You know you want to...

Anyone out there in Blossombonesland who is looking for some new poetry to read, look no further!

Oo la la, my preciously delicious poetry baby, the fire-wife , is hot and ready courtesy of Dancing Girl Press! Find it here!

I am beyond thrilled at the final product - I cannot thank Kristy Bowen enough!

For those who are curious, the collage on the chap cover is one of my very own :)

I am so proud of the chapbook - check it out!!!!

Where we're at...

Still reading through poetry submissions for the winter issue, which is taking me a while. If you haven't heard back yet, thank you for your patience!

Also: I'm closing up submissions to our fall special issue (digital chapbooks by women poets) early, due to the overwhelmingly positive response. Seriously, there are so many collections that I think are beautiful, and I probably can't take as many as I'd like already. We *might* end up doing one in the fall and another in the spring...We'll see.

At any rate, if you're thinking of submitting for fall, try and do so this weekend. We'll be accepting submissions through Monday, September 1st. I'll update the website later on today.

**Also**

Ben Pealer's new online journal Rustblind, is now taking submissions of fiction and poetry. From the editors:

"We feel that there aren't enough purveyors of wild eyed lit. The kind of raving images that the world needs....Rustblind seeks ambitious and vivid songs from this chaos."

Do check them out...and send them some lit, too!

Pics from the DGP reading last Friday....

What an awesome night! Last Friday I read at the Dancing Girl Press studio in Chicago with Leigh Stein, who is a KICKASS poet. The reading went really well, my friends and family were there, and I got a glimpse at my new chapbook, which should be available for purchase sometime very soon!

It's been such an exciting time for me in my writing life - my chapbook is coming out, I'm out of my 6 month funk and writing almost every day, and I'm really getting to focus on having fun with each piece I write. I'm sending poems out for consideration again, which I don't think I've done on a regular basis since late last summer. It's just a great feeling to do something that I really love!

In blossombonesland, we are giddy looking at the lineup so far! As you can see from Susan's last post, our next issue is going to seriously rule. And there's still time left to submit!

Partial list of contributors for blossombones #3 and deadline reminders...

blossombones #3, forthcoming in January 2009!

poetry and prose by:

Margaret Bashaar

Athena Dixon

Sara Hilary

Amy Hinrichs

Daniela Olszewska

Kristen Orser

Amy Pence

Toni Scales

Erin Elizabeth Smith

Susan Yount

***

There's still time to submit. We're reading for issue #3 through November 1st!

***

Also: we are accepting submissions for our fall "digital chapbook" issue through September 15. Be sure to check the website for submission details.

We look forward to reading your work!

Last week at Myopic...

Pre-reading...



Melissa reads poems from her soon-to-be released chapbook The Fire-Wife.



Lauren reads poems from Marriage Bones.



Melissa, Simone, Susan, and lots of very cool books.

Culbertson/Levato reading!

Hello all!

If anyone is in the Chicagoland area this Sunday, loves poetry, and wants to see my cute new dress....



Myopic Books in Chicago / 1564 N. Milwaukee Avenue, 2nd Floor

http://www.myopicbookstore.com/mynews/

Myopic Poetry Series, curated by Larry Sawyer – a weekly series of readings and occasional poets' talks



Sunday, July 27 at 7:00 pm – Melissa Culbertson & Lauren Levato

When she's not busy being a woman-in-tights superhero, perpetual student, and college sports TV network freelance guru, Melissa CULBERTSON moonlights as a writer. A recent grad of Lewis University, Melissa currently and perpetually lives in Homewood, Illinois, which is about as interesting as it sounds. Her work has recently appeared in Flyway, Windows, Pebble Lake Review, Barn Owl Review, Wicked Alice and [GROWLING SOFTLY] from Juliet Cook's Blood Pudding Press. Her debut chapbook, the fire-wife, is forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press and should be hot and ready this August! She also co-edits the online literary journal blossombones with her good friend and fellow writer, Susan Slaviero.

Artist and poet Lauren LEVATO is the author of two chapbooks, Marriage Bones and at the hotel andromeda, a collaborative text/visual project with Kristy Bowen. She holds degrees in political journalism from Georgetown University and in writing and women's studies from Purdue University, where she was also a mid-level champ in cricket spitting and discovered she's quite good at hatchet throwing. Her visual art is exhibited internationally. She currently works for Jean Albano Gallery in Chicago. For more, visit laurenlevato.com
.

Lauren is an amazing poet - but you guys would know that! Check her out in the blossombones archives :)

Hope to see everyone there!!!

New email addresses!

Due to some hard-to-eliminate spam problems, Melissa and I have decided to set up new email addresses.

While the old ones will remain "active" until the end of the current reading period, we do request that all new submissions be sent to the following addresses:

poetry & hybrid pieces: susan.blossombones {at} gmail {dot} com

fiction & creative non-fiction: melissa.blossombones {at} gmail {dot} com

Thanks!