The Poetry Box

Poetry Book Launch

The Poeming Pigeon: In-Person Book Launch (Nov 13)–Cancelled

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Sunday, Nov 13, 2022
2:00-3:30 pm

The Poeming Pigeon:
(Issue #12)
Book Launch

 

STAY TUNED FOR AN UPDATE ON RESCHEDULED EVENT

at

Rose City Book Pub
1329 NE Fremont St.
Portland, Oregon

Featured readers include:

Connie Soper • Amelia Díaz Ettinger • Emmett Wheatfall • Leanne Grabel • Anne Richardson • Rebecca Smolen • Melanie Green • Joann Renee Boswell • Eileen McGurn • Jone Rush MacCulloch • Sue Fagalde Lick • M. F. McAuliffe • Dale Champlin • Ann Farley

Everyone welcome to attend and share the love.

Books will be available at the event or you can also order copies of the book HERE

The Poetry Box LIVE (Nov 13, 2021)

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thePoetryBoxLIVE_FB_November

The Poetry Box LIVE – November Edition

November 13, 2021@ 4:00 PM (Pacific) / 7:00 PM (Eastern)

November Featured Poets:

  • Laura LeHew (Oregon) – author of DEAR JOHN—
  • Kristin J. Leonard (Maine) – author of THE NINETIETH DAY
  • Christopher & Angelo Luna (Washington) – author of EXCHANGING WISDOM

Enjoy a Video from the Show:

 

ABOUT THE POETS 

Cover-Front-DearJohn

AuthorPhoto of Laura LeHew headshot (by Dean Davis)
cr: Dean Davis

Former girl scout Laura LeHew is enthralled by negative spaces. Her collections include: Buyer’s Remorse (Tiger’s Eye Press—Infinities) poems on abuse; Let Widows be Widows (Unsolicited Press—forthcoming) themed around the elegiac; Becoming (Another New Calligraphy) a non-linear discourse on alcoholism & dementia; Willingly Would I Burn, (MoonPath Press) math & science; It’s Always Night, It Always Rains (Winterhawk Press) murder/noir; and Beauty (Tiger’s Eye Press) fairy tales.

In her alternate life Laura has been active in the high-tech industry for over thirty-five years. Her company Deer Run Associates provides Computer Forensic investigations & Information Security consulting services working with law enforcement & commercial organizations on some of the largest and most high-profile cybercrime cases in recent years.

Laura received her MFA from the California College of the Arts. She is on the steering committee for the Lane Literary Guild and facilitates the 1st & 3rd critique group. Laura held various positions for the Oregon Poetry Association. She co-hosted a reading series, Poetry for the People. Recent residencies include Hypatia-in-the-Wood & PLAYA. Laura owns/edits Uttered Chaos, a small press which publishes books of poetry.

Order Laura’s book HERE

Front Cover of The Ninetieth Day

photo of Kristin J. Leonard

Kristin J. Leonard is an adjunct college instructor that resides in Maine. She is a proud mother (of both children and chihuahuas) and looks forward to summer vacation, when she’ll finally have the opportunity to dig in her garden. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from University of Southern Maine, an MA in English (Literature), and a Graduate Certificate in Rhetoric, Writing, & Digital Media Studies from Northern Arizona University, where she is also completing doctoral studies in Education.

Her critical and creative work have appeared in The Explicator, The Atlantic, Postcolonial Text, The Ekphrastic Review, and more. She is the 2019 recipient of the Maine Literary Award for Drama, the 2019 recipient of Meetinghouse Theatre Lab’s Maine Playwright’s Award, and Lit Fest’s 2019 Dramatic Writing Fellow for Emerging Writers. She is currently working on yet another revision of her first novel, an historical fiction that takes place during the housing crash of 2007. On most mornings, she can be found typing away at her kitchen table, still struggling to find the right word.

