Arroyo Chamisa: Poems Rescued from a Blog - by Alex Gildzen (CC#116)

Crisis Chronicles Press is thrilled to announce the publication of Alex Gildzen's latest collection, Arroyo Chamisa: poems rescued from a blog, on March 4th 2022.

Arroyo Chamisa is 76 pages, perfect bound, 6x6". ISBN: 978-1-64092-954-8. Front cover photo by the author. Available now for only $10 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44143 USA.

 

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"Alex Gildzen was one of the first poets' blogs i found & read with great appreciation & gusto.  here was a poet with a gift for vernacular, a wit to match his cinematic range, & an obsession with movies that played upon my own heart.  i've long been a great admirer of Alex ever since those giddy early days of blogging when social media held the promise of uniting poets & creating a community of writers who, in their own unique ways, were dedicated to making & living a life in poetry.  Alex Gildzen is a poet with a life well-lived in poetry & at the movies.  his poems frequent the daily ordinary hard tasks of being a human being in our digital age, along with the practical importance of friendships, art making, family, technology, & the greats of Hollywood past & present.   Alex Gildzen is one of my very favorite poets & human beings.  as he says in a poem, 'go to the movies / you're alive.'"
     —Richard Lopez, co-editor of the anthology The End of the World Project

"Alex Gildzen is a master of his craft, unearthing beauty from the ordinary and celebrity from the common. Nowhere is this more evident than in Arroyo Chamisa: poems rescued from a blog. From the dark atomic whimsy of “swim thru the sea of night little swimmer” to the pure joy of living well in “I call the 3 palms / beside the pool / the Andrews Sisters,” Gildzen’s poetry grooves with the universal and vibrates with the intensely personal. This is an expedition you won’t want to miss."
     —Dianne Borsenik, author of Raga for What Comes Next and Publisher/Editor, NightBallet Press

Alex Gildzen saw his first poem in print 60 years ago. The first of many chapbooks followed in 1969. His poems have been published in Canada, England, France, Germany, Greece and Australia. He has given readings at Bowery Poetry Club, Palm Springs Art Museum, Bisbee Poetry Festival, Captain Brady in Kent, Fort Mason in San Francisco, Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, Antebellum Gallery in Hollywood and a plethora of bars. Currently Gildzen lives in Palm Springs where he has been called the city’s “unofficial poet laureate.” A piece of his is featured on the Poet’s Bench in the uptown design district.

His previous Crisis Chronicles Press titles include Ohio Triangle and Alex in Movieland (1943-1973).

Alex in Movieland (1943-1973) - by Alex Gildzen (CC#111)

[April 2023 update: To celebrate Alex's 80th birthday this month,
Alex in Movieland is now in its second printing!]

Crisis Chronicles Press was honored and ecstatic to celebrate Valentine's Day 2020 with the publication of Alex in Movieland (1943-1973), a major work by one of our favorite writers and artists, Alex Gildzen.

Alex in Movieland is a monumental work defying easy categorization. It is memoir, list, poetry, history and more, all in one, reading like a movie of the author's life in book form, replete with juicy detail. This new volume is 150 pages, perfect bound, 5.5 x 8.5". ISBN: 978-1-64092-947-0. Front cover art by the author. Available now for only $12 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44143 USA.

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Click here to read a 2009 Otoliths interview with Gildzen wherein he talks about the origins and evolution of Alex in Movieland, which he began writing in 1996 and is still writing. Our new Crisis Chronicles volume is the first time the entire first thirty years of it have appeared in print. 

Alex Gildzen lives in Palm Springs where he writes every day. In the past year his poems have appeared in the anthologies "Love Jets" and "The End of the World Project." He also makes art — from collages to conceptual pieces such as "The Century Dimes" and "Box of Little Bags." In addition he's become a model — with and without clothes — for artists and photographers.

Drinking From What I Once Wore: Selected and Recent Poems - by Chris Stroffolino (CC#103)

Crisis Chronicles Press is ecstatic to announce the publication of Chris Stroffolino's long-awaited new book, Drinking From What I Once Wore: Selected and Recent Poems.

Drinking From What I Once Wore is 6x9" perfect bound, over 100 pages, and features cover art by Rachel Thoele.  ISBN: 978-1-64092-970-8. This volume features 49 works including "Cusps," "The Dart of the Eel," "First World Problems," "Variations of 21st Century Pop Songs," "2 Dramatic $onnets for the Con$umer $ociety," "Commercial Interruptions," and the Pushcart Prize nominated "Questions for Google Home."

