PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER

Ghost Town Poetry, the anthology of poets from the long-running second Thursday open mic poetry series co-hosted by Printed Matter Vancouver editors Christopher Luna and Toni Partington is nearly sold out. If you’d like a copy, you can buy one at Cover to Cover Books (http://covertocoverbooks.net), from the editors (printedmattervancouver@gmail.com),  or through Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Town-Poetry-2004-2010-Anthology/dp/1461075114/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312469042&sr=1-1). We will also be at the first annual Cover to Cover Books Author Faire on Saturday, December 10.

We would like to thank all of the authors as well as those who have bought a copy of the book for making this publication a success. Please let your friends know about the book, and if you’re inspired by the book, write a review on Amazon. We also still have review copies available for those who would like to review the book for publication.

Here is some more information about the book:

GHOST TOWN POETRY

Cover to Cover Books 2004-2010

An Anthology from the Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Vancouver, WA

Edited By Christopher Luna and Toni Partington

for Printed Matter Vancouver

ISBN 9781461075110

$10

This anthology collects a mere sampling of the hundreds of unpublished and renowned poets who have read at the popular Vancouver, WA poetry series that spoken word legend Jack McCarthy proclaimed to be “the best open mike between Tacoma and Berkeley.” Founded by Christopher Luna at Ice Cream Renaissance in 2004, in 2007 Ghost Town Poetry relocated to Cover to Cover Books, where it became a crucial component of Vancouver’s growing literary community. Edited by Printed Matter Vancouver co-founders and current series co-hosts Christopher Luna and Toni Partington, the book contains poems that were read at the open mic as well as new work. It also features cover art and a history of the series by Christopher Luna and a chronology of the featured readers who have traveled from around the country and the Northwest to share their work.

Ghost Town Poetry features poems by the following writers: Judith Arcana, Bernadette Barrio, Kristin Berger, Alex Birkett, Diane Cammer, Sheryl Clough, Sage Cohen, Kyle David Congdon, Carter Crockett, Eileen Davis Elliott, Naomi Fast, Olivia Gonzalez, Rob Gourley, Sam Green, Lorraine Healy, David Hill, Taylor Johnston, Maggie Kelly, Rainy Knight, Christi Krug, Barbara LaMorticella, Colleen Lindsay, Jake Loranger, Lori Loranger, Zoe Loranger, Jack Lorts, Angelo Luna, Christopher Luna, M, David Madgalene, Carolyn Martin, Jim Martin, David Meltzer, Norma Mizer, Mokii, Judith Montgomery, G.L. Morrison, Dan Nelson, Toni Partington, Jenney Pauer, Charles Potts, Michael Rothenberg, Kori Sayer-LeMieux, Herb Stokes, Margareta Waterman, Steve Williams, Laura Winter, and Sharon Wood Wortman.

The editors of the book are available for interviews.

Cover to Cover Books is located at 6300 NE St. James Road, Ste. 104-B in Vancouver.

For more information, call 360-993-7777 or email mail@covertocoverbooks.net.

Post by Printed Matter Vancouver editor Christopher Luna:

Don’t have a copy of Ghost Town Poetry yet? Well, head down to Cover to Cover Books (http://covertocoverbooks.net) in Vancouver, WA or order a copy at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Town-Poetry-2004-2010-Anthology/dp/1461075114/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312469042&sr=1-1).

Those who attend poetry readings in Vancouver, WA are aware of Dennis McBride’s sardonic wit, high speed verbal pyrotechnics, and amazing facility with the language. The community has completely embraced both Dennis and his stalwart traveling companion, Mike G, neither of whom misses an opportunity to share their work with the folks at Cover to Cover and Paper Tiger.

Dennis recently read the following statement about Ghost Town Poetry, the anthology of poems from the long-running Ghost Town Poetry open mic edited by myself and Toni Partington. I reprint his comments here with his permission. I am very grateful to Dennis for all that he contributed to the scene, and for his kind words of encouragement:

Butch Cassidy and Sundance ride into Ghost Town

Hats off to Chris and Toni. Ghost Town is such a genuinely remarkable carousel of what poetry can do that if it were sent out on another Voyager mission and discovered by extraterrestrials it would allow them to know what being a human being on the earth was like. There are so many good, well-crafted poems in this anthology that each one calls out for attention because, as Stafford said, “poetry is about a certain kind of attention,” which Ghost Town delivers.

