publication announcements

The Cattle Egret and Other Animals in the City at qarrtsiluni

Posted on May 10, 2013 by James Brush | 1 Comment

I don’t know what it is about long-legged waders that inspires me to write odd haibun, but here’s “The Cattle Egret” appearing in the ‘Animals in the City’ issue of qarrtsiluni.

Even cooler is sharing the day with Deb Scott and her beautiful work, and be sure to check out this one by Joseph Harker. Hell, just read the whole issue.

If you like egret haibun thing, I had another one published in qarrtsiluni back in 2011 and there’s one here too.

Thanks, Sherry and David for including this.

Posted in birds, poems, publication announcements | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Fragments at Qarrtsiluni

Posted on August 9, 2012 by James Brush | 2 Comments

A year ago, while trying to stay awake so as not to drop my newborn son while on shift rocking him through the wee hours of the night, I jotted some of my thoughts down on my iphone between games of Words with Friends and reading blogs. I tried cobbling them into a poem but when I saw qarrtsiluni‘s call for submissions for the fragments issue, I sent the notes and looking at them a year later, found I liked them as they were. So apparently did the issue editors, since they selected the piece and published it yesterday as “Notes Made on an iPhone while Rocking My Son to Sleep, July 2011″. Thanks Olivia Dresher and Catherine Ednie for including it!

It’s funny looking at this a year later. A little over a month ago, the baby disappeared and there was a wonderful, curious, active toddler in his place.

Posted in parenthood, publication announcements | 2 Comments

Birds Nobody Loves Is Live

Posted on January 20, 2012 by James Brush | 9 Comments

I’m thrilled to announce that my first poetry collection Birds Nobody Loves: A Book of Vultures & Grackles is now live.

Here’s where you can go to get a copy:

Paperback edition on Amazon

Paperback edition at my CreateSpace store

Or if you have one of them new-fangled e-reader contraptions, it’s available in both Kindle and EPUB format (it looks startlingly nice on the iPad I borrowed on which to test it):

Kindle edition at Amazon

EPUB edition (for iPad, iPhone and most other readers) at Lulu

It’s also available in the iBookstore.

These birds will continue to fly around the internet and automatically take up roost in many other online booksellers over the next few weeks.

I hope you’ll consider ordering a copy. Thanks also to all of you who’ve read and commented on these poems as they’ve appeared on this blog and in various other venues over the past three years.

Posted in poetry, publication announcements | Tagged | 9 Comments

Birds Nobody Loves

Posted on January 10, 2012 by James Brush | 18 Comments

Almost three years ago, I started writing poems about vultures and grackles because, well, someone had to do it. I imagined eventually putting them together into a short collection and now that collection is about finished. Birds Nobody Loves: A Book of Vultures & Grackles is in its final proof stage and will (barring unforeseen complications) become available for order/download next week, probably Tuesday or Wednesday. More details and links to follow.

It’s been an interesting road to this point, writing these poems and trying to decide what to do with them beyond sharing them here. I’ve learned a lot about two of the most common and least-liked birds around here (the turkey and black vultures, the great-tailed and common grackles) and even more about crafting poems. Readers of this blog will have read earlier drafts of most of these poems here or at one of the online journals kind enough to publish them*, so they’re available around these parts, though many of them have undergone revision.

Not long ago, I came to the conclusion that the thing that made the most sense to me was to go ahead and publish this myself. In large part because I just love the fact that I live in a world where I can. That thrills me. I registered Coyote Mercury Press at the county clerk’s office, bought some ISBN numbers (I have a few other projects up my sleeve), and set the title up using Createspace. It will be available in multiple formats: paperback, .epub (for iPad, Nook and Sony), .mobi (for Kindle) and likely .pdf as well.

I’ll write some more about this between now and next week, and I plan to give away 5 paperback copies to anyone with a blog who might like to write a review or do an interview or whatever else. If you’re interested or would just like to receive an email when it’s available with links for ordering/downloading, let me know using the contact form above.

Update: The 5 review copies are now spoken for.

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*Bolts of Silk, Thirteen Myna Birds, a handful of stones, Four and Twenty, tinywords, Houston Literary Review, Pay Attention: A River of Stones Anthology, Nothing. No One. Nowhere., qarrtsiluni, and Curio Poetry

Posted in publication announcements | Tagged | 18 Comments

Two Poems at Curio Poetry

Posted on December 12, 2011 by James Brush | 1 Comment

I’m honored to have two poems, “Winter Solstice” and “In the Time of the Automobile” (both from my upcoming collection Birds Nobody Loves–More to come stay tuned) in the inaugural issue of Curio Poetry alongside the work of several other fine poets. Thanks to editors Joseph Harker and Tessa Racht for starting this journal and including some of my work. Now, go check it out.

Posted in poetry, publication announcements | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

While Sitting in Church

Posted on October 14, 2011 by James Brush | 3 Comments

My videopoem “While Sitting in Church” was featured yesterday over at qarrtsiluni as part of the Worship issue. The poem is from my Birds Nobody Loves series, which will hopefully soon become a short collection when I can find the time to finish it off. Anyway, check it out, and thanks to issue editors Kaspa and Fiona who accepted it within hours of my submission. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten an acceptance so fast. It’s a great issue they’ve put together so spend a while checking things out, especially Sherry Chandler’s “Doxology.”

