Fragile - by Brandon Johnson (CC#124)

Crisis Chronicles Press is happy to announce the publication of Fragile, the debut collection of poetry by Ohio's own Brandon Johnson.

 

"Brandon Johnson’s poems explore emotional and physical pain—and the beauty that can be found in the midst of such pain. From bone fractures to dura mater, from grief and loneliness to love and dreams, Johnson reminds readers that hope is always within reach. Held together through clips of time, these poems move us forward and backward and forward again toward healing, toward light."
—Nicole Robinson, author of Without a Field Guide

 

Fragile is a 74-page, 5.5" x 8.5", perfect bound paperback with cover art by the author.  Shipping on 25 September 2023. ISBN 979-8-88596-997-0. Available for $10 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44143 USA. 

 

You may also order via Venmo (@jesuscrisis) or CashApp ($crisischronicles). Please add three dollars for shipping.

Brandon was born in 1995 in Cleveland, Ohio. At the age of two, he was adopted by the amazing Johnson family. He has always been fascinated by the fantastical world of comic books and mythology. Growing up, he often felt alone even though he was always around a caregiver or an adult. Through reading comics and other works of fiction, he was able to escape the confines of his physical body and let his imagination liberate his soul. He had a hard time accepting his disability and his physical appearance, leading to depression and self-isolation. Over the years, through writing and the creative arts, Brandon has learned to embrace his oddities. His poem "My Soul" has been featured in the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University's Traveling Stanzas.

The Wrest of the Worthwhile: Unselected, Uncollected and New Poems, 1983-2023 - by John Burroughs (CC#123)

The Wrest of the Worthwhile: Unselected, Uncollected and New Poems, 1983-2023 by U.S. National Beat Poet Laureate John Burroughs is a poetry book 40 years in the making.

Over 340 pages! Hundreds of poems, early and new, that did not appear in Rattle and Numb. Perfect paperback, 5.5" x 8.5". ISBN: 979-8-88596-991-8. Released by Far Queue Press (a one-off imprint of Crisis Chronicles) on 6 April 2023 at the Cuyahoga County Public Library's Self-Publishing Roundtable.

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In the U.S. $20.00 USD International $25.00 USD

Available for $25 (includes postage) from Crisis Chronicles Press,  535 Parkside Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44143. Venmo: @jesuscrisis. CashApp: $crisischronicles. Or meet John and pick it up at one of these upcoming events.

The Wrest of the Worthwhile is comprised of three sections:

Forth
The entirety of his two quickly-sold-out limited edition 2022 chapbooks, You Can't Trust It to Remain (originally published by Between Shadows Press) and Dogging Catastrophe (The Grind Stone), as well as revised/completed versions of the rest of his July 2022 poems from the Tupelo Press 30/30 project.

Back
Previously unselected poems from many of his earlier chapbooks (everything not already included in the 2019 volume Rattle and Numb: Selected and New Poems, 1992-2019, from Venetian Spider Press). Said chapbooks include Bloggerel (2008, Crisis Chronicles), 6/9: Improvisations in Dependence (2009, Crisis Chronicles), Electric Company (2011, Writing Knights, expanded in 2016), Water Works (2012, recycled karma press), The Eater of the Absurd (2012, NightBallet), Barry Merry Baloney (2012, Spare Change Press), Oct Tongue -1 (2014, Crisis Chronicles), Beat Attitude (2015, NightBallet), and Loss and Foundering (2018, NightBallet).

Back and Forth
Never-before seen new poems and forty years worth of uncollected poems from various online and print journals going all the way back to his 1983 high school litmag and up through March 2023.

Cover art: Animal Locomotion, plate 332, by Eadweard Muybridge [1887] (Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington).

John Burroughs of Cleveland is the U.S. National Beat Poet Laureate for 2022-2023. A widely touring writer and performer, Burroughs previously served for two years as Ohio's Beat Poet Laureate. His previous books include Rattle & Numb: Selected & New Poems, 1992-2019 [2019, Venetian Spider Press] and The Eater of the Absurd [2012, NightBallet Press]. Since 2008, Burroughs has served as the founding editor and publisher for Crisis Chronicles Press.

