Tag: Gabby Gilliam

Publishing Opportunity for Poets and Prose Writers. Old Scratch to curate Instant Noodles.

Published on by Nadja Maril1 Comment

DID YOU KNOW….

Instant Noodles is on online literary magazine. Part of the Devil’s Party Press family, Instant Noodles is the opportunity that brought the majority of the authors to Old Scratch Press. It is ALWAYS free to read, and free to submit to.

DID YOU KNOW….

Instant Noodles has its own website now? https://instantnoodleslitmag.com Bookmark it!

DID YOU KNOW…

Old Scratch Press is curating the December 2023 issue? The theme for the December edition is “Cooold Turkey.”

Please take note, we’re shortening our word count. Can you take the challenge and keep it brief by making every word count? For our Winter issue we’re asking our writers to limit their poetry submissions to 2 poems (up to a combined total of 500 words). Prose writers, we’ll be only publishing work that is 500 words or less. (If you need to finish a sentence, we’ll cut you a little slack). Remember, we only publish writers over the age of forty and it’s important to submit work that is somehow related to the theme.  Guest Editors for the Winter issue include: GABBY GILLIAM: Poetry, R.DAVID FULCHER: Fiction, ALAN BERN and DIANNE PEARCE: Art, and NADJA MARIL: Memoir/Creative Nonfiction.

The issue opens for submissions August 15, 2023. Submissions close on October 15th.

You can submit here!

Patricia Smith and Dorothy Parker two Favorite Poets

Published on by Nadja MarilLeave a comment

As evidenced in this week’s post, constantly reading poetry helps to cultivate the poet in all of us. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been writing poetry for years, there are always new poets to discover and poets from previous centuries to rediscover!

My Favorite Poem

By Gabby Gilliam

I have a hard time picking favorites. Whenever someone asks me my favorite book or favorite song, I’m incapable of narrowing it down to only one. I’ve found the same can be said for poetry.

I try to read at least one collection of poems a month, though I catch snippets of poetry daily. I have some perennial favorites, but I have a new favorite poem every time I come across a poem that resonates with me. I recently finished Unshuttered by Patricia Smith. It’s a beautiful ekphrastic collection inspired by old photographs she has collected from thrift stores. The first poem in the collection immediately struck me and has become my current favorite, though the rest of the poems are also wonderful. The poems in Unshuttered are titled by their position in the book, so my current favorite poem is titled 1.

One of the things I enjoyed about 1 is the end rhyme. It’s rare to come across a poem with such perfect end rhyme that doesn’t feel forced. Nothing about Smith’s poem feels obvious. I also think the direct address to Anna and the speaker’s pleading make the poem feel so personal.

I don’t often read rhyming poetry, but it’s funny that both poems that immediately came to mind when thinking about favorites happen to rhyme. One of my first favorite poets was Dorothy Parker, and I’m still delighted by her poetry. She taught me that poetry doesn’t have to be lofty and difficult to interpret. That sharp words can resonate as forcefully as flowery prose (and usually more so!). Parker’s poems Resumé and One Perfect Rose both made me chuckle the first time I read them. Unlike Smith, Parker’s use of rhyme is purposefully obvious. It’s her unexpected images and phrasing that make the poems an unexpected surprise. I think poets often take themselves too seriously, and Parker wasn’t afraid to have fun with her writing.

One Perfect Rose

By Dorothy Parker  1893 – 1967

A single flow’r he sent me, since we met.
     All tenderly his messenger he chose;
Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet—
     One perfect rose.

I knew the language of the floweret;
     “My fragile leaves,” it said, “his heart enclose.”
Love long has taken for his amulet 
     One perfect rose.

Why is it no one ever sent me yet
     One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it’s always just my luck to get
     One perfect rose. 

From Enough Rope (Boni & Liveright, 1926) by Dorothy Parker. This poem is in the public domain.

These two poets are drastically different, but I love their work for the response their work evokes in me––which I think we can agree is what we’re all looking for in a good poem.