I selected and focus on Kyle David Congdon and Alex Birkett only because I’m interested in the voice as it relates to personality, or the voice behind the voice in their poems.

I’m not really stalking them. I’m not gay–really a closet heterosexual–and that’s more information than you wanted I’m sure.

But I’m also focusing on their poems because, by way of example, I think they shed light on the other work in this volume and poetry in general.

Congdon’s “So…But…Sleep” and Birkett’s “Avoiding the Light” and “Styx” illustrate what the best poetry should do, which is to successfully seduce the intellect’s heart (a function generally denied to science) and hijack the intelligent head, stop it in its tracks, hold it hostage for ransom from the heart’s mysterious negotiable currency. Another measure of these poems’ power is that they pull you in but do not release you; something occult and transcendent pulls you back, which is partly that the poem’s voice is trustworthy and solid, scattering breadcrumbs that will lead out of the forest and into Thomas Wolfe’s “lost lane into heaven,” but it’s also the under-appreciated unexpected presence of surprise that is really the life blood of poetry and which is interstitially woven into the fabric of these poems. There are instances in the poems where meaning is elusive but it’s the fact that one is not bothered by that which sends a signal that one is in the neighborhood of the sublime, and in these poems it is the continual reappearance of the unexpected that sends that signal; you are taken somewhere which bypasses the brain’s stifling seat of reason, and yet are given unforgettable lines like Kyle’s “I know forever about the unfinished endless visious” followed shortly by “you need to breathe, Butterfly,” which sums up the totality, setting out travail and treatment better than a PhD thesis or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illness, and there is the vastness of the intelligence in Birkett’s “Avoiding the Light,” which rescues humanity from its isolating, isolated morass of smothering morality by celebrating our pleasure principle, not “east of Eden” but somewhere left of “whoopi.” And then to turn around in “Styx” and in a few short lines juggle the see saw transition from tenderness to the heart’s rage left me wanting more. Even porn can’t do that. I just wanted to stay in the Ghost Town poems and go back and forth like a child in a swing.

Dennis McBride
2011

This material was originally published on Christopher Luna’s personal blog, “Poetry: Christopher Luna in Ghost Town:” http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html

If you would like more information about the Ghost Town Poetry open mic poetry series, contact christopherjluna@gmail.com.

For more information about Printed Matter Vancouver’s publications and services, email printedmattervancouver@gmail.com

On Wednesday, May 4, 2011 Ghost Town Poetry was released at Cover To Cover Books to a crowd of authors and friends. We were hosted by owner Mel Sanders, who applauded the authors for their work and their dedication to the monthly series. The Ghost Town Poetry Series brings a featured reader and an open mic to the bookstore on the 2nd Thursday of every month. Thanks to Mel Sanders for opening the bookstore and her heart to poetry.

The book is an anthology of published poets who’ve been featured readers in the series, and those poets who’ve shared their work at the open mic. The collection contains the work of new poets, including young poets who’ve attended with their parents. Several contributors are published here for the first time. The work of well-known poets is sprinkled throughout.

The book is available for $10 at Cover To Cover Books, 6300 NE St. James Road, Suite 104-B, Vancouver, WA 98663, 360-993-7777, www.covertocoverbooks.net and at Amazon.com.

Thanks to everyone who made this book happen. Our dream was to construct an anthology to showcase some of our talented local poets. Thanks especially to our featured poets who so generously submitted their work for the book. It is rewarding to see this dream come to life.

Our sincere gratitude goes out to the poetry community in Vancouver and across the river. We are humbled by your continuous support. Vancouver’s art scene (visual art, literary, music, and performance) has arisen. Over the past two years our town has come into its own. We are proud to call Vancouver home.

Toni Partington and Christopher Luna, Editors

Ghost Town Poetry, Cover To Cover Books 2004-2010 will be released on May 4, 2011. This anthology is a collection of poems from local poets and well-known featured readers over a six-year span at the monthly open mic at Cover To Cover Books, Vancouver, WA

The book is a celebration of poetry and community.  It represents the support and acceptance of brand new writers by well established, published writers.  Forty-eight poets are featured. Among them such notables as Sage Cohen, Sam Green, David Meltzer, Charles Potts, and Sharon Wood Wortman. Notable locals, Jim Martin, Eileen Elliott, Christi Krug, Norma Mizer, Jenney Pauer, and Dan Nelson are also featured.  

