The first issue of Alternating Current Press' annual Poiesis Review that contains fiction and creative nonfiction right alongside the poetry you've always loved. This beast of a journal sits pretty at 200 pages of writing by some of the best writers in the independent press today. After 20 years in the small press, Poiesis Review is one of the only literary journals in existence that features a blend of today's up-and-coming promising rookies alongside the staples and legends of the last few decades in the literary underground. You can buy in confidence knowing that nowhere else will you find such a smattering of the writers' spectrum or such a truly accurate cross-section of all walks of the literary world. Poiesis Review is proud to be one of the holdout bastions representing the full and true independent press. The Featured Writers in this issue are Norman Mailer Award finalist, Nathan Graziano; Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate, two-time NEA Fellowship recipient, and Pushcart Prize nominee, Sean Brendan-Brown; and multiple Pushcart Prize nominee and three-time PEN grant recipient, Doug Draime. Their work is showcased beside 37 other artists and over 100 pieces of writing, including two of Alternating Current's six 2014 Pushcart Prize nominations, the two grand-prize winners and four honorable-mention winners of our 2013 Luminaire Award for Best Poetry and Best Prose, and stunning cover and back cover art by the tremendously talented Terry Fan. This journal is hands-down one of the finest collections to which Alternating Current has ever had the pleasure of affixing their name. If you've been wanting to give Alternating Current a try but didn't know where to start, then this is the place. All authors on this press receive royalties, so your purchase benefits the writers directly. Find out more at alternatingcurrentarts.com.
Authors
A born and bred Michigander, Robert James Russell is the co-founding editor of the literary journal Midwestern Gothic, which aims to catalog the very best fiction of the Midwestern United States (an area he believes is ripe with its own mythologies and tall tales, yet often overlooked), as well as the micro-press MG Press. In 2013 he launched the online literary journal CHEAP POP, which publishes micro-fiction, 500 words or less. Fascinated by regionalist literature and the intersection of place/landscapes and relationships, his work has appeared in numerous publications, both print and online. His first novella, Sea of Trees, was published by Winter Goose Publishing in 2012. His chapbook, Don’t Ask Me to Spell It Out, was published in April 2015 by WhiskeyPaper Press. His Western novella, Mesilla, was published in September 2015 by Dock Street Press. He’s been nominated nine times for the Pushcart Prize, and was awarded an artist residency with the University Musical Society for the 2014-2015 performance season. In 2016 he was awarded Runner-up for the Passages North Waasnode Fiction Prize, and his essay “Lord of the Lake” was a finalist for the Parks and Points Fall Essay Contest. Robert is the former Director of Development for the non-profit writers’ center Great Lakes Commonwealth of Letters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Co-Director of the Voices of the Middle West literary festival at the University of Michigan. Robert currently lives in Lincoln, Nebraska. He is represented by Abby Saul of The Lark Group.
Christopher Robbins began his career in journalism at the age of sixteen when he started writing jazz criticism for the Daily Telegraph. Since then he has written for numerous newspapers and magazines in Britain, Europe and the USA. The Empress of Ireland won the Saga Award for wit, along with exceptional critical acclaim. In Search of Kazakhstan was short-listed for the Authors’ Club Best Travel Book Award 2008 in the UK and (under the title Apples Are From Kazakhstan) for the Best Travel Books of 2008 in the US. Air America, a worldwide bestseller when it was originally published, was made into a film starring Mel Gibson.