Order Kristin’s new book HERE

CoverFront-ExchangingWisdom

Christopher Luna is a poet, editor, teacher, writing coach and collage artist. He served as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Clark County from 2013-2017. Luna has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and is the co-founder, with Toni Lumbrazo Luna, of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press for Northwest writers. He founded the popular LGBTQ+ friendly, all ages and uncensored Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in Vancouver, WA, in 2004. Christopher Luna’s books include Message from the Vessel in a Dream (Flowstone Press, 2018), Brutal Glints of Moonlight, and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978.

Christopher believes that the parent-child power dynamic is inherently fascist, so he endeavored to raise his son to think for himself, question authority, and make his own decisions. He respected his son’s humanity enough to trust him to be responsible, to “allow” him his autonomy. Despite what some saw as tragic indulgence, Angelo grew up to be a sweet, kind, polite, philosophical, compassionate young man who will surely accomplish things his father could not. Christopher could not imagine being more proud of the person Angelo became.

Angelo Luna is a poet, son, and LEGO connoisseur. Originally from New York, with a migration to Washington as a young child, he grew up with a fiery bloodline and cold weather. Currently employed as a teller for Wells Fargo, he loves writing, working, and finance and is interested in what every human has to offer.

Order their book HERE

The Poetry Box LIVE (Oct 9, 2021)

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Book Launch Celebration

for

The Poeming Pigeon: From Pandemic to Protest

October 9, 2021 @ 4:00 PM (Pacific) / 7:00 PM (Eastern)

 

Enjoy Our Video from the Show:

Featuring 30 poets from across the country share their poems from this powerful issue:

    • Dee Allen
    • Tiel Aisha Ansari
    • David Belmont
    • J V Birch
    • Joann Renee Boswell
    • Erika B. Girard
    • Joanne Godley
    • Suzy Harris
    • Hadley Hutton
    • Marilyn Johnston
    • J.I. Kleinberg
    • Elizabeth Kuelbs
    • Lynda La Rose
    • Bethany Lee
    • Rebecca K. Leet

    • Sherri Hope Levine
    • M. F. McAuliffe
    • Eileen McGurn
    • Carter McKenzie
    • Angie Minkin
    • Annie Klier Newcomer
    • Alan Perry
    • Jennifer Pratt-Walter
    • Anne Rankin
    • Sandra Rivers-Gill
    • Joel Savishinsky
    • JoAnna Scandiffio
    • Deborah Bachels Schmidt
    • Merna Dyer Skinner
    • Phillip Wilson

 

front book cover of The Poeming Pigeon: From Pandemic to Protest

 

THE POEMING PIGEON

FROM PANDEMIC TO PROTEST

When the world came to a stop, poets picked up their pens. From a global pandemic to the Black Lives Matter protests; from a highly contested election to murder hornets; and from devastating wildfires to deadly disasters, these poems not only share the truth of what we endured, they reveal the heartbreak, frustration, and anger, tempered by our resiliency and hope for a better tomorrow.

The Poeming Pigeon: From Pandemic to Protest is available to order HERE:

 

 

The Poetry Box LIVE (Sept 11, 2021)

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Graphic (full) for The Poetry Box LIVE--Sept 2021

The Poetry Box LIVE – September Edition

September 11, 2021@ 4:00 PM (Pacific) / 7:00 PM (Eastern)

Enjoy a Video from the Show:

September Featured Poets:

  • Elizabeth S.E. McBride (Michigan) – author of MOST BEAUTIFUL
  • Susan Coultrap-McQuin (Minnesota) – author of WHAT WE BRING HOME
  • Marcia B. Loughran (New York) – author of SONGS FROM THE BACK-IN-THE-BACK

 

ABOUT THE POETS 

CoverFront-MostBeautiful

Elizabeth S.E. McBride’s poetry is often an experience of walking in this world as a careful and curious observer—the natural result of her reverence for the wonders of creation and those with whom it is shared. Her poetry can be seen in the following literary journals and publications: Dunes Review, Louisiana Literature, Third Wednesday, Red River Review, Seeding the Snow, Scintilla, Poetry Breakfast, and Peninsula Poets.           