Pocatello Wildflower - by John Dorsey (CC#122)

Crisis Chronicles Press is thrilled to announce the publication of our second title of the year, Pocatello Wildflower by John Dorsey. Pocatello Wildflower is a monumental sequence of around 350 original poems created by Dorsey through a process of erasure using selected works by undersung Idaho poets as source material. 

 

Pocatello Wildflower is c. 380 pages, 4.25" x 7", perfect bound paperback with cover art by Elena Samarsky.  Shipping on 14 February 2023. ISBN 979-8-88596-992-5. Available for $15 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44143 USA.

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In the U.S. $15.00 USD International $22.00 USD

 

John Dorsey lived for several years in Toledo, Ohio. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including Teaching the Dead to Sing: The Outlaw's Prayer (Rose of Sharon Press, 2006), Sodomy is a City in New Jersey (American Mettle Books, 2010), Tombstone Factory, (Epic Rites Press, 2013), Appalachian Frankenstein (GTK Press, 2015) Being the Fire (Tangerine Press, 2016), Shoot the Messenger (Red Flag Poetry, 2017), Your Daughter's Country (Blue Horse Press, 2019), Which Way to the River: Selected Poems 2016-2020 (OAC Books, 2020), Afterlife Karaoke (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2021) and Sundown at the Redneck Carnival (Spartan Press, 2022). His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and the Stanley Hanks Memorial Poetry Prize. He was the winner of the 2019 Terri Award given out at the Poetry Rendezvous. You may reach him at archerevans@yahoo.com.

I Have a Poem About That - by Christine Howey (CC#121)

We at Crisis Chronicles Press are ecstatic to announce the publication of our first title of 2023, I Have a Poem About That by the amazing Christine Howey. It's always a joy and privilege to work with her.

I Have a Poem About That is 36 pp, 6 x 9", perfect bound, with cover art by Jessie Herzfeld. ISBN 979-8-88596-993-2. Available for $10 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44143 USA.

Christine Howey’s newest book, I Have a Poem About That, contains what is undoubtedly some of her best work. As you read these poems, you are introduced to Howey’s unique takes on such diverse topics as jazz, gender, Viet Nam, the questioning of authority, and the afterlife. In the poem “My Words Are Too Big Today,” she reveals The sun is hanging in the / threadbare blue sky like a broken button. In “When We Die We Become Birds,” she considers Just as God’s gift to us, before death, / is the vodka martini, his postmortem gift / is to turn us into birds. While some of the pieces quietly reflect and fondly reminisce, most of them grab you by the shirt collar and jerk you close enough to feel the spit.
    —Dianne Borsenik, author of Raga for What Comes Next, publisher at NightBallet Press

This volume features 23 poems, including "When We Die We Become Birds," "My Skiff," "Camus at Camp," "A Meeting of Suburban Deer," "Eternity on Elm Street," "Inside Out," "Invert at the Gem Saloon, Deadwood, South Dakota, 1876," "My Name Is John Doe," "Mount Everest," "Paul Desmond's Slot Machine," "Ten Ill-Conceived Kitchen Gadgets," "Maybe I Should Have Told Different Lies," "After I'm Gone," "Blueberries, Summer, 1944," "The Last One," "The Road Oft Taken," "Sign of the Cross," "A Bubble-Off Romance," "The Birds and the Bees," "The History of Television," "The Universal Usage Guide," "An Ode to Richard Howie," and "My Words Are Too Big Today."

 

Christine Howey is a performance poet and former executive director of Literary Cleveland. Her one-person play of poetry about her transgender journey, Exact Change, premiered at Cleveland Public Theatre and was selected by the New York International Fringe Festival. A film version of the play was an official selection of the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival. 

Christine has also been an award-winning theater critic in Cleveland for 25 years, currently with Cleveland Scene. She was named Transgender Leader of the Year in Northeast Ohio and received the Torch Award from the Human Rights Campaign for leadership on transgender issues.