Where are you?

United States $12.00 USD Elsewhere $15.00 USD

Available for $12 US from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Blvd., Cleveland, Ohio 44143 USA.

Love for Chris Stroffolino and Drinking From What I Once Wore: 

"Maybe all life is preparing for 'The test/ We can only pass if we waste no time/ thinking we can study for it.' If so, Chris Stroffolino's carelessly brilliant poems would be as invaluable as cliff notes. In any case they come in handy."  

—John Ashbery, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

"There is no line of thought in [Stroffolino’s] poetry that can’t or doesn’t kick out a set of veins pumping blood to and from the dramatic qualities of its existence or an inverted conversion of the optimal antidote to its own fiercely depicted frailties. Chris has fought in his writing for a poetry that is intimate, musical, invested equally in Shakespeare & Joe Strummer and intensely personal without giving up the demand of rhetoric to be a necessity of passion rather than a muted counterbalance. His new book varies the tempo and carries these things through.  

—Anselm Berrigan, author of Something for Everybody

Chris Stroffolino
photo by Jaime Borschuk

"Edgy and hip."  

—Noelle Kocot, author of Phantom Pains of Madness

Chris Stroffolino is the author of 4 full-length books of poetry, as well as the memoir Death of a Selfish Altruist, two books of essays in poetry and culture criticism and, with Dave Rosenthal, a study guide to Shakespeare’s 12th Night. He currently lives in Oakland, California, where he has taught writing at Laney College since 2008.

Meet the Author:

3/14/2019 (7:30 pm) - Chris Stroffolino and Friends at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, California 94704.

Snap - by Dion N. Farquhar (CC#93)

Crisis Chronicles Press is thrilled to announce the publication of Snap, a powerful new series of poems by Dion N. Farquhar.

"Snap by Dion Farquhar is a terse, dense, quick moving book of verse. Lines draw you forward, make your pulse quicken. On occasion there is an eye-opening gut punch that makes you stop and think... Snap. Therefore an appropriate title for a tough little poetry book. Highly recommended."
     —Christina Brooks, author of  A Thousand Voices: A City Shaman's Notebook

Only $7 US. Available 31 August 2017 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44143 USA.

Where Do You Want It?

United States $7.00 USD Elsewhere $10.00 USD

28 pp. 5.5" x 8.5". Perfect bound. Cover photo by the author. Contents include "Chronic Edge," "Humanities 2.0," "Break," "Difference Within," "Path," "Contingency," "Branded," "Lost," "Unsustainable," "Loopy," "Zuccotti Park," "New Year" and "Climate Change." ISBN: 978-1-940996-44-8.

Find Snap on Goodreads.

Dion Farquhar has recent poems in Birds Piled Loosely, Local Nomad, Columbia Poetry Review, Shampoo, moria, Shifter, BlazeVOX, etc. Her second poetry book Wonderful Terrible was published by Main Street Rag Publishing Company in 2013, and her second chapbook Just Kidding is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. She works as an exploited adjunct at two universities, teaching mostly composition, but still loves the classroom.

Under My Dark - by Lana Bella (CC#81)

Crisis Chronicles Press is very pleased to announce the publication of Under My Dark by Lana Bella. This is the latest release in our NineSense series of 9-poem chapbooks by writers you need to read. This chapbook is currently out of print.

Lana's writing is uniquely beautiful.  Highlights of Under My Dark include "The House of Wrinkled Bones," "A Violet Rain" "The Trumpet Man," "A Night in Harlem" and the title poem. This chapbook is available beginning 17 March 2016 for only $4.99 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 3431 George Avenue, Parma, Ohio 44134 USA.

 

 

 

 

Under My Dark is hand assembled, saddle stapled, bound with white cover stock, black card stock end papers and ivory parchment pages. Cover photo by Steven Smith. 8.5 x 5.5". Laser printed. ISBN: 978-1-940996-33-2. Limited 1st edition of 99 copies.

A Pushcart nominee, Lana Bella is an author of two chapbooks (her second is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press). She has had her poetry and fiction featured in over 180 journals, including Chiron Review, Coe Review, Columbia Journal, Elohi Gadugi, Foundling Review, Fourth & Sycamore, Galway Review, Gravel Review, Literary Orphans, Lost Coast Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, Poetry Quarterly, Roanoke Review and Sentinel Quarterly. She resides in the US and in the coastal town of Nha Trang, Vietnam, where she is a mom of two far-too-clever frolicsome imps.   

