ACHIOTE PRESS FALL 2008 CHAPBOOKS NOW ON SALE

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just in time for the holidays, three new achiote press chapbooks are now available for sale!

all the links below take you directly to the chapbook's homepage, which features sample poems, bios, and ordering info.

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1) ballast by Nii Ayikwei Parkes

Nii Ayikwei Parkes is a writer of poetry, prose and articles, and author of the poetry chapbooks: eyes of a boy, lips of a man (1999) and M is for Madrigal (2004), a selection of seven jazz poems. A former associate writer-in-residence for BBC Radio 3, and writer-in-residence at California State University, Los Angeles, he is also the Senior Editor at flipped eye publishing - where he has overseen the production of four award-winning titles. Nii is the current International Writing Fellow at the University of Southampton and his debut novel, Tail of the Blue Bird, will be released in June 2009 by Jonathan Cape.

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2) U by Johnny Hernandez

Johnny Hernandez was born and raised in and around southern California. He currently resides in Emeryville and is the recent recipient of the Academy of American Poets award for 2008. A recent graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, he is pursuing an MFA degree from Mills College. "U" is his first published collection.

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3) Achiote Seeds Fall 2008 featuring Evie Shockley, Roberto Harrison, Hugo Garcia Manriquez, and francois luong.

Hugo García Manríquez. Author of two books, No Oscuro Todavia, (2005), and Los Materiales (2008). His work has appeared in Mandorla, Damn the Caesars, New American Writing, and others. His translation of William Carlos Williams' poem, Paterson, will be published in Mexico next year.

Originally from Strasbourg, France, François Luong currently lives in San Francisco. Other work of his has appeared or is forthcoming in Cannibal, Parthenon West Review, New American Writing, Mirage #4/Period(ICAL), and elsewhere. He is also working on a translation into English of Chutes, Essais, Trafics by Rémi Froger and into French of Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists by A. Rawlings.

Evie Shockley is the author of A Half-Red Sea (2006) and two chapbooks,31 words * prose poems (2007) and The Gorgon Goddess (2001). Her poetry and critical pieces appear in numerous journals and anthologies, recently including Foursquare, The Southern Review, No Tell Motel, Ecotone, PMS: poemmemoirstory, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, Mixed Blood, Center, and Jacket. She currently serves as co-guest editor (with Cathy Park Hong) of Jubilat. A Cave Canem graduate fellow and recipient of a Hedgebrook residency, Shockley teaches African American literature and creative writing at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.

Roberto Harrison edits Crayon with Andrew Levy and the Bronze Skull Press chapbook series. Two full-length collections of his work appeared in 2006: Counter Daemons (Litmus) and Os (subpress). Elemental Song, a chapbook, also appeared in 2006 through Answer Tag Home Press. Recent work can be found in Chicago Review, Brooklyn Rail, Court Green, War & Peace 3: The Future, Cannot Exist, and string of small machines.

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My First Poetry Book is Now Available for Discounted Pre-Order!!!!

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Dear friends,

Exciting News: my first poetry book, from unincorporated territory, is now available for discounted pre-order from Tinfish Press!!! The book weighs in at about 100 pages and is beautifully designed by Sumet (Ben) Viwatmanitsakul.

The book will retail for $15; Tinfish is offering a pre-publication price of $10 until September 1. You can purchase via my very own Tinfish page (after clicking purchase, scroll down to number 54, which is my book as it's listed on the checkout page.

If you do not want to use the website, please send checks to Tinfish Press, 47-728 Hui Kelu Street #9, Kane`ohe, HI 96744.

Also, I'm in the beginning stages of planning a reading tour in the fall and spring so if you have a reading series please let me know.

I hope you will support Tinfish Press and that you will enjoy the book ;)

Sincerely,
Craig Santos Perez

p.s. please help me spread the word

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Dig the Blurbs:

The act of remembering is the art of recovery, and the
art of reclaiming a past that has never been hidden
only silenced is an act of responsibility. Craig Santos
Perez has arrived to give voice and meaning to the
unheralded narratives with his fierce debut from
unincorporated territory. At once a palimpsest and an
archive of "retrievable history," this book of poems is
sure to place Guam on both the literary and geographical
maps. This poet of consciousness, of communal memory,
and of political fury, has undone the callous erasure of
imperialism and empowered his people's folklore, stories
and journeys. Craig Santos Perez is a poet with a mission,
and with the skill and battle cry to do it right.

