Bad Shoe Vol. 3, Iss. 1 Call for Submissions
and added guidelines!




It's once again time to submit your written works to Bad Shoe, the finest rakehell magazine to ever dig its claws into the banks of the ole Mississip'. Deadline is February 24th. We ask that you send 2-5 pieces (poetry, flash/short fiction) as MSWord or OpenOffice document attachment to submissions@saintlouisprojects.org. Please include your name and BAD SHOE in the doc heading.


Please forward this entreaty to any of your interested female writerly friends. Tell yer friends, yer neighbors, and yer cats.


And gentlemen, please note that we will be accepting submissions from both ladies and gents for our NEXT issue. Although the deadline will be sometime around May, feel free to get a jump on things and send us your pieces.

A Partial List of Things I Have Done For Money, by Colleen McKee

2nd Edition Release & Signing

We are pleased to release the second edition of Colleen McKee's witty and poignant chapbook A Partial List of Things I Have Done For Money. After successfully selling out of the first, limited edition of the book—and moving to Oakland, CA—McKee returns to St. Louis for a reading and book-signing at Foam Coffee and Beer (3359 South Jefferson Avenue). On January 19^th from 7-9 PM, Colleen and a few guest performers will gather to celebrate the new edition with words and libations. Please join us to support local writers and publishers.

Making Morning Poems

 


Making the Book: Morning Poems by Justin Kinkel-Schuster

 This Thursday, Saint Louis Projects and JKPublishing will be releasing the first book of poetry by STL musician Justin Kinkel-Schuster. We're having a release party at Off-Broadway, featuring 2 of our favorite bands: Alley Ghost and The Skekses. We've also got some of the best performers around reading between sets. Alongside Justin's inaugural performance as a poet, Brett Underwood will be ranting and raving, and local poetry guru Ann Haubrich will recite works from Bob Reuter's upcoming memoirs. We'll see you at 8 pm.

Here's some behind-the-scenes snapshots of how our team created this finely-crafted chapbook.

Each book will feature a unique set of end-sheets carefully cropped from books salvaged from a local thrift store. Architectural schematics, beautiful old photographs from textbooks on American geography and fauna, and diagrams of the mysteries and wonders of science compliment the book's content quite aptly.

 

Project editor Ellen Herget uses her trusty huntin' knife and a pattern made from a club crackers box to individually chop each endsheet.

It ain't easy when you gotta have 200.

Artist Danielle Spradley carved this gorgeous block print for the cover, and then printed each sheet by hand. This is one of her first test prints on white paper.

Publisher CJ Smith then printed the insides of the book on our many sets of trusty refillable inkjets. He collated the works by hand, arranged them between the end-sheets and cover, and placed 3 steel rivets on each margin to bind the book. The result is rustic, elegant, simple. We know we have done our job when the description of the book's physicality matches the quality of the writing therein. Please join us and grab a copy. Each book is unique, and each page has been touched by our hands.

Morning Poems Release Party

Theodore Frontman to Release First Book of Poetry

The Saint Louis Projects is set to release the first collection of poetry by Theodore's Justin Kinkel-Schuster with a rock show at Off-Broadway (3509 Lemp Avenue). On the evening of Thursday, December 1st, sets from popular local acts The Skekses and Alley Ghost will buttress readings from Kinkel-Schuster's new book Morning Poems.

A refreshingly raw and modern work, Morning Poems captures the beauty and sorrow of an impoverished southern childhood: blackberry bushes and sharp bricks; kind women with missing teeth; the complicated workings of flawed family relationships. Editor Ellen Herget praises its lyrical, conversational style, noting that “each piece is delicately laid out with precision, and the heartsick honesty of the stories only serves to make their emotional content more exquisite.”

 

Elegantly bound with simple steel rivets, the handmade book boasts a screen-printed cover by Danielle Spradley of Dubble Dutch Editions. Morning Poems will be on sale for the first time at a special release price of $9. Special guest star Ann Haubrich will also be reading the works of musician and photographer Bob Reuter, whose collection of short stories is forthcoming from SLP (a division of JKPublishing). Cover charge for the show is $7. Doors are at 7:30, starts at 8.

                                                                      

an excerpt from

 Bottle Dancer



Talk shit, get hit
is what her wallet reads
(she bought it at the Hustler club
which is where she works
she started out as a cocktail waitress
but you know how it is)
I notice it as she takes it from her purse
to pay for the 3 framboise beers she’s buying
for herself and the liter can of High Life she
insists on buying for me
she tells me I am a cheap date
and I agree
Cash is king and she’s got it figured out

As we walk toward the door
the rack of porno mags catches her eye
and we stop to exchange wits and test
each other’s experience and predilections
I wait for her
and she opens with something about
one of the cover models’ tits being too big
much tamer than I’m expecting and
a relief, if I’m being honest
I tell her that when it comes to sex
I’m pretty normal, no weird shit for me
thank you very much
just regular old fucking, but good
and I sense she’s relieved, too
or maybe disappointed

In the car on the way to her place
she tells me her last boyfriend
got her pregnant and left her
but it was alright because she ended up miscarrying
and anyway he was a heroin addict

I am just about ready to head home alone
but what the hell
she already knows
I am a cheap date
and we are almost there

Bad Shoe Issue 7 Release Party

Bad Shoe Release Party to be held on Day of the Dead at the Archive

The women behind Bad Shoe literary magazine plan to raise hell on Tuesday, November 1^st. In honor of the release of the seventh issue of Bad Shoe (Vol. 2, Iss. 3), publishing imprint the Saint Louis Projects is throwing a party in the backyard of The Archive Bookstore (3215 Cherokee Street) from 7 to 11 pm.