Posted in poems, publication announcements, videos | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Sentences and Corrections

Posted on July 5, 2011 by James Brush | 2 Comments

My poem “Sentences and Corrections” is up over at qarrtsiluni as part of the Imprisonment issue. It’s a powerful issue and well worth following. As always, it’s an honor to have something in qarrtsiluni.

Posted in poems, publication announcements | 2 Comments

Easter Morning

Posted on April 25, 2011 by James Brush | Comments Off

this backyard wildlife…
a congregation awake
discovering spring

≈

a new mourning dove
on the fence by the feeder
studies the others

≈

young squirrels—
so much thinner
than the adults

≈

a new family
house sparrows chirping
the busy backyard

≈

six house finches
learning the hummingbird feeder
sun-sparks in water

≈

fledgling goldfinches
flap inexperienced wings
on Easter morning

—

This weekend, we were treated to families of lesser goldfinches, house finches, house sparrows, mourning doves and fox squirrels coming around the backyard so the adults could show their young where to find the food. The juveniles were clearly just out of their respective nests as they were following the adults around flapping their wings and chirping to be fed. It’s never long before the babies figure out how to find food on their own at which point they will be indistinguishable from the adults.

I’ve seen this in the backyard with black-crested titmice, common grackles, mockingbirds, cardinals, Carolina chickadees, and Bewick’s wrens, and it’s one of the joys of feeding birds (and squirrels) but I’ve never seen so many at once.  It was, quite simply, stunning and humbling. Songbirds don’t live long and most don’t even make it through their first year, but I like to think that at least some of these birds will be out there for a while, maybe waiting for me to count them one day down along the pond trail.

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Publication announcement: My haibun “The Grackle Tree” from my Birds Nobody Loves series is in the latest issue of the ‘zine Nothing. No One. Nowhere. Thanks to the editors for publishing it along with so many other wonderful poets. It’s an honor to be included.

Posted in backyard wildlife, birds, poems, publication announcements | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Legend Says

Posted on April 5, 2011 by James Brush | 6 Comments

Legend says
this land was sculpted by golf pros who only knew how to make a buck.

Legend says
there is a secret zodiac of yet-to-be trademarked corporate logos.

Legend says
the northwest passage was built by Bigfoot but is now owned by crows.

Legend says
there was a cat who joined the circus to run the big humans act.

Legend says
trees are the heretical thoughts of stone, but no one understands.

Legend says
the woman on the lake bottom sold her sword business for a taco stand.

Legend says
there was a man who named three oceans and drowned in a river.

Legend says
all night, the cities beneath the plains hum that tune stuck in your head.

Legend says
the Loch Ness grebe got lost on migration and settled in Oklahoma.

Legend says
everyone has three teeth and a tongue that aren’t attached to them.

Legend says
a man rode out of town and returned with an elixir made from cheap tequila.

Legend says
words are keys, but the doors were all busted down by thugs years ago.

Legend says
I don’t want to go to bed; tell me another one.

—

This was based on one of the prompts at Big Tent Poetry: start a poem with the phrase “legend says…”

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My sci-fi haibun “Dear Old Stockholm” is up over at qarrtsiluni as part of the translation issue. Be sure to check it out and while you’re there have a look around. There’s a lot of great work in the issue.

Posted in poems, publication announcements | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

The Greyhound Muse

Posted on March 16, 2011 by James Brush | 2 Comments

Perhaps I should be the poet laureate of my dog since Joey appears in two poems of mine that are recently published. The first, “Greyhound Joey vs. the Grackle” appears along with “North through Fog” in the February 2011 issue of the Houston Literary Review. The first of those is from my “Birds Nobody Loves” series which will someday be a chapbook and the other is from the “Highway Sky” series which is starting to sneak beyond chapbook length. Thanks to the editors of the Houston Literary Review for publishing those.

Joey’s literary adventures don’t end there, though. He also appears in a micro-haibun in the new pay attention: a river of stones anthology published by Fiona Robyn and Kaspalita who edited a massive amount of submissions from January’s river of stones challenge to produce a beautiful book that is worth every moment spent slowing down to savor it. There were a number of stones that I read in January as well as many that I missed along with some wonderful prose pieces. It was a treat to read again some of my favorites by Beth Adams, Angie Werren, Mark Stratton, and Kris Lindbeck. Along with some prose reflections on small stone writing by Beth Adams, Jean Morris, Laurie Kolp and Margo Roby. You can read the 2 stones I contributed at my mirco-poetry blog here and here (the second is another “Birds Nobody Loves” piece) or you can buy the book, which is really good.

And, now, Joey needs a walk. We’ll talk literature, and he’ll remind me that greyhounds are the only breed of dog mentioned in the Bible and then, who knows what inspiration the four-legged muse will next provide.

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Want to make a fast friend by saving a greyhound in Central Texas? Check these pups out. Or go here to find a greyhound near you. You can also go here to find out why greyhounds are running for their lives.

If you have dogs who need proven leadership, go here to find a cat.

Posted in greyhounds, poetry, publication announcements | Tagged , , | 2 Comments