Author Archives: smp

2017 Press Fest Washington Square Mews

ONE BIG SMALL PRESS BLOCK PARTY.
Buy books. Party with publishers. Celebrate independent and international literature. Join CLMP and over 55 small publishers for a big small press block party during the PEN World Voices Festival. From 4 – 8 PM on Friday, May 5, 2017, publishers, editors and writers will converge on the Washington Square Mews to celebrate independent and international literature. Books and literary magazines will be on sale; participants can also enjoy author signings, live performances, opportunities to write, and literary readings. Lit Crawl NYC kicks off in and around the Washington Square Mews starting at 6PM. PRESS FEST! is free and open to the public.
Friday, May 5 2017
4 – 8 PM
Washington Mews
New York, NY 10003
Follow PRESS FEST! on Facebook!

 

pre-sale-img
You can now order Terence Degnan’s Still Something Rattles,  a concept book of poems broken into three chapters; Letters From Purgatory, Unicorn, and Rome.

This limited edition is encased by a hand-made, wooden sleeve, and branded by a custom logo representing all three chapters. Still Something Rattles is available from Sock Monkey Press as of September 25, 2016.

“Full, satisfying, and ultimately redeeming, Degnan reminds us not only what poetry can do but what it must do,” says poet Nicole Callihan (Author, The Deeply Flawed Human, Deadly Chaps Press)

Playwright Erin Courtney, author of A Map of Virtue, says of Still Something Rattles, “Great poetry has a sense of humor, a deep love for the world, and a go for broke in the moment understanding of mortality. Terence Degnan’s poetry fulfills all of these delirious requirements.”

Box art by Ethan Crenson ethancrenson.com
Interior art by Morgan Lappin morganjesselappin.com

 

Order Still Something Rattles Still Something Rattles @ $39.99

BOOK RELEASE: “Still Something Rattles” by Terence Degnan

Join us for the release of Terence Degnan's "Still Something Rattles"

Join us for the release of Terence Degnan’s “Still Something Rattles”

WHAT: Sock Monkey Press Book Launch for Terence Degnan’s “Still Something Rattles”
WHEN: September 25th, 2016, 8PM
WHERE: Jalopy Theatre, (https://www.jalopy.biz/)
315 Columbia Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY 11231
WITH: Special Musical Guests Amelia Robinson, Brett Saxon, and Photoplay
& Collage Artist Morgan Jesse Lappin
ADMISSION: Free

 
“There are poems that rattle you and poems that soothe you, poems that scare you
and poems that save you. In his lucid new collection, Terence Degnan offers us all of
these kinds of poems. In a grammar that mirrors the pain—and ease!–of being, Degnan settles us and then unsettles us only to settle us again. Full, satisfying, and ultimately
redeeming, Degnan reminds us not only what poetry can do but what it must do.”
 
                                                                                       – Nicole Callihan Author of SuperLoop
 
 
 
“Terence Degnan’s collection, Still Something Rattles is an examination of mortality and causality and the ways in which they intertwine. These poems investigate the subtle links between our banal, everyday lives and the impact they inevitably have on those around us. There’s a logic here that’s nimble and has a light touch, which can blame the kidneys for failing to satisfactorily deal with a ninth beer, but also bear witness to the butterfly effect at work in the fallout of broken lightbulbs halfway around the world (in relation to) the moment a local boy falls in love. Every bar needs a bard, and Terence happens to be ours.”
 
                                                  – Scott Stubbs, Proprietor of Mission Dolores Bar, Brooklyn, NY
 
 
 
“Great poetry has a sense of humor, a deep love for the world, and a go for broke in
the moment understanding of mortality. Terence Degnan’s poetry fulfills all of these
delirious requirements. The language crackles, sparks and flies when you read it out
loud. So please, read Still Something Rattles aloud to your loved ones. It is a gift.”
                                                                            – Erin Courtney, Playwright, A Map of Virtue

 

messy-bookcover-smTwo doll pals invite each other to a very proper tea party – but their hair is just too messy. Brushing doesn’t do the trick. What would work? They imagine other solutions – visiting a birdbath or a car wash . . . and then – A-HA! – the winner: a trip to the beauty parlor where hijinks ensue. In the end, freshly coiffed and very fancy, the dolls finally sit down to enjoy their tea party.

From the author: In 2008, I was photographing old dolls using a medium-format camera. The dolls all had such soulful eyes, I was certain that they were trying to tell me their stories. I began prowling secondhand stores and stoop sales, collecting all kinds of dolls to photograph. The more expressive, the better; I particularly loved the ones that were no longer pristine, the ones that had been drawn on, or had their hair cut, or wore mismatched or handmade clothes. Growing up, I loved Dare Wright books, so I decided to re-interpret those photographic children’s books for today’s new readers. Messy Hair is the first of several photo-driven books to come.

