Cheap and Easy Magazine, volume 1 - by various authors (CC#44)

Crisis Chronicles Press is thrilled to announce the late but worth-the wait publication of Cheap and Easy Magazine, volume 1 on 22 November 2013. This decidedly lo-fi, raw art over gloss production, edited by Hon. Jugborn Airbrush, features 42 pages of writing and images by William E. Berger, Dianne Borsenik, Julie-Marie Bristol, C.M. Brooks, Chansonette Buck, Shelley Chernin, Wanda Morrow Clevenger, Roxy Contin, C.O. Dauber, Lee Dish, John Dorsey, Giselle Force, Alex Gildzen, Michael Grover, Hermes F. Hernandez, Meribeth Hutto, Chuck Joy, Lady, Geoffrey A. Landis, Chris Mansel, Gail Mansel, MaryAnn McCarra-Fitzpatrick, Alex Nielsen, Jay Passer, Siddartha Beth Pierce, Misti Rainwater-Lites, Sparkplug O’Shea, Séan M. Poole, Dave Roskos, Heather Ann Schmidt, Steven B. Smith, Merritt Waldon, R.A. Washington, Kathleen Whelan, A.D. Winans and Beverly Zeimer. Get yours for the decidedly lo-ball price of $5 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44134 USA.

The critics speak (though they've not yet read it):

"This is prime masturbation fodder."
— William Shake Spear

"I'll force feed Cheap and Easy to George Bilgere if you pay me $500."
— Bill E. Collins

"I'd rather lick the sweat from Bukowski's balls than read this."
— Haight R. Poet

"I did not have sex with that book."
— President Bill Clinton

"Quit listening to the critics. Buy the book and make up your own mind."
— Hon. Jugborn Airbrush


Click here to rate Cheap and Easy at Goodreads.
Click here to like Cheap and Easy on Facebook.

Red Hibiscus - by Heather Ann Schmidt (CC#36)

Cover art by Heather Ann Schmidt

Spring comes early at Crisis Chronicles Press as Heather Ann Schmidt's long awaited Red Hibiscus blossoms into print on New Year's Day 2013!  Red Hibiscus is 26 pages, handbound with care, 8.5 x 5.5", inkjet printed, featuring a saddle stapled pale coral card stock cover with deep grape endpapers and white pages.  Contents include "Song for Lilith," "Ode to a Pablo Neruda Nude," "Ghazal of the Night," "Neorealism on the Streets of Birmingham," "Duende in a Black Dress," "Ganymede ," "French Quarter Tryst" and much more.  Around 70 copies in print.  Available for $7 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44143 USA.

Click here to read "Ganymede" from Red Hibiscus in Pirene's Fountain.
Click here to read "French Quarter Tryst" from Red Hibiscus in the Crisis Chronicles.
Click here to see ratings of Red Hibiscus at Goodreads.

Heather Ann Schmidt received her MFA from National University and has taught writing for a number of higher learning institutions.  A fine singer and visual artist, she also edits the tinfoildresses poetry journal and is the founding editor of Recycled Karma Press.  Her previous books include Batik (NightBallet Press, 2012), Transient Angels (Crisis Chronicles 2011), On Recalling Life Through the Eye of the Needle (Village Green, 2011), Channeling Isadora Duncan (Gold Wake, 2009) and The Bat's Love Song: American Haiku (Crisis Chronicles, 2009).

Transient Angels - by Heather Ann Schmidt (CC#9)

Published on 1 May 2011, Transient Angels by Heather Ann Schmidt is Crisis Chronicles' first perfect bound book (I've home-printed and handbound all of our previous titles).  Highlights include "Mermaids in a Band-Aid Box," "On Contemplating My Mother's Passing," "Simone de Beauvoir's Letters" and "Collecting Enlightenment in a Paper Cup."  Transient Angels features 33 poems on 38 pages.  9" x 6".  Approximately 60 copies in print.  Cover art by Heather Ann Schmidt, design by editor John Burroughs.  Available for $9.99 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Ohio 44143 USA.

Also available as an e-book for $5 if you click here.

 

Nuns 
[from Transient Angels]

At seven
all I knew about nuns
was Katie said they were
married to God.
I saw them when
we went to her parish in the summer
and sang songs and took the holy sacraments.

I never thought about them again
until I was nine and my mother
shared a room with Sister Josephine
at the sanitarium.
She sent notes on stationery
that had the scent of her powder
on the paper.
I carried them, deep
creased, in my pocket.

I remember
how she tried to give me her things
and she seemed so sleepy,
the empty bottle of phenobarbital.
The paramedics and my aunt
raised their voices
for her to open the door
and the door opened,
her lifeless body face down.

I went from house to house,
a chain of paper dolls.

