Stephanie Garon’s collection, ACREAGE, is now available for preorder!
Get your copy today!!!!!!!
AKINOGA PRESS IS NOW ACCEPTING PROJECTS FOR CONSIDERATION
I am thrilled to announce that akinoga press’s consideration period is NOW OPEN, and will remain so until the end of the year (December 31st)!
So, if you have a project you’ve been looking to find a home for (or have reached out to me previously about submissions), now’s your chance to send something my way!!!
But, before you do, please check out the submissions page for the guidelines. I do submissions a little differently than most presses, and it’s in your best interest to fully understand what i’m looking for. There’s also some additional information about the rough publishing timeline (if your project is selected) that it would worth being aware of before submitting.
I’m excited to see what y’all have been working on!
–mz
what does climate justice look like?
Friends!
Jenny Fraser and a few of the Plant Power Sisterhood presented at the What Does Climate Justice Look Like? webinar on September 24th, 2021.
More information about the webinar can be found here, a few photo highlights of the event can be found here, and the event can be streamed here!
Plant Power Sisterhood can be purchased here, and a new review of the collection can be found here!
Welcome Dave to the press!!!
It is with correspondent tremendous excitement that i welcome Dave K to akinoga press!!!
Dave K is a species of fungus characterised by introverted ornamentations on the spore wall. His work has been published in Barrelhouse, [PANK], X-R-A-Y, Occulum, and on the LED billboard in Baltimore’s Station North Arts District. He is the author of stone a pig (2012), MY NAME IS HATE (2014), and The Bong-Ripping Brides of Count Drogado (2017, Mason Jar Press).
Welcome Maria to the press!!!
It is with correspondent tremendous excitement that i welcome Maria Goodson to akinoga press!!!
Maria C. Goodson is a writer who creates systems that connect people with causes they are passionate about. From 2016 - 2021, she managed Writers & Words, a monthly reading series in Baltimore, and co-organized The Woods, an annual writing retreat in West Virginia. She enjoys making pipe cleaner art, exploring her home city of Baltimore, and writing anxiety haiku, holiday card stories, and villanelles about love and connection. She received a BA in English with a concentration in creative writing from West Virginia University, and an MA in creative writing from Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, England.
Welcome Anastasiya to the press!!!
It is with parallel tremendous excitement that i welcome Anastasiya to akinoga press!!!
Anastasiya hails from Belarus, Minsk and writes under the pseudonym Birdy Asya. She works as a teacher, pursues scientific activities, and writes poetry and prose in a number of languages.
Her poetry is rooted in emotion, and one would be justified in describing her poems as “painterly”, which should come as no surprise as she is an avid visual artist as well. Her drawings are a symbiosis of abstraction and cubism, full of many colors and signs, a style truly its own.
welcome Kristjana to the press!
Friends!
It is with equivalent tremendous excitement that i welcome Kristjana Gunnars to akinoga press!!!
Kristjana Gunnars is a writer and painter based in British Columbia. She has published several books of poetry, short fiction and essay collections, as well as five cross-genre works with Red Deer Press/Fitzhenry & Whiteside. She is also the author of three previous chapbooks: Snake Charmers and A Moment in Time from Above/Ground Press in Ottawa, and At Home I the Mountains from Junction Press, Ontario. 112th St. Notebook (forthcoming with akinoga) is inspired by years spent in Edmonton where she taught Creative Writing at the University of Alberta. She is currently serving as Guest Professor at the University of Iceland in the Department of Languages and Literature.
welcome Stephanie to the press!
Friends!
It is with corresponding tremendous excitement that i welcome Stephanie Garon to akinoga press!!!
Stephanie Garon’s environmental art has been exhibited internationally in London, Colombia, and South Korea, as well as across the United States. Her writing, a critical aspect of her artistic process, has been published in international literary journals. She received dual science degrees from Cornell University, then attended Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).
When she’s not wading across rivers, she can be found welding sculpture in her Baltimore studio.
Visit her online at: garonstudio.com or IG: @garonstudio
welcome Suzannah to the press!
Friends!
It is with matching tremendous excitement that i welcome Suzannah Kolbeck to akinoga press!!!
Suzannah Kolbeck writes and paints in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work has appeared in Plainsongs, Pomme Journal, and 50 Haikus.
welcome Lora to the press!!!
Friends!
It is with equally tremendous excitement that i welcome Lora Robinson to akinoga press!!!
