The New Condemned: Contemporary Albanian Poetry

Edited by Dustin Pickering & Candice Louisa Daquin. The New Condemned: Contemporary Albanian Poetry in English is a selection of poets writing beyond the 1990’s. This selection includes works by established and minor poets whose voices represent contemporary strains in Albanian poetry. As parts of Europe move toward far-right wing nativism and isolationism, this anthology seeks to inform the poetry community of the spirit of an established people with a long standing tradition in letters. In The New Condemned: Contemporary Albanian Poetry in English you will find quality translations of poetry that are uncompromisingly beautiful and heroic. By nature, poets are exiles as they seek the truth in private quarters. As such, Albanian poets face a curious predicament having been condemned by history to isolation from much of the English speaking world. Ismail Kadare is one of the few whose work reaches a larger English audience. In this volume, we seek to bolster the voices of others in the English speaking world. Purchase HERE

But You Don’t Look Sick: The Real Life Adventures of Fibro Bitches, Lupus Warriors, and other Superheroes Battling Invisible Illness

But You Don’t Look Sick: The Real Life Adventures of Fibro Bitches, Lupus Warriors, and other Superheroes Battling Invisible Illness features 123 powerful voices living with invisible chronic illnesses— voices often stigmatized, ignored, or isolated by society. These pages are emblazoned with the words and art of those waging a war against a wide range of debilitating, and often unseen, illnesses. The reader will journey deep into the lives of the contributors, intimately sharing moments of pain, heartbreak, loneliness, strength, courage, humor, and survival. The voices contained within this cover are both revelation and revolution, an unstoppable force pieced together by writers and artists worldwide, demonstrating what happens when warriors come together to educate and fight for their truths to be heard.

“[But You Don’t Look Sick] exposes the gendered, racialized and class-based inequalities that persist within the realms of diagnosis and healthcare provision, while underscoring the urgency of activism, education and the ongoing fight for justice for individuals with invisible illnesses.”
– Dr. Tanfer Emin Tunc, Professor of American Studies at Hacettepe University

“Above all, however, But You Don’t Look Sick is a powerful human showing of how opening to one’s pain generates courage and helps spread awareness. By opening the heart and manifesting compassion, this book helps drive change.”
– Jaya Avendel, Author & the poetic voice behind Nin Chronicles

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Through The Looking Glass: Reflecting on Madness and Chaos Within

Through The Looking Glass

Join 158 writers and artists from across the globe as they journey Through the Looking Glass to unveil the truth about life with mental illness. Diverse, raw, and urgent, the poetry, prose, and art work in this anthology dig deep into the experience of living with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and other neurodivergent conditions, as well as the challenges of loving someone who struggles with such an illness. 

Full of hope and despair, acceptance and rebellion, the creativity contained within these pages reflects the reality that we cannot walk around or behind the looking glass, but must walk through it unflinchingly to educate, foster compassion, and reduce the stigma so often associated with mental illness.

The Kali Project: Invoking the Goddess Within / Indian Women’s Voices

The Kali Project

WINNER FINALIST: National Indie Excellence Awards (2021) Kali represents the perfect metaphor of the great dissenter desperately needed in today’s times, to rise above subjugate society. Kali, a goddess of strength and destruction, represents energy in its purest and feral form. Goddess Kali is an embodiment of the unfettered, and uncontrolled energy, who like nature, can create and destroy with equal ease. She is the perfect feminist icon the world needs today.

“The Kali Project draws in the voices of women as women – teachers, mental health workers, writers, doctors, lawyers, bankers, social workers – adding a sharper understanding of the inner realities that patriarchal structures seek to silence, sanctified by society, religion, community, and class. With entries from children and teenagers, to poems by internationally well-known writers, the gamut of experiences is vast and reiterates the idea that art and poetry are the essential vehicles which carry the hurt and, in the process, also healing within them.”
-Charanjeet Kaur, Former Chief Editor and Features Editor of Muse India, currently Contributory Editor for Indian writing in English of MI. Consultant Editor of SPARROW (Sound & Picture Archives for Research On Women) Newsletter.

As the World Burns: Writers and Artists Reflect on a World Gone Mad

As The World Burns

As the World Burns: Writers and Artists Reflect on a World Gone Mad is an anthology of poetry, prose, essay, and art inspired by the unprecedented events of the year 2020. It embraces fierce and raw creative works relating to life during the Covid-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter, Donald Trump, and the economic uncertainty and horror of the last eight months. One hundred and fourteen writers and artists spanning ten countries and 30 states are represented in this powerful volume. It is both a story of survival and an act of resistance. “We speak with many voices, to the damage wrought in these violent, fevered months. Let us never forget or turn away, from what is just, what is necessary, to keep light alive in this world.”