Order Beth’s book HERE

Front Book Cover fo What We Bring Home

cr: David McQuin

Susan Coultrap-McQuin loves the challenge of writing poems that invite readers to see the world in new ways —from the smallest leaf to the largest cities. Her poems have appeared in journals such as Talking Stick, The Moccasin, Songs of Eretz Poetry Review, and in recent pandemic anthologies, including Capsule Stories Isolation Edition, The ACCC Pandemic Arts Journal, and This Was 2020. She has also exhibited poems in libraries, art galleries, and parks in Minnesota where she now lives. What We Bring Home is her first chapbook.

Susan grew up in a Chicago suburb, has lived in the Philippines, England, and Germany, and has traveled throughout the US as well as to almost fifty countries. As a professor and administrator at universities in Minnesota and New York, Susan published two books on women writers, co-edited an anthology on feminist ethics, and wrote articles on women’s studies and higher education. She has served on a variety of regional and national boards related to literacy and higher education. Currently she volunteers with a local arts organization and coordinates their annual poetry contest. Susan is married with two grown children and three grandchildren, who inspire her to see the world in ever-new ways.

Order Susan’s new book HERE

AuthorPHoto
cr: Cam Sanders

Marcia B. Loughran received an MFA in Creative Writing from the Bennington Writing Seminars in 2013. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Verdad, Spoon River Poetry Review and elsewhere. Marcia’s two prize-winning chapbooks, Still Life with Weather and “My Mother Never Died Before” and Other Poems are available either at her website, through The Poetry Box or on a huge conglomerate website whose name shall remain nameless. Marcia reads her work in bars, bookstores and black-box theaters in New York City and the Catskills. She is a nurse practitioner and proud resident of Queens, NY.

Order Marcia’s book HERE

The Poetry Box LIVE (Aug 14, 2021)

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The Poetry Box LIVE graphic for August 2021 show (created by Robert R. Sanders)

The Poetry Box LIVE – August Edition

August 14, 2021@ 4:00 PM (Pacific) / 7:00 PM (Eastern)

Enjoy a Video from the Show:

August Featured Poets:

  • Gary Percesepe (New York) – author of GASLIGHT OPERA
  • Don Badgley (New York) – author of WHAT IS NOT A MIRACLE
  • Carolyn Martin (Oregon) – author of CATALOG OF SMALL CONTENTMENTS

 

ABOUT THE POETS 

CoverFront-WhatIsNotaMiracleAuthorPhoto-DonBadgley(byMichaelGold)

Don Badgley is a lifetime resident of the Hudson Valley in New York State. Raised in a rural setting in a Quaker family Don is married and the father of two grown daughters. He remains active with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and is the presiding clerk of his local Quaker meeting in Poughkeepsie, NY. He continues his now 35-year career as an insurance agent.

Don was encouraged to write poetry by his father and has been writing since his youth. What Is Not a Miracle is his first published collection.

Order Don’s book HERE

Carolyn Martin photo
Photo by Robert R. Sanders

 

From associate professor of English to management trainer to retiree, Carolyn Martin has journeyed from New Jersey to Oregon to discover Douglas firs, months of rain, and dry summers. After years of writing academic papers and business books, she discovered that poetry is the way her mind interacts with the world—in images, rhythms, sounds, and intensities of language. So she’s settled into the joyful challenge of translating experience into as few words as possible and making those experiences accessible to her readers.

Martin prides herself on flashes of humor that light up her poems. Her intention is to begin and end poems with delight and throw in splashes of wisdom along the way. Add her penchant for musicality and obsession with unusual words, she crafts poems that are surprising and satisfying.

