Medusa's Kitchen: Itty Bitty Books

Friday, June 24, 2005

Itty Bitty Books

Alternative publishers continue to look for ways to get books into the hands of readers inexpensively, and the 3-1/2" by 4-1/4" size is a popular alternative. Ben Hiatt's ShirtPocket Series comes to mind. The Book Collector has an appealing display of Richard Hansen's 24th Street Irregular Press and Lummox books in that size. I toy with the idea myself, sometimes, for poets whose format is small.

A few poetry journals have taken to that format, as well, choosing the small poem to fit. One of these is Lilliput Review; another is Silt Reader, co-edited by our local Robert Roden. Another, Brevities, is by local poet/editor Joyce Odam. Brevities (also at The Book Collector) is a monthly journal that is already in its 28th issue. Send Joyce 3-5 poems, SASE: 2432 48th Av., Sacramento, CA 95822. Good things can, indeed, come in small packages; the small size allows Joyce to be able to afford fancy papers for inserts, for example. Here is a sample Joyce-poem from the latest issue. (Hey—it's another frog poem!)

ORNAMENTAL FROG
—Joyce Odam, Sacramento, CA

In a small green sink-jar
filled with water and
gray river stones
I keep
an old glass frog
with one foot missing—
happy there,
I think.

_________________________

Pick these up at The Book Collector.

Next Monday, the weekly Sac. Poetry Center series will feature members of the SPC Tuesday night workshop at HQ, 25th and R, Sac., 7:30pm. And if you missed Robbie's reading last night at Luna's, well, darn. It was awesome!

—Medusa

FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE~

Area journals to check out:

•••Brevities, the wee monthly published by Joyce Odam, seeks submissions of the proper size. Write to Joyce at joyceofwords@gmail.com for info.

•••Tule Review from Sac. Poetry Center: www.sacramentopoetrycenter.com

•••Canary, an environmental poetry journal, is ed. by Gail Entrekin, at www.canarylitmag.org

•••Ginosko; see GinoskoLiteraryJournal.com

•••Song of San Joaquin: www.chaparralpoets.org/SSJsubmissionGuide.html

For more journals, scroll down past this green box to the blue box below it, then keep scrolling past the calendar info to "Hot, Hot Journals Full of Hot, Hot Poetry!".

THE REST OF THE B-BOARD! Enter at your own risk; NorCal poetry is SMOKIN'!

Watch Medusa's UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS page on a daily basis for what cooks in NorCal poetry! (Like everything else, it keeps on changing...) Other sites to check for poetry news and area events include: •••www.facebook.com/sacpoetry.center

•••SPC's Community Calendar of Lit. Events: www.facebook.com/groups/SPCgroup/?notif_t=group_name_change&notif_id=1468146125061336

•••poetryindavis.com/archive/2016/10/2812

•••www.facebook.com/El-Dorado-Poetry-1237910429583182 for news about what's going on in El Dorado County poetry

•••sacramento365.com (go to Poetry & Literature under Performance)

•••Want to learn about some Bay Area events? Debralee Pagan (debralee@astoundnet) publishes an e-newsletter called "Strictly East" (Poetry Past the Caldecott Tunnel)—email her for a free subscription. See also www.poetryflash.org/.

Don't see your reading event listed on Medusa? That's probably because you didn't send it to us! It's such a shame to invite poets to read for you, and then fail to advertise them. So try to get your message out in a timely manner.

Online and otherwise—

Here are some journals and other publications that are local-ish (okay, there are some Bay Area ones in here, too). If we've left anybody out, let us know!

Plus, keep an eye on the college scene. Some of those journals accept submissions from non-students, though they usually have more limited (mostly annual) deadlines. Go to Medusa's Hot Links for Calaveras Station, Penumbra, Suisun Valley Review, Cosumnes River Journal, but be aware that college journals come and go in this time of tight funding.