The Small Presses and Why We Love Them:

Prick of the Spindle Editors Survey the Small Press Chapbook Scene

"The terms small press, indie publisher, and independent press are often used interchangeably, with "independent press" defined as publishers that are not part of large conglomerates or multinational corporations. Defined this way, these presses make up approximately half of the market share of the book publishing industry. Many small presses rely on specialization in genre fiction, poetry, or limited-edition books or magazines, but there are also thousands that focus on niche non-fiction markets."

-thanks, Wikipedia...

Prick of the Spindle's latest survey of offerings from the little magazines includes:

* Of Kids and Parents by Emil Hakl, trans. Marek Tomin
* My Fingernails are Fresnel Lenses by Christopher Fritton
* Rumors of Electricity by Richard Krech
* In Chambers: The Bodhisattva of the Public Defender's Office by Richard Krech
* The Distance between Two Hands by Greg Watson
* And the Weary Are at Rest by Andrew Taylor
* The Sea Never Drowns by Jason Heroux
* Wee Hour Martyrdom by Jason Tandon


See below for sneak peeks and links to full reviews:

New from Twisted Spoon Press. . .
Of Kids and Parents by Emil Hakl, trans. Marek Tomin
Twisted Spoon Press, Prague, 2008
Reviewed by Cynthia Reeser

In Marek Tomin’s recent translation of the 2003 Magnesia Litera Book of the Year, Of Kids and Parents by Emil Hakl, Honza and his father are not on a walking tour, but inadvertently provide one for the reader throughout the book as they stop in and out of bars discussing topics that range anywhere from past lovers to the most favored models of airplanes to the worst drinks to the supernatural. The novel, written almost entirely in dialogue, has been compared to James Joyce’s Ulysses, and was made into a feature film this year... [read more]

New from Sunnyoutside Press . . .
My Fingernails are Fresnel Lenses by Christopher Fritton
Sunnyoutside Press, 2008
Reviewed by Cynthia Reeser

There is magnitude in light, even if only a pinprick. Christopher Fritton’s chapbook itself is miniscule, measuring a light four by four inches, but in its case, it is not volume or quantity that matters, but content—though it is handsomely presented in a hand-set, letterpress-printed, hand-stitched volume...
[read more]

New from Sunnyoutside Press . . .
Rumors of Electricity by Richard Krech
Sunnyoutside Press, 2008
Reviewed by Erin McKnight

What is most evident in Richard Krech’s first, and title, poem, “Rumors of Electricity,” is the indication that any convergence of time and place in the sixteen poems that follow, will do so on the fringes of modernity and on the outskirts of cultural familiarity. The encroachment of electricity and its engineered modernity that is present in currents reaching places where “electricity is not even a rumor,” will raise a finger to the map of exotics and isolate a location, foretelling a collision of primitivism and civilization... [read more]

New from Sunnyoutside Press . . .
In Chambers: The Bodhisattva of the Public Defender's Office by Richard Krech
Sunnyoutside Press, 2008
Reviewed by Cynthia Reeser

The reader is immediately launched into the world of the judicial system, which is often competitive and always at odds with itself. “Bodhisattva of the Public Defender’s Office” seeks to strike a balance in typically moderate Buddhist fashion, where the “squeezing tongues/ and hungry ghosts” enter the dharma of a world governed by those who ideally hold “a mindful & concentrated intellect”... [read more]

New from March Street Press. . .
The Distance between Two Hands by Greg Watson
March Street Press, 2008
Reviewed by Christopher Vera

I tend to read poetry books in this way: I begin with the first poem because I want to know how the poet plans to gain my attention. Then, I turn to the last so I know how the poet plans to leave me. Finally, I wander through the middle poems in whatever order the spirit takes me, as through the rooms of warm and ghosty old houses I have never explored before. Watson’s poetry, with its sometimes melancholy and mostly retrospective meanderings works very well with this style of reading... [read more]

New from Sunnyoutside Press . . .
And the Weary Are at Rest by Andrew Taylor
Sunnyoutside Press, 2008
Reviewed by Erin Mcknight

In Andrew Taylor’s And the Weary Are at Rest, the continuum of life is not as much interrupted by symbols of ephemerality as it is adjoined to them; life and death coalesce in an unmistakable sense of familiarity that extends to readers an invitation to explore and perambulate within the shared bounds of human mortality... [read more]

From Sunnyoutside Press . . .
The Sea Never Drowns by Jason Heroux
Sunnyoutside Press, 2007
Reviewed by Cynthia Reeser

The Sea Never Drowns is Jason Heroux’s most recent book of poetry, and follows his 2004 publication, Memoirs of an Alias. The pages, beautifully bound by Buffalo-based Sunnyoutside Press, are filled with clocks that tick away in silent houses whose windows give back light to an outside world populated by impoverished trees typically set in a dying fall or frozen winter landscape. Heroux is by admission or definition a poet under the influence of surreal humanism, according to the press release... [read more]

New from Sunnyoutside Press. . .
Wee Hour Martyrdom by Jason Tandon
Sunnyoutside Press, 2008
Reviewed by Erin McKnight

Wee Hour Martyrdom is a showcase of accessible poetry. Yet the writing is also perceptive, reflective, and profound in the dignity it extends to the banal routines of existence. This is a collection I recommend to non-poetry readers who maintain their distance from the genre, whether due to a fear of ambiguity in meaning or disinterest in the elusive language of poetry—a language that seems always to snake away from hesitant eyes... [read more]

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