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 5 Preview

Art & Words Appearing in the Next Issue of Bad Shoe



We're hoping to see you at the Archive tomorrow night (3/15; 7 pm; see previous post for details) for the release party celebrating the newest Bad Shoe. Here's a small sampling of the wealth to be found inside issue 5.


Faith
Brett Lars Underwood


She saw a dog puppet licking the branch outside her window
She had 17 girly, vodka drinks and a bottle of wine
Painted naked in acrylic all night long
Later that afternoon the dog puppet
dissolved into pain

Betsy
Bob Reuter

Mirror Trees
Christy Callahan



When spring came that year, my fifteenth year,
the Magnolia tree sighed and grunted,
and feigning interest would only produce
russet-colored brittle buds
and as they bloomed, then died,
my mom cried a horrible cry,
the sound tires make as they try to dig
their claws in to wet pavement.
Dad hid in the garage, twisting metal
and swallowing scotch.
When fall came that year, my fifteenth year,
the pine tree coughed and spat
needles across our roof,
clogging our gutters and tingeing it green.
My dad cried a horrible cry,
the sound a brake pad makes with its final grind
on the rotor before death.
Mom hid in the greenhouse,
planting Brazilian Verbena
and sneaking Pall Malls.
When winter came that year, my fifteenth year,
mom moved us to Manassas
where Magnolia trees never disappoint
and dad lingered in the garage,
awaiting the pine tree’s next move.

The World is a Pinprick
Erin Wiles

Until next time.

Phil Gounis Chapbook in the Works!

Phil Gounis Chapbook in the Works!


I am super excited to announce that Saint Louis Projects and JKPublishing will be releasing the newest chapbook from longtime poetry guru and culture enthusiast Phil Gounis. Titled Upgrading the Allusions, this book will probably hit the shelves in late January 2011.



Speaking of shelves, Left Bank Books has agreed to carry Bad Shoe! We are bringing them issues tomorrow, so do a little local Christmas shopping and bestow some awesome ladies' lit upon your loved ones. If this goes well, hopefully other SLP and JKP titles will appear there soon. Also, many thanks to Vintage Vinyl for having carried Bad Shoe for the past several months.

Getting back to Phil, here is a preview of the work that will appear in his forthcoming chapbooks. Several other poems are on his website:


http://philipgounis.com/




Jonah



all that screaming bombastic splatter & gaiety
at the municipal swimming pool
the afternoon before Independence Day
him outside the fence
just observing not partaking
in all the fun & frivolity
hoping to come upon at least one
magnanimous,gargantuan mouth
that can swallow whole
to take him all the way down
into the depths of the all time
aquatic delight

and then that tingling realization
that the owner of that lugubrious expanse
just might be you




We are super excited about this opportunity. Stay tuned!