Swallow Review 27 Feb 2010, 6:33 pm

JoSelle Vanderhooft at The Pedestal Magazine wrote a very complimentary review of Jendi Reiter’s Swallow .

Yippee!

Flip Kelly Poetry Prize 2009 Winners 17 Feb 2010, 1:38 pm

February 17, 2010

Dear Readers;

2009 marked the second year for the Flip Kelly Poetry Prize at Amsterdam Press.  Many people have expressed that 2009 was a "bad year" and there is a general spirit of hopefulness that 2010 (twenty-ten!) will be better.  Our 2009 was full of just as many rough spots as the next guy, but we suffered them rightly, and came out better for it.  We tightened up our editorial staff.  We became overwhelmed.  We fell behind when our editor had a terrible car accident.  We are still behind, but we are catching up.  Our books, our writers, and Plain Spoke received some great reviews and recognition.  We learned a bit about time management and accounting and all those things that make a small press sink or swim, and we’re still swimming.

Now we’re getting ready to release the rest of the books that should have been published at the end of 2009.  Keep an eye out for them in our Etsy shop (http://amsterdampress.etsy.com ) .

While that news is exciting (especially for the authors of those books, who have been incredibly patient throughout the publishing process and the multiple delays we experienced last year), we do have some other news to share with you all:

Our judge, Jim Danger Coppoc, has given us the names of the 2009 Flip Kelly Poetry Prize winners.  Here is a little bit about him:

Jim Coppoc makes his living through some murky but evolving balance of poetry, pedagogy, playwriting and performance. He teaches in the Department of English and the American Indian Studies Program at Iowa State University, and in the low-residency MFA in Writing program at Chatham University. Current and forthcoming books include Blood, Sex & Prayer (Fractal Edge Press); Bearing the Pall (One Small Bird Press); Reliquary (Fractal Edge Press); Manhattan Beatitude, 1997 (One Small Bird Press); Tribal Ways of Knowing and Being: a Pedagogy Reader (Mammoth Publications); Second Run, Volume I (Second Run Press); and Council Fires: a Digital Sourcebook for American Indian Studies (National Social Science Press).

The winning chapbook for the Flip Kelly Poetry Prize 2009 is:

"Beyond the Pale" by Rebecca van Laer.

She Liked to Pack Herself into Boxes
from "Beyond the Pale" by Rebecca van Laer

Think of pill cataloguers:
Monday through Sunday cylinders,
but on a grand scale.

Alphabetically organized holidays,
banners and lawn decorations that matched
the porch cushions. Cosmetics
labeled by decade and proper use:
evening, day, intense. The garden

at the left, well groomed English,
the one in the back with color-coded produce,
iris marching out across the lawn,
weeds composted weekly.

It helped her keep track: the six pairs
of reading glasses in one of four
wicker baskets, formal dinnerware
never chipped, Home Decorator’s
starred articles at her fingertips.

—But lids bulged above folded wool skirts,
weather fought with the lawn furniture.
The jam-packed Sunday through
Monday couldn’t hold. Black

hair dye bin went empty for months
on end, roots grayed, red white
and blue ribbons stayed
on the mailbox through September.

The attic filled up with remnants:
discount biscotti, shoes
too large, months
late birthday cards tucked in the folds
of once used lace tablecloths.

She receives an honorarium of $150, and her book will be published in the Gob Pile Chapbook Series.  The second and third place winners will also receive an offer of publication.

Second Place:  "Women and Other Hostages" by Laura McCullough
Third Place:  "The Oldest Stone in the World" by Tom Holmes

Mr. Coppoc also recognized the following manuscripts as finalists:

Ken Chau–"26 Strawberries for Mr. Promise"
Jonathan Harrington–"Lift up the Stone"
Andrew Rihn–"The Roads of Suburbia"
Jeanine Stevens–"What the World Provides"
Corey Mesler–"Home"
Jane Ellen Glasser–"On the Corner of Yesterday"
Kenneth Pobo–"Open Cages"

Every poet who entered the contest will receive a year’s subscription to Plain Spoke, the literary magazine at Amsterdam Press.

Our sincere thanks to everyone who supports our literary endeavors,

Cindy M. Kelly and the Editorial Staff at Amsterdam Press

Questions, concerns, and comments can be directed to editor-AT-amsterdampress.net

Review of Exit Wounds on Outsider Writers 2 Sep 2009, 8:31 pm

Outsider Writers did a fabulous write-up on Kevin Finn’s new book, Exit Wounds.

Read it here.

A Greening 26 Aug 2009, 12:11 am

We’ve been long overdue for a website overhaul (Or a new, custom, lovely wordpress makeover), and one of the things that we would like to make more prominent in the new design (hopefully by Spring) is our dedication to being green.

