Our 2018 Ohioana Book Award and Pushcart Prize Nominations

It's so hard for me to choose from among the many excellent works Crisis Chronicles Press has published recently. I love them all, and each book has one or more pieces I think supremely worthy of an award. I came close to having to flip a coin before making my ultimate decision. But here we go:

Pushcart Prize nominees (from books we published in 2017):

• "America, Land of the Brittle" - a poem by George Wallace, from Oct Tongue 2
• "The Black Between Stars" - a nine-senryu sequence by Elliot Nicely, from The Black Between Stars
• "Crystal" - a poem by Meg Harris, from Inquiry into Loneliness
• "Houglass Studies" - a twelve-part poem by Krysia Jopek, from Hourglass Studies
• "Jane in Her Business Suit" - a poem by John Greiner, from Turnstile Burlesque
• "Love Letters" - a poem by Victor Clevenger, from Sandpaper Lovin'

2018 Ohioana Book Award nominees (from Ohio-related books/authors we published in 2016-2017):

• Diary of a Feminist Thug, Volume I: His[tories] of Her Land by Lyz Bly (co-published by Crisis Chronicles and Guide to Kulchur Books)
• The Black Between Stars by Elliot Nicely
• Scraping the Sky by Luba Gawur
• Age of Aquarius: Collected Poems 1981-2016 by Dianne Borsenik
• Fractured Fairy Tales by William Merricle
• Special Watch by Richard M. O'Donnell

Good luck, everyone!

Our Pushcart Prize and Ohioana Book Award Nominees

I love everything we publish in various ways, so it's always hard to choose what to nominate for this prize or that.  In 2015 alone, Crisis Chronicles Press will have published seventeen books (three of them forthcoming) including hundreds of poems.  First I narrowed down my potential Pushcart Prize nominees for this year to a couple dozen favorite poems.  But I can only nominate six. I then spent hours more mulling before I finally forced myself to make some hard decisions.

So here they are, our nominees for the next Pushcart Prize.

"Creepy Dolls" by Kevin Ridgeway, from Contents Under Pressure
"Deadtime" by Susan Sheppard, from Balefire
"Let's Get It On" by Dianne Borsenik, from Thunderclap Amen
"Poem for Christian O'Keeffe" by John Dorsey, from Ghost on the Inside
"The Road" by Michael Ceraolo, from Readings / The Road
"The Fine Line of Beautiful Living" by Tracie Morell from Matilda's Battle Waltz

We've also nominated Alex Gildzen's Ohio Triangle for an Ohioana Book Award.

Good luck to you all!
John Burroughs, editor
Crisis Chronicles Press