Press 53

A book club for writers? Now that's a great idea! https://www.writeability.org/

Their first six months lineup will not disappoint: Pete Fromm, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Tara Lynn Masih, Sejal Shah, Steve Almond, and Michael Parker.

Today on Verse Daily, a prose poem by Mark Cox, "Wonder Bread," from his new collection, KNOWING.

Verse Daily: Wonder Bread by Mark Cox from KNOWING Verse Daily, a quality online web anthology of poetry. A poem a day, along with our complete archives, and poem selections from the web.

Thank you Electric Literature and Wendy Fox for including The Ill-Fitting Skin by Shannon Robinson!

15 Indie Press Books You Should be Reading This Summer - Electric Literature Novels, memoirs, and story collections from small publishers you won't want to miss

2025 Press 53 Award for Poetry The 2025 Press 53 Award for Poetry is accepting unpublished poetry collections between 50 to 120 pages. Learn more at NewPages.

Book Review: Knowing by Mark Cox Book Details: Author: Mark Cox Release Date: April 11, 2024Series:Genre: Poetry, Non-FictionFormat: E-book Pages: 98 pagesPublisher: Press 53Blurb:Mark Cox pulls no punches in these poems about lov…

Author Interview: Mark Cox Welcome to TRB Lounge. Today, I’d like to welcome the author of Knowing – Mark Cox, for an author interview with The Reading Bud. About The Author Mark Cox has authored six other vol…

https://www.georgebilgere.com/so/5dP1HImhl?languageTag=en
Thank you, George Bilgere, for sharing on Poetry Town one of our favorite poems by one of our favorite poets. This poem is also available in Cathy's Like Shining from Shook Foil: Selected Poems and in The Collected Poems of Cathy Smith Bowers, both from Press 53.

Here’s a poem for today, June 26, 2024 Welcome to poet George Bilgere’s online newsletter. Every day George selects a poem by a writer he’s crazy about and he says a few words about why he picked it.

Saturday Review: "Appalachian Journeys" a review by George Hovis in NCLR Online Spring 2024 of Robert Morgans's collection In the Snowbird Mountain and Other Stories (2023) and Rebecca Godwin's monograph Community Across Time: Robert Morgan's Words for Home (2023)

Longtime readers of NCLR know we have published many pieces by and about 2010 NC Literary Hall of Fame inductee Robert Morgan. Our inaugural Spring issue adds to the collection of Morgan material. Editorial Board member George Hovis places two new works--one by and one about Morgan--into the context of a body of work.

Read More: https://nclr.ecu.edu/2024/06/08/hovis-reviews-morgan/

Congratulations, Michael Hettich! Judge Eric Pankey had this to say about his selection: “What impresses me most about Michael Hettich’s The Halo of Bees: New and Selected Poems 1990-2022 (Press 53) are the poems’ radiance and clarity, their keen and patient attention, and the plain old gorgeousness of their music. Lovers of Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Frost, and Theodore Roethke will find a kinship here. As well, I find a lively and quick mind here at work, not unlike contemporary Swiss poet, Philippe Jaccottet, who records fleeting moments that open onto a glimpse of the subtle and the sublime. This is an impressive and generous collection of poetry deserving much attention.”

We are sad to hear of Fred Chappell’s death. He was an outstanding poet, novelist, essayist and teacher. Our very best to his wife and partner Susan and the eir family.

Fred Chappell, acclaimed author and past NC Poet Laureate, dies at 87 "Anyone who knows anything about Southern writing knows that Fred Chappell is our resident genius, our shining light, the one truly great writer we have among us," said novelist Lee

Thank you, Southern Literary Review, for an excellent review of THE HALO OF BEES: NEW & SELECTED POEMS 1990-2022 by Michael Hettich. Thank you, Claire Matturro for writing this insightful review.

“The Halo of Bees: New & Selected Poems 1990-2023” by Michael Hettich - Southern Literary Review Award-winning poet Michael Hettich, a former Florida resident and professor who now lives in North Carolina, has an avid appreciation for nature, domestic life, language, trust in the simple things, and in the often-elusive connections between entities. With intelligence, insight, and occasional wit...

2024 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction The 2024 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction is open to entries of unpublished short story collections. Learn more at NewPages.

What's better than one December cover reveal? ... Two!

Check out Garrett Ashley's forthcoming story collection, PERIPHYLLA, AND OTHER DEEP OCEAN ATTRACTIONS, now available for pre-order at https://www.press53.com/garrett-ashley 📚🪼

Cover reveal for our 2023 winner of the Press 53 Award for Short Fiction, coming May 3. Deadline for 2024 competition is Dec 31.
www.press53.com/award-for-short-fiction

Have you heard the news? It's cover reveal day for Shannon Robinson's award-winning story collection THE ILL-FITTING SKIN! 👀 👀 Shannon's stories have been called "clever, harrowing, bitingly funny, imaginative, absurd, anatomical, and wise" . . . and they're available for pre-order now at https://www.press53.com/shannon-robinson!

Trusting Your Own Bad Eye: An Interview with David Jauss David Jauss discusses his collection of craft essays Alone with All That Could Happen, as well as how the book fits into our current climate of creativity battling AI art. Interviewed by Benjamin Woodard

This Thanksgiving, we would like to share with you an article by Valerie Stivers from the November 24, 2021, The Paris Review: Thanksgiving with John Ehle (Ee-Lee).

John Ehle was a well-known and respected North Carolina author who inspired Press 53's Carolina Classics Editions when we reissued THE LAND BREAKERS in the summer of 2006. The New York Review Classics acquired THE LAND BREAKERS in 2014.

THE LAND BREAKERS is chronologically the first book in Ehle's seven "mountain books," as he called then. The first six books in the series were written out of order, beginning with LION ON THE HEARTH in 1961 (book six) and followed by THE LAND BREAKERS in 1964 (book one). John shared with me that he had begun writing THE LAND BREAKERS in the late 50s and got stumped about halfway into the story, so he set it aside and wrote LION ON THE HEARTH. And during that time he found the rest of the story for THE LAND BREAKERS. You can find more about John and his books in our website bookstore. Click on Carolina Classics Editions.

In this article, Valerie Stivers prepares a Thanksgiving dinner inspired by the foods mentioned in THE LAND BREAKERS. Thank you, Valerie, for helping us celebrate John and his "mountain books." We miss him every day.

Enjoy, and thank you for supporting Press 53 and our authors all these 18 years. Peace and warmth to all.

Thanksgiving with John Ehle - The Paris Review Cook a frontier-food Thanksgiving with John Ehle.

A wonderful and fun interview with Shuly Cawood by Mick Mickunas at Book Nook. Shuly reads a few poems from her new collection, SOMETHING SO GOOD IT CAN NEVER BE ENOUGH, and talks about her dog trying to train her, old flames and stale nachos. Take a break, grab a drink, and listen to a great interview.

Book Nook: 'Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough' by Shuly Cawood Shuly X. Cawood returns with her latest poetry collection.