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. 

This Year's Crisis Chronicles Press Pushcart Prize Nominations

Crisis Chronicles Press has had the honor of publishing many excellent books by very talented poets this year. Alas, the Pushcart people only allow us to make six nominations. I would have preferred to have chosen twenty, as there were so many worthy candidates. But after some lengthy and very difficult deliberations, I finally narrowed down the field and submitted the following Pushcart Prize nominations:

"Serving"
by Kari Gunter-Seymour — from Serving (March 2018)

"Eclipse Myths"
by Steven B. Smith — from Where Never Was Already Is (April 2018)

"William Randolph Hearst, Diving Alone, San Simeon"
by Christine Howey — from Citizen of Metropolis (August 2018)

"Afterlife"
by Rikki Santer — from Dodge, Tuck, Roll (September 2018)

"assembly line doll head roach motel"
by Juliet Cook — from Malformed Confetti (October 2018)

"Questions for Google Home"
by Chris Stroffolino — from Drinking From What I Once Wore: Selected and Recent Poems (December 2018)

Best of luck to all of you!

Citizen of Metropolis - by Christine Howey (CC#99)

Crisis Chronicles Press is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated publication of Christine Howey's newest poetry collection, Citizen of Metropolis.

"Christine Howey’s unique brand of conversational poetry blooms brightly in Citizen of Metropolis. Like a bee nuzzling flower after flower, I found myself buzzing from poem to poem, delighted to find tales of poems with wires showing, visitors from another world, reasons to sit, and babies in treetops. Howey asks questions we’d never think to ask, and then answers them, twinkle in her eye, with penetrating wit." 
—Dianne Borsenik, editor/publisher NightBallet Press, author of Age of Aquarius

Citizen of Metropolis is 32 pages, perfect bound, 6x9", featuring cover art by Steven B. Smith, and available beginning 2 August 2018 for $7 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Blvd, Cleveland, Ohio 44143 USA.  Add $2 for domestic shipping.

Where Do You Want It?

United States $7.00 USD Elsewhere $10.00 USD

Nominated for an Ohioana Book Award, this volume features 19 poems including "Citizen of Metropolis"; "I Don’t Like This Title"; "Things That Make Me Sit"; "Satisfaction"; "Rock-A-Bye Baby"; "One Second"; "My Muse Eats Cheetos"; "Destination Vacation"; "Meals"; "Losing It at Age 73"; "Edward Hopper, Motivational Speaker"; "An Evening Out"; "Beowulf at Breakfast"; "I Want to Write a Poem with the Wires Showing"; "My Grandson on a Sled"; "Taking Bryn, Age 7, to MOMA"; "There are Parts of My Body I No Longer Encourage People to Handle Freely"; Weather Report"; and "William Randolph Hearst, Diving Alone, San Simeon." ISBN: 978-1-64092-971-5.

Listen to Marcia Epstein's recent podcast featuring Christine Howey at Talk with ME.

Christine Howey is an actor, director, theater critic and performance poet. She was the Poet Laureate of Cleveland Heights, Ohio for 2016-2018. Her one-person stage play of poetry about her transgender journey, Exact Change, was turned into a feature film. As a play, it premiered at Cleveland Public Theatre and was an official selection of the 2015 New York International Fringe Festival. The film was an official selection of the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival in 2018. Christine has had four books of poetry published. She is also a slam poet and competed in the National Poetry Slams, in 2013 and 2017, as a member of the four-person Cleveland team. Since 2002, Christine has been the theater critic for Cleveland Scene and she also posts reviews on her blog, Rave and Pan. She has been named Best Critic in Ohio by both the Press Club of Cleveland and the Society of Professional Journalists. Christine was awarded a Creative Workforce Fellowship in 2014 from the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture, and an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council in 2016, which also granted her a 13-week residency at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. She was honored to receive the Illumination Award as the transgender leader of the year in northeast Ohio for 2015, and the Torch Award for leadership on transgender issues from the Cleveland chapter of the Human Rights Campaign in 2017.

Forthcoming in 2018 from Crisis Chronicles Press (and subscription info)

Smith collage from Where Never Was Already Is

In 2018 I plan to publish twelve books by writers/artists whose work I have long admired. Many of these have been in the works for quite some time, and I am looking forward to finally midwifing them into print. All of them will be perfect bound. Some do not yet have finalized titles, but here are the dozen in no particular order:

Serving, poems by Kari Gunter-Seymour

Awaiting Time, poems by Helen Shepard

Malformed Confetti, poems by Juliet Cook

not yet titled, poems by Christopher Franke

Where Never Was Already Is, poems and collages by Steven B. Smith 

Ode to Horatio and Other Saviors, poems and photos by Carolyn Srygley-Moore

Drinking from What I Once Wore, poems by Chris Stroffolino

ouroboros, poems by Chansonette Buck and art by Jillian Mardin

Before the Next Ice Age, poems by Lisa J. Cihlar

Citizen of Metropolis, poems by Christine Howey

not yet titled, poems by Julie Ursem Marchand

a super surprise book to be announced later

Where Are You?

In the USA $100.00 USD Elsewhere $125.00 USD

Order all twelve in advance for $100, which will (1) save you $20 off the projected retail price, (2) get you an immediate bonus shipment of three recently published [2017] Crisis Chronicles Press publications, and (3) get you free shipping on all of the above.  Fifteen fabulous books in all!

Click the Buy Now button or send a check for $100 to Crisis Chronicles Press, 3431 George Avenue, Parma, Ohio 44134 USA. Please add $25 if you're ordering from outside the United States.