Silver Birch Press Congratulates Its Pushcart Prize Nominees

Silver Birch Press congratulates its six Pushcart Prize nominees for writing published during 2013:

Jeffrey C. Alfier, author of the poetry chapbook The Wolf Yearling (May 2013)

Rachel Carey, author of the novel Debt (February 2013)

Chris Forhan, author of the poetry chapbook Ransack and Dance (July 2013)

Ellaraine Lockie, author of the poetry chapbook Coffee House Confessions (February 2013)

Philippa Mayall, author of the memoir Phoenix (June 2013)

Daniel Romo, author of the poetry chapbook Romancing Gravity (May 2013)

We were honored to publish your work during 2013! 

Louise Erdrich wins 2013 American Book Award

On November 23, 2013, author Louise Erdrich received a well-deserved 2013 American Book Award for her novel THE ROUND HOUSE, which has been called the Native American TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. The American Book Award celebrates diversity and recognizes authors for outstanding literary achievement — a unique honor, since it’s an award given by other writers, with no categories, no nominees, and no losers.

“The novel showcases her [Erdrich’s] extraordinary ability to delineate the ties of love, resentment, need, duty and sympathy that bind families together…[a] powerful novel worth reading.”

Michiko Kakutani, New York Times 

Author Spotlight: Joan Jobe Smith

COMING SOON FROM SILVER BIRCH PRESS…

Charles Bukowski Epic Glottis:

His Art & His Women (& me)  by Joan Jobe Smith

Joan Jobe Smith was born in Paris, Texas, then moved to San Francisco and eventually to Southern California. A go-go girl for seven years, she boogaloo’d live with Jim Morrison, the Ike and Tina Turner Review, and Dick Dale. Founding editor of Pearl and Bukowski Review, she received a BA from California State University Long Beach and attended one year of law school before receiving an MFA in writing from University of California Irvine. In 1974, she founded Pearl Magazine.

Since 1973, her poetry, stories, reviews, essays, and memoirs have appeared internationally in more than 500 publications as well as 21 published books of poetry, notably Jehovah Jukebox (Event Horizon, 1993, USA) and Pow Wow Café (Poetry Business, UK, 1998) and anthologies The Outlaw Bible, Literature and Its Writers, New Geography of Poets, Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust and The Best of California Women Poets.

Her many honorariums include US and UK arts council grants and a finalist post for the 1999 UK Forward Prize. With her husband, poet Fred Voss, she did five-whistle-stop poetry reading tours (1991-2001) around the UK — debuting at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and ending at the Hull Literature Festival. In 2011, Fred Voss and she headlined the Pittsburgh University Writers Festival and performed at the Long Beach Poetry Festival.

UPCOMING SUMMER READING DATES: 

June 30, 2012: Joan will read at the Grand Perfomance Tongue & Groove Tribute to Charles Bukowski in Los Angeles with actors Rebecca DeMornay and Harry Dean Stanton and poet/writers Dan Fante, Gerald Locklin, Jack Grapes and more. For more information, visit: www.grandperformances.org

July 5, 2012: Joan will appear with Fred Voss at the 2012 Humber Mouth Literature/Arts Festival in Hull, England, at the Hull Truck Theatre. Info available at: www.thisisull.com

July 13: Joan and Fred will read in London at the Betsey Trotwood. Get additional info here: www.thebetsey.com

Photo: Courtesy of Joan Jobe Smith

Jezebel Hits New York City on June 27, 2012

   (Photo: Rebecca Wilson)

New York City’s Marble Collegiate Church (above left) is located in the heart of Manhattan, near the Empire State Building (above right). Merrill Farnsworth’s stage work JEZEBEL’S GOT THE BLUES will receive its New York debut in The Puzzle: Marble’s Festival of New Work (2012). Let’s hope some inspired producers attend the performance and book the show for an Off-Broadway run! 

HERE’S SOME INFORMATION FROM THE MARBLE WEBSITE: 

Jezebel’s got the Blues .. and Other Works of Imagination by Merrill Farnsworth

Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at  7:30 pm (Bay Hall, 1 West 29th St.)

This full-length play is a collection of stories and paintings inspired by characters and stories from the Old Testament — with improvised blues.

This year, 112 submissions were received from 17 states and Canada. Ten dramatic pieces and a dozen pieces of spoken word were carefully chosen to receive staged readings by professional actors and directors. These pieces originate from New York, Ohio, Georgia, Tennessee, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Canada.  Admission to the performances in The Puzzle is free. Produced by Brian Hampton, with Marya Spring Cordes returning as Artistic Director. Marble Collegiate Church 5th Avenue & West 29th Street New York, NY 10001-4596 (212) 686-2770 marblechurch.org