Coming Soon: “Splinters” from Collapse

Cover of the poetry book Splinters, by Han Raschka

We are thrilled to share that we are on track to release our next title- “Splinters” by poet Han Raschka. If you have not encountered them before, please check out the book launch in September 2022 and see what some in our community had to say after some background on Han: Han Raschka (they/them), is a bipolar, bicoastal, non-binary poet currently residing in Boston, MA. Born in the Midwest and forged by both the arts and an unhealthy dose of Catholic fear, Han spends their time drinking coffee at an unacceptable time, begging their mother for pictures of their three dogs, and writing poetry like it hasn’t gone out of fashion. You can find Han on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites. Their work has appeared in Anti-Heroin Chic, Eunoia Review, Brooklyn Poets and the Lake County Bloom.  Splinters is Han’s first collection of poetry. “writing poetry is a lifesaving, life affirming ‘super power’ that acknowledges trauma, sees the multiple deaths that are in store with the clearest vision, and the voice of love that heals the broken heart and the broken mind.” “in han raschka’s collection of poems, splinters, the voices that have the most volume, in the front of our minds, fill the silence with horrorful words and things that should never be spoken as truth. raschka writes poetry in the voices of their tormentors. they are a captive audience to the replay and echo of trauma in memorized detail.” “describing the inner battles to breathe one more breath, we are granted light and peace when their voice speaks a whisper of a lover’s glance, and the promise of love they will live for.” -norm mattox, author of Black Calculus (Nomadic) and the forthcoming Get Home Safe: poems for crossing the community grid “A poem, a prayer,…

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Book Launch: Find Me in the Iris

Book Launch, Find Me in the Iris, by E. Lynn Alexander

Please join us for a virtual launch reading on Friday, July 1, 2022 for Find Me in the Iris, by E. Lynn Alexander. This event will be hosted on zoom and streamed/archived on the Collapse Press Facebook page. This reading will feature poets K.R. Morrison, Taneesh Kaur, Chansonette Buck, Karen Lillis, and E. Lynn Alexander. Please see the Facebook/Instagram posts for more details and links. This is the second book of poetry by E. Lynn Alexander, from Collapse Press. In Find Me in the Iris, she continues to explore the themes of The Shouldspeak Disease on the language of shame and internalized expectations, conditioning, regulating norms and binaries as effacing and modern measurements that are increasingly toxic to both individual and nature. The destructive relationships between reduction and disrespect vs honoring and co-validity have modern consequences. Increasingly disconnected from a silenced but ancient maternal psyche, the modern contrasts of hierarchy and individualism pull us away from our roots and exploring the natural, mystical, and spiritual can be restorative acts of reclaiming. “Mother” in this case is origin, generational and collective, where a consciousness of legacies tapped affirms the past and honors the future.     The state of the world is in front of us.    Why are we destroying everything at such an alarming rate, turning the corner on so much that is irreversible? Our path is one that rewards extremes: self centered, immediate and empty gratification, consumption, competition, exhibitionism, self interest. To commune and cooperate is to be “weak”, to share knowledge is to lose “advantage”. Where shame is the tool, coerced participation is the result. The desire to diminish and destroy pushes us to channel our energies defensively and we are depleted. We feel hopeless and powerless because we are surrounded by that message. But it was not the message of our mothers.     “In…

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Book Launch: “deathaiku”

deathaiku book launch, poetry by Missy Church

Join Collapse Press and a great line up of featured poets for the virtual launch of “deathaiku” by Missy Church on Saturday, March 12, 2022. This event will be hosted by Collapse Press on zoom and on facebook live, streamed on the Collapse Press facebook page. The featured poets for the evening will be Andrew J. Thomas, Carla Christensen, Youssef Alaoui, Vaughan Barrow, and the author herself- Missy Church. There will be information about purchasing the book during the show. If you miss it, the recording will be available on the facebook page after it streams live.

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“Deathaiku” by Missy Church- Out Now!

