in Love (Grove Press, 2001) and Elegy both received the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay di Castagnola Award for a manuscript-in-progress. Bang was the poetry coeditor of the Boston Review from 1995 to 2005. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Blues for Alice, poem by Clark Coolidge

BLUES FOR ALICE
by Clark Coolidge

When you get in on a try you never learn it back
umpteen times the tenth part of a featured world
in black and in back it’s roses and fostered nail
bite rhyme sling slang, a song that teaches without
travail of the tale, the one you longing live
and singing burn

It’s insane to remain a trope, of a rinsing out
or a ringing whatever, it’s those bells that . . .
and other riskier small day and fain would be
of the soap a sky dares

but we remand,
that we a clasp of the silence you and I, all of
tiny sphering rates back, I say to told wall, back
and back and leave my edge, and add an L

Night is so enclosed we’ll never turn its page
its eye, can be mine will be yours, to see all the people
the underneath livid reaching part and past of the lying buildings
the overreacher stops and starts, at in his head, in
in her rhythm
that knowledge is past all of us, so we flare and tap
and top it right up, constant engage and flap in on
keeping pace, our whelming rift, and soil and gleam
and give back the voice, like those eary dead

Step down off our whelm lessons and shortly fired
enter the bristle strum of Corrosion Kingdom
where the last comes by first ever ring, every
race through that tunnel of sun drop and pencil
in the margins of a flare, of higher wish than dare,
the stroked calmings of a line will spin and chime
in blue quicks of a dream blues, the chores
of those whispering gone crenulations

To meet a care is to dial redeem
and we limp in the time sound balms
so out of kilter is my name in the sun, and I win
in the moon and you sing in that other spelling of win
the way a blue is never singular

SOURCE: “Blues for Alice” appears in Clark Coolidge‘s collection Sound as Thought: Poems 1982-1984 (Green Integer, 1990), available at Amazon.com.

Illustration by John Tenniel 1865.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Clark Coolidge is a poet and jazz musician. His numerous collections include This Time We Are Both (2010), Sound as Thought (1990) — chosen for the New American Poetry Series — Own Face (1978), and Flag Flutter & U.S. Electric (1966). His work is included in An Anthology of New York Poets (1970) and The Young American Poets (1968). A contributing editor for Sulfur, Coolidge lives in Petaluma, California.

MORE: Listen to a discussion of “Blues for Alice” by Clark Coolidge — hosted by Al Filreis and featuring Brian Reed, Maria Damon, and Craig Dworin — at poetryfoundation.org. Read more at Harriet.

For “Fiddle-de-dee,” poem by John Hollander

FOR “FIDDLE-DE-DEE”
by John Hollander

                          “What’s the French for fiddle-de-dee?”
                          “Fiddle-de-dee’s not English,” Alice replied gravely.
                         “Whoever said it was,” said the Red queen . . . 

What’s the French for “fiddle-de-dee”?
But “fiddle-de-dee’s not English” (we
Learn from Alice, and must agree).
The “Fiddle” we know, but what’s from “Dee”?
Le chat assis in an English tree?

—Well, what’s the French for “fiddle-de-dench”?
(That is to say, for “monkey wrench”)
—Once in the works, it produced a stench

What’s the Greek for “fiddle-de-dex”?
(That is to say, for “Brekekekex”)
—The frog-prince turned out to be great at sex.

What’s the Erse for “fiddle-de-derse”?
(That is to say, for “violent curse”?)
—Bad cess to you for your English verse!

What’s the Malay for “fiddle-de-day”?
(That is to say, for “That is to say …”)
—…[There are no true synonyms, anyway …]

What’s the Pali for “fiddle-de-dally”?
(That is to say, for “Silicon Valley”)
—Maya deceives you: the Nasdaq won’t rally.

What’s the Norwegian for “fiddle-de-degian”?
(That is to say, for “His name is Legion”)
—This aquavit’s known in every region.

What’s the Punjabi for “fiddle-de-dabi”?
(That is to say, for “crucifer lobby”)
—They asked for dall but were sent kohl-rabi.

What’s the Dutch for “fiddle-de-Dutch”?
(That is to say, for “overmuch”)
—Pea-soup and burghers and tulips and such.

