2023 - Collapse Press

2023

Letters for the End Times, Vol 1

cover of the anthology Letters for the End Times, edited by Paul Corman-roberts and E. Lynn Alexander. Collapse Press.

Letters for the End Times, Vol. 1 came out in July 2023 from Collapse Press. It is currently available through us or here. This anthology, the first produced by Collapse, assembles the work of a diverse range of poets exploring the challenges of a society under stress. Coming out of a pandemic with environmental, economic, and natural crises and uncertainties about futures and fates these writers contributed poetry that speaks to these concerns in their own ways. Edited by Paul Corman-Roberts and E. Lynn Alexander, this volume features: Rich Ferguson, Juba Kalamka, Han Raschka, K.R. Morrison, Westley Heine, Ed Canavan, Dee Allen, Norm Mattox, and Missy Church. We will be working on volume 2, to be released a year later in July 2024.

The Friday Collapse is Back For Fall/Winter 2023

The Friday Collapse is a monthly poetry series hosted by Paul Corman-Roberts and E. Lynn Alexander. This month features Heather Flescher and Nathan Tompkins and open mic.

The Friday Collapse reading series is back after summer hiatus. We are in the middle of year three of this monthly series, with a break in July for travel and in-person events. We had a special edition of the show with the contributors to the anthology, released in July 2023. (See previous posts for more on that) You can check out that show and all of the others archived on our facebook page at Collapse Press, because we do livestream them to that platform. The next Friday Collapse will be special for us because we will be featuring long time friend of the press Nathan Tompkins and Heather Flescher – who we got to know in Oakland this summer. We also have open mic spots, subject to availability. We usually post an event on Facebook (check events on the Collapse Press page) and have information about signing up for the open mic for those who want to reserve ahead. Hosted by Paul Corman-Roberts and E. Lynn Alexander. Zoom platform/FB live. The Friday Collapse featuring Nathan Tompkins and Heather Flescher will be on Friday, October 27, 2023 at 9:30 PM EST, 6:30 PST.

The Unbearables and Collapse at the IF

October 21, 2023 at 6:00 PM. International Fusionism MUseum, 107 N. 4th Street in Easton. Art, Poetry, and Festival Reception at the International Fusionism Museum. Join the Unbearables Poetry Collective and Collapse Press [East] for an evening of community. Hosted by Ron Kolm, Arthur Kaye, and E. Lynn Alexander. The Unbearables Collective are a confederation of poets and writers who came of age in the 1980’s and 90’s New York, infamous for their high minded aesthetics and low barroom manners. Collapse Press is an independent publisher and producer of events on both the East coast locally and the West coast in the bay area with a focus on writing that speaks to the challenges of our times; the goal of Collapse Press is to create space and amplify voices that refuse to be silenced. The Easton Book Festival has an online program with all of the events and descriptions, at www.eastonbookfestival.com or here.

Collapse Press at the EBF Small Press Expo

Collapse Press [East] will have a table and reading slots at the Easton Book Festival Author and Small Press Expo on Sunday, October 22, 2023 at the Easton Public Market. There will be books, authors, zines, performances, and more for a full day of activities. Collapse will feature poets Bryan Franco and Ann Michael joining E. Lynn Alexander at the expo. Bryan and Ann will be reading in the Collapse slots. Copies of some of the Collapse titles will be available, including the new anthology “Letters for the End Times”. Find the full schedule of events at www.eastonbookfestival.com or here.

Collapse Press Anthology: Letters for the End Times Vol 1

We finally released the first anthology, “Letters for the End Times” (vol 1) in July 2023. We had a great event in Oakland, and recently hosted a virtual reading for contributors in September. This anthology is available now, either through us directly or here. The recording archive of the reading is on our facebook page from the livestream, at Collapse Press. Edited by Paul Corman-Roberts and E. Lynn Alexander, this anthology is a curated collection of diverse voices and perspectives reflecting the challenging times we are living in and facing together. Climate change, disasters, war, greed, profiteering, exploitation, destruction, depletion… How do we find places of hope, joy, power? Community? Thank you to our contributors: Juba Kalamka, Missy Church, Norm Mattox, Han Raschka, Dee Allen, Westley Heine, K.R. Morrison, Edward Canavan, Youssef Alaoui, and Rich Ferguson.

LFTET Vol 1 Anthology Launch Event! Oakland

The first volume of the Letters for The End Times Anthology is here, and we are doing a launch party event on Friday, July 21 in Oakland. You can order this book online here. You can also get it at an upcoming event or from us directly, just reach out. We will try to make it easy! The launch event will be at the Oakland Photo Workshop and we will have information on our FB and Instagram pages.