Deathaiku by Missy CHurch

Collapse Press is pleased to announce the release of “Deathaiku”, by poet Missy Church.
“It takes the spirit of a death doula and the soulfulness of her carefully enlisted imagery to capture the dichotomous dance that is life and death, shadow and light. In DEATHAIKU, Missy Church divulges the seasons of the departed, the “eyes of death’s final cold sigh” while syllables later, she signals a sun that “rises soft,” breath of a baby and an ancestor within the Law of Three – so appropriately held in haiku structure.
In an era where more than ever, death seems to have the last word, Church bears a lantern for every reader wandering the veil, with eloquent yet humble diction that respects grief and loss while making room for new life, for the living who harbor light in the memory. DEATHAIKU is a necessary read for anyone who values a cycle we cannot escape.”
– K.R. Morrison, poet and educator, author of Cauldrons

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Events: Richard Loranger

We are pleased to announce the publication of Unit if Agency, by Richard Loranger. (October 2021) You can find information about the book and purchase by using the top tabs- see Purchase page. We have been working on events to celebrate the book launch, and will be adding them below. Friday, October 29, 2021: The Friday Collapse, Special Book Launch Edition Please join us on Friday, October 29, 2021 for a special book launch edition of The Friday Collapse to celebrate the release of Richard Loranger’s new book of poetry- “Unit of Agency”.This will be a virtual event on Zoom, 6:30 PST, 9:30 EST. We will welcome Richard Loranger, who will read from his new book. We will also feature Mimi Gonzalez-Barillas. Per usual, an open mic will follow.The zoom link and bios, and book information will be posted in the event. Unit of Agency is currently available through the Collapse Press website at www.collapsepress.com/purchase and on Amazon at www.amazon.com/Unit-Agency-Richard-Loranger/dp/1735266914. Get one early and read along! The Friday Collapse reading series is hosted by Collapse Press, with Paul Corman Roberts and E. Lynn Alexander. Mosswood Park- Oakland, CA- November 6, 2021 In person reading with Collapse Press and Be About It Press. Richard Loranger will partner with Natasha Dennerstein for a double header book launch event. Event on Facebook, weather permitting. Live at the Mosswood Park Amphitheaterin the SE corner of Mosswood Park. Be About It Press and Collapse Press are collaborating to celebrate two new fantastic books! UNIT OF AGENCY by Richard Loranger BROKEN by Natasha DennersteinOther featured readers include James Cagney, Cassandra Dallett, Juba Kalamka, Dena Rod, Peggy Morrison and Kai Sugioka-Stone! Collapse Around America- Virtual Book Launch November 13, 2021 Please join us on Saturday, November 13, 2021 for “Collapse Around America”, a final Collapse Press launch party for the…

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Unit of Agency, by Richard Loranger

Unit of Agency Richard Loranger

We are excited to announce the release of Unit of Agency, by poet Richard Loranger. Please keep on eye on the Collapse Press FB page and Instagram for details on readings. Richard will be a featured reader at the special “book release” edition of The Friday Collapse on October 29, virtual on zoom at 6:30 PST, 9:30 EST. Joining Richard will be Mimi Gonzalez-Barillas. Open mic to follow, event on the Collapse Press Facebook page. There will an in-person reading in Oakland on Saturday November 6 at Mosswood Park in Oakland. On November 13, there will be a virtual launch party with featured poets. Many of the readers have blurbs in the new book or have contributed to the project. We will be adding the details to this website soon on ordering the book and distribution options. You can also reach out to the author or the press. More to come soon. Here is the page on his website to find out more. “Unit of Agency is a gift of the tenderest rage, rage at its most righteous–against injustice, against inequality, against homophobia, against colonization and gentrification, against the dying of the light of humanity and human kindness. Through his poetry, Loranger reminds us that none of us escapes this life innocent or unscathed. We are bruised and broken with blood on our hands, but we are also together. It is not a bleak view. The riches that capitalism and greed have stolen from us, Loranger gives back with poetry that is rich visually, auditorily, and, most of all, emotionally. These works are both ammunition and imperative. This is poetry that matters.” – Hilary Brown Unit of Agency is a full-length collection of poems by Richard Loranger, one of his generation’s premiere cutting edge performance poets, an artist who writes for both…

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