Featuring readings from many of the issue's contributing authors, Bad Shoe is also hosting the Hobosexuals, local acoustic noisemakers. The editors are infinitely pleased to feature a short act from fire-breather Nova Beau Monde, a performer, writer, and member of St. Louis' only all-female fire troupe, Venus in Flames.

Nova Beau Monde

The issue features the artwork of Miss Delia Rainey, one half of 2-twin band Dubb Nubb.

People, by Delia Rainey

Contributors include: Julia Gordon-Bramer, Stefene Russell, Anna Ross, Jennifer Tappenden, Kelli Allen, Maria T. Balogh, Amanda Mincher, Becca Wilson, Alison Carrick, Jill Bieker, Katerina Canyon, Linda Novak, Tess Thompson, Allison Becker, Mary Ruth Donnelly, and Dena Molen.

Here's a small taste of what this issue has to offer:

Three Writers I Dated and Why It Didn’t Work
by Allison Becker

I

I’ve only said, “I love you” to
relatives, several foods,
numerous dogs and Nick.
Last spring he did something bad
with a table saw.
Nick said, “How can I love you when
I hate myself?”

II

Conor and I went to a concert.
A man in a cape threw
glowsticks at us and we
left with bruises and other
people’s sweat. Conor owned
a typewriter, a record player,
and a Macbook Pro. Never ate meat.
I admitted one night I never
read Howl, “I’m saving it for
harder times.”
The next day he wrote,
“12:16 pm yur super cool but i cant
SRY”
and I laughed because
he never used the typewriter

III

David invited me to his room.
He boiled beets for dinner,
“They make your piss pink,”
he said and led me to the
bathroom. “I didn’t flush so
I could show you.”
We stood over the toilet
bowl, pale pink, still.
A minute passed.
I admitted I expected it to be
pinker.
“You’re nuts, Allison, my piss
is incredibly pink!
Do you know how many
beets I ate?”

Come celebrate Dias de los Meurtos with the ladies who keep St. Louis literature alive.

SLP-Designed Business Cards

Get Your Business Card, Advertisement, or Web Banner Design from SLP


For the bargain-basement design price of $20-60 a package, an SLP designer will collaborate with you to produce a suite of images to promote your small business, decorate your personal web page, or advertise for your feline acrobat troupe. Pric
e is negotiable. Design packages may include:

*business card
*logo
*web page banner (can be used on Blogger, Etsy, Tumblr, etc.)
*branding/advertising copy
*booklet/event program
*poster
*print or digital invitation



A small suite of images similar to the following would run about $25:



SLP has created advertisements for local theater events, poetry readings, and late-night entertainment events.

Blue Rose Theatre Collective Poster, 2010

Advert/business card for local band The Skekses, 2011
(makes use of public domain artwork)

"Postcard-style" party invitation front, 2011

"Postcard-style" party invitation back, 2011


"Open Studio" Digital and Print advertisement for Budding Images, 2011


Benefit poetry reading advertisement, 2009
(features original artwork by Sean Arnold)



Late-night entertainment advertising for restaurant Mangia Italiano, 2011

We have many more examples and, as you can see, are quite versatile and eclectic in style. For more information, e-mail erin@saintlouisprojects.org.

A new chapbook by Colleen McKee

Colleen McKee's newest chapbook, A Partial List of Things I Have Done for Money, to be released this Wednesday





Please join us for the release of A Partial List of Things I Have Done for Money, the newest chapbook by Colleen McKee. The party will take place at The Archive bookstore at 3215 Cherokee Street, this Wednesday, August 24th, from 7-9 pm.

Featuring the photographs of John Walker Eckles, Bob Reuter, and Alison Carrick, this deluxe first-run edition of Colleen's poetry is encased in a hot-pink and silver hand-stitched envelope with nickle and string closure. The poetry delves into Colleen's world of anthropomorphic cockroaches and thrift-store intrigue, with heartbreaking characterizations of her loved ones and finely crafted descriptions of her adopted hometown.

The release party will feature a book-signing by Colleen, readings by herself, Bob Reuter, and Nicky Rainey, along with music by Bob Reuter. Light refreshment and beverages will be available for purchase.


As a preview, please enjoy this photograph by Bob Reuter, and a poem by Colleen.

JUNIATA STREET



Today I walked past your old apartment, the one
with the rickety windows, the one with the door
that knocked in the wind. I remember the wrinkled
poster of the Ramones, the ramblings of drunks
scrawled on your walls. The mail piled up
on the gritty stairs.

The steak dinners you fixed,
the soft white sheets.
The whiskey bottle
always at your elbow.
The time you almost died.
The time you did.

Now, in your yard, children complain
about raking the leaves
that fall
and fall at their feet.