Her poems have appeared in more than 130 journals and anthologies throughout North America, Australia, and the UK. Her fourth poetry collection, A Penchant for Masquerades, was released by Unsolicited Press in 2019, and her first chapbook, Nothing More to Lose, by The Poetry Box in 2020.

She currently serves as poetry editor of Kosmos Quarterly: journal for global transformation. Find out more at carolynmartinpoet.com.

Order Carolyn’s new book HERE

CoverFront-Gaslight_Opera(web)

Gary Percesepe photo
cr. Resea Burns

Gary Percesepe is the author of a new poetry book, Gaslight Opera (The Poetry Box, 2021) plus eleven books, including Moratorium, a short story collection forthcoming from Atmosphere Press. He is Associate Editor at New World Writing (formerly Mississippi Review). Prior to that, he was an assistant fiction editor at Antioch Review. His work has appeared in Brevity, Story Quarterly, N + 1, The Greensboro Review, Wigleaf, Christian Century, Mississippi Review, New World Writing, Salon, Camera Obscura, Westchester Review, PANK, The Millions, Atticus Review, BULL, The Good Man Project, Word Riot, Necessary Fiction, Solstice, The Maine Review, Mercurius, and other places. He resides in White Plains, New York, and teaches philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx.

Order Gary’s book HERE

The Poetry Box LIVE (July 10, 2021)

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The Poetry Box LIVE – July Edition

July 10, 2021@ 4:00 PM (Pacific) / 7:00 PM (Eastern)

 

Enjoy a Video from the Show:

July Featured Poets:

  • Mary C. Florio (Florida) – author of THE FOG
  • Cynthia Gallaher (Illinois) – author of EPICUREAN ECSTASY
  • Meg Lindsay (Massachusetts) – author of NOTES FROM A CAREGIVER

 

ABOUT THE POETS 

Book Cover Epicurean Ecstasy by Cynthia GallaherCynthia Gallaher-Author, Epicurean Ecstasy

Cynthia Gallaher is author of three other full poetry collections: Earth Elegance, Swimmer’s Prayer and Night Ribbons, and three poetry chapbooks: Drenched: Poems About Liquids; Omnivore Odes: Poems About Food, Herbs and Spices; and Private, On Purpose. She also published the nonfiction memoir and reference Frugal Poets’ Guide to Life: How to Live a Poetic Life, Even If You Aren’t a Poet, which won a National Indie Excellence Award.

Gallaher appears on Chicago Public Library’s list of “Top Ten Requested Chicago Poets,” and was named one of “100 Women Making a Difference” by Today’s Chicago Woman magazine for her writing and ecological work. She has also received numerous grants from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Council.

Committed to the organic and sustainable foods movement, and a proponent of clean drinking water, Gallaher is a former officer on the board of directors of Illinois Consumers for Safe Food (a local affiliate of The Center for Science in the Public Interest) and has also served as a volunteer for Lake Michigan Federation’s (now the Alliance for the Great Lakes) Shorekeepers initiative and the Green Team of the Chicago Park District. She is also a certified yoga instructor and aromatherapist.

Order Cynthia’s book HERE

Front Cover of Notes from a Caregiver

A semi-finalist in two “Discovery”/The Nation Contests and a finalist in an Inkwell competition, Meg Lindsay has had poems published in Tricycle, Pivot, Salamander, Alimentum, Connecticut River Review, etc. and earned an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College.

Because she is also an established painter showing for decades in galleries and museums, her chapbook about the emotions and difficulties of painting, A Painter’s Night Journal, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2016.  Writers love to write about paintings, but most writers confine themselves to the subject matter of a painting, not the process, since after all most do not paint.

In her second chapbook, Notes from a Caregiver, the subject of her writing dramatically changed direction when her husband, an athlete never ill before, collapsed with cancer in his bones, multiple myeloma, that same year. She gained direct knowledge of what it means to be a caregiver, a different and extraordinarily difficult learning process from anything she had ever known before.

