rinky dink press AWP offsite reading in Philadelphia

Tonissa Saul and I had a great time handling the rinky dink press table at the AWP Philadelphia bookfair.

 

We launched a brand new series featuring (clockwise in photo) Ann Pedone, Kurt Mikhael, Eric Dovigi, Michael Buckius, Jamie King, Halsey Hyer, Veronica Jarboe, S.G. Maldonado-Vélez, Emily Hoover, and Jessica Rich.

 

We made some special "bite size" AWP packs that were pretty popular and sold out on day two. 

And we had a stellar offsite reading Upstairs at The 700 that was organized by our friend Lindsay A. Chudzik for Feels Blind Literary   

We were proud to have four rinky dink press authors (Halsey Hyer, Michael Buckius, Susan Nguyen, and Jesse Sensibar) and they were terrific.

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our table and came to our offsite 💙 

See you in Seattle!

Behind The Blurb part 1 of 3 Rosemarie Dombrowski (full blurb that wouldn't fit)

Jia and I are eternally grateful that three of our favorite artists/humans were willing to lend their time and support of our book, in convenient blurb form.

If you already know Rosemarie Dombrowski, Sean Bonnette, and Matt Hart, then you understand why we love them.

Otherwise, I will be posting a series of entries for each of their blurbs and some personal background on them and their own work and where to find it.

Today I will start with Rosemarie Dombrowski, who sent us a gigantic blurb that she knew would never fit on the back of the book. We almost moved it inside to use like a foreword, but we decided to take an excerpt and keep it on the back cover. Here is the full unabridged version:

Cactus Head (the mask, the man, the poet) is a metonymy for Phoenix—the wastelands and the outposts and the once-iconic venues, all of it juxtaposed with the ever-public persona of a dandy, someone (or something) as ubiquitous as street art and the steel shade structures that line our downtown streets.

The persona that Orion creates through verse – and that Oak Baker brings to life through image –is simultaneously the desert on drugs and in rehab. He is the curator of the ugly-beautiful, the faded bricks and the fairytale horizon. Accordingly, Orion perfectly captures the limbo of modern life with the opening lines of the opening poem: the Sonoran desert is an hourglass/knocked on its side.

But maybe the most delicious part is the fact that the line between ego and alter ego is invisible here, that every poem leaves you feeling as though you’re listening to the wire-tap tapes of some old-school hooligan (maybe Orion himself), like it’s all a veiled confession in the spirit of Whitman’s Calamus poems, arranged and rearranged into a secret sequence of desire and longing—though not for the transcendent, but rather for the ephemera, the scraps of pop culture and personal desire he’s collected along the way. Orion’s leaving them for us like a trail of breadcrumbs, like a topographical map into the heart of Phoenix.

Most importantly, this collection has proven that Phoenix is a real city, its streets choked with culture, the fatty tissue of its heart lined with punk rock politics and poets who are sometimes as hollow as pinatas.


~Rosemarie Dombrowski, inaugural Poet Laureate of Phoenix, founding editor of rinky dink press and The Revolution (Relaunch)

Both of RD's books are out of print and might be hard to find ("The Philosophy of Unclean Things" and "The Book of Emergencies"), but she also has a recent chapbook "The Cleavage Planes of Southwest Minerals [A Love Story] which can be found at Split Rock Review.


She is also the Founding Editor for rinky dink press and The Revolution (Relaunch)

photo from Kelly McGrath

Copies of Gravity & Spectacle can be ordered from Tolsun Books, Small Press Distribution, and even Amazon.

Or if you'd like to get a signed copy from me, just send $20 (free shipping)
through PayPal https://www.paypal.me/ShawnteOrion
or Venmo https://venmo.com/ShawnteOrion 

Punk Rock Presses AWP Panel in Portland 2019

Surprised but stoked that our Punk Rock Presses panel got selected for AWP 2019 in Portland.

Of course it was pretty much a last minute thing, but so are most of our best projects. I was contacted by my friend Rosemarie Dombrowski (founder of Rinky Dink Press and reigning Poet Laureate of Phoenix) because another panel that she was involved with fell apart. She asked if I would be interested in helping her put together a panel on presses with a punk influence/ethos (probably because she remembered that I used to perform with my friend Rocky Yazzie and his bands Turquoiz Noiz and The Skinwalkers). We both got excited about the possibilities and the three other presses we wanted to approach in hopes that they would join us and it all worked out.  

Punk Rock Presses: rinky dink, Forklift Ohio, Cardboard House, Wax Paper

Punk is a style of music, a state of mind, and a subculture of the small press world. Though punk is often perceived as nothing more than an anti-establishment posture, a punk ideology espouses a DIY ethos, is non-conformist in its productions, and resists selling out under pressure. These four presses define what it means to be punk publishers, and they’re thriving in a world of better-funded, perfect-bound counterparts…and wondering how long before the raw becomes the cooked.

I'm lucky to be part of such a distinguished team that includes Hans Hetrick of The Wax Paper, Giancarlo Huapaya of Cardboard House Press and Matt Hart of Forklift, Ohio, because they each bring unique experiences and dynamics to our panel. 

Outsiders on the inside!

Rinky Dink Press pocket-sized poetry for the people

One of the projects that keeps me busy is Rinky Dink Press.

It's a little DIY indie punk kind of press that publishes pocket-sized collections of micro-poems. Each folded zine has 5 or 6 poems that are limited to around 20-35 words. A few years ago, I noticed the call for their debut series and I had no idea who was behind it, but I loved the idea so I was eager to submit.

rinky dink press (rdp) is on a mission to get poetry back into the hands (and pockets) of the people – each of our single author collections can fit in your pocket, but we never sacrifice craft, and despite the tiny format, we refuse to sacrifice style.

In short, we’re a microzine press that marries a DIY attitude with skilled poetics and fine-art aesthetics.

They didn't get many submissions for that first series so my odds were good and they published my collection of poems about the clowns that were causing trouble in the California town of Wasco. Here are a few of those poems:

It turned out that the press was founded by a group of ASU students and their Professor who is one of my friends, so they asked if I would join their editorial team for the next series and I've been involved ever since. Twice a year we publish microzine collections from 10 poets and we now get hundreds of submissions from around the world.

We are preparing for the launch of series 4 on Friday February 2nd.
If you're in Phoenix, AZ come to our launch party at the new Local First AZ headquarters (407 E Roosevelt St, Phoenix, Arizona 85004). If you're elsewhere, check out our website for submission guidelines and sample poems from all of our titles that are priced to move at ONE DOLLAR a piece:
https://rinkydinkpress.com/