Find her at facebook.com/niaallanpoe.

Contents Under Pressure - by Kevin Ridgeway (CC#73)

Kevin Ridgeway's new poetry chapbook, Contents Under Pressure, took me on a Kerouacian trip through broken appliances, drunken charades, fallen angels, kissing couples, hip-high grasses, mind fucks and sinister grooves with a keen eye and ear. When it was done, all I could say was "Amen!"— and "Again!" So I had to publish it.

Available 22 October 2015, Contents Under Pressure features 16 poems on 28 pages, is hand assembled and saddle stitch bound with textured ivory card stock cover, kelly green card stock end papers and white pages. 5.5 x 8.5". Cover image by Steven B. Smith.
 

ISBN: 978-1-940996-25-7. This chapbook is currently out of print.

Kevin Ridgeway lives and writes in Long Beach, California. His work has been published widely in the small press, with recent poems that can be found or are forthcoming in Chiron Review, Nerve Cowboy, Lummox, San Pedro River Review, Misfit Magazine, Right Hand Pointing, Bicycle Review, American Mustard and The Mas Tequila Review, among others. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Contents Under Pressure is his sixth chapbook of poetry.

Be Closer for My Burn - by Robin Wyatt Dunn (CC#64)

Cover photo by Steven B. Smith

Crisis Chronicles Press is pleased to announce the publication of Robin Wyatt Dunn's Be Closer for My Burn in January 2015.  It is the first release in our new NineSense series of loaded nine poem chapbooks by authors whose work you should know, if you don't already.

Choose U.S. or International

US Orders $4.99 USD International $6.99 USD

Available for only $4.99 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44143 USA.

Be Closer for My Burn is 8.5 x 5.5", hand bound and saddle stapled.  Pale gray card stock cover. Red card stock endpapers.

Steven Smith, author of Unruly, says, "Just read Robin Wyatt Dunn's Be Closer for My Burn ... very nice, nine short whaps. Think I like the NineSense series idea."

Print run: 99 copies.  ISBN: 978-1-940996-15-8.

Robin Wyatt Dunn writes and teaches in Los Angeles. This is his fourth chapbook, and the first with an actual print run.

The Night Market - by D.R. Wagner (CC#60)

Art by ReBecca Gozion

Crisis Chronicles Press is thrilled to announce the imminent publication of the legendary D.R. Wagner's new book, The Night Market.  I love everything we've ever published, but if anything can be called the jewel in the Crisis Chronicles crown, this book is it.  Perfect bound, 140 pages, with D.R.'s poetry accompanied by ReBecca Gozion's cover and interior art. In my opinion this is the book of the year.

“I would guess I’ve been reading the poetry of D.R. Wagner for about 15 years now and one of the things that has always struck me is his seemingly effortless ability to blend both classical and modern literary styles and come out on the other side with something completely his own. The pieces in The Night Market offer a glimpse into the ever-changing landscape of his dreams, his heart placed bare on a snow covered rock at dusk, stealing its revolutions back from the sun, bathing in an ethereal river of emotion that will surely leave you breathless, I promise you.”  -John Dorsey, Author of Tombstone Factory.

D.R. Wagner's The Night Market is only $14.99 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44143 USA.

We also made the first 26 copies of THE NIGHT MARKET available in a special lettered edition signed by D.R. Wagner and ReBecca Gozion. The special edition is sold out.

Photo of D.R. Wagner by Glenda Drew

ISBN: 978-1-940996-05-9

Click here to rate The Night Market at Goodreads.

For more details about the official release party for D.R. Wagner's The Night Market on August 16th 2014 at the Moon Cafe in Locke, California, please see the poster below.

Thank you for supporting the independent literary arts!

D.R. Wagner is the author of over twenty books and chapbooks of poetry and letters. He founded press : today : niagara in Niagara Falls, New York, in 1965 and later Runcible Spoon (press) in the late 1960’s and produced over fifty magazines and chapbooks. He co-wrote The Egyptian Stroboscope with d.a. levy in the late 1960’s. He read with Jim Morrison of the Doors in a legendary reading with Morrison and Michael McClure. and has read with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Al Winans, Viola Weinberg, d.a. levy, E.R. Baxter III, Ed Sanders, Anne Waldman and many, many other poets over the past 40 years. 