We are proud to announce that Old Scratch Press will be publishing Gabby’s first chapbook of poems. The working title is No Ocean Spit Me Out. Approximately 30 pages in length, the poems in No Ocean Spit Me Out explore the dynamics and evolution of family relationships. It is scheduled for release in 2024, so keep following our website as well as Gabby for more details.

TOMORROW IS THE DAY!

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If you don’t know writing by Gabby Gilliam, you sure should. She is a fantastic and surprising and original author.

AND THIS IS FREE!

Click here to add this event to your life today!

We are proud to announce that Old Scratch Press will be publishing Gabby’s first chapbook of poems. The working title is No Ocean Spit Me Out. Approximately 30 pages in length, the poems in No Ocean Spit Me Out explore the dynamics and evolution of family relationships. It is scheduled for release in 2024, so keep following our website as well as Gabby for more details.

INDIE PUBLISHER DEVIL PARTY PRESS LAUNCHES NEW IMPRINT

Published on by Nadja Maril4 Comments

IN THE NEWS

Old Scratch Press will feature original chapbooks and short-form prose

For Immediate Release

June 15, 2023 – Los Angeles: Devil’s Party Press of Los Angeles announced the launch of a new publishing imprint, Old Scratch Press. This new imprint, based in southern Delaware, will produce quality chapbooks that feature poetry and short-form prose by leading authors.

Supporting this endeavor will be ten contributing editors, members of the Old Scratch Press Short-Form Prose and Poetry Collective: poets and writers Alan Bern, Anthony Doyle, Ellis Elliott, Robert Fleming. R. David Fulcher, Gabby Gilliam, Morgan Golladay, Nadja Maril, Dianne Pearce, Janet Holmes Uchendu, and Virginia Watts who will work together to help promote the love of poems and short form prose.

Old Scratch Press’ inaugural publication is Break in the Field, a collection of verse by award-winning poet, Ellis Elliott. Ms. Elliott is a contributing writer for the Southern Review of Books, an editor/workshop teacher for The Dewdrop, and facilitator of the Bewilderness Writing Workshops. Her publishing credits include Signal Mountain Review, Ignation Literary Magazine, and Literary Mama.

Break in the Field addresses how human perception can change, depending on the vantage point. “I am a perennial student of nature, inner realms, and the wisdom of the body,” says Elliott, “and I write to bear witness and disentangle the world as I perceive it.” Break in the Field will be available in mid-July 2023.

November 2023 will see the publication of White Noir, a chapbook by Robert Fleming. White Noir is a black and white visual poetry exploration of human birth to death and beyond on Earth. A prize-winning poet who explores masculinity, sexual orientation, sin and virtue, and dystopia in words and graphics, Fleming is a self-described word-artist whose work has been published internationally in more than 95 print and online publications, and has appeared in art galleries and in online mic features. “The vibe is dark, Goethe, and dystopian, but I lighten it up by including humor, and it offers a hopeful ending,” notes Fleming of his upcoming collection.

Beginning in 2024, Old Scratch Press will produce three or more original titles per year, available in both print and Ebook formats. For more information visit oldscratchpress.com and devilspartypress.com.

About Devil’s Party Press
Devil’s Party Press, LLC, an independent publishing house located in Los Angeles, was founded in 2017 by Dianne Pearce, an award-winning author, editor, and publisher. The mission of Devil’s Party is to help showcase the work of unsung authors over 40 years of age. Devil’s Party publishes literary fiction while its four imprints are genre specific: Gravelight Press (horror), Hawkshaw Press (crime/cozy), Out-of-This-World Press (sci-fi), and Old Scratch Press (poetry). To date, Devil’s Party and its imprints have published over 200 authors internationally. In addition to print publications, Devil’s Party produces the award-winning online literary magazine, Instant Noodles

INTRODUCING COLLECTIVE MEMBER GABBY GILLIAM

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Ten dedicated writer poets comprise the Old Scratch Short Form Collective, with the goal of working with the Devil’s Party Press, a small independent publisher, to bring to fruition the concept of publishing chapbooks of poetry and short form prose under the imprint Old Scratch Press.