<www.meglindsayartist.com>

Order Meg’s book HERE

Mary C. Florio, author of The Fog, has been writing poetry for over 20 years. Early successes include second place in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Competition. In 2017, she was featured in Nasty Woman Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse. She has collaborated on two books with award-winning book artist Miriam Schaer: Cinderella, Ever After and The Posture Queen, and most recently was a finalist in the 2019 Palm Beach Poetry Festival’s ekphrastic poetry contest.

Order Mary’s book HERE

The Poetry Box LIVE (June 12, 2021)

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The Poetry Box LIVE – June Edition

June 12, 2021@ 4:00 PM (Pacific) / 7:00 PM (Eastern)

Enjoy the video from the show:

June Featured Poets:

  • Michelle Lerner (New Jersey) – author of PROTECTION
  • Sue Fagalde Lick (Oregon) – author of THE WIDOW AT THE PIANO
  • Sherry Rind (Washington) — author of BETWEEN STATES OF MATTER

 

ABOUT THE POETS 

Front Book Cover of Protection by Michelle Lerner (Cover Image by Robert R. Sanders)AuthorPhoto-Michelle Lerner

Michelle Lerner is a recovering public interest lawyer and cat herder. She’s currently raising a magpie-like child while emerging from the depths of late-stage chronic Lyme Disease, writing songs on a shiny new guitar, and unsuccessfully trying to establish a disciplined schedule to work on her poetry and fiction.

She received an MFA in poetry from The New School and her poetry manuscripts have been selected as finalist for The Poetry Box® Chapbook Prize and semifinalist for the 2018 Pamet River Prize and the 2020 Willow Run Poetry Book Award. Her individual poems have appeared in many journals and other fora, including VQR’s Instagram Series, Harvard Women’s Law Journal, Paterson Literary Review, Lips, Adanna, Knock, and Sixfold, as well as several anthologies.

Michelle recently became a writing mentor for We Are Not Numbers, a nonprofit that publishes the autobiographical stories of Palestinians living under occupation and in refugee camps. <wearenotnumbers.org>

Order Michelle’s book HERE

Cover-Front-The Widow at the Piano

Author Photo: Sue Fagalde Lick

Having escaped the newspaper business in Silicon Valley, Sue Fagalde Lick now lives on the Oregon coast, where she writes, does the singer-songwriter thing, walks her dog, and talks to herself. Her day job—until her pastor reads this book and excommunicates her—is directing the church choir at Sacred Heart Church in Newport. This job requires her to play the piano, sing, and direct the choir at the same time, so God should forgive a few wrong notes.

A native San Josean who earned a degree in journalism so she could make a living, she earned her MFA in creative writing at Antioch University at the age of 51. Sue has published her poetry and prose in various literary journals and come in second in more contests than she can count. Her previous books of prose include Stories Grandma Never Told: Portuguese Women in California, Childless by Marriage, and Up Beaver Creek. Last year, she published her first poetry chapbook, Gravel Road Ahead, which tells the story of her journey with her late husband Fred through Alzheimer’s disease. She blogs at www.childlessbymarriage.com and www.unleashedinoregon.com. Visit her website at www.suelick.com.

Order Sue’s book HERE

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Sherry Rind with Dog
Photograph by Jed Share

Granddaughter of immigrants, Sherry Rind takes her chances with poetry instead of crossing the Atlantic with a few biscochos by way of kosher food. She published her first poems when still in college. Earning her BA in a recession, she decided the only solution was to return to school, working as a teaching assistant and earning her MA in advanced writing. She taught writing at community colleges and for arts commissions, and worked in development and at miscellaneous other jobs, as writer do.

