Middle West Press

20/06/2024

A new product from our friends at The Wrath-Bearing Tree literary journal's "Wrath-Bearing Tees" on-going art-awareness project. They're pitching "HOT GIRL SUMMER BUT LITERARY"!

https://www.bonfire.com/the-hot-haiku-summer-tee/

cc: Welcome to FOB Haiku

Support Wrath-Bearing Tree literary journal. Buying a Wrath-Bearing Tee helps Wrath-Bearing Tree literary journal be the literary journal it is - one that lavishes the...

12/06/2024

Excited to signal-boost this call-for-submissions out to the universe!

Send up to 4x speculative / Sci-Fi & Fantasy / SFF poems on themes of “biofuturity” for persons with disabilities! Deadline is 15AUG24.

Project inspired by the real-life example of AstroAccess—an organization that seeks include disabled people in space exploration!

Full details on call-for-submissions here: https://disabilitypoetics.com/call-for-poetry-anthology-1

Astro Access: https://astroaccess.org/about/

POEMS are sought  for an anthology exploring the intersection of disability and the speculative. I was awarded a New York State Council on the Arts grant to explore disability poetics and I will spend part of that endowment to publish this anthology this year.

11/06/2024

Submissions window closes July 1, 2024!

Wanted: Human-generated poems and micro-prose (300 words max.) engaging with themes of environmentalism, climate change, technology through a lens of Midwestern experience. This is an eco/speculative/SF market.

http://www.middlewestpress.com/2024/01/anthology-seeks-visions-of-american.html

07/06/2024

Liam Corley's "Unwound: Poems from Enduring Wars" as reviewed this week in the Journal of Veterans Studies!

"Through his writing, Corley invites readers to poetically encounter the military experience to further their own understanding of the lives of our 'servicemembers, veterans, and their families.' This poetry collection is an insightful, creative representation of the different lives military members live."
—Micah C. Wright

Full review here:
https://journal-veterans-studies.org/articles/10.21061/jvs.v10i1.579

Buy it here:
http://amzn.to/3OuSkEa

29/05/2024

NEW! 42-minute oral history interview with Middle West Press poet and GWOT U.S. Navy veteran Liam Corley ("Unwound: Poems from Enduring Wars")!

Full video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA-3aZJFLqo&t=18s

Buy the book here:
http://amzn.to/3OuSkEa

"What I do for a living—not just in the military—is to study people through literature. We can *know* a lot, but that's not the same as being able to control people or a situation. There is a sense in which we're an incredibly idealistic people. When we're told we're going to go do good, we believe it. Because [...] we have a really big heart. But we're [also] easily betrayed in that, because the methods that that we adopt may not lead to the results that are claimed."

Liam Corley served as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve in Afghanistan (2008-2009) and Iraq (2022-2023). He is a professor humanities at California State P...

28/05/2024

Aly Allen's "Paying for Gas with Quarters" as reviewed in the Journal of Veterans Studies!

"[W]hile the legacies of combat and loss linger like ghosts in others, the collection might best be described as an extended rumination on domesticity and identity wherein war and veteran identity serve as a backdrop [...] The collection dwells in home and home-ness (conceived broadly), and though it breaches outward, the domestic is central in driving the collection forward."
—Roger Thompson

Full review:
https://journal-veterans-studies.org/articles/10.21061/jvs.v10i1.577

Buy it here:
https://amzn.to/3LTLMP2

16/05/2024

Thanks to all the artists, veterans, and veterans who created such great space, energy, and light at last night’s launch of the second "ISSUED: Stories of Service," a literary journal underwritten by the Arizona State University Office for Veteran and Military Academic Engagement!

Spoke some words. Shared some love, if not wisdom. Made new friends; met some that I’ve known on-line for years, face-to-face for the first time! The “ISSUED” crew has a great thing going!

Here’s who talked and presented:

- Randy ‘Sherpa’ Brown
- Joan Sisco
- John M. Johnson
- Shawn Bazhaf
- Jeremie ‘Bacpac’ Franko
- Marcus Brown
- Brian O’Hare
- Dana Ramsey
- Shane Moon

Bonus note: From the Commons performance space, the “First Draft” beer & wine bar, and the way their staff curates a robust poetry section— Changing Hands Bookstore does things right!

13/05/2024

Join my fellow war-writers and me for a 15MAY24 in-person launch of the second "ISSUED: Stories of Service," underwritten by Arizona State University's Office for Veteran and Military Academic Engagement!

FREE and public event is 6 p.m. Wed., May 15, 2024 at the Changing Hands Bookstore's Phoenix location.

Details:
https://www.changinghands.com/event/may2024/issued

Address:
300 W Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85013

cc: Middle West Press; Welcome to FOB Haiku; The Aiming Circle; Brian O'Hare; Shawn Banzhaf

09/05/2024

Forthcoming from Middle West Press! The "Giant Robot Poems" anthology launches July 2, 2024!

In an exciting new 190-page anthology, 65 emerging and established voices from the science-fiction-poetry and war-poetry communities have...