Lora Robinson is a poet, nonfiction writer, and amateur photographer from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, currently residing outside of Minneapolis. She grew up a ballerina and fiction writer, not discovering poetry until her first year in the creative writing program at Salisbury University. After relocating to Colorado, she took a four year hiatus from poetry, returning to her craft when she moved to Baltimore in 2019. She has been published in numerous magazines and journals and will be taking part in her first residency this fall at Art Farm Nebraska. Her writing focuses on imagery and experience and she takes influence from Greek mythology, surrealist art, nature, and dance. In her spare time, you can find her hiking, fishing, singing to her cats and folding origami. Connect with her on Instagram @theblondeprive and Twitter @starsinmyteeth.
welcome Kelly to the press!
Friends!
It is with tremendous excitement that i welcome Kelly Burke to akinoga press!!!
Kelly A Burke is a 2021 graduate from Madonna University in Livonia, MI with a BA in English Journalism. She lives in Plymouth, MI with her two rescue cats. Kelly writes poetry, nonfiction, personal essays, and short stories that can be found on her blog titled Bee Abundant. She also owns and operates her own social media agency.
Her poetry illustrates the intricacies of womanhood, religion, and modern love.
YOU get an update AND YOU get an update
Friends!
Summer is almost upon us, and we all know that with the long, hot days nigh, books are not too far behind! I’ve been editing and design up a storm throughout the spring and i am so incredibly excited to be working on so many amazing books!
In the meantime, i wanted to be better with the PR side of things, so starting next week, i will be highlighting some of the writers being published in 2021/2022. They are all amazing and i cannot wait to usher their work into the world.
–mz
continuing support
Friends!
I hope spring is giving everyone the rest and rejuvenation that is so desperately needed after the trash fire that was 2020. We’re not out the woods yet by any stretch of the imagination, but i’ve been noticing some faint traces of slowly kind of getting better on the wind recently, and i hope y’all have too.
I apologize for the radio silence: i’ve been hard at work readying things for the next batch of publications and time has gotten away from me. All i can say for now is there are some truly, truly amazing books coming in 2021/2022 and as always, more detailed announcements are on the way.
I also apologize for not keeping up with a continued call of support for Black/minority-owned businesses. It has been so unbelievably difficult for me to retain things these days and i know that a lot of important things have dropped from my attention, specifically rallying to spotlight Black/minority-owned business.
This is an admittedly small step towards rectifying my lapse in attention, but here is a list of over one hundred Black-owned businesses. They all deserve our support and patronage. Let 2021 be the year we learn to consistently put our attention and financial support where our mouths are.
And thank you, Natalie, for sending along this fairly comprehensive breakdown of the Black Lives Matter movement and why the work it’s doing is so critical.
–mz
NADIA LAUNCHES TODAY
FRIENDS!
Today is the day! NADIA launches tonight at 7 pm on Zoom with a wonderful and witchy celebration.
I am so thrilled that NADIA has finally arrived. Order your copy here and get the link to the Zoom here!
See you tonight!!!
-mz
NADIA IS OFFICIALLY AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER
FRIENDS!!!!!!!
I am incredibly, INCREDIBLY proud to announce that NADIA, the debut sensuella (sensual novella) from sexuality educator mary adelle is now available for preorder!!!!!
Y’all. This is SUCH a tremendous lil’ book. It was such an absolute delight spending time with Nadia and getting to know her and her queer, pleasure-filled life. Please do not sleep on this.
And!!! please join us on Monday, November 30th, at 7 pm ET for a virtual launch event! The zoom link can be found here. Don’t sleep on this, either! It’s going to be a fucking magical time.
–mz
PLANT POWER SISTERHOOD IS NOW AVAILABLE
Friends!
It brings me great joy to announce that Plant Power Sisterhood: an anthology of eco-revolution is now officially out in the world!
So much time and care and energy went into the production of this book and i’m so thrilled that people get to now enjoy the fruits of so many labors.
Stay tuned for launch event details and for a new Spotlight page featuring the anthology!
–mz
the set is complete!
Friends!
Jack Slocomb’s Native Tongue, vol. 2: spring/summer is officially out and about in the world!