~Rigoberto González~

Perez's deft first book delivers a Guam outside the story
of the 'nation', reminding us who and what is 'from'
his island through the biography of touch, and the
intermingled military and colonialist histories brought to
the Chamorro people from far across the ocean.

~Robert Sullivan~

In Craig Santos Perez's from unincorporated territory
we hear the movement of the Pacific Ocean; turning
each page we hear the oars of the people navigating
this ocean. This is a smart, formalistically rigorous, and
unapologetically political collection of poetry. Personal,
tender, and tough, Perez's poems, collages of text and
images offer a necessary critical, historical perspective on
American ownership, Western tourism, and simultaneous
erasure of the island of Guam. from unincorporated
territory rejects the blank space on American maps and in
American consciousness.

~Barbara Jane Reyes~

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ACHIOTE PRESS SUMMER 2008 CHAPBOOKS NOW AVAILABLE!!!!!

Dear Achiote Press Friends,

We are excited to announce the publication of 3 new chapbooks, now available at our website (www.achiotepress.com).

The new issue of ACHIOTE SEEDS, our multi-author chap-journal, features 5 writers from the Pacific Islands: Robert Sullivan, Sage U'ilani Takehiro, Tiare Picard, Michael Lujan Bevacqua, and Dan Taulapapa McMullin. For more info on this issue, click here (http://www.achiotepress.com/seeds08summer.htm). This issue is dedicated to our friend and former contributor, Alfred Arteaga (1950-2008).

Our single author poetry chapbook is titled THE PLAGUE DOCTOR, by Garrett Burrell. Click here for sample poems and bio: http://www.achiotepress.com/plague.htm

Our special project chapbook is titled THE MOON AINT NOTHING BUT A BROKEN DISH, by Luis Felipe Fabre and translated from the Spanish by Jason Stumpf. Click here to read the Translator's Foreword: http://www.achiotepress.com/moon.htm.

All 3 chapbooks are printed in a limited edition of 100, and you can purchase them for $6 each.

If you'd like to send a check, please email me and I will send you our address.

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In other news, we are now SOLD OUT of Hillary Gravendyk's THE NATURALIST and our special project ACROSS AND BETWEEN THE VOID, by Padcha Tuntha-obas and Alysha Wood. Thanks to everyone who purchased a copy!

We have about 10 copies each left of our spring chapbooks: ACHIOTE SEEDS SPRING 2008 (featuring Cristina Garcia, Brenda Cardenas, Emmy Perez, and Gabriela Erandi Rico), Maria Tuttle's SARAME, and Jennifer Reimer's DREAMS OF DEPARTURE (special projects), so act now.

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Please help us spread the word!

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ACHIOTE PRESS SPRING 2008 CHAPBOOKS ON SALE NOW!

(photo courtesy of oscar bermeo. check out his flickr of the event here).

the rumors are true! achiote press spring 2008 chapbooks are now available for purchase at our website.

for those new to achiote press, we publish 2 chapbooks every season and sell them as a pair. one chap is always single authored and the other is our famous chap-journal ACHIOTE SEEDS.

this season, the achiote seeds issue features four writers: CRISTINA GARCIA, BRENDA CARDENAS, EMMY PEREZ, and GABRIELA ERANDI RICO. with all the talk about Latin@ poetry, this issue is a must have.

our single author chapbook is a first for us: a chapter from a novel-in-progress titled SARAME by MARIA TUTTLE. Tuttle's historical (archival) novel is about the life of an aspiring Opera singer in El Paso, Texas during the early 20th century. another cool thing about the chap is that it features an actual photo of Sarame on the cover, as well as newspaper clippings relating to her life (we were given permission to publish the photo and clippings from the special collections departments of the u of texas at el paso library).