30/04/2024

Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain

24/04/2024

18/04/2024

Congratulations to fellow Iowa author, haikuist, U.S. Army veteran, and recent "Things We Carry Still" anthology (Middle West Press) contributor Dennis Maulsby, who debuted a new chapbook of Haiku, SciFiKu, FantasyKu, and HorrorKu at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines, Iowa last night, Wed., Apr. 17!

Yes, he even included a war haiku or two:

December 25, 1968
soldiers are medevaced
plasma for Christmas

Check out the full event video (it's almost an impromptu haiku tutorial) at the Beaverdale Books page—and you can always purchase Maulsby's books by calling our favorite local independent bookstore at: (515) 279-5400!

18/04/2024

Congratulations to Iowa author, poet, U.S. Army veteran, and "Things We Carry Still" anthology contributor Dennis Maulsby, who debuted a new chapbook of Haiku, SciFiKu, FantasyKu, and HorrorKu at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines, Iowa last night, Wed., Apr. 17!

Check out the video—and you can always purchase Maulsby's books by calling our favorite independent bookstore at: (515) 279-5400!

17/04/2024

Call them what you like -- "book bans," "challenges," "protests," "legislative initiatives" -- any action that seeks to limit what stories Iowans can read, or tries to tell us what we shouldn't read, is an attempt to sidestep the First Ammendment. When these attempts target specific members of our community, especially students, it only gets worse.

Today marks the second annual , organized by United Against Book Bans . We encourage everyone to visit their website at https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/right-to-read-day/, and cosnider what actions we can take against all attempts to curtail our freedom to write, read, and share *every* story.

17/04/2024

Back to the poetry grinds! It's

$3 e-book sampler of Charlie Sherpa's uniquely caffeinated brand of snarky war poetry: https://amzn.to/4cAfq7t

12/04/2024

More reader reviews of our "Things We Carry Still" anthology!

In an anthology chock-full with revealing poetry and pr…

08/04/2024

Thanks to everyone who visited us at the Mission Creek Festival's first-ever Literary Magazine & Small Press Bookfair, which creatively popped-up at the SpareMeIC bowling alley and arcade in Iowa City, Iowa!

Lots of great vibes, tunes, and conversations with fellow writers and readers! Godzilla shirt made its debut! Sold more than a few books, too!

About us:
http://www.middlewestpress.com/p/about-our-books.html

03/04/2024

We are pleased and proud to note that ALL of our books & covers now appear on Bookshop DOT org!

Before you order, make sure to choose YOUR favorite local bookstore (as we understand it, using Bookshop, they'll receive a portion of the transaction).

https://bookshop.org/shop/MiddleWestPress

02/04/2024

02/04/2024

Thanks for all the positive vibes from the launch of this digital coffee-poem sampler yesterday, during the confluence of April Fool's Day and National Poetry Month!

Inspired by the growing number of veteran-owned coffee businesses, I first developed this project last fall. When no one brand took me up on my offer to work for beans, I decided to share the laughs with you—for the price of a cup of Joe!

"Good Morning, First Sergeant: 10 war poems about coffee"
$3 Kindle e-book: https://amzn.to/4cAfq7t

cc: Middle West Press; Welcome to FOB Haiku; Red Bull Rising

01/04/2024

No Foolin'! April 1 is the first day of National Poetry Month—and the first day you can buy Charlie Sherpa's new digital chapbook! It humorously collects new and previously published poems on themes of war and caffeine!

Also includes the classic drill-sergeant essay "Listen Up Maggots! It's National Poetry Month"!

More info: http://www.middlewestpress.com/2024/03/no-foolin-its-national-poetry-month.html

"Good Morning, First Sergeant: 10 war poems about coffee"
Kindle e-book: https://amzn.to/4cAfq7t

29/03/2024

Oz, Oxymorons, Panning for Gold, Ioway, Publishing, and 1984.

27/03/2024

“These poems are just the right container […] not too sweet and not too poisonous, but potent and powerful just the same.”
—Nancy Stroer, author of the forthcoming "Playing Army: A Novel"

Letters from Conflict:
Kindle e-book: amzn.to/4bvkolt
Print: amzn.to/3T61w44

26/03/2024

Support independent booksellers by shopping for Middle West Press titles via our new store at Bookshop.org!

https://bookshop.org/shop/MiddleWestPress

22/03/2024

“Veterans-Lit in our local news!”

Danny Judge poured his passion at Simpson into his new creation, The Indianola Review

22/03/2024

Take the Na-Po-Wri-Mo challenge and write 30 poems in 30 days! In Trio House Press' anthology/prompt book, you'll find inspiration to try out new forms, subjects, and approaches to poetry - and you can draft your creations in this beautiful blank journal, featuring the cover art of Jeffrey Scherer.....

21/03/2024

“Evoking intimacy over time and space, Lisa Stice’s poems snuggle and spark, warm and rend […]”
—Liam Corley, author of “Unwound: Poems from Enduring War”

More info here:
- On Stice’s “Letters from Conflict”: https://amzn.to/3T61w44
- On Corley’s “Unwound”: http://amzn.to/3OuSkEa