Overcoming Fear: Based on true events

Overcoming Fear

What scares you? It’s quite challenging to learn how to overcome fear, whether it’s overcoming the loss of a love, loss of their jobs, embarrassment, ridicule, loss of respect, or failure. This book is a collection of short stories based on true events submitted by authors from all around the world. Each story is the narration of personal experiences and how they overcome their fear. The purpose of this book is to spread the message that everyone faces challenges and tremendous fear in their life but instead of stepping back, they learned how to fight back and conquer it. Enjoy reading!

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SMITTEN This Is What Love Looks Like: Poetry by Women for Women an Anthology

Smitten: This Is What Love Looks Like

WINNER Finalist: National Indie Excellence Awards (2020) SMITTEN This Is What Love Looks Like is an anthology of love poetry by 120 lesbian and bisexual women ranging in age from 15 to 87 from around the globe. This is a book that should be gifted. In spite of its implied audience, Smitten is not just for women who adore women. It is for those whose hearts twist and skin prickles at romance, who know the flight of butterflies in their stomachs, who long for the feeling of home in another’s heart. SMITTEN is a best selling collection that has received world-wide acclaim and now stands as a testimony to queer love between women. Get your sweetie a copy today. #LGBTQX, #QueerPoetry

Texas’s Best Emerging Poets 2019: An Anthology

Texas’ Best Emerging Poets 2019

They say everything’s bigger in Texas. From its towering mountains to its endless sparkling rivers and everything in between, the Lone Star State has plenty to offer. The sheer size and beauty of its landscape are only matched by the welcoming arms of its people. Here, nature’s majesty and human kindness fuse to create a tapestry that can’t help but inspire poetry. In Texas’s Best Emerging Poets 2019, 72 up-and-coming poets have their own chance to shine. Covering a wide array of topics ranging from love and heartbreak, family and friendship, the inherent beauty of nature, and so much more, these young talents will amaze you. Containing one poem per poet, this anthology is a compelling introduction to the great wordsmiths of tomorrow.

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America’s Emerging Poets 2018: West Region

America’s Emerging Poets 2018: West Region

The American West is a modern-day tribute to a bygone era where settlers risked everything to forge a new frontier. And it’s still breaking barriers in modern industries like information technology and finance. But its heart lies in a glorious past that symbolizes the strength of the American spirit, one that conjures up poetry as vast as the horizon.And in America’s Emerging Poets 2018: West Region, 60+ up-and-coming poets—representing the states of Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming—have their chance to do just that. Covering a wide array of topics ranging from love and heartbreak, family and friendship, the inherent beauty of nature, and so much more, these young talents will amaze you. Containing one poem per poet, this anthology is a compelling introduction to the great wordsmiths of tomorrow.

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We Will Not Be Silenced: The Lived Experience of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault Told Powerfully Through Poetry, Prose, Essay, and Art

We Will Not Be Silenced

We Will Not Be Silenced: The Lived Experience of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault Told Powerfully Through Poetry, Prose, Essay, and Art is the brainchild of Kindra M. Austin, Candice Louisa Daquin, Rachel Finch, and Christine E. Ray. The four indie writers and survivors felt compelled to do something after the strongly triggering Kavanaugh Hearings. They decided that they would advocate, educate, and resist through art.

The editors opened submissions for just two weeks to women and men around the world. The response from writers and artists was overwhelming: the final anthology includes 166 pieces of writing and art from 95 contributors around the globe.

From Nicole Lyons (Blossom and Bone):’We Will Not Be Silenced’ is a beautiful collection of devastating pieces, it is a siren call to survivors everywhere, and a book that should be showcased in every school, stocked on the shelves of every hospital, and sitting on the counters in every police station in the world. ‘We Will Not Be Silenced’ should simply be available to everyone and anyone who has ever been violated, and to everyone and anyone who would be brave enough to speak out and speak up in an era when victims still aren’t being heard.

Rattle Poetry Magazine

Rattle, Winter 2006

Releasing December 2006, issue #26 celebrated 14 living poets of the Greatest Generation–those born between 1911 and 1924. This was the generation that grew up in the Roaring 20s, tried to find work during the Great Depression, fought in World War II, and gave birth to the Baby Boomers. No generation has had a greater influence on recent American history, and gathering them together to listen to their collective poetic voice is quite worthwhile.

Also in the issue, Alan Fox interviews Jane Hirshfield and Jack Kornfield. In the essay section, Doug Holder profiles Ed Galing, and Gary Lehmann writes about Dorothy Parker.