$12 gets you the set of 2 chapbooks, which you can paypal here. if you want to pay by check, please email me: csperez06 [at] gmail [dot] com

i should also tell you that we only make a 100 of each, and the issues tend to sell out fairly quickly (plus we sold a bunch last night)--so act now ;)

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Here are the bios of the contributors:


Cristina Garcia was born in Havana and grew up in New York
City. She attended Barnard College and the John Hopkins
University School of Advanced International Studies. Garcia has
worked as a correspondent for Time magazine in San Francisco,
Miami, and Los Angeles. Her first novel, Dreaming in Cuban, was
nominated for a National Book Award and has been widely
translated. She has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a Hodder Fellow
at Princeton University, and the recipient of a Whiting Writers’
Award.

Brenda Cardenas' chapbook of poetry From the Tongues of Brick
and Stone was published by Momotombo Press (Institute for
Latino/a Studies, University of Notre Dame) in 2005, and her
full-length book Boomerang is forthcoming from Bilingual Review
Press. She also co-edited Between the Heart and the Land: Latina
Poets in the Midwest (MARCH/Abrazo Press, 2001). Cardenas’
work has appeared in a range of publications, including The City
Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century, The Wind Shifts: The New
Latino Poetry, Poetic Voices Without Borders, U.S. Latino Literature
Today, Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Prairie Schooner,
RATTLE, and the Poetry Daily web site, among others. With
Sondio Ink(quieto), a spoken word and music ensemble, she co-
produced and released the CD Chicano, Illinoize: The Blue Island
Sessions in 2001. Cardenas is currently an Assistant Professor in
the Creative Writing program at the University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee.

Gabriela Erandi Rico (P'urhepecha & Matlatzinca). A Mexican
indigenous writer, poet, and emerging scholar, Gabriela Erandi
was born in Michoacan, Mexico and grew up following the
migrant farm-worker trail along the American West Coast. After
graduating from Stanford, she participated in INCITE's Sisterfire!
Cultural Arts Tour for Radical Women of Color. As an Ethnic Studies
doctoral student at U.C. Berkeley, she's interested in exploring
the performance and commodification of indigenous identity and
spirituality in Mexico as well as the displacement of Mexican
indigenous people through urbanization and international
migration. Her poetry has been published in various magazines
and anthologies including We Got Issues! A Young Woman’s Guide
to Living a Bold, Courageous and Empowered Life (2005), Antologia
Anual de Mujeres Poetas en el Pais de las Nubes (2005, 2006, & 2007),
Ahani: Indigenous American Poetry (2006), Mujeres de Maiz (2007),
and Seventh Native American Generation (2004 & 2008). She is the
2007 recipient of the Xochiquetzalli Award for Xicana /
Indigenous Women's Poetry and will also appear in Rosa Linda
Fregoso's forthcoming anthology on feminicide in the Americas.

Emmy Perez is the author of Solstice (Swan Scythe Press 2003).
She has received poetry fellowships from the New York
Foundation for the Arts and the Fine Arts Work in
Provincetown, and for her prose writing, the James D. Phelan
Award from the San Francisco Foundation. Her work has
appeared in North American Review, Notre Dame Review, Prairie
Schooner, Crab Orchard Review, LUNA, The Wind Shifts: New Latino
Poetry, and other publications. Audio recordings of some of her
poems are forthcoming online at From the Fishouse
(www.fishousepoems.org). Originally from Santa Ana,
California, she currently lives in the U.S./Mexico borderlands,
where she is an Assistant Professor in the M.F.A. program at the
University of Texas-Pan American. She also teaches poetry in
local detention centers.

Maria Tuttle was born on the 2nd of May 1974 in Bogotá, Colombia. Her
mother, Elvia Gladys, immigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio, leaving Maria in
Colombia for a period of time. Maria immigrated to Cincinnati as a young
child, eventually becoming a naturalized citizen. She attended Anderson
High School, graduating in 1992. She entered the Art Academy of
Cincinnati that same year, earning a BFA in painting and art history in
1997. Maria entered the writing program at the University of Cincinnati
where she earned an MA in comparative literature in 2002. She has worked
as a fine art book editor for a midsize publishing company, but knew that
she wanted to further her writing education. Within a year of earning her
MA, Maria applied to and was accepted by the Bilingual Creative Writing
Program at the University of Texas at El Paso where she earned an MFA in
creative writing and border studies in 2005. She left El Paso and now
resides in Oakland, CA and is currently working at Los Medanos College in
Pittsburg, California as an English professor. She is also the director of the
Puente Program, a program designed to assist under-represented students
to transfer to 4-year colleges and universities.

