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New poetry for fortune-telling: DIVINATIONS by Christopher McCurry!

A belated announcement, as many of you might already be aware, but Osedax’s newest poetry collection is now available! Read on for more about Christopher McCurry‘s DIVINATIONS and click on the image for ordering information.

I have long suspected that poets and practitioners of divination are the same kind of seer. They differ in only one regard. A reader uses tools external to themselves to aid their sight—cards, shells, bones, tea leaves, smoke—the poet turns inward, conjures from the cosmos within whatever is needed to bring forth into the light. Christopher McCurry’s latest collection, Divinations, is a stunning hybrid text both in content and form that is meant to be read as a deck of cards and as book of poems. The poems are an airtight cabinet of curiosities, each heralding some aspect of the observable world through the lens of personal experience—eating an apple, noticing highway graffiti, holding the hand of a child in the dark. They read a little like proverb, a little like bandaged heart—the result is an astonishing kintsugi effect as the reader is instructed to shuffle the deck to read the poems as poems or lay a spread for guidance in various areas of one’s life. The possibilities to enjoy and learn from this work are truly up to the reader, which is what any compelling oracle or poet knows. Divinations proves that McCurry is both. 

— Bianca Lynne Spriggs, author of The Galaxy Is a Dance Floor (Argos Books, 2016)

Pre-orders now open for HOW NOT TO BE A WALLFLOWER (plus, a few words on coming out of hiatus)

In the first of many announcements:

HOW NOT TO BE A WALLFLOWER (Scrimshander Books #4, 20 pages.)

Featuring the poetry, prose, and photography of Paul Asta, Doug Paul Case, Kyle Hemmings, J.D. Ho, and Rachel Lyon. Cover design by Ed Franklin.

Pre-orders are now open for the fourth volume of Scrimshander Books, HOW NOT TO BE A WALLFLOWER. We’ve been looking forward to this one for a while, and we hope you love the brilliant work in this issue as much as we do.

We’re also offering a pre-order special — reserve your copy now and receive any Scrimshander Books back issue for FREE. If you’ve been curious about our little press, this is a great chance to see what we’re about and read some excellent poetry and prose. You can order HOW NOT TO BE A WALLFLOWER on Etsy or via Paypal from our website.

A brief thank you to Jasmine Sawers (prose editor) & Delmar Reffett (chapbook editor & intern) for their efforts in getting Osedax Press (and me!) back up and running after the election and ensuing political & social shift knocked us all a bit for a loop. For several months. But words are important — we as writers and readers know that already, but it’s worth saying again — and words are the reason we’re here. Words are comfort. Words are tools. Words are what we have when other forms of power are closed to us.

There’s no better time to be in the word business, is what I’m saying. And I apologize for our long absence. It’s good to be back.

Along with HOW NOT TO BE A WALLFLOWER, we have an exciting new poetry project coming out next month: DIVINATIONS by Christopher McCurry. Please stay tuned for the full announcement (and opening of pre-orders) next week!

New projects and second printings!

It’s been a little while since our last publication, the chapbook Exactly Like Love by Alan Walowitz — and what a publication! We were overwhelmed by response to the initial print run and are making plans for a second later this year. Grab a copy of Exactly Like Love while you can (there’s just a couple left) or go ahead and pre-order one so we can ship it to you as soon as it’s available.  Or you can sign up below.



We’d also like to thank Nettie Farris and Melancholy Hyperbole for the lovely review of Exactly Like Love, which examines the narrative voice of the poems as well as their deep thoughtfulness. We’re so happy that others enjoy the work of Alan Walowitz as much as we do!

Osedax Press also has other projects forthcoming:

 We’re very excited to be working on a new “chapbook” (you’ll see!) from Lexington poet Christopher McCurry. More details soon!

 The long-awaited fourth volume of Scrimshander Books, HOW NOT TO BE A WALLFLOWER, is slated for later this year. Along with some truly amazing poems and stories, we have another brilliant cover from artist Ed Franklin. We can’t wait to share this collection with you!

But it’s not stopping there. IS THE MOON A DEAD WORLD? (Scrimshander Books Vol. 5) is scheduled for publication early next year and promises to be… out of this world!? (Sorry, sorry!)

Also coming up next year: we’ll be announcing our theme for the sixth volume of Scrimshander and opening submissions! We’ll be unveiling even more exciting chapbook publications, some of which are already in the works! And we may even go to the beach!

Our first poetry chapbook is hot off the presses!

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Pre-orders of Alan Walowitz’s Exactly Like Love have shipped and more orders are going out this week! We’re so excited about this chapbook and think it looks amazing — a match for the fantastic poems within.  Copies are only $7 + shipping and handling.  (You can snag a copy on Etsy via credit card, or use your Paypal account on our own order page.)

Poet and professor Estha Weiner says of the collection, “Because Alan Walowitz is neither withholding nor unnecessarily oblique, his chapbook, Exactly Like Love, is, in fact, ‘The Anatomy of Longing,’ which also happens to be the title of the first poem in this rich, generous collection. And then there’s the welcome wit, as he juggles the sometimes Jewish blues. In deft narratives that never cease to surprise, Walowitz is unafraid to write, ‘We’ve known these people from the ache of having lived.’ In his refusal to claim wisdom, he is wise. And oh, so rare.”

Alan Walowitz has been published various places on the web and off.  He’s a Contributing Editor at Verse-Virtual, an Online Community Journal of Poetry, and teaches at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY and St. John’s University in his native Queens.  He lives in Long Island, NY, three houses away from the Queens border, with his wife, Jeanette, and daughter, Jamie.

Alan reading Exactly Like Love(The author and his chapbook.)

 

You can now pre-order EXACTLY LIKE LOVE by Alan Walowitz!

ExactlyLikeLove

We are very happy to announce the publication of Osedax Press’s first poetry chapbook, Exactly Like Love by Alan Walowitz!

Poet and professor Estha Weiner says of the collection, “Because Alan Walowitz is neither withholding nor unnecessarily oblique, his chapbook, Exactly Like Love, is, in fact, ‘The Anatomy of Longing,’ which also happens to be the title of the first poem in this rich, generous collection. And then there’s the welcome wit, as he juggles the sometimes Jewish blues. In deft narratives that never cease to surprise, Walowitz is unafraid to write, ‘We’ve known these people from the ache of having lived.’ In his refusal to claim wisdom, he is wise. And oh, so rare.”

Alan Walowitz has been published various places on the web and off.  He’s a Contributing Editor at Verse-Virtual, an Online Community Journal of Poetry, and teaches at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY and St. John’s University in his native Queens.  He lives in Long Island, NY, three houses away from the Queens border, with his wife, Jeanette, and daughter, Jamie.

You can now pre-order the chapbook through our online store or via Etsy; copies are $7 each + shipping/handling and will be in the mail around the end of June.

The launch of Osedax Press!

Thank you for your interest in Osedax Press!  More site content will become available over the course of the next few weeks, as the press begins receiving submissions and preparing for the launch of its first projects.  In the meantime, you may want to investigate our submission guidelines and the official Osedax Press facebook page (for slightly more timely updates).