sometimes talks lead somewhere

Weekends for Plan B Press are for meeting with folks not related to us. For example today I met with M. Magus of Yockadot Poetic Theatre Festival in Alexandria, VA about the possibility of collaborating in the near future. Details forthcoming.

in the devilish details

In Dec. 2001, I moved to Philadelphia and a few months later I had the good fortune to land at Robins Bookstore, a Philly independent bookstore ICON, as their poetry and special events coordinator and their first webmaster. I got to host a poetry series beginning in April 2002 called "the Eternal NOW!" which lasted there for 18 months.

When the series began, Katy & I were still coming together as 'teammay' and it wasn't until later in 2003 that Dianne Miller handed us the reins of Plan B Press. In that time, as I was new to Philly and all, I got to witness some incredibly good (and some pretty terrible) poetry at readings across the city. We also got to hear, and later publish, Lamont Steptoe, Ryan Eckes, Jim Mancinelli, Sandy Crimmins, Andrew Bradley, Michele Belluomini; in fact everyone we have been privileged to have worked with...we heard in the lead up to running the Press.

We continue to publish Philadelphia based poets. Or poets with strong connections to the city, like Kristine Grow and in the Fall of 2008, Dan Mcguire .

That's who we are as a Press. Katy and I used to walk through Old City , and I recall many times standing in front of the historical marker on the spot where Common Sense was published. Philadelphia is steeped in our history, in our mythology, in our blood.

At the end of the reading series run, I wanted to capture the moment so I asked all the poets who had been featured to submit a poem for an anthology which we ended up calling NOW!(then) and is pictured above. 33 poets did send a poem in and it was a wonderful collection. Katy's last minute twist was the suggest we print the cover on vellum. Quite literally the first handful of copies were "hot off the presses" as Katy had to apply an iron to the cover the dry the ink . We used the wrong kind of vellum, but hey -it's a keepsake with a trove of great poets included and we might note that it sparked Larry Robin to come up with his own anthologies for the marvelous 100 poet events each year. We like when the ripple effect happens, one never knows what the "unanticipated consequences" will be, but it's always worth the doing of a thing to find out.

Philly area bookstores we are involved with

"When the press moved to Philadelphia in 2003, we started up a relationship with Robin's Bookstore at 13th and Sansom Streets (www.robinsbookstore.com). It is touted as the oldest independent bookstore in Philadelphia. It's got history, it's got family-like clientele, and it's got a jam-packed events schedule. Robin's was very accommodating and nurturing and we met some really talented poets and some really good friends. It was a bit DIY to make readings happen, but we lived close by so it worked out nicely. Now that we're in Virginia it's not as easy so we haven't been able to host as much there. Our newest PBPer, Kristine Grow, will be having a book party there tonight, April 24, 2008, in fact.

In 2004 we met Angie Roach who was just starting up a bookstore in the Bourse building in Old Town called Voices and Visions. We had some great readings there too and enjoyed working with Angie. It held so much promise, but for one reason or another it wobbled and is regretfully no longer around.

There's a gentrifying little city in southeastern PA called Phoenixville. It's about a half hour outside Philadelphia. Among neat little shops, restaurants is Wolfgang Books (www.wolfgangbooks.com). It serves as both a new and used bookstore, providing excellent selections of all types of literature. The owners were fantastic and let us set up a once-per-month reading schedule all to our little selves. Occasionally we are able to travel north and attend the readings. We thoroughly enjoy the time we get to spend with our authors whom we rarely get to see in person.

Please check out our schedule of events . You won't regret attending one. If you have any ideas for other venues or would like to get a Plan B Poet in your store or venue, please contact us at planbpress@att.net."


Katy Jean May
Creative Director

Kristine Grow's "Petal Whispers"

We became aware of the talents of Kristine Grow through hearing her read in Philadelphia, and getting ahold of her self-published first chapbook, Long Draw. When she submitted this mss. for consideration, we instantly saw the potential here. Katy made some wonderful images, and the book really works!!