Ghost Town Poetry is edited by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington and published by Printed Matter Vancouver. It is available at Cover To Cover Books, 6300 NE St. James road, Vancouver, Wa, 360-993-7777, www.covertocoverbooks.net , and at Amazon.com.

$10. ISBN 9781461075110

Printed Matter Vancouver provides writing and editing services for poets, writers, and artists interested in getting their work out to the public. While we support writers who wish to write strictly for themselves, we live by the philosophy that the written and spoken word can heal the world. We invite you to join us in this endeavor.

Toni Partington and Christopher Luna  

GHOST TOWN POETRY returns to

Cover to Cover Books April 14

Since 2005 the series has also featured local and national writers including Charles Potts, Lorraine Healy, Neeli Cherkovski, David Meltzer, Michael Rothenberg, Marc Marcel, Walt Curtis, Barbara LaMorticella, Brittany Baldwin, Sage Cohen, Judith Arcana, Sharon Wood Wortman, Judith Montgomery, Penelope Scambly Schott, Dan Raphael, Carlos Reyes, Ed Coletti, Jack McCarthy, David Madgalene, and Turiya Autry. Featured readers have also included Washington State Poet Laureate Sam Green and Oregon State Poet Laureate Paulann Petersen.

According to Luna, “I am very proud of the local arts community for stepping up to provide space to us during our brief period of homelessness. It was always our intention to return to Cover to Cover Books, and we are very happy that they will be back in business soon. We have run an all-ages and uncensored reading every second Thursday since late 2004. I am very grateful to Mel Sanders for staying open late and providing a space for local poets to gather every month. A writer herself, Sanders truly understands the value of community.”

GOOD NEWS ABOUT THE ANTHOLOGY !

Ghost Town Poetry: Cover To Cover Books 2004-2011 is at the printer. We are awaiting the “proof” copy and will soon be ordering the book for distribution. The cover art is an original collage by Christopher Luna. We think you’ll be pleased with the result. Check back for updates.

The Editors  

**********************************

HELLO AGAIN POETS AND WRITERS,

We are hard at work on the manuscript for the Cover To Cover anthology. Our projected release date will be in April 2011, and we are quite excited to share the finished book with you. Keep checking back to follow the latest developments.

Keep writing.

Hello Poets,

It has been an eventful fall with events both good and bad. The bad news is that a fire in the building that houses Cover To Cover Books occurred on October 14 just before the monthly reading/open mic was about to begin. Smoke came through the ceiling and did some damage to the books. There was a little water damage, but nothing major. Thankfully, nobody was hurt, nothing was burned, and Christopher moved that night’s reading down the street to Angst Gallery. Mel Sanders (owner and our host) has remained calm and upbeat  throughout. She asked that we pass along her appreciation for the messages and notes she’s received. She said, “These mean a lot, but even more from my poets.”

The good news is that the reading series has hit the road as the Ghost Town Poetry Tour and will meet each month in a new location within the downtown core until Cover To Cover reopens. For October we met at Stray Gallery and were hosted by Kori Sayer. We had a full house and our host provided great food. Penelope Scambly Schott was our featured poet and she engaged us with new poems from her just released book, Crow Mercies.

On December 9 at 7p we will feature authors and artists from VoiceCatcher 5, just released in October.　Niche Wine and Art will host us. Niche is located at 1013 Main St. in Vancouver. The authors will read from their published work and the artists will display their art from the book and tell us a little about their art process. It promises to be a great evening of poetry, art, and wine. Please join us.

Lastly, we have decided to wait to release the anthology until Mel reopens Cover To Cover Books. Her estimate is four to six months. At that time we will release the book, celebrate the authors, and celebrate　the 4th anniversary of the series at this location.

We appreciate your patience. By the way, the submissions look great and we’re excited about seeing them in print.

Sincerely,

Printed Matter Vancouver                                                                                                                                        Toni Partington & Christopher Luna, Editors

printedmattervancouver@gmail.com

We are thrilled with the number of submissions received for the anthology.  Thanks to everyone who worked to get them submitted  on time. We have begun looking at the poems and thinking about format. You will be hearing from us as the process moves along.

Thank you,

The Editors

At Printed Matter Vancouver we pledge to provide support and to respect your decisions.

Contact us at printedmattervancouver@gmail.com

Toni Partington & Christopher Luna

Editors