Recent (ish) Chapbooks

In the wake of the recent release of the iPad, we started thinking about some of the low-tech wonders that are supposedly being left behind.

Even though SPD no longer carries chapbook-only presses, and even though these ephemeral objects now make up a smaller portion of our catalog than they used to, they very much remain a beloved and enduring symbol of what makes small press publishing a unique venture.

Below are some of our recent favorites.  In case you're wondering, we are here defining "chapbook" as having no room on the spine to print words.

 
14000 Facts Cover
 
 14000 FACTS
by Norma Cole
...untitled, delicate,
delightful poems...
 
 
Barf Manifesto Cover
 
BARF MANIFESTO
by Dodie Bellamy
...two talks on Barf...
 
 
(Soma)tic Midge Book Cover
 
(SOMA)TIC MIDGE
by CA Conrad
...seven poems,
seven colors...
 
 
TED BERRIGAN
by Bill Berkson &
George Schneeman
...an homage produced
in real-time...
 
 
THE PINK
 by Kyle Schlesinger
"There are plenty
of rivers in the sea /
But you can't step
on the same fish twice."
 
 
APOLOGY FOR THE BOOK
OF CREATURES
 by Dan Beachy-Quick
... obscure knowledge, illustrated plates...

 
 
 
EULOGIES
by Elizabeth Soto
...a beautiful elegy and examination ...
 
 
 
FAROUT_LIBRARY_SOFTWARE
by Maged Zaher and Pam Brown
"...This collaboration came about... due to the absence of a poem..."
 
 
 
 FLAT WITH NO KEY
by Rosmarie and Keith Waldrop
"...poems of a third poet, whose name and gender and origin we do not know..."
 
 
TRAIN I RIDE
by Kit Robinson
"...a meditation on reading, writing, rhythm and tempo..."
 
 
 
 
 
 NO BLUES THIS RAUCOUS SONG
by Lynn Wagner
...as fresh and succulent
as a cut pear...
 
 
 
 
 
SING FOR YOUR SUPPER: A DIY GUIDE TO PLAYING MUSIC, WRITING SONGS, AND BOOKING YOUR OWN GIGS
by David Rovics
...rock stardom demystified...
 
 
 THE LAST HUNTING OF THE LIZOPARD
by Alan Halsey &
David Annwn
"...a unique contribution to the urodelic literature..."
 
 
 
THREE POEMS
AFTER IMAGES BY NANCY TOBIN
by Jerome Rothenberg
"...a mutual celebration of
the familiar and familial..."
 
 
 
 
POEMS IN CONVERSATION AND A CONVERSATION
by Elizabeth Alexander & Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon
"...the intensity of their gazes gives way to speech..."
 
 
LACK LYRICS
by Jay Millar
  ...all sorts of things you wish you could say, but can't. a kind of punk rock poetics...
 
 
 
 HOT WAX,
OR, PSYCHE'S DRIP
by Jed Rasula
...a long poem germinated
in the toreador momentum
of the Dark Reagan Era...cybernetics...porn...
 
 
 
TRANS/VERSIONS
by Tom Clark
...translations of or homages to Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarme, Reverdy, Vallejo, and Brecht...
 
 
LEARNING TO DRAW: IN THE FIELD WHERE DAFFODILS GROW
by Basil King
... the autobiography of a painting...

 

The Putterer's Notebook Book Cover
   
 
THE PUTTERER'S NOTEBOOK
by Akilah Oliver
...part of an ongoing
series of historico-political note-taking...

 

 

 
ANTIPHONAL
by Patrick Pritchett
"..the ontological is a proposition..."
 
 
 
 
 
 
LEAVE ME HIDDEN
by Franz Wright
...a description of the struggle with the demons associated with following in the lineage of a great poet..
 
TIME SLIPS RIGHT
BEFORE YOUR EYES
by Erica Hunt
"...politically astute, bodily-located, unpredictable language..." 
 
 
 
 
 
QUISITE MOMENT
 by Anne Portugal
"...exercise in aphaeresis..." 
 
 
 

 

The Gloucester Sonnets Book Cover
 
    THE GLOUCESTER SONNETS OF DECEMBER 1973
by John Clarke
...scholarly and sexy...

 

 
Cloud Studies Book Cover
 
CLOUD STUDIES: TWENTY POEMS FROM PAWTRACKS
by Tim McNulty
...a voice for the power and beauty of Northwest landscapes...
 
 
 
New Year's an elegy for Rilke cover
 
 
  NEW YEAR'S: AN ELEGY FOR RILKE
by Marina Tsvetaeva
trans. Mary Jane White
...Arts & Letters,
letterpressed..

 

New Arrivals

The Last Selchie Child
Jane Yolen

Kino
Jurgen Fauth

For Out of the Heart Proceed
Jensen Beach

Though I Haven't Been to Baghdad
Margaret Rozga

This Beautiful Place
Tankred Dorst

The Books to Come
Alan Loney