Check this out!  We are really getting this thing together!  This is what the start of letter pressing the cover looks like.  We are just trying to sort out ink and some technical things etc etc.  Stay tuned!

Putting together Pretty Harmonica

Issue 1 has a name!  It is called Pretty Harmonica.  Right now it is being put together with so much love and care.  The inside is being done zine style- physically cutting and pasting everything to make a mockup (which is just about done).
This has been my couch because I don’t have a desk: 

Next: letter press the covers, and after that: sew bind each issue.  We should be all done before Christmas!  The books will be all over the country (I’ll post a list later), and they will also be available for purchase online.

Love,
Marlo&Baleen 

A Poem by Jimmy Magliozzi!

Here is a poem from our final poet in our first issue!  Jimmy Magliozzi makes a lot of wonderful things and poetry is one of them.  Here you go:

Lingers

Life affirming autumn air
& the golden hang!
my friend, he saw it too
you may notice the newness
a continual passing and returning
from inside windows as if air
had grains & the streets & sidewalks alike
were wooden in line

you can feel that it is there
but you can not feel it linger
I have tasted Life in comings & goings
but the inbetweens hold only
rugged air & french fries

you can feel a golden promise waiting
& your breathing at last
actual    realized
No heed paid to the mildew in the sky
No need today it does not fall

but among us
How it hangs 

From Lauren Clark’s “Oracle”

The other day we got to show you a poem from Ed Skoog that will be in our first issue of Baleen Press.  Today we will show you another!  This one is from Lauren Clark.  Take a look!

                                                                                         There is no intended
Sitting in a room full of dead rocks                  audience, only the present.

I understand very well.  All things                    Songless bell, birds swooping
crumble and are equal.                                         mindlessly, turtles raising their heads
                                                                                        to the sun. 

Someone wrote these words in stone.

I feel my way around
with my toes and fingers

                                                                                       I don’t need a body to be of substance. 
and my eyes all closed. 

em3ry33 asked: what do you mean by chapbook? I would love to submit, but im afraid im having a little trouble understanding the submission process. A little clarification would be great! thanks! -Emory

Hello Emory!

A chapbook is something next to nothing.  It is a short collection that usually is not picked up by other printers.  Baleen Press publishes chapbooks because it gives people the opportunity to their shorter series’ published.

I hope that helps!  Let me know if you have any other questions.

Love, Baleen

From Skoog’s “The Land of a Thousand Dances (Seven For Noah Purifoy)”

Over the next few days you will get to read some of the work that will be in our first issue!  This first poem is from Ed Skoog’s “The Land of a Thousand Dances (Seven For Noah Purifoy).”  What wonderful poetry!

THE HIGH CHASM AND THE DROP CEILING

Her voice has
captured the world
humming
as he drove

am waiting for
you at the marina
I don’t really see this
turning out well

let the coyotes die
as I name them
I saw the driver
of the getaway car

take my shoes off
walk the creek
I turn into a fish
an auspicious deadline

would type a letter
before breakfast
throathouse fiddle
and peachetree root

tonight I feel
televised
studio backlot
regimental sparrow

Submission Guidelines

Friends!

We want to read your work and we want other people to read your work too.  Issue I is going to be printed soon so I think that we need to start accepting submissions for Issue II (and from here on out will always be accepting submissions).

To submit, send at least five pages of your chapbook and a “statement” (whatever you take that to mean) to baleen.press@gmail.com.  Include a cover page with your name, a working title for your chapbook, where else your work has been published, as well as all the information we would need to get in contact with you. 
Please send all of these pieces as one PDF document.

Remember: we want each issue of Baleen Press to include one previously published poet with two published poets, so tell your friends to submit!

Also: click here to join the Friends of Baleen Press page on Facebook.  There you can submit ideas about where you think we should distribute, become a point person to distribute in your city, or post questions or anything else that you want other people to see.

Let’s make things happen!

Love,
Baleen Press

We hope to get our first issue out by the end of the year!  This issue will feature Ed Skoog (Mister Skylight, 2009), Lauren Clark, and Jimmy Magliozzi.

If you want to help distribute this first issue or if you are a place that wants to carry it, email us!