What’s the Farsi for “fiddle-de-darsi?”
(That is to say for “devote yourself”—“darsi”
In Italian—the Irish would spell it “D’Arcy”)

Well, what’s the Italian for “fiddle-de-dallion”?
(That is to say, for “spotted stallion”)
—It makes him more randy to munch on a scallion.

Having made so free with “fiddle-de-dee,”
What’s to become now of “fiddle-de-dum”?
—I think I know. But the word’s still mum.

SOURCE: Poetry 180 (2003).

Illustration by John Tenniel (1871).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Hollander (1929-2013) was the author of more than a dozen volumes of poetry, including Picture Window (2003), Figurehead: And Other Poems (1999), Tesserae (1993), Selected Poetry (1993), Harp Lake (1988), Powers of Thirteen (1983), Spectral Emanations (1978), Types of Shape (1969), and A Crackling of Thorns (1958). Hollander’s many honors included the Bollingen Prize, the Levinson Prize, and the MLA Shaughnessy Medal, as well as fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. A former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and former poet laureate of Connecticut, he taught at Connecticut College, Hunter College, the CUNY Graduate Center, and Yale, where he was the Sterling Professor emeritus of English.

Alice in the Looking Glass, poem by A.E. Stallings

ALICE IN THE LOOKING GLASS
by A.E. Stallings

No longer can I just climb through—the time
Is past for going back. But you are there
Still conning books in Hebrew, right to left,
Or moving little jars on the dresser top
Like red and white pieces on a chessboard. Still
You look up curiously at me when I pass
As if you’d ask me something—maybe why
I’ve left you locked inside. I’d say because
That is where I’d have reflections stay,
In surfaces, where they cannot disquiet,
Shallow, for all that they seem deep at bottom;
Though it’s to you I look to set things right—
(The blouse askew, hair silvering here and here)—
Where everything reverses save for time.

 Illustration by John Tenniel (1871).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: A. E. (Alicia) Stallings studied classics in Athens, Georgia and has lived since 1999 in Athens, Greece. She has published three books of poetry, Archaic Smile (1999) — winner of the Richard Wilbur Award – Hapax (2000), and Olives (2012). Her new verse translation of Lucretius (in rhyming fourteeners!), The Nature of Things, is published by Penguin Classics. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. She lives with her husband, John Psaropoulos, editor of the Athens News, and their small argonaut, Jason.

And as in Alice, poem by Mary Jo Bang

AND AS IN ALICE
by Mary Jo Bang

Alice cannot be in the poem, she says, because
She’s only a metaphor for childhood
And a poem is a metaphor already
So we’d only have a metaphor

Inside a metaphor. Do you see?
They all nod. They see. Except for the girl
With her head in the rabbit hole. From this vantage,
Her bum looks like the flattened backside

Of  a black and white panda. She actually has one
In the crook of  her arm.
Of course it’s stuffed and not living.
Who would dare hold a real bear so near the outer ear?

She’s wondering what possible harm might come to her
If  she fell all the way down the dark she’s looking through.
Would strange creatures sing songs
Where odd syllables came to a sibilant end at the end.

Perhaps the sounds would be a form of  light  hissing.
Like when a walrus blows air
Through two fractured front teeth. Perhaps it would
Take the form of a snake. But if a snake, it would need a tree.

Could she grow one from seed? Could one make a cat?
Make it sit on a branch and fade away again
The moment you told it that the rude noise it was hearing was
rational thought
With an axe beating on the forest door.

SOURCE: Poetry (October 2007).

Illustration by John Tenniel (1865).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mary Jo Bang is the author of six books of poems, including The Bride of E: Poems (Graywolf Press, 2009) and Elegy (Graywolf Press, 2007), which won the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry and was a 2008 New York Times Notable Book. Her first book, Apology for Want (Middlebury College, 1997), was chosen by Edward Hirsch for the 1996 Bakeless Prize. Bang’s work has been selected three times for the Best American Poetry series. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a “Discovery”/The Nation award, a Pushcart Prize, a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, and a Hodder Award from Princeton University. Her books Louise in Love (Grove Press, 2001) and Elegy both received the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay di Castagnola Award for a manuscript-in-progress. Bang was the poetry coeditor of the Boston Review from 1995 to 2005. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.