Ibbetson Street Press: Publishing * Writing* Reading* Series

Ibbetson Street Press: Publishing * Writing* Series to be launched This July (2010)

(Newton Mass)





Doug Holder, founder of the Ibbetson Street Press and Arts Editor for the Somerville News, announced that an ongoing literary series titled the "Ibbetson Street Press Publishing* Writing* Reading* Series" will be launched at the Newton Campus of the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston. Holder had a number of discussions with Silka Rothschild, the Arts Education Director of the JCC and others in the organization. Holder said: " Because of the reputation of the press and the poets involved with it, the JCC decided to include the Series as part of their program." During the month of July there will be a number of events including a workshop with novelist Luke Salisbury, and a poetry workshop with poets Harris Gardner, of Tapestry of Voices and Holder himself.

In the fall the plan is to have a self-publishing panel, a reading and discussion with notable Jewish poets, a morning with the grassroots poetry group the "Bagel Bards," and other events. Holder said: " It is very flattering to be approached by the JCC. It is a great feeling to be recognized by a great organization for the work Ibbetson Street has been doing in the community since 1998. I think the arts communities of Newton, Somerville and Boston need to come together and this is a great way to do it."


(Reading series at the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston*** Leventhal-Sidman JCC/Newton)

LEVENTHAL-SIDMAN JCC - NEWTON MA
Gosman Jewish Community Campus
333 Nahanton Street, Newton Center, MA 02459
Telephone: (617) 558-6522

The Leventhal-Sidman JCC is a branch of the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston. JCCGB is an agency of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies.


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The Art of the Novel with Luke Salisbury/ Thursday July 8, 2010/ 7 to 9PM


This course introduces students to the novel as a literary genre. Luke Salisbury, author of “Hollywood and Sunset,” and other works will help students acquire an understanding of ways of approaching, appreciating, and analyzing the novel. Salisbury is an award winning novelist, and is a Professor of Literature at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston. “Hollywood and Sunset” will be the suggested text for the course. Thursday, July 8, 2010 7 to 9 p.m.




Ibbetson Street Press/ Tapestry of Voices Reading Series/ July 22, 2010/7to 9PM

Poets Harris Gardner, Zvi Sesling, Bert Stern, Ruth Baden and Fred Frankel will read poetry of Jewish themes, and of life, love, death, and eternity. These accomplished and much published poets will read from their recent collections. An Open Mike will follow so the audience can share their work. There will be a book table and light refreshments.



Poetry in the Write Mind. Poetry Workshop with Harris Gardner and Doug Holder. Thursday July 29, 2010 7 to 9PM.

Bring your poems and be in your "write" mind. Doug Holder, founder of the literary press "Ibbetson Street," and Director of the Newton Free Library Poetry Series and Harris Gardner, founder of the poetry outreach organization "Tapestry of Voices," and Director of the Boston National Poetry Festival at the Boston Public Library,
will lead a poetry workshop. Bring in three poems to be worked on, and make 10 copies of each.

Review of THE POET TREE by t. kilgore splake

Review of THE POET TREE by t. kilgore splake, Kamini Press, Ringvagen 8, 4th floor, SE-117 26 Stockholm, Sweden, 2010

By Barbara Bialick

Think of The Poet Tree as a little treasure you could write away to Sweden for, just for the experience of remembering those old countercultural days of the 60s and 70s, from the point of view of a so-called “small press icon.” splake is a poet’s poet from northern Michigan, who slaps images onto the page like paint, one image after the next. He doesn’t need grammar or even page numbers—the rhythm is inherent in the little poems in this 4 x 6 chapbook that lists 12 preceding “selected titles” published just since about the year 2000.

According to a google-found review of an earlier book, poet Charles P. Ries says splake didn’t write a poem until he was 44 years old, then “his work and name appeared everywhere.” In the bio of The Poet Tree (a pun with ‘the poetry’…), we learn splake was born Thomas Hugh Smith in 1935 in Three Rivers, Michigan. He “took an early retirement as a college professor to live in creative poverty and find his poetic voice…”

And, oh yes, the poetry: “demander drawings/lilliput poems/tibetan prayer flag colors/suffering autumn storms…”

“last Clarksville train” (think of The Monkees): “washing down aspirins/warm blue ribbon suds/damp gray first light/jerry lee’s cassettes silent…/yesterday wife saying ‘things got to change’…”

japhy ryder’s ghost: “escaping today’s/fun fun fun/dull mediocre people/satisfied to/talk talk talk/instead bardic spirit/wildly splashing/crossing brautigan creek/climbing pilgrimage/…writing love poem.”

To keep quoting from the poems. however, would be to give the whole book away. Suffice to consider that like in the poem “craig’s list dropout”, this book is like a “continuous kaleidoscope buzz.”

The publisher notes, “This first edition is limited to 150 copies, all signed by the author. Twenty-five special copies contain a water color by Henry Denander.”

microchondria: forty-two short stories collected by the Harvard Book Store. (Harvard Book Store http://www.harvard.com) $10. Review by Doug Holder

(Paige M. Gutenborg)

microchondria: forty-two short stories collected by the Harvard Book Store. (Harvard Book Store http://www.harvard.com) $10.

Review by Doug Holder

Marc Goldfinger,( the poetry editor of Spare Change News), at a recent meeting of Somerville’s Bagel Bards handed me a small anthology of short stories he was included in titled: “microchondria…” This is a collection of forty-two short stories collected by the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass. According to the introduction to the book, on Feb. 1, 2010 a call was sent out by the book store that stated they would publish a book of original short stories. There was a deadline of Feb. 17, 2010.They got a slew of submissions from around the world. They edited the book and had it printed on March 1, 2010 from their newfangled in store, print-on-demand book machine “ Paige M. Gutenborg.”

The stories in this collection are very short, flash fiction; I presume. Marc Goldfinger’s story is a winner, titled: “Are you My Girl or What?” It is a litmus test of love that comes in the form of a cup of java thrown in a love object’s face.

Jennifer Carol Cook’s story “Falling” uses the backdrop of a snowy day as the setting for the dying embers of a love affair. In this passage the girl knows the dye-has-been-cast:

“ Her fingers grew numb around the half-formed snowball. She looked up again to a screeching sky. The black birds were falling and falling. They looked as though they were dying.”

There are a lot of solid, short reads in this book for your back pocket.

Recommended.