I wondered sometimes if I married God too...

She laid in bed for 32 days
waiting for angels to take her away
in the white sun dress she wore
when my father peeled her arms
off his chest.
Hysteria flooding,
hammers falling all over her body.

Maybe I should have been more conscious that day.

The sky had a cutout
in the shape of where she stood.
I walked through that colorless hole
to find her.

Closed window. Closed heart.

I remember when she came back,
the month John Lennon was killed.
I looked out my bedroom window
down at the slush on the street.

* * *
Heather Ann Schmidt received her MFA from National University and has taught writing for a number of higher learning institutions.  A fine singer and visual artist, she also edits the tinfoildresses poetry journal and is the founding editor of Recycled Karma Press.  Her other books include Chagall's Cat (Poehemian Press, 2014), Red Hibiscus (Crisis Chronicles 2013), Batik (NightBallet, 2012), On Recalling Life Through the Eye of the Needle (Village Green, 2011), Channeling Isadora Duncan (Gold Wake, 2009) and The Bat's Love Song: American Haiku (Crisis Chronicles, 2009).

Fuck Poetry - by 40 authors (CC#7) - OUT OF PRINT

I've called it an anthology, a periodical, and other less polite names, but I'm still not sure what it is exactly.  I do know, however, what's in it.  Fuck Poetry includes 70-some works by 40 poets from across the globe (with probably half of them from northern Ohio).  I'm very excited about it!  And it is finally available 15 March 2011 from Crisis Chronicles Press. 

I especially appreciate the patience of the contributors, at least one of whom submitted his poems as far back as 2008, when the project was barely a sperm cell in my mind sac.  Fuck Poetry features words by (in quasi-alphabetical order) Susan Amethyst, Sarah Black, Dianne Borsenik, Bree, Christina Brooks, Geri Lynne Burroughs, John Burroughs, Patricia Carragon, John Dorsey, DubbleX, Kevin Eberhardt, Mike Finley, Herb Fuerst, Maria Gornell, Sammy Greenspan, Charles Hice, Roxanne Hoffman, Colin James, Lady K, Joy Leftow, Yannis Livadas, David McLean, Jennifer Napier, Puma Perl, Jen Pezzo, Dan Provost, Misti Rainwater-Lites, rjs, Suzanne Savickas, Teleri Schakel, Heather Ann Schmidt, Helen Shepard, Dan Smith, Steven B. Smith, Willie Smith, Don Stabler, Cheryl Townsend, Lisa Vicious, Chocolate Waters, and Linnea Waters.

Fuck Poetry is approximately 50 pages, 8.5" x 11", inkjet printed on white paper and staple bound using yellow and black card stock and black duct tape.  Design, cover photo, inner collage and hand ink stamps by editor John Burroughs.  50 copies in print.  As of 24 May 2014 I only have one left (I was out until Mom died and I got her copy back). I'm not eager to part with it, but I will do so (and include a bunch of other other titles with it) to the next person who donates $300 to Crisis Chronicles Press (and helps us fund our next publication).

Thank you for supporting independent presses!

The Bat's Love Song: American Haiku - by Heather Ann Schmidt (CC#6)

The Bat's Love Song: American Haiku by Heather Ann Schmidt was published by Crisis Chronicles Press on 1 December 2009.

     Selections:

     March 20

     Three golden finches
     sing in the white birch trees:
     pieces of sunshine.


     June 25

     Rain on my roof:
     tears of a goddess leaving the
     world heavier now.
 

The Bat's Love Song: American Haiku is available for $5 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 535 Parkside Boulevard, Ohio 44143 USA.  You may also order securely through PayPal:
 

The Bat's Love Song: American Haiku consists of 43 poems on 16 pages.  Injket printed on lavender paper and saddle staple bound using pale gray cover stock.  Cover art also by Heather Ann Schmidt.  Approximately 110 copies in print.

Click here to see reviews of The Bat's Love Song at Goodreads.
Click here to see a clip of Heather Ann Schmidt reading her poetry, including selections from The Bat's Love Song, during the Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza in Lakewood, Ohio.

Poet's biography (as of 2009, from the chapbook):
 
"Heather Ann Schmidt is an adjunct professor at Oakland Community College in Michigan. She edits tinfoildresses poetry journal. Her poems can be found in various online and print journals. Her other books include Channeling Isadora Duncan (Gold Wake Press, 2009), The Owl & the Muse: Collected Tanka (recycled karma press, 2009) and a full collection of poems forthcoming from Village Green Press.  She received her MFA from National University."

Crisis Chronicles subsequently published (or will publish) three more collections of Heather's poems: Transient Angels (2012), Red Hibiscus (2013) and Field Notes (forthcoming, 2014).