Collapse Press at Beast Crawl 2023

Collapse Press curates another event for the Oakland Beast crawl, 2023

We are honored to be curating at this year’s Beast Crawl in Oakland, CA on July 22, 2023. We have participated in some form each year since the beginning (Full of Crow, Kiss This Missile, Red Crow, Audrey’s Coffee, etc.) and this is a community building event that is dear to our hearts. Our event this year will be Leg 3 at Oaklandish. We have posted information on Facebook and Instagram and the details are also on the Beast Crawl website here. For this year’s 2023 information, here. Below is our event listing with performers and bios: COLLAPSE PRESS: BEASTS OF THE APOCALYPSE Collapse Press is a small literary publisher specializing in poetry and prose by authors, established and new, whose work addresses the current social atmosphere of a society in turmoil and on the verge of transformation. Hey everyone, let’s shudder together! Armageddon’s a comin’ and Collapse Press has got the writers and poets to make it all go down easier. Or harder. Or whatever you want. Because it doesn’t matter! Join us as Juba Kalamka, Richard Loranger, Missy Church, Taneesh Kaur, The Propaganda Poet and Lynn Alexander ride roughshod over the terrain of the End Times. Performers: Richard Loranger is a multi-genre writer, performer and all-around squeaky wheel currently residing in Oakland. His upcoming collection of poetry and flash prose, Mammal, is due out from Roof Books in the fall of 2023. You can find more about his work and scandals at his website. E. Lynn Alexander is a poet, artist, and zine/book maker. She cohosts The Friday Collapse and the Lehigh Valley Poetry Virtual Salon and Open Mic. Her recent books include Find Me In The Iris (Collapse Press) and The Shouldspeak Disease, published by Naked Bulb Press, exploring themes of shame language. Website here. Taneesh Kaur is a teaching artist of East Indian descent based in San Francisco, a social justice advocate who uses nature to…

Collapse and Paper Press Present “Identity Crisis”

Identity Crisis poetry reading in Oakland, July 20, 2023 organized by Collapse Press and Paper Press Books.

Collapse Press and Paper Press have teamed up for a live (in person!) poetry event in Oakland on Thursday, July 20, 2023. “Identity Crisis” involves the pairing of poets to read each other’s work, in rapid rounds. Organizers Paul Corman Roberts and Youssef Alaoui have done this format before and have revived it as a collaborative venture. Reading for this event will be Richard Loranger, Missy Church, Youssef Alaoui, K.R. Morrison, William Taylor Jr. Joel Landmine, E. Lynn Alexander, and Paul Corman Roberts. Music by Tuz. This event will be held at First Edition in Oakland, at 1915 Broadway. 7:00 PM. We have an event page on Facebook (Collapse Press–> Events tab) and information is always posted on our Instagram account.

Release of “Four Crescents” by Norm Mattox

Cover of the poetry book "Four Crescents", by Norm Mattox

We are happy to announce that “Four Crescents” is now available, by poet Norm Mattox. We hosted an amazing virtual launch in June 2023, and if you missed it you can check out the archived video of the Facebook livestream on our page. You can purchase the book here, or reach out to the author or to us. We will make sure that you can get a copy! Norm Mattox is a poet, returning to New York, after raising a family, and “growing up” in San Francisco for over 30 years. He served as a bilingual educator in the public school system of San Francisco Unified School District. Though retired, Norm is a teacher (‘maestro’ in Spanish) for life. His next journey for teaching and learning is through the voices in his poetry that tell a story of love in a time of struggle and challenge. Norm has shared his poetry as a featured reader and at open mics around the San Francisco Bay Area, select venues in New York City and other parts of the world across the ‘zoom universe’. Norm’s poetry has been published in two chapbooks. his first collection is titled, Get Home Safe, Poems for Crossing the Community Grid. Norm’s second chapbook length collection, Black Calculus, was published in 2021 by Nomadic Press. “In his follow up to Black Calculus, MATHMattox takes readers on a journey of beautifulepiphanies and gruesome truths, painted with masterful wordplay where his pen becomeshis Saber. In these pages, MATH invites readers to step into his vast imagination to seelife, days, nights and words in new and refreshing ways. Tackling issues that rest on tongues of revolutionaries and conspiracy theorists alike,these pages are filled with clarity, honesty and color from the purest palette. From “Heartof Illusions,” filled with a treasure of emotions, to the stunning ekphrastic “CottonBowl,” readers are…

POETPalooza for Poetry Month

Collapse Press will be joining more than fifteen east coast poets and presses for POETPALOOZA, on April 15th at Barnes and Noble bookstore. This gathering will include readings, signings, and a workshop. This will involve a range of poetry styles and perspectives and provide an opportunity for attendees to purchase books, some are already on the shelves there.

Year: 2023