New website and blog!

We are incredibly excited to launch our new website, powered by design engine Wordpress. It will go live by the end of March 2012, and will replace our old site and this blog. However, this page will remain as a testament to our history as a feed on the new site. Thank you for your patronage.













This is an archive of our blog posts from 2010-2012 that originally appeared on Blogspot.

Bob Reuter's Memoirs

Pop Quiz

. . . for more about Bob Reuter . . .

AWP Highlights

2012 AWP Conference and Bookfair

Photographic highlights

JKPublishing and SLP have had a crazy couple of weeks, due both to the enthusiam of our supporters and our tendency to procrastinate. Last spring, we entered a panel proposal for the 2012 AWP Annual Conference and Bookfair. We learned that the AWP accepted this panel in August. We didn't start preparing for the panel until January. That's where you came in.

The Grand Supreme Ballroom at Hilton Chicago. Now serving "4th meal."

After certain outside funding options failed, we gave ourselves 3 weeks to throw a fundraising party and raffle in order to get ourselves to Chicago. You responded so kindly, with enthusiasm, your gifts and art. We had such a kick-ass selective raffle that strangers were coming by to participate. 

The raffle that sold 200 tickets to around 45 people.

I thanked you all specifically in the last blog post, so I will thank you generically but emphatically now. Although I won't post our press's exciting plans for the future until the next blog, let me say that going to this conference has exposed us to so many inspiring people and presses. They have lit a fire under us; they have challenged us to get better. And because you believe in us, you are helping us to get better.

       to be continued after the jump--

AWP Press Materials
JKP & SLP Hit the Big Time

As many of you know, JKP & SLP (consisting of Erin, CJ, and author Colleen McKee) will be heading to Chicago on Wednesday to attend this year's Association of Writers and Writing Programs Annual Conference and Bookfair. This is the largest literary gathering in North America (more information on the conference here), and we hope to meet colleagues and patrons alike. We will be chatting about our press, of course, but also about the amazing revival of literary culture in St. Louis.

Many of you supported us at our fundraiser last week, donating artwork and performances, gifting money, and buying raffle tickets and books. You helped us raise $515, or about 85% of the direct costs for attending this conference. These proceeds will cover our transportation, board, and nearly all of our registration fees. Thank you: we are blessed by your support.

In recognition of your gifts, here is a preview of the information we will be distributing at the conference this week.

A handbill advertising our conference panel on Thursday

The front of a new brochure advertising our accomplishments, history, and publications

The inside of the brochure

New business cards for Bad Shoe and SLP

And, or course, we'll be carrying dozens of gorgeous, handmade chapbooks:

Morning Poems by Justin Kinkel-Schuster

Bad Shoe 6, 5, 7

Both editions of Collen McKee's A Partial List of Things I Have Done for Money

Again, THANK YOU for your support and kind wishes. We couldn't do it without you.

Extra special thanks to:

Philip Gounis
Bob Reuter
Ellen Herget
Katie Clancy
Sue Clancy
Kristin Sharp
Alison Carrick
Local Harvest Cafe & Catering
Mangia Italiano
Thurman's Grill and Provisions
Michael Jackson
Nicky Rainey
Christopher Alex Chable
Maria & Alex Balogh
Mary Ruth Donnelly
Jill Bieker
Jeff Dodd
Billy Foster
Julia Gordon-Bramer
Aaron Dodd
Sean Arnold
Pamela Garvey

& anyone else I hope I'm not forgetting.

SLP and JKP to Attend the AWP Conference and Bookfair
Fundraising event to held at Thurman's on Feb. 22nd





Dearest friends,

At the end of this month, CJ (JKP founder), Colleen McKee (SLP author, Bad Shoe contributor, panel moderator), and Erin (JKP/SLP managing editor) will be traveling to Chicago to attend the AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) Annual Conference and Bookfair. The AWP has accepted our panel discussion on small press marketing strategies and whether the traditional bookstore remains relevant. We also will sell our handmade chapbooks and distribute information about our press and literature in St. Louis (we'll be talking about many of you and (hopefully) selling your works!). The AWP event is the largest literary conference in North America, affording us a fantastic opportunity to network with other small presses and draw national attention to our local press. For more information about why we are traveling to this conference and what we will be doing there, see the image below.

Although we have kept prices for the trip to a minimum by traveling by bus and staying in a hostel, the registration fees for this conference are pretty outrageous if you're not backed by a university. We'd also like to help subsidize Colleen's plane ticket from California to Chicago. So we're throwing a fundraiser on Wednesday, February 22nd at Thurman's Grill and Provisions (4069 Shenandoah; details forthcoming) at 8 pm to help us along.

So, we're throwing a little party to raise funds. We will have several performances, a raffle, and book sale. I'll continually update this page with information as we gather more prizes, performers, and money-raisers.

There will be no cover charge, but we will pass a donation bucket for the performances.

Also, please let me know if you'd like to help in anyway. We love doing what we do, but unfortunately, the labor of love doesn't buy bus tickets.


Thus far:

RAFFLE ITEMS (tickets will be $1 each or 7 for $5):

***Framed photography by Katie Clancy
***(2) framed photos by Bob Reuter
***1-hour tarot reading gift certificate from Julia Gordon Bramer
***Artwork by Sean Arnold
***Mangia Italiano gift certificates
***Bad Shoe book package
***SLP book package
***Untamed Ink book package (journal, 10 issues)
***Pamela Garvey chapbook
***Photography by Alison Carrick 
***1991 hand-bound Diane Di Prima chapbook, "Seminary Poems", one of 2,000 ***Signed Lawrence Ferlinghetti handbill w/ 9-11 political poem ***Handmade bilingual book Nacion Nomeda by Ruben Medina, published by Rosalita Cartonera -- one of 75 
***Local Harvest Cafe and Grocery gift certificates

PERFORMANCES:

Caribbean dance demonstration by Maria T. Balogh
Poetry readings by: Sean Arnold, Maria T. Balogh, Erin Wiles
Fiction reading by Pamela Garvey


 
 Thanks for your support. We hope to see you there.

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.