Horse Less Press

Horse Less Review #12 includes work by Ivy Alvarez, Kerry Banazek, Megan Burns, Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle, C.S. Carrier, Lisa Ciccarello, Shanna Compton, Mel Coyle & Jenn Marie Nunes, Nava Fader, Rebecca Farivar, Leora Fridman, Susanna Fry, A.T. Grant, David Hadbawnik & Carrie Kaser, j/j hastain, Michael Kalish, Freidrich Kerksieck, Seth Landman, Aubrie Marrin, Rachel Moritz, Sheila Murphy, Jennifer Pilch, Michael Robins, Jordan Soyka, Hugh Behm-Steinberg, Robert Swereda, Sean Ulman, Vinny Walsh, Theodore Worozbyt, and Karena Youtz & Scott Abels. Cover art by Vinny Walsh.

Maybe you noticed some other books in the catalog you haven’t picked up yet? We’re running a two for $14 sale: any two chapbooks (Loudon, Cole, Sikkema, Lepri, Taylor, Hauke, Jorgenson, Olszewska, Denrow) – just make sure you tell us which!

In the spooky blue light of morning, Rebecca Loudon’s TRISM was photographed and added to the catalog. Order your copy right now! Here’s what some smart and talented poets are saying about it:

Composed through the fractures of spirit, body and soul, TRISM enters the realm of “King of the First Brutal Memory” with the confrontation of a child’s death. Loudon presents the reader with a shattered mosaic of human cruelty and coldness where the mother’s milk is poison and the only solace found is in “animal quiet” and “contradiction grace.” Wild as in untamed, wild as in carnal, wild as in frenzied, TRISM responds to childhood trauma and betrayal with a stunning primal benevolence.
–Reb Livingston

Rebecca Loudon’s TRISM is a wicked revelation of secrets and betrayals in a world beyond the
mirror glass. Follow the forgotten Alices and abandoned Jacks of fairy tale lore as they negotiate the strangeness and terror of love, memory and sexuality, watched over by the enigmatic Trism Bear, on their journey to transformation. Rebecca Loudon’s poetry is a dark spell — heart-stoppingly good.
–Ivy Alvarez

TRISM is almost available! We plan to begin shipping books next week. Just go ahead and order yours now! 

Rebecca Loudon is the author of Radish King and Cadaver Dogs. She lives in Seattle and teaches violin lessons to children.

from TRISM:

“When the jailer reached for Jacks’ arrest files the boys dug a stub of pencil from their pockets and wrote their names in a Red Chief notebook first JACKS first HUNGER first WORDS. Trism Bear drank water in cupped paws enchanted with a false past. Alices disentangled hanging strands of kelp stuck to their legs compounded by femaleness being alien not women in the eyes of the village they transformed into layers the fucked the suffering mother the mayonnaise and white bread sandwich none of it good not a damned bit. Trism Bear trained himself as a tattoo artist plied his trade with lower demons and used car salesmen turned down no one became famous for delicate attention to detail and his fearful laugh.”

New at O P E N: I write to Brenda Sieczkowski about her Dancing Girl Press chapbook Wonder Girl in Monster Land. 

I have been hoarding a stack of books I really want to write my own O P E N reviews for, but I am only one cicada. If you would like to review one of these fantastic books for O P E N, please email me at openlettershlp@gmail.com:

Danielle Pafunda’s Manhater

Megan Kaminski’s Desiring Map

Kristi Maxwell’s Re-

Blueberry Morningsnow’s Whale in the Woods

Kim Gek Lin Short’s China Cowboy

Some long overdue updates at O P E N!

j/j hastain to Arielle Guy and CA Conrad, Jeff Alessandrelli to Janaka Stucky, and Nick Admussen to Jeff Alessandrelli.

Check them all out here & please be in touch if you’re interested in writing a letter of review for us! We are open to all wonder and are especially interested in reviews of hybrid and cross-genre texts and reviews of small and micro-press publications.

Yeah, we know it’s the SECOND full moon of August that’s the blue moon. We just don’t care. From now until Friday, August 3, 11:59 PM EST, order any four in-print horse less chapbooks for $20 & free shipping. You can choose from books by Norma Cole, Michael Sikkema, Karen Lepri, Shelly Taylor, Nathan Hauke, Kirsten Jorgenson, Brian Foley, Daniela Olszewska, Christopher Salerno, Claire Becker, and Jennifer Denrow. See our catalogue for chapbook details. Some of these chaps are about to move from our in-print list to the land of the sold out and retired, so this may be your last chance to grab a copy. Don’t forget to include a note telling us which books you want.

Our new chapbooks are here! Full ordering info on Coleman Hawkins Ornette Coleman by Norma Cole and May Apple Deep by Michael Sikkema is available on our catalogue page, where you can order them for $8 each. Think you probably need both books? Save a few dollars and order them together for $14. These books are the first installment in a series on influence and gratitude, where we pair chapbooks by our editors with chapbooks by writers who have been important to us. We are so grateful for amazing writers and mentors like Norma Cole, and we are so grateful and excited to get to make these books.

We’re in the middle of printing and cutting and binding copies of Norma Cole’s Coleman Hawkins Ornette Coleman and Michael Sikkema’s May Apple Deep, as evidenced by these shadowy photographs.

More info and images soon, but maybe you’re feeling like you need to pre-order? For $8 you can order Norma Cole’s book or Michael Sikkema’s book; if you’d like them both, order them together for $14.