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.

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