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ACHIOTE PRESS FEATURED AT THE POETRY FOUNDATION BLOG

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RIGOBERTO GONZALEZ wrote some kind words about ACHIOTE PRESS at the POETRY FOUNDATION BLOG today. CHECK IT OUT.

an excerpt: "If anything, this press seems to be the antidote I have been waiting for against my usual gripe when I pick up a literary journal—any literary journal—Where are the writers of color? This small press hailing from El Cerrito, Califaztlán is on a mission and so far it’s been one exciting production after another."

also, check out our renovated website.

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Review of Hillary Gravendyk's The Naturalist

Achiote Press' newest single author chapbook (dig the wrap-around cover) has just been reviewed! If you havent purchased a copy yet, you should because it is 75% sold out.

Buy the chapbook here for only $6 (shipping included)

Here's an excerpt from the review written by Natalia Cecire. Visit her blog to read the entire review.

"It's not that Hillary wants to do away with the limits of perception, the framing of the diorama -- it's that she wants to investigate the frustration, and the embodiment, that it entails. Living in a small world, a "safely kept scene strangely bound" produces distortion, and that distortion has a poetics and a place."

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ACHIOTE PRESS WINTER CHAPBOOKS NOW AVAILABLE

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PLEASE RE-POST WIDELY:

as some of you know, achiote press' winter chapbooks were printed about two weeks ago just in time for AWP. including our normal single-author chapbook and multi-author journal (Achiote Seeds), we also printed a special projects chapbook.

unfortunately, the multi-author chapbook SOLD OUT. it featured JAVIER HUERTA, GERARDO DIEGO TRANSLATED BY FRANCISCO ARAGON, VERONICA MONTES, AND MONICA DE LA TORRE.

so instead of selling our chaps in pairs, we decided to sell the other two chaps individually, for $6 each (includes shipping). both of these chapbooks are also almost sold out, so if you want your hands on them, please visit our website. if you'd like to write a check, please email me (csperez06 [at] gmail [dot] com) and i'll send you my address.

let me tell you a bit about them:

our single author chap (28 pages) is THE NATURALIST, by Hillary Gravendyk:

Hillary Gravendyk’s poetry has appeared in American Letters &
Commentary, Tarpaulin Sky, The Colorado Review, 1913: A journal of forms,
The Bellingham Review, Fourteen Hills and many other publications. She
is a PhD candidate in English at the University of California,
Berkeley, where she is also the co-curator of The Holloway Series in
Poetry and Poems Against War. Originally from the Pacific Northwest,
she and her husband now live in Oakland, CA.

our special projects chapbook (48 pages) features a ten-page excerpt from a project titled "void" by Padcha Tuntha-obas and an essay by Alysha Wood titled "Translation as Strategy within the work of Padcha Tuntha-obas and other Poly-Lingual Texts".

Here are the contributor bios:

Padcha Tuntha-obas is the author of Trespasses (O Books, 2006) and
composite. diplomacy. (Tin Fish, 2005). Her work appeared in Bay Poetics,
Encyclopedia, Chain and 580 Split. She holds an MFA from Mills
College, and currently works as a media analyst in her hometown of
Bangkok, Thailand.

Alysha Wood is a graduate of Naropa University's M.F.A. Writing &
Poetics program and holds an undergraduate degree from Hollins
University. A writer, dancer, and performer, Wood's work appears in
Galatea Resurrects, Feminist Review, Cliterature, Glimpse Abroad, and
"Focus on the Fabulous: Colorado GLBT Voices." Wood currently
resides in the bay area and is a contributor to In Dance, a publication
of Dancers' Group.

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on the same note...we sold out of our FALL ISSUES at AWP. thanks for everyone who purchased a copy ;)

for our SUMMER ISSUES, we have 3 left. so if you havent got your hands on them, go to our website. i am willing to give discounts on these last few copies, so just email me ;)

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