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!

LADYLAND, A Literary Anthology by American Women

Très cool! The esteemed 13e Note Éditions in Paris recently released (in French) LADYLAND, a 496-page anthology of writing by American women, including frequent contributors to Silver Birch Press anthologies — Rene Diedrich, Linda KIng, Tamara Madison, and Joan Jobe Smith. Learn more at 13enote.com. Find the book at Amazon.fr.

Congrats to all the women who contributed to the collection: Lisa Carver, Antonia Crane, Rene Diedrich, Gina Frangello, Kat George, Veronica Ghostwriter, Fiona Helmsley, Dana Johnson, Linda King, Chris Kraus, Lydia Lunch, Tamara Madison, Cris Mazza, Hulga McSwine, Reverend Jen Miller, Cookie Mueller, Sigrid Nunez, BC Petrakos, Joan Jobe Smith, Mende Smith, Sin Soracco, Michelle Tea, Nichelle Tramble, Sabine Walser, Ann Wood.

The Idea of Housework, poem by Dorianne Laux

THE IDEA OF HOUSEWORK
By Dorianne Laux

What good does it do anyone
to have a drawer full of clean knives,
the tines of tiny pitchforks
gleaming in plastic bins, your face
reflected eight times over
in the oval bowls of spoons?
What does it matter that the bathmat’s
scrubbed free of mold, the door mat
swept clear of leaves, the screen door
picked clean of bees’ wings, wasps’
dumbstruck bodies, the thoraxes
of flies and moths, high corners
broomed of spider webs, flowered
sheets folded and sealed in drawers,
blankets shaken so sleep’s duff and fuzz,
dead skin flakes, lost strands of hair
flicker down on the cut grass?
Who cares if breadcrumbs collect
on the countertop, if photographs
of the ones you love go gray with dust,
if milk jugs pile up, unreturned,
on the back porch near the old dog’s dish
encrusted with puppy chow?
Oh to rub the windows with vinegar,
the trees behind them revealing
their true colors. Oh the bleachy,
waxy, soapy perfume of spring.
Why should the things of this world
shine so? Tell me if you know.

SOURCE: “The Idea of Housework” by Dorianne Laux appears in Sweeping Beauty: Contemporary Women Poets Do Housework, edited byPamela Gemin (University of Iowa Press, 2005). The 212-page collection, which features work by over 80 poets, is available at Amazon.com.

BOOK DESCRIPTION: Thankless, mundane, and “never done,”  contemporary women poets are still writing the domestic experience — sometimes resenting its futility and lack of social rewards, sometimes celebrating its sensory delights and immediate gratification, sometimes cherishing the undeniable link it provides to their mothers and grandmothers. In Sweeping Beauty, a number of these poets illustrate how housekeeping’s repetitive motions can free the imagination and release the housekeeper’s muse. For many, housekeeping provides the key to a state of mind approaching meditation, a state of mind also conducive to making poems. The more than eighty contributors toSweeping Beauty embrace this state and confirm that women are pioneers and inventors as well as life-givers and nurturers.

Silver, poem by Winston Tong

SILVER
Poem by Winston Tong

Shining, sterling, sublime,
Incandescent, incisive, immortal
Laborious, luminous, lambent,
Valued, venerable, versatile,
Elemental, enduring, esteemed,
Regal, reflective, radiant
Silver.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Winston Tong is a celebrated actor, playwright, visual artist, puppeteer, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for his vocal work in Tuxedomoon and for winning a 1978 Obie Award in puppetry for Bound Feet. He appeared in the 1981 documentary Theater in Trance by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who shot the film in 1981 at the Theaters of the World Festival in Cologne, Germany. Tong’s career, including solo activity, was examined in detail in Isabelle Corbisier’s Tuxedomoon biography Music for Vagabonds—the Tuxedomoon Chronicles (2008).
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Winston Tong‘s work is featured — along with writing from more than 60 other authors — in the Silver Birch Press release Silver: An Eclectic Anthology of Poetry & Prose (November 2012). The 240-page book is available in paperback or Kindle versions at Amazon.com.

The Idea of Housework, poem by Dorianne Laux

THE IDEA OF HOUSEWORK
By Dorianne Laux

What good does it do anyone
to have a drawer full of clean knives,
the tines of tiny pitchforks
gleaming in plastic bins, your face
reflected eight times over
in the oval bowls of spoons?
What does it matter that the bathmat’s
scrubbed free of mold, the door mat
swept clear of leaves, the screen door
picked clean of bees’ wings, wasps’
dumbstruck bodies, the thoraxes
of flies and moths, high corners
broomed of spider webs, flowered
sheets folded and sealed in drawers,
blankets shaken so sleep’s duff and fuzz,
dead skin flakes, lost strands of hair
flicker down on the cut grass?
Who cares if breadcrumbs collect
on the countertop, if photographs
of the ones you love go gray with dust,
if milk jugs pile up, unreturned,
on the back porch near the old dog’s dish
encrusted with puppy chow?
Oh to rub the windows with vinegar,
the trees behind them revealing
their true colors. Oh the bleachy,
waxy, soapy perfume of spring.
Why should the things of this world
shine so? Tell me if you know.

“The Idea of Housework” by Dorianne Laux appears in Sweeping Beauty: Contemporary Women Poets Do Housework, edited by Pamela Gemin (University of Iowa Press, 2005). The 212-page collection, which features work by over 80 poets, is available at Amazon.com.