GG-author-photo-smGretchen Grace, an artist and designer with a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, was an Art Director for the Children’s Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop). Mother of two kids, she lives with her family, including a puppy named Honey who has very messy hair, in Brooklyn, NY. You can see more of Gretchen’s work at: gretchengrace.com

Order MESSY HAIR Messy Hair by Gretchen Grace @ $12.99

SuperLoop by Nicole Callihan

smp-015-cover-eIn the spirit of the Sock Monkey tradition, Nicole teamed up with the artist Re Jin Lee whose four delicately stark drawings depict a sapling braving the four seasons. The final effect accomplishes the goal that SMP set at its conception: the images, without fail, amplify the voice of the poems; the poems, in concert with the images, masterfully accent the utterance of the drawings they accompany. A confluence of the visual and the word brings forth a creation which courageously conveys what Nicole has been revealing about us, her listeners, to date.

Lesson Three

The name of this technique,
he said,
is afternoon.

Then pressed his mouth
to her collarbone,

pressed his mouth
‘til evening
broke the window.

We are honored to house this book of poetry. Nicole, with the same poise she has used to enthuse audiences for years, has gathered an awe-inspiring collection of poems. In February, after the turn of the year, SUPERLOOP will be launched at NYC’s Poets House. Nicole will be touring SUPERLOOP on the East Coast, and later in the Midwest during the Spring of 2014.

“Precise, graceful, and generous, the poems in SuperLoop, seem to be born out of a deep, careful attention and a profound compassion. Sometimes the quiet observer, sometimes the kid in the center of the messed-up carnival, these poems are the fireflies you’ve missed all winter, the longed-for return of the bees. Unaffected and inherently hopeful, Callihan’s work is as merciful as it is moving.”

–Ada Limón
(Lucky Wreck, This Big Fake World, and Sharks in the Rivers)

“These poems stare up at you—the poem’s creature—and say, I know you. I know you have this sorrow; it is there. These poems point to that sorrow, but also say: I know where you have locked away your jubilee. I’m thankful that these poems have been lived. I remember these poems. Some poets roll along and the inertial allegory that becomes unstuck from their hair falls like an apt shadow along their readers: these poems come from a home I knew, a field I ran, a quiet neon place where we all spun. We are lucky to have a ticket to them.”

–Terence Degnan
(The Small Plot Beside the Ventriloquist’s Grave,
Sock Monkey Press, 2012)

“These poems dig deep into the ragged nature of what it means to be alive, unveiling in bristling clarity, the cracks, quirks, “thorny edges,” and great beauty of being. A master in the language of blush and bruise, Nicole Callihan tells stories that rub the mind like a fever in a cool wind.”

–Dawn Lundy Martin
(A Gathering of Matter /
A Matter of Gathering and Discipline)

Nicole’s writing “is so unpretentious and alive and interesting—I especially admire its quick vulnerabilities.”

–Jean Valentine
(2004 National Book Award Winner,
Author of eleven volumes of poetry)

Feb. 28th – A Perfect Pairing at AWP: Pike Brewery Tour and Poetry

Sock Monkey Press poets Nicole Callihan and Terence Degnan will be presenting: ‘Deconstructing the Poem by Telling the Poem’s Narrative’ at Pike Brewery during the 2014 AWP Annual Conference. The event will take place on Friday, February 28th and will commence with a brewery tour at 2:30pm sharp.

Two special guests of Nicole and Terence will be telling the stories behind the poems. Nicole will be fresh from her 2014 book release at Poets House in NYC, and will be kicking off her book tour at AWP. Both will have their respective books on hand, published by Sock Monkey Press in 2012 and 2014 (Terence: The Small Plot Beside the Ventriloquist’s Grave, Nicole: SUPERLOOP).

 

Pike brewery and their staff will be leading guests of Sock Monkey Press on a tour of the brewery prior to the reading promptly at 2:30PM. Pike is excited to be hosting the event and their guests, and welcomes all visitors to the Seattle area attending the 2014 AWP Writing Conference. Pike Brewing Co. is located five blocks from the Seattle Sheraton on Pike St. at 1415 1st AVE.

The Association of Writers & Writing Programs holds the largest literary conference each year in a different city. This year’s event will be at the Washington State Convention Center & Sheraton Seattle Hotel from February 26 – March 1, 2014, however many events will be taking place at off-site locations.

smp-015-cover-eNicole Callihan’s debut book of poetry is here (SUPERLOOP, Hardcover with fabric case binding; Sock Monkey Press, Febuary 2014, 72pp, $19.99US). Featuring gold foil stamp cover art by Re Jin Lee. To order, just click on the link below.

