Columbus State Writers Conference

The Poet's Haven will be participating in the book fair at the Columbus State Writers Conference this Saturday.  Wick Poetry Center director David Hassler will be the keynote speaker.  If going to AWP was out of your budget range or you were able to go but find yourself thirsting for more workshop experiences, this is the place for you to be.

http://www.cscc.edu/academics/departments/english/writers-conference/book-fair.shtml

The Poet's Haven Digest: On Velvet Feet

THIRTEEN YEARS in the making, The Poet's Haven Digest #1 is now is available!

"On Velvet Feet" features poetry and stories by Kristina England, Joshua Gage, Janet Garber, Alex Gildzen, Clarissa Jakobsons, Paul Kahle, Thomas Koron, Lori Ann Kusterbeck, Geoffrey A. Landis, Marc Mannheimer, Michael Gillan Maxwell, Rachel M. Newlon, Angela Nichols, Jen Pezzo, Tina Puckett, Lady Kathy Smith, Kevin Frederick Smith, Steven B. Smith, J.E. Stanley, Hannah Stevenson, Melissa Studdard, Mary A. Turzillo, and Vertigo Xi'an Xavier.

FREE SHIPPING!

Click here to order!

Poetry tunes...

While I am working on a new season of "The Poet's Haven presents..." podcasts, here's something you might enjoy in the meanwhile. Neon Signs is the collaboration of music by Miearth and the poetry of Walter Beck. Beck's had two most excellent chapbooks released by our friends at Writing Knights press (and rumor is there might be a third on the way). Did I mention this album is currently a free download? Get it! http://3sdmusic.bandcamp.com/album/no-stone-left-unspoken

Online Gallery Submissions

Admittedly, since the new year began, I've let myself fall a bit behind on reviewing new submissions to the online galleries. As of tonight, I have finished going through the queue. Of the 104 pieces I've looked at this evening, 47 poems and one short story have been added to the galleries. Okay, now back to work I go on books and podcasts. Stay tuned! :-)

"On Velvet Feet" - Call CLOSED

The call for cat-themed poetry for the "On Velvet Feet" anthology is now CLOSED! The book will be coming your way in a matter of weeks. :-)

"On Velvet Feet" UPDATE

The Poet's Haven Digest anthology "On Velvet Feet" is almost finished, and will be available in early March! The cat-themed collection has a few small spaces left where one or two haiku, senryu, or a cinquain can fit. If you wish to submit some short poems (nothing longer than ten lines), please do so ASAP. This book's call for cover art is now closed. Submissions should be sent to: PHDcats[AT]PoetsHaven.com

A Poet's Haven Love Connection? ;-)

So today I received an e-mail asking me to update the e-mail address attached to some poems in Gallery 1.  This was for an author who's work was published back in 1998 and 1999.  She included this in the e-mail:

"Also, I'd like to thank you. Thank you for keeping the site up and running through all these years. In a weird way this site helped to bring myself and my soul-mate together. We did not know each other at the time we were both posting to the site, nor had we read each others work. However around 20 years later we ended up meeting each other and connecting almost instantly. In all the talking new couples do we discussed our past personal pages, places we chat, etc... only to discover we were both posting here at the same time with our submissions only separated by a few submissions. An odd coincidence, maybe, but we consider it evidence that our lives were circling each others and in its own way brought us closer together."

Okay, other than that "20 years" thing making me feel *REALLY* old (not to mention that I'm fairly certain last October only marked the site's 15th anniversary), this kind of thing is what has kept this site and press running all this time.  :-D

New Technology for Books!

A new technology has emerged that makes e-books obsolete.  This new format, called "paper," not only makes screen glare a thing of the past, but it completely eliminates the need to recharge or replace batteries.  Paper books come in slim volumes that can easily be stored upon a shelf or table.  Books made from paper can be produced in different sizes or with different textures of material and have no limitation on the artistic design options.  Paper books can be black-and-white, full-color, or a mixture of the two, depending only on the needs of the material with no worries over whether the presentation will be compatible with the reader's screen device.  Don't get left behind, join the revolution and buy a paper book today!

http://boutique.PoetsHaven.com

Upcoming Book Releases

A few folks have started asking me about what books are in the queue, now that Poet's Haven is working from a queue instead of a set schedule.  :-)  So here's some confirmed titles:

"Letter to 20" by Alexis-Rueal (February 1, 2013)
"Like Michelangelo Sorta Said" by Steve Brightman (March 15, 2013)
"Zombies: Haiku in Four Acts" by Joshua Gage (May 17, 2013)
"Back\words & For/words" by Lori Ann Kusterbeck
"It Takes More Than Chance to Make Change" by John Burroughs
"Inside the Walls of a Blackened Book" by A.J. Huffman
"Walking Down Euclid" by Marlana-Patrice Pugh Hamer
"Fractured Blossoms Still Bloom" by Steve Thomas
"A Knight's Quest" by Matthew Fitzgerald, illustrated by Arianna Cheree
"Vanity Pressing" by Vertigo Xi'an Xavier

One more book has been accepted but is pending author confirmation.  (That's the problem with having the open submission call in March and not finishing reading all the manuscripts until December.)  Three additional manuscripts are being reviewed and considered at this time.