BOOK DESCRIPTION: Thankless, mundane, and “never done,”  contemporary women poets are still writing the domestic experience — sometimes resenting its futility and lack of social rewards, sometimes celebrating its sensory delights and immediate gratification, sometimes cherishing the undeniable link it provides to their mothers and grandmothers. In Sweeping Beauty, a number of these poets illustrate how housekeeping’s repetitive motions can free the imagination and release the housekeeper’s muse. For many, housekeeping provides the key to a state of mind approaching meditation, a state of mind also conducive to making poems. The more than eighty contributors to Sweeping Beauty embrace this state and confirm that women are pioneers and inventors as well as life-givers and nurturers.

Coming in August 2013: Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology

We are excited about the upcoming Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology — a collection of poetry, fiction, memoirs, and essays about Charles Bukowski from authors in the U.S., U.K., and Europe — and are planning for an August 16, 2013 release to celebrate Buk’s 93rd birthday. (Cover art by Mark Erickson and Birgit Zartl.)

To give you a preview, a poem from the collection is featured below.

THE ART OF VICTORY
by Mark Terrill

A hot, smoggy day in LA.
Bukowski wheels out of the lot
at the Hollywood Park racetrack,
past rows of cars shimmering
in the brassy California sun.
 
Bukowski is ninety bucks ahead today.
He roars out onto the freeway,
slips over into the fast lane,
turns up the Mahler symphony,
lights a big black cigar.
 
For the time being, he is
beyond poetry, beyond women,
beyond the post office, back-rent,
and that long war of attrition
we all know as Existence.
 
He grins sublimely, focused on the
hard, glittering diamond of Fortune,
like a Zen monk tuning in
to the true meaning of life,
which is essentially the same thing.

Les Dernier Des Damnes, Anthology (in French) by Gerald Locklin

Congratulations to Gerald Locklin — author of the Silver Birch Press release Gerald Locklin: New and Selected Poems (1967-2007) — on the publication of Les Dernier Des Damnes, a 320-page anthology of his writings published in French by the prestigious 13e note éditions, which also publishes French translations of work by Nelson Algren, Charles Bukowski, Dan Fante, Sam Shepard, and Willy Vlautin. Visit Gerald Locklin’s page on the 13e note website at this link.

Green Corn Tamales, Poem by Gerald Locklin

GREEN CORN TAMALES

by Gerald Locklin

First in Tucson,

Now at El Cholo in L.A.

On western just south of Olympic,

My wife and I make a point

Of enjoying them once a summer.

 

Some tamales are not hot.

These are sweet with the syrup

Of young corn, steamed within

The husks.  Even the thin strand

Of a green pepper seems sweet.

Even the morsel of tender chicken

Seems sweet.

 

Sweet as sweethearts

On the evening promenade

Above the beach at Mazatlan.

Sweet as summer evenings.

Sweet as the respite, the

Renewal, at the end of day.

 

Think sweetly of green corn tamales,

Remembering that the water of the desert,

Hoarded by the thirsty cactus,

Is the sweetest water.

Reprinted by permission of the author from The Life Force Poems, © Gerald Locklin, 2002, Water Row Press, Sudbury, Massachusetts.

“Green Corn Tamales” by Gerald Locklin will appear in the upcoming Silver Birch Press Green Anthology: An Eclectic Collection of Poetry & Prose. The anthology will include poetry, short stories, essays, novel excerpts, and stage play scenes that touch on “green” in one way or another. The Silver Birch Press Green Anthology will be released on March 15, 2013. 

How I Felt, Poem by John Brantingham

HOW I FELT 

by John Brantingham

There was one time in the dead

center of summer after we’d

had a Santa Ana, and the glass

on the windows seemed ready

to melt but the Santa Ana was over

and storm clouds had moved in. A snap

of lightning and all the rain in the world

landed on our street. It poured for three

minutes and moved on. When it was gone,

the street steamed and hissed

until it was dry again. Last night,

I woke up at two in the morning.

You were lying perfectly still,

and you didn’t know I was watching you.

When I saw you lying there so quietly last night,

that’s just exactly how I felt.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Brantingham’s poetry and fiction have been published in hundreds of magazines and venues, including Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac, PEARL, Tears in the Fence, Confrontation, and The Journal. His books include East of Los Angeles and Let Us All Pray to Our Own Strange Gods (forthcoming from World Parade Books). He works at Mt. San Antonio College, where he teaches English and directs the creative writing programs.

“How I Felt” appears, along with other poetry by John Brantingham, in the Silver Birch Press release Silver: An Eclectic Anthology of Poetry and Prose — a collection of writing from 62 authors that centers around a “silver” theme. The 240-page book is available in paperback and Kindle versions at Amazon.com.

Silver Birch Press blog readers who’d like to review the Silver Anthology, leave a comment and we will contact you.

Silver, Poem by Winston Tong

SILVER

Poem by Winston Tong

Shining, sterling, sublime,

Incandescent, incisive, immortal

Laborious, luminous, lambent,

Valued, venerable, versatile,

Elemental, enduring, esteemed,

Regal, reflective, radiant

Silver.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Winston Tong is a celebrated actor, playwright, visual artist, puppeteer, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for his vocal work in Tuxedomoon and for winning a 1978 Obie Award in puppetry for Bound Feet. He appeared in the 1981 documentary Theater in Trance by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who shot the film in 1981 at the Theaters of the World Festival in Cologne, Germany. Tong’s career, including solo activity, was examined in detail in Isabelle Corbisier’s Tuxedomoon biography Music for Vagabonds—the Tuxedomoon Chronicles (2008).

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Winston Tong‘s work is featured — along with writing from more than 60 other authors — in the new Silver Birch Press release Silver: An Eclectic Anthology of Poetry & Prose. The 240-page book is available in paperback or Kindle versions at Amazon.com.