In the spirit of the Sock Monkey tradition, Nicole teamed up with the artist Re Jin Lee whose four delicately stark drawings depict a sapling braving the four seasons. The final effect accomplishes the goal that SMP set at its conception: the images, without fail, amplify the voice of the poems; the poems, in concert with the images, masterfully accent the utterance of the drawings they accompany. A confluence of the visual and the word brings forth a creation which courageously conveys what Nicole has been revealing about us, her listeners, to date.

We are honored to house this book of poetry. Nicole, with the same poise she has used to enthuse audiences for years, has gathered an awe-inspiring collection of poems. In February, after the turn of the year, SUPERLOOP will be launched at NYC’s Poets House. Nicole will be touring SUPERLOOP on the East Coast, and later in the Midwest during the Spring of 2014.  For more information about SuperLoop.

Order SuperLoop SuperLoop @ $19.99

Poetry @ Open Source Gallery – 26 September 7:30p

Thank you Open Source Gallery for hosting our upcoming poetry reading with Terence Degnan [A Small Plot Beside the Ventriloquist’s Grave], Nicole Callihan [forthcoming Super Loop], Jack Wilson [Enter to Exit (ep) – checkit!], and Margaret Coe [debut].

We’re excited for Nicole Callihan’s book release early next year. (Super Loop, Sock Monkey Press, 2014) at Poets House. Nicole is proof that poems shock forward from a mysterious ether. Terence Degan said he “was humbled to be part of the editing process of her manuscript.” Nicole will be one of the four poets reading for the first Sock Monkey Press sponsored event of the fall. She’ll be reading alongside Jack Wilson, Margaret Coe, and Terence Degnan. The event will be hosted by SMP’s founder Scott Adkins, an always gracious and jocular emcee. A link for the event can be found here:http://www.facebook.com/l/XAQFSGQCxAQFQ31RFObYpLP5AAXPq1mb7ZDcRIrPBzrvJYg/tinyurl.com/n3tktgx

It will be held at Open Source Gallery, who’ve kindly let us borrow their facility for the evening. Seating is limited, so if you are interested in attending, please RSVP to the event through the link (above). There will be complimentary spiked hot cider. For a list of other events being held at Open Source Gallery this fall, you can click on the link below:http://www.facebook.com/l/lAQHg7UBtAQEWEdhMS3_vM0oQm4Ax7VMEeoA6cbrWZwwKBg/open-source-gallery.org/”

Event details:
Open Source Gallery
306 17th street, Brooklyn, New York 11215
7:30p

Presenting Poets
–Nicole Callihan–Terence Degnan–
–Jack Wilson–Margaret Coe–

nicole-callihanNicole Callihan writes poems, stories and essays. Her work has appeared in, among others, Painted Bride Quarterly, Salt Hill, New York Quarterly, North American Review and Cream City Review and has been translated into German and Spanish. A Senior Language Lecturer at New York University, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughters. Her first book of poems, Super Loop, will be published (woohoo!) by Sock Monkey Press (double woohoo!) in early 2014.

 

 

 

terence-degnanTerence Degnan is a poet and spoken word artist. His work is published in various literary magazines including Prime Number Magazine, The Other Herald, The Front Weekly and the OWS Poetry Anthology. His two spoken word albums, 2008′s BC & 2010’s Calling Shotgun were produced in Pittsburgh, PA, and Raleigh, NC, respectively. The Small Plot Beside the Ventriloquist’s Grave is Degnan’s first published collection of poetry. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter.

 

 

 

jack-wilsonJack Wilson is a poet and hip-hop artist originally from Pittsburgh, PA, now residing in Brooklyn. He was involved with Pittsburgh’s National Poetry Slam teams for years, while also releasing music independently. In the year and a half since he’s lived in Brooklyn, he’s released an EP called Enter to Exit as well as been published in Sock Monkey Press’s My Apocalypse. You can hear more music at jackwilsonmc.bandcamp.com

 

 

 

margaret-coeWhen she was three, Margaret Coe announced that she planned to join the circus.  This went on for many years and included interesting ropes hanging from backyard trees as well as various costumes and acrobatics and attempts at juggling—even a short stint of balancing peacock feathers on her nose.  Imagine her parent’s relief when they could relinquish their fears of her walking a tightrope and instead hunker down with a nice cup of coffee and read the wonderful poems that began pouring out of her.  Margaret is excited about starting college next year and embarking on her career as a writer.