It brings me a lot of joy to have Native Tongue existing as a complete set. When Jack originally sent me the manuscript, i planned to release it all as one collection, but as i worked through it, spending time in Jack’s Alleghenies and really letting the world of the poems seep into me, the idea that the manuscript should be broken into a pair bubbled up from somewhere. Part of it, i’m sure, was the desire to hand-bind whatever book the manuscript turned into (how could these poems exist in anything but a hand-bound book?), but i think the driving force was the poems themselves. Something in their ordering wanted to be grouped into two piles, almost like they were being attracted to different magnetic poles: the quieter, earthtone poems of the fall and winter congealed on one side, and the lively, verdant poems of the spring and summer grouped up on the other. And, i honestly just ran with it (you don’t argue when poems tell you what they want to do and where they want to go).
In vol. 1, we got a taste of the Alleghenies as the world closed up shop for the season, as the openness of yellow and red flecked woods drowsed into silence and pristine white. We were invited into solitude and introspection. In vol. 2, Jack welcomes us to the siblinghood of spring, to the sheer communal joy of summer. We are asked to be a part of the world, to stitch ourselves to daily expressions and experiences. He gives us cupfuls of life being lived and shared. And, while it may not completely slake of thirst for what we’ve been missing for the past 8 months, it definitely eased my parchedness quite a bit.
It is also deeply, deeply comforting to me to know that Jack is still out there in the Alleghenies, diligently walking both old and new paths, enjoying every inch of the land, taking keen note of what needs paying attention to, and offering his hand as invitation into the clear, bracing waters of life.
A virtual launch for vol. 2 is in the works, but for now please visit akinogapress.com/books/nativetongue2 to order a copy.
–mz
the autumn of books continues!
Friends!
Autumn is my absolute favorite season, so it makes a certain kind of sense, i guess, that almost all of the 2020 releases are launching now, literally one after the other. And on that note…
Firstly, thank you to everyone who ordered and preordered Gag Order! Copies are flying out of the shop almost as fast as i can get them bound! akinoga has never published a more resonate or timely collection and i hope it moves you to exercise your right to VOTE, and to vote against trump.
Secondly, i am incredibly excited to announce at Native Tongue vol. 2: spring / summer is now available for preorder!!! I love the space and stillness in these poems. I love sitting with and in them. I love that Jack knows the Alleghenies as intimately as he does.
I am also so, so thankful the amazingly talented Suzanne Onodera agreed to let us use another of her paintings for the cover of vol. 2. Jack’s poetry and Suzanne’s paintings are inexorably linked for me now; i can’t look at one and not be instantly reminded of the other. I am grateful for that pairing, for the enrichment it imparts. May we all be likewise connected.
–mz
KRVS interview with Dayana Stetco on The Loneliness Pill and Other Plays
akinoga press darling Dayana Stetco was recently interviewed on KRVS about her newest collection, The Loneliness Pill and Other Plays!
Check out her interview here, and get yourself a copy of her collection here!
when it rains books, it pours
Friends!
We are two days into September and 1) i cannot believe it’s already September but also good riddance to 2020? and 2) i cannot believe akinoga press has FOUR BOOKS coming out over the next four months!
That’s right, you read correctly, friends: four more books will be rounding off the press’s 2020 publishing roster.
First up is Jessica Hylton’s Gag Order, a collection of erasure poems cultivated from Trump speeches, will be launching Tuesday, September 29th.
And, if that date sounds familiar, it is the first presidential debate of the 2020 campaign. The following night (as part of the virtual launch), i will host an author’s talk with Jess to discuss, among other things, the process of her book and writing overtly political poetry during the Age of Trump.
A spotlight and preorder page for Gag Order will be up later this week!
Next is the second volume of Jack Slocomb’s stunning collection, Native Tongue. Vol. 2 covers the green, warm months of Spring and Summer, when the Earth flings itself into life, and will be released on October 19th. I know, i know: the 19th of October falls in neither Spring nor Summer, it marks the year anniversary of the release of Vol. 1, which gives the launch a nice symmetry.
A few weeks later, on November 11th, Plant Power Sisterhood, an anthology of Indigenous writing, edited by Jenny Fraser, launches. It will be akinoga’s first ever anthology and features Indigenous writers and artists from across Australia and the Pacific islands celebrating the power of Nature and calling for its renewal.
And capping off the 2020 publications another first for akinoga: the fabulous pleasure novella Nadia written by Mary Adele, which will launch on the night of November 30th, which also just so happens to be the night of the last lunar eclipse of 2020. And, once you read Nadia, you’ll understand why no other night would do justice for her launch.
That’s it, friends! Those are the 2020 books. I cannot wait to get them into your lives.
–mz