Small Press Night Recap

For those of you who attended the small press extravaganza last weekend, you know that it was a huge success. Roxy from Persephassa Press, Matt from Thieves Jargon Press, and Janaka from Black Ocean were all great presenters and we had a full house! Books published by all three presses are now available in the store, so, if you weren't able to buy something at the event, stop on by.


Thieves Jargon Press's first book is Kittens in the Boiler by Delphine Lecompte is set against a dreary Belgian coast, and the ook is about a young woman and the company she keeps, both on and off the streets. Comedic catastrophe and sexual assassination are afterthoughts for the narrator as she carries her warped neighbor, her sleazy johns and her best friends close to the heart. Kittens in the Boiler is the portrait of a desperate soul staggering on the divide between destruction and deliverance.

Black Ocean has nine books under its belt, and now three of them, Dear Al-Queda, A Useless Window, and Upon Arrival, are in stock at Feed Your Head.

Dear Al-Queda by Scott Creney started as an exercise in social commentary and became much more as the infamous Al-Qaeda soon became Creney’s closest confidante in this accidental memoir of letters to the world’s most notorious terror organization. Creney is apocryphal in his condemnation as he walks with us, and Al-Qaeda, hand-in-hand through each day of trailer-park armageddon and suburban apocalypse. Heart-breaking, hysterical, and outrageous, these letters will leave you gasping. Of the collection, Creney says: “This book is not a political book, or something so dull as ‘anti-republican’ or ‘anti-american.’ This book is anti-everything. Even you. Especially you.”

A Useless Window by Carrie O. Adams and Upon Arrival by Paula Cisewski are both collections of poetry. A Useless Window embodies the title perfectly as it explores the paradox of form and function in life and language. Quiet without being subdued, intelligent without being obtuse, and deeply affecting without resorting to melodrama, this book carries itself into the reader with arresting honesty and simplicity that is at once harsh and elegant. Upon Arrival is the first full-length collection from Cisewski and showcases the best work from this Minneapolis-based poet who has graced the pages of literary journals across the country for the past decade. These poems, full of charm and wit, demonstrate an airy playfulness even as they confront isolation and loss.

And, last, but definitely not least, we have a great selection of handmade artist books produced by Roxanne Carter of Persphassa Press. Too numerous to list here, you'll just have to come by and check them out. I will post a picture, though, just to give you a taste of her work...