This week we are introducing Gabby Gilliam.

Gabby Gilliam is a writer, an aspiring teacher, and a mom. She lives in the DC metro area with her husband and son.

Her poetry has appeared in One Art, Anti-Heroin Chic, Plant-Human Quarterly, The Ekphrastic Review, Vermillion, Deep Overstock, Spank the Carp, and others. It has also appeared in anthologies from Pure Slush, White Stag Publishing, Black Hare Press, Raven’s Quoth Press, Devil’s Party Press, and others. 

Old Scratch Press will publish Gabby’s first chapbook of poems. The working title is No Ocean Spit Me Out. Approximately 30 pages in length, the poems in No Ocean Spit Me Out explore the dynamics and evolution of family relationships. It is scheduled for release during the second quarter of 2024.

Whether Gabby Gilliam is writing about the universe or writing about the give and take of emotions between two people, her work covers a wide range of topics. Want to read more? Here are a few links to Gabby’s poems published in Topical Poetry, One Art Poetry, and Ekphrastic Review : Quantum Physics Proves There is No Such Thing as Nothing, What We Can Gather and When a Woman Reaches Super Nova.

Keep up with Gabby’s work by following her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Visit her website for her latest literary news.

INTRODUCING COLLECTIVE MEMBER ROBERT FLEMING

Published on by Nadja Maril2 Comments

Ten dedicated writer poets comprise the Old Scratch Short Form Collective, with the goal of working with the Devil’s Party Press, a small independent publisher, to bring to fruition the concept of publishing chapbooks of poetry and short form prose under the imprint Old Scratch Press.

This week we are introducing Robert Fleming. His chapbook White Noir will be published in the fall of 2023.  Don’t forget to subscribe to our blog, as we’ll be introducing the contributing editors, member of the collective, one by one each week. You’ll also learn about poetry events, publishing opportunities, and new ways of approaching the genre of short form.

MEET ROBERT FLEMING

Robert Fleming is a word-artist born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada who emigrated to Lewes, Delaware, United States. Robert follows his mother as a visual artist and his grandfather as a poet. In his work, Fleming explores masculinity, sexual orientation, sin and virtue, and dystopia in words and graphics on earth and beyond.

Since 2017, more than 400 of his works were published internationally in more than 95 print and online publications, art galleries and online mic features. His style is influenced by the writers Robert Frost, Dr. Seuss, and the Beats and his graphics by surrealistic artists like Salvador Dali.  A Member of the Rehoboth Beach and Horror Writers Association, nominated twice for the Pushcart Award and twice for Best of the Net,  Robert Fleming’s is the winner of the  2022 San Gabriel Valley California Poetry Broadside Award and is in the 2021 Best of Mad Swirl.

Robert’s chapbook, White Noir, a Black and white visual poetry exploration of human birth to death and beyond on earth, is scheduled for publication in the November of 2023. He says about the book, the vibe is dark, goethe, and dystopian, but I lighten it up by including humor. And,” he adds, “ it offers a hopeful ending.”

Follow Robert on  https://www.facebook.com/robert.fleming.5030 .

Learn about the other writer/poets in our collective in the upcoming weeks, or click on their links here:

Alan Bern
Anthony Doyle

Ellis Elliot
Gabby Gilliam
Janet Holmes Uchendu
Morgan Golladay
Nadja Maril
R. David Fulcher
Robert Fleming
Virginia Watts

In just four more days April will be here, and you know what that means?… National Poetry Month!  If you have a favorite poem, we’d love to hear about it and possibly post it ( if it is in the public domain). Please use the comment space to get in touch, We’ll be sharing favorite poems and pieces we admire along with writing prompts, thoughts and musing about poetry, short form prose and other hybrid forms.

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Do you have an idea for something you’d like to read about in this space? Let us know. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.