I should probably explain something... When I say we're not working from a set schedule, I mean that the frequency books will be released is not on a schedule.  Books will still have scheduled release dates.  The three books you see with release dates marked above correspond with the authors being featured poets at First Friday or Stardust Poetry shows. :-)

At this time The Poet's Haven is not openly accepting unsolicited chapbook manuscripts, however we are open to chapbook proposals. If you would like to submit a chapbook proposal, use the "Contact Publisher" link and send an e-mail through the form.  Tell me who you are, describe the chapbook, and send a sample of the material (about four or five pages worth, a few poems or the first chapter).  If it grabs my attention and I'm anxious to read more, I will send you a message soliciting the full manuscript for consideration.


UPDATED 1/5/2013:  One of the two books pending when this list was originally posted has now been confirmed.

Big Announcements, Re: Live Events in 2013

A number of important announcements were made at last night's First Friday Poetry Spectacular:

• While the Coffee Phix Cafe (and Phoenix Coffee before that) has been a wonderful place for our Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven shows, December 15th's event will be the last.  I am consolidating The Poet's Haven's operations, and will be focusing on our Canton shows, which are closer to my home.  This isn't the end of poetry at the Coffee Phix, however, as several other poetry promoters are looking at doing shows there and we do still plan to have one or two Lake Effect Poetry events there this year.
• The First Friday Poetry Spectacular will be leaving the downtown Canton arts district.  Beginning January 4th, the show will take place at Karma Cafe (4339 Dressler Road NW Canton, OH).  While this unfortunately means the show will no longer be part of the Canton First Friday festival, it does give the show a home at the same location each month.
• Last night's First Friday Poetry Spectacular will be the final show with poetry slam prize money provided by Arts in Stark.  Thank you to Arts in Stark, Robb Hankins, Tricia Ostertag, and former AiS staffers Sarah Shumaker and Marci Saling for all their help and support keeping this series going for the three years that The Poet's Haven has operated it, as well as the three years prior to that when the show was managed by Carla Thompson and Jacob King.
• We are seeking sponsors for the poetry slam!  Any local business that would be interested in sponsoring the slam, please contact me.  Slam prize sponsorship can be something so simple as a $25 gift card for your business.
• Lake Effect Poetry's Women of the World Poetry Slam final will be held at January 4th's First Friday Poetry Spectacular at Karma Cafe.  This show will also be Lake Effect's first NPS team qualifier.  As we normally do, the open-mic will be held first.  Then we will have the open slam, which will be both LEP's NPS qualifier AND the WOWPS last-chance-qualifier.  Points will be awarded to all participants in the slam for LEP's NPS team rankings.  The top scoring female poet in the slam who is not already qualified will also win entry into Lake Effect's WOWPS final.  The WOWPS final will take place at the end of the show.  It will be three rounds.  Women who will be competing in both slams should have at least four poems prepared, as a no-repeat rule will be in effect.  (Depending on the size of our non-competing audience, we may have some of the same judges for both slams.)
• The Stardust Poetry show will be moving to the third Friday of the month, starting January 18th.  This places both of Canton's big poetry events in the same venue and on the same night of the week, every other week (with a stray fifth-week thrown in every quarter or so).  (This schedule also leaves second Fridays free for the Deep Cleveland Poetry Hour and fourth Fridays free for the Root-N-Slam series.)
•  As previously announced, The Poet's Haven will be abandoning the strict bi-monthly publishing schedule we've worked under for the past two years, and will instead simply work from a publishing queue.  Book releases may take place at the First Friday Poetry Spectacular, at Stardust Poetry, or at any of the many other poetry shows that take place here in north-east Ohio.
•  Podcast releases will resume whenever I have time to get another batch done.  Sorry, folks, I had every intention of releasing new shows every other week for the rest of the year, but there's this annoying thing called "real life" that got in my way.  Consider the twelve Poet's Haven presents... shows released earlier this year to be "Season One."  "Season Two" is in the works.
• With the Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven shows retiring, we will now be recording the features at Stardust Poetry for eventual podcasting.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something that needed to be announced.  :-P

Also, a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has supported this year's Poetic Provisions food-drive!  While the collection weight isn't in yet (we will still be collecting donations at December 14th's Deep Cleveland Poetry Hour and December 15th's Saturday Night With The Poet's Haven), we've far surpassed last year's total.