We’re excited to announce that we’re getting into the chapbook game. To us, the chapbook may be the most perfect way to read poetry. It’s short enough that you can read it in one sitting, but long enough to really give you a feel for the poet’s mind and style. They're often only available in short runs and for a short period of time but they can stick with you forever.
Next year Barrelhouse will publish our first chapbook, “Philadelphia” by Gina Myers. This long poem is full of grit, hope, and pragmatic realism. What we love about Gina’s work is that it showcases a sharp, lyrical take on the world--from interactions at work to street harassment to the Black Lives Matter movement. The poem circles around the questions that lie at its center - What does it mean to navigate a new city? What does it mean to try to feel at home? When there are so many reasons to leave, why stay?
Gina is the author of A Model Year (2009) and Hold It Down (2013). Her essays and reviews have appeared in Fanzine, Frontier Psychiatrist, Coldfront Magazine, Philadelphia Review of Books, and other places. Originally from Saginaw, Michigan, Myers lives in Philadelphia. Selections from the poem “Philadelphia” appeared in The Brooklyn Rail and Bedfellows.
To make all this a reality, Tony Mancus will join poetry editor Dan Brady on Barrelhouse Chapbooks. Tony Mancus is the author of a handful of chapbooks himself, including Bye Land (Greying Ghost), Bye Sea (Tree Lights Books), and City Country (Seattle Review). In 2008, with Sommer Browning, he founded Flying Guillotine Press, which published nearly 20 chapbooks across its seven year run, including abu ghraib arias, by Philip Metres, which won the Arab American Book Award in 2012.
With our first chapbook release, we’ll also be opening submissions in February 2017.
Photo by Dan Farnum.