Kristine lives and reads in the Philadelphia area, so if you can't get to hear her in person - please check her webpage and do buy her book, especially now......as you start planting your own garden.

best

Our Back Pages

Since starting the press ten years ago we have published 40 books. Some have been reprinted several times, some are still in their first run. For various reasons some books have sold out, not to be reprinted. We are proud of the books we have brought out, and each publishing experience has made us a better press. So although some of our books have gone out of print, they can still be seen on Our Back Pages.

thanks

Katy Jean May
Creative Director

new books coming from Plan B Press

we are very excited about our latest set of releases, The Dragonfly Constellation, by F. J. Bergmann and ____want/need by C L Bledsoe. Bergmann's book is a collection of sci-fi poetry and the material is handled extremely well. Before receiving this manuscript, I wasn't really aware that there was something called 'sci-fi poetry', but I can state that this book ought to be seen as a model of the form. This collection should be available by the end of the week.


as should the new collection by C L Bledsoe - his little collection is an interesting exploration into form and meaning using the crossword puzzle motif as it's structure.

Happy NPM, by the way

hope you are filling your tank with poetry
it's cheaper than gasoline at the moment
and goes so much further in the long run
one's soul runs on poetry

now, where was I?

the thing about having kids is that they completely alter one's sense of time and purpose.
Last October, our son William was born. He was the second child we had had in 18 months. '2 under 2' as I like to remind people. IN the process of dealing with them and the Press, this blog was forgotten in the shuffle.

sorry about that

s - a - m

1999, our first project - Bardfest99 anthology

The idea of the Press was tied directly to the existence of the first poetry festival taking place in the USA during National Poetry Month (each April). By the time this idea was being acted upon the National Poetry Month concept as presented by the Academy of American Poets was in its third year. Nowhere in the United States, and frankly nowhere on the planet, was there a month-long poetry festival. Only in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Only the one presented by the Berks Bards, only the one called Bardfest.



As the founder of both the festival and the organization to present the festival, I had also come to the idea of creating a Press to showcase some of the poets and the work being presented during the 30 day festival. Across Berks County during 1999, at a multiple of different venues and locations, poets read, shouted, performed, sang, and listen to dozens of poets coming from across the state and region as well as many county-wide poets.



At the end of this thrilling, overwhelming month the Berks Bards, now all of 6-weeks old as an organization, collected poems that were read during the fesitval for our first anthology, Bardfest99. The Heroic efforts of Dianne Miller resulted in the first project to bear the name 'Plan B Press' on it.



This collection of writings by 21 of the participating poets with a list of 30 plus venues on the front cover. It began an instant collector's item in the area, and now is long out of print. But since every Press has to begin somewhere, here is our beginning story.

1999 - first book

1999 - first book, Dianne Miller's I'm Not Finished Yet.... a perfectly delightful way to begin, with a sense of incompletion. Cofounder Dianne Miller is first out of the gate with this collection of poems written over the previous few years accompanied by black & white photos taken by author. Many of these poems appeared in the poetry newsletter/journal that she edited called 'Two Thought Minimum'.


This period of time was quite productive for Dianne as she began to make her imprint into the Central Pennsylvania literary scene. In 1996, she stumbled upon a scene at a coffeehouse in Lancaster, PA called The Monk's Tunic and it's poetry night hosted by stevenallenmay. The reading series was called Two Thought Minimum and had begun the previous summer. Twice a month, on a Tuesday night, poets from the area and occasionally from far off Dover, Delaware and Philadelphia would fill the air with verse, coffee, and energy.


Among those attending were Terri Durden, who was one of the first poets published by the fledgling Press in 2001.


A chance remark made by stevenallenmay during a reading in December of 1996 led to Dianne creating the poetry newsletter, Two Thought Minimum, which existed until 1998. At that point it evolved into 'Verb.o.city'. It ceased publication around the time that Plan B Press began.