His work is much published and has appeared in numerous translations. He has exhibited visual poetry with the likes of William Burroughs, Byron Gysin, Ian Hamilton Finlay, bpNichol, bill bissett, J.F. Bory and John Furnival in venues ranging from The Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, at the Louvre to the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. 

He is also a visual artist, producing miniature needle-made tapestries that have been exhibited internationally and are included in numerous publications and museum collections. He is, further, a professional musician, working as a singer-songwriter and playing guitar and keyboards. 

Teaching Design at the University of California at Davis since 1988, he also teaches in the Honors program at the University conducting classes in Poetry by Design. He continues to design interior carpeting and tapestry as well as write, perform and publish poetry regularly.

He currently lives in Locke, California.

desire lines - by Chansonette Buck (CC#22)

cover photo by Steven B. Smith in Oaxaca

Crisis Chronicles Press published desire lines by Chansonette Buck on 22 April 2012 (also the author's birthday).  One of our finest chapbooks yet, desire lines features 17 poems on high quality ivory paper, quirkily hand assembled and saddle staple bound using white and ashen orange card stocks.  9 x 7".  Approximately 150 total copies in print.  2nd edition published 28 June 2013.  desire lines is available for $6 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44143 USA.

 
 

 

Poems/interview:

Click here to read "science project, pocatello" from desire lines in the Crisis Chronicles.
Click here to read the bath poem "moon train" from desire lines in the Crisis Chronicles.
Click here to hear an interview with the author and reading from desire lines, originally broadcast by KRFP, Radio Free Moscow.

Reviews:

Click here to read a review of desire lines at Amazon.
Click here to see reviews and ratings of desire lines at Goodreads.

Buck in Lorain, Ohio - photo by Dianne Borsenik

Poet's bio (as of 2012, from the chapbook):
Chansonette Buck spent her childhood “on the road” as stepdaughter of a Black Mountain poet, living all over the American West, in England, and in Spain. She holds the PhD in English from the University of California, Berkeley, where she concentrated on 20th-century poetry and poetics and wrote a dissertation on childhood trauma as the source of William Carlos Williams's poetic obsessions. She has a BFA in painting from Massachusetts College of Art, and has won awards for her visual art, her poetry, and her teaching. Chapters of her memoir Unnecessary Turns: Growing Up Beat have appeared in Why We Ride: Women Writers on the Horses in Their Lives (Seal Press, May 2010) and Polarity eMagazine (Fall 2010). Her poems have appeared online and in print, including a feature in the journal tinfoildresses 2012. Her first chapbook, blood oranges (NightBallet Press, 2011), was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She lives in Berkeley with her family, her boa constrictor, and way too many cats and dogs.

Only Human by Definition - by Jay Passer (CC#18)

Only Human by Definition is a collection of 18 poems by Jay Passer.  This 20-page chapbook is hand-assembled and saddle staple bound using high quality mauve card stock, gray endpapers, inkjet printed on white pages.  8.5 x 5.5". Published on 6 February 2012.  Around 100 copies in print.  Cover foto by Steven B. Smith, manipulated by John Burroughs. Available for $6 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44143 USA.

"Jay Passer has been writing poems and fiction for the littles for twenty four years. This is his seventh chapbook of work about cohabitation with bums, whores and addicts in cities up and down the west coast. Startling, perverse, and absolutely original, Jay's work will entertain a wide array of readers and deep thinkers. Jay currently resides in a spartan shithole in Sacramento."  —Brian Pinsker

"I love my friend [Brian] but I think this is a bit overstated, a bit raw, a bit inaccurate, and a whole lot inappropriate. Perhaps he was too far on the box wine."  —Jay Passer

"Passer's poetry is the wine.  I'm passing it around at my next last supper." —Jesus Crisis
 
Sample poems/reviews:

Click here to read "Chorus Line Up" from Only Human by Definition in the Crisis Chronicles litmag.
Click here to read "The Paving of the Garden" from Only Human by Definition in the litmag.
Click here to read a review of Only Human by Definition at Poet Hound.
Click here to see ratings of Only Human by Definition at Goodreads.

Poet's bio (from the chapbook):

A cook by trade, poet by nature and vagabond at heart, Jay Passer doesn't own a car but enjoys driving fast.  Born in San Francisco in 1965.  Loves cats but is allergic to them. His first 3 chapbooks were published by the now defunct OuterDark Press in Seattle, his 4th by Piss Pour Press. His 5th and 6th are e-chaps, available at Poetry Superhighway and Ten Pages Press.

Click here to contact Mr. Passer.