The Poetry Chapbooks of Red Ceilings Press

I’m not sure exactly when I first heard about “those beautiful, little” poetry chapbooks, but I had three of them in my hands by late last fall. And yes, they are little, postcard-size measuring four inches by slightly less than six inches, and about one-eighth of an inch thick. I also have one of the Red Ceilings eBooks, but I’m not sure if I can say I have it “in hand.”  

The Red Ceilings Press may be one of the most unusual publishing enterprises I’ve come across. Based in the United Kingdom, it publishes small poetry chapbooks in print from and short collections in ebook form. A printed pamphlet is about 30 pages. The ebooks vary, but mostly run about the same length or shorter (the ebooks are published as pdf documents). 

 

The press has been operating since 2010 with a very simple operating philosophy: “We love doing our chapbooks and that’s really our main thing, but we also publish the occasional eBook.” The approach to ebooks means no one involved is going to get rich, except perhaps the reader, metaphorically: “Our eBooks are available to download for free because we are nice like that.”

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Some days you don’t have it – poem by Franco Amati at Garbage Notes.

Alexei Navalny’s Letters from the Gulag – The Free Press.

 

Of Lord Byron’s faults, writing dull letters wasn’t one of them – Alexander Larman at The Spectator.

 

Learning to Receive the Day – L.M. Sacasas at The Convivial Society. 

The Floodgate Poetry Series: Three Chapbooks

The chapbook has been around longer than one might think. It was first made possible by the invention of the printing press, and as early as the 1500s chapbooks were being published, filled with stories, nursery rhymes, poems, Bible verses, and just about anything else people were interested in.

When we refer to poetry chapbooks today, in general we’re talking about a relatively inexpensive publication, often saddle-stitched, and containing about 40 or so pages. The production of chapbooks had declined until the invention of the mimeograph machine (new technology again, like the printing press) and then the internet and digital printing. Just like we have e-books, we also have “e-chaps.”

For the past four years, the Floodgate Poetry Series has published an annual collection of chapbooks, usually including three chapbooks selected by the editor, Andrew McFayden-Ketchum. This year’s publication, the Floodgate Poetry Series Vol. 4, features chapbooks by three poets – Regina DiPerna, Ryan Teitman, and Paisley Rekdal.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.