She received grants and awards from the Seattle and King County Arts Commissions, Pacific Northwest Writers, National Endowment for the Arts, and Artist Trust.  She edited two books about Airedale terriers and published numerous articles about parrots. She has published two chapbooks, The Whooping Crane Dance and A Natural History of Grief, runner-up for the Quentin R. Howard Chapbook Prize. Her books are The Hawk in the Back Yard, winner of the Anhinga award and published by Anhinga Press, and A Fall Out the Door, winner of the King County Arts Commission Publication Award and published by Confluence Press. She has always lived with multiple animals and knows she is one.

Order Sherry’s book HERE

The Poetry Box LIVE (May 8, 2021)

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The Poetry Box LIVE, Sat May 8th, 2021

The Poetry Box LIVE – May Edition

May 8, 2021@ 4:00 PM (Pacific) / 7:00 PM (Eastern)

Enjoy the video from the show:

 

May Featured Poets:

  • Julia Paul (Connecticut) – author of STARING DOWN THE TRACKS
  • Zeina Azzam (Virginia) – author of BAYNA BAYNA: IN-BETWEEN
  • Dianalee Velie (New Hampshire) – author of ITALIAN LESSON

 

ABOUT THE POETS 

CoverFront-StaringDownTheTracks

Julia Paul’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in literary journals, both national and international, including Comstock Review, New Mexico Review, Connecticut Review, Minerva Rising, Mom Egg Review and Radar Poetry, as well as several anthologies, including From Under the Bridges of America and Forgotten Women. Her collections include a chapbook, Staring Down the Tracks, (The Poetry Box, 2020)) and a book, Shook, (Grayson Books, 2018). Two of Julia’s poems were nominated in 2020 for Pushcart Prizes. She is president of Riverwood Poetry Series, a long-standing reading series in Hartford and an elder law attorney in Manchester, Connecticut.

Order Julia’s book HERE

Front Book Cover of Bayna Bayna: In-Between

Author Photo: Zeina Azzam

Zeina Azzam is a Palestinian American poet, writer, editor, and community activist.  She volunteers for organizations that promote Palestinian human rights and the civil rights of vulnerable communities in Alexandria, Virginia, where she lives.

Zeina currently works as publications editor for the think tank, Arab Center Washington DC. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Passager Journal, Pleiades Magazine, Cordite Poetry Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Mizna, Sukoon Magazine, Split This Rock, Heartwood Literary Magazine, Lunch Ticket, Barzakh: A Literary Magazine, The Fourth River, Infinite Rust, and the edited volumes Tales from Six Feet Apart, Bettering American Poetry, Making Mirrors: Writing/Righting by and for Refugees, Write Like You’re Alive, The Poeming Pigeon: Love Poems, The Poeming Pigeon: Pop Culture, Gaza Unsilenced, and Yellow as Turmeric, Fragrant as Cloves. With the poet Sharif Elmusa, Zeina co-translated 14 poems by Arab poets for the Fall 2019 issue of Loch Raven Review. She holds an M.A. in Arabic literature from Georgetown University and an M.A. in sociology from George Mason University.

Order Zeina’s book HERE

Dianalee Velie is the Poet Laureate of Newbury, New Hampshire where she lives and writes.  She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, and has a Master of Arts in Writing from Manhattanville College, where she has served as faculty advisor of Inkwell: A Literary Magazine. She has taught poetry, memoir, and short story at universities and colleges in New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire and in private workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her award-winning poetry and short stories have been published in hundreds of literary journals and many have been translated into Italian.

In the past, she enjoyed traveling to rural school systems in Vermont and New Hampshire teaching poetry for the Children’s Literacy Foundation. Her play, Mama Says, was directed by Daniel Quinn in a staged reading in New York City. She is the author of five books of poetry, Glass House, First Edition, The Many Roads to Paradise, The Alchemy of Desire, Ever After and a collection of short stories, Soul Proprietorship: Women in Search of Their Souls. She is a member of the National League of American Pen Women, the New England Poetry Club, the International Woman Writers Guild, the New Hampshire Poetry Society and founder of the John Hay Poetry Society.

Order Dianalee’s book HERE