Summer of Poetry!
Welcome to CLASH Books Summer of Poetry.
Enjoy a true variety of voices & styles in our Summer poetry releases.
LA BELLE AJAR
Adrian Ernesto Cepeda
SYLVIA PLATH ONCE SAID, “I WANT SOMEONE TO MOUTH ME.” LA BELLE AJAR IS A COLLECTION OF POEMS INSPIRED BY PLATH’S 1963 NOVEL THAT REIMAGINES THE JOURNEY OF ESTHER GREENWOOD WITHIN THE EMPOWERING ODYSSEY OF THESE 20 SCINTILLATING CENTO POEMS THAT HONOR THE VOICE AND LEGACY OF AMERICA’S MOST INFLUENTIAL MODERN POET AND AUTHOR: SYLVIA PLATH.
THE ELVIS MACHINE
Kim Vodicka
OFFICIAL RELEASE JULY 7
The Elvis Machine is a book of poems inspired by living, loving, and hate-fucking in Memphis, Tennessee—a city still kissed with the 1950s. Forged in a dumpster fire of toxic Elvises, these poems are pornographic bad romances, psychedelic love dirges, and threnodies for sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll. They’ll make you laugh off the pain as much as you'll cry, cringe, and feel exposed in this 'No Boys Allowed' clubhouse of feminine rage and healing.
"Vodicka's poetry is a seasick-sweet treasure trove of marvel. Her verses leave you yearning for the kind of love and life you know is bad for you, but you can't stop reading."
-Elle Nash, author of Animals Eat Each Other
"Here is the uncanny valley girl, the B-movie queen, Kim Vodicka, delivering a prize fight of the sexes in poetry where every line is a punch line. This book is the seminal display of misogyny's trauma, an unflinching exposé of toxic relationships, and an exquisitely honest portrayal of a woman's most intimate bits. Vodicka peels us to the core. This is what raw feels like."
-Jeanette Powers, author of Dandylion Riot and founder of Stubborn Mule Press
BROKEN CUP
Jayaprakash Satyamurty
OFFICAL RELEASE JULY 21
Up to 3 people have already read these poems on Tumblr.
Now it's your turn…
Jayaprakash Satyamurthy's poetry collection "Broken Cup" is a patchwork of vignettes inspired by urban legends, old myths and autobiographical fragments. Seeped in melancholy and darkness, the collection nonetheless shines with a beautiful and strange glow, surprisingly warmer than one could expect. A perfect object of its own, mysterious and attaching. Very highly recommended."
Seb Doubinsky, author of The Invisible
“Tight, small lyrical pieces that trudge between the darkness and the light. This collection is a rhythmic locomotive traveling through vivid melancholy and stationing in bits of somber retrospection and introspection. Jayaprakash Satyamurthy finds a way to locate the right dose of respite/relief exactly where and when it's needed. Travel and time consume this book but not in an untimely manner nor in any way that feels out of place. Broken Cup is spaced and paced perfectly in accordance with an adherence to its many moods. This book is a spell cast in many stanzas of sympathetic magic.”
Kenning JP Garcia, author of OF (What Place Meant)
NO NAME ATKINS
Jerrod Schwarz
OFFICIAL RELEASE AUGUST 4
(A PORTION OF PROFITS WILL BE DONATED TO INMATES RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS)
These poems tell a story. They tell the story of Susan 'no name' Atkins and the dark spiral that led to the eventual famous murders we all know about.
Murder plots. Drugs. A cult forming in the shadows of Hollywood. At the center of it all, Charles Manson and his devoted followers. No Name Atkins gives voice to the Manson family's most notorious member, chronicling in verse her decent into violence.
How does someone like Susan Atkins become a killer? These poems unfurl the bizarre, hallucinatory, and terrifying moments that led to one of America's most reviled stories of devotion and death.
“As if we are following the Manson family against our will, No Name Atkins is equally dangerous and mystical. Schwarz’s deft hand paints these vignettes in masterful, touching, and vivid ways, utilizing language and metaphor to describe what only a few eyes could see. We witness a resurrection of a story that has long fallen out of the public eye.”
—Josh Dale, writer and publisher at Thirty West Publishing House
HEAVEN IS A PHOTOGRAPH
Christine Sloan Stoddard
OFFICIAL RELEASE AUGUST 11
This girl is hungry for the weight of a camera in her hands, but that desire feels wicked. Is it because her father is a war photographer and photography has always been his domain? Or is it because she's yet to become a woman who chases what she wants? And who’s to say photography can’t be her domain, too? At least she knows this: Salvation lies in pixels. Heaven is a photograph. This collection of narrative poems and photographs tells the story of an art student and her journey of doubt, longing, and questioning. Join her as she finds her power behind the lens.
POETRY COLLECTION WITH FULL COLOR ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARTIST CHRISTINE SLOAN STODDARD.
“With Heaven is a Photograph, Christine Sloan Stoddard presents you with a poetic meditation on the fear and desire of making images (and claiming one’s power). Intellectually and spiritually rich, her words and images imprint on your mind and heart with beauty, honesty and recognition.”
—Art Jones, artist and filmmaker
"Heaven is a Photograph puts the reader behind, in front of, and inside the camera through Christine Sloan Stoddard's evocative poetry and photography. Through the lens of her viewpoint character, the collection demonstrates the personal and universal appeal of photography in a vivid and impactful manner. Stoddard describes the art of photography as it relates to memory, creation, and legacy in a way that makes the act of clicking the shutter button both an artistic and a spiritual act."
—Alex Carrigan, senior critic at Quail Bell Magazine