Just how green are we?  Let us count the ways:

• We fold every single page of every chapbook and magazine by hand, with bone folders, saving electricity.
• We print on recycled paper.  We love Genesis SMART papers because it’s beautiful and it feels nice.  We want our books to have a nice hand.  We also love that the paper is 100% PCW.  We try as best we can to only use 100% PCW because no matter how sustainable, using something that’s been used before is better than making new.  When we must use other paper because of cost or necessity, we make sure that we aren’t harming ancient forests and that the company is committed to sustainability before we buy.
• We do not do harmful, glossy coatings.
• We hand bind everything, saving energy.
• We print our text pages on a refurbished Xerox Workcentre M20, 600 DPI, and our toner and drum units are recycled with Xerox’s Green World Supplies Recycling Program. When we are able to afford it, we’re going to move to a solid ink technology machine, which will reduce our carbon footprint even more.
• We are always looking for new ways to improve our commitment to sustainability.  Contact us if you have any suggestions or questions.

Cracks and Slats 25 Aug 2009, 11:47 pm

We have been looking for places that accept chapbooks for review recently, and during that hunt, we ran across two places that reviewed Mark Jackley’s Cracks & Slats. The Poetry Blog for Lilliput said that the Gob Pile Chapbook Series is “pertly named” and Tonopah Review called Jackley’s poetry a “kick in the kidneys.”

What a pleasant surprise.

2nd Annual Flip Kelly Poetry Prize Judge Announcement 7 Aug 2009, 10:45 pm

Jim Coppoc will judge the Flip Kelly Poetry Prize 2009.

From his website:

“Jim Coppoc is an award-winning writer, teacher and performer; author of two books and three chapbooks of poetry, a blended-genre lyric memoir, and several plays; editor of Second Run Magazine (www.secondrun.org); Owner/Director of Ames Artspace; and a Lecturer both in the English Department at Iowa State University and in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Chatham University.  Coppoc lives in Ames, Iowa and wherever he happens to be on tour.”

We are pleased and honored that he has agreed to judge for us.

2008 Flip Kelly Poetry Prize Winners Announced 13 Feb 2009, 1:33 pm

Jendi Reiter has been selected as the recipient of the 2008 Flip Kelly Poetry Prize by judge Bob King for her chapbook Swallow. 

For his chapbook Animals and Imagined Monsters, Michael E. Burczynski has been selected as the 2^nd place winner. 

The 3^rd place winner is Judson Simmons for his chapbook The Hallelujah Hour. 

The Flip Kelly Poetry Prize for a single poem has been awarded to Charles Israel Jr.’s “VFW Night.” The poem is from his chapbook Stacking Weather. 

These titles will be available from Amsterdam Press as part of the 2009 Gob Pile Chapbook Series. 

We thank everyone who entered the contest in its first year.  All entrants receive a year’s subscription to Plain Spoke (www.plainspoke.net).  All winners and entrants will receive separate communication within the next few days.  

Baby, It’s Cold Outside 19 Jan 2009, 5:53 pm

We’re living through the Ohs and Belows, but good things are happening. 

Bob King is working on judging the Flip Kelly Poetry Prize, and the winners will be announced very soon.  

The 2008 Gob Pile Chapbook Series is close to going to print, so those will be available for purchase shortly.  You can preorder yours at our Amsterdam Press Etsy Shop.  

Titles include: 

• Alex Stolis’ How to Drink Yourself Sober
• Michael Campagnoli’s Penobscot Voices:  Kikukus
• Corey Mesler’s Grit
• and Mark Jackley’s Cracks and Slats

We’re planning on taking the next two weeks to catch up on all of these projects, and then start responding to submissions for upcoming issues of Plain Spoke.  We’ve gotten a little behind on that.  

Good news, though! We just heard back from Buffalo Small Press Book Fair, and we’ve been accepted into the show.  So we’ll be there March 21, 2009.  For more information on the show, check out the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair Website.  

2008 Gob Pile Chapbook Series 28 Aug 2008, 1:07 pm

We are happy to announce our first four chapbooks in the Gob Pile Chapbook Series. These chaps will be out in November, but we will be announcing a pre-order soon.

Chaps:

Alex Stolis’ How to Drink Yourself Sober

Cory Mesler’s Grit

Michael Campagnoli’s Kikukus

Mark Jackley’s Cracks and Slats

Editors for the series: Cindy Kelly and Laura Wackerly. Reader: Shaun Barcalow.

Three more chapbooks should be coming out in December, as a result of the Flip Kelly Poetry Prize. If you haven’t checked out the submission guidelines for this contest, you should. It’s got one of the lowest entry fees around (only $15), and you get a year’s subscription to Plain Spoke (a $24 value!) for free.

Everybody likes free.