Alan Squire Publishing

A Small Press With Big Ideas

ASP Bulletin Announces Nominations for Best of the Net 2022 ASP's in-house literary journal nominates nine authors for the Best of the Net 2022 The Best of the Net is an awards-based anthology started in 2006. Online publications can submit pieces in four categories: poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and art. For this year, the Bulletin submitted a total of nine authors in three different categories. They are as follows: Leslie Pietrzyk: Keep Your Dead Close (NF) James J. Patterson: Hermes at the Kakistocracy Hotel (NF) dave ring: Non-Volatile Memory (Fic) Ellen White Rook: … [Read more...]

"A wonderfully detailed treat!" Kirkus Reviews David Downie's Long Awaited ROMAN ROULETTE The American book review magazine and cultural gatekeeper Kirkus Reviews raves about David Downie's new thriller, Roman Roulette, calling it "a wonderfully detailed treat" all while praising it as not just a remarkable thriller but a loving tour of Rome and Italian culture. Roman Roulette is the continuation of Det. Daria Vinci's adventures first explored in Downie's Red Riviera. A new scene, a new adventure, a new case, follow the intrepid detective to the stunning conclusion of this … [Read more...]

Innisfree Poetry Journal Takes an In-Depth Look at the Career and Works of Grace Cavalieri In their newest edition, Innisfree Poetry Journal, takes a deep dive into the work and career of Grace Cavalieri. The article features thirteen poems by the Maryland Poetry Laureate including many featured in her Legacy Book, Other Voices, Other Lives. The poems are drawn from her historical-literary explorations of the lives of three famous women of vastly different backgrounds: Mary Wollstonecraft, Anna Nicole Smith, and Madame de Stael. Of her work on Mary Wollstonecraft, the … [Read more...]

The American Scholar features Grace Cavalieri's "Work Is My Secret Lover" In this audio-only feature, the Maryland Poet Laureate's poem is read by Amanda Holmes of The American Scholar Phi Beta Kappa's The American Scholar recently featured a beloved poem by current Maryland Poet Laureate, Grace Cavalieri. The feature is audio only and TAS' Amanda Holmes offers her vocal stylings for an introduction of Cavalieri and reading of the poem, "Work is my Secret Lover." "Work is my Secret Lover" appears in Cavalieri's Other Voices, Other Lives part of Alan Squire … [Read more...]

Saida Agostini is Torch literary Arts Featured Artist of July Torch Literary Arts, a non-profit literary organization with the goal of raising the creative voices of black women writers, has selected Saida Agostini as their featured artist of July. Included in the feature is a sampling of her work and a substantive interview with Saida. Read the entire feature here and find an excerpt of the interview below. Saida Agostini is a queer Afro-Guyanese poet whose work explores the ways Black folks harness mythology to enter the fantastic. Her first full-length poetry collection, let … [Read more...]

LET THE DEAD IN Receives Glowing Review in Lightwood Press #10 "Agostini's socially and spiritually aware poetry collection 'Let the Dead In' focuses on the duality between love and hate along with the way that these concepts integrate and clash" Poet Robyn Hager reviews Saida Agostini's daring first collection let the dead in in the 10th edition of Lightwood. In her review, Hager praises Agostini's social and spiritual awareness as she contends with the violence and oppression facing black people in the United States. Below, read a small excerpt. Read the entire review … [Read more...]

James J. Patterson to Write Liner Notes for New Country Rock Record The North Star Band, formerly managed by ASP's own James J. Patterson, release a new LP, Then and Now James J. Patterson, famed himself in the music world for his onstage-persona, Jimmy Pheromone, writes the liner notes for the new North Star Band album Then and Now. The North Star Band was formed in the 1970s by Patterson's erstwhile co-writer and co-performer Al Johnson (Al Pheromone). After recording two albums under the Patterson's management, the band went on a long hiatus from which they only recently … [Read more...]

Saida Agostini Poem Appears in Pride Poems 2022 For pride month 2022 Saida Agostini reads her (VERY NSFW) poem "Adventures of the Third Limb" "Adventures of the Third Limb," Saida Agostini's boisterous and celebratory love poem was chosen as part of DC Pride's poem a day celebration. The project hosts 30 short videos of queer DC-area poets reading a love poem and archives them all on their website: pridepoems.com. You can watch Saida read her poem HERE. The full text is below (NSFW WARNING) and you can help out DC pride by volunteering or donating at capitalpride.org. You can … [Read more...]

Elizabeth Hazen Essay Lands in Coachella Review Elizabeth Hazen's new essay "Click Here to Relive This Memory" explores the warmth and the chill of nostalgia " The future brims with uncertainty and violence and harsh colors; it is no surprise that we prefer looking back," writes Elizabeth Hazen in her new essay that contends with a societal and personal obsession with nostalgia. In the course of her essay, she charts her life as a young child devouring handfuls of cereal in front of Saturday morning cartoons, to a young mother mired in a failing marriage, to the struggles and … [Read more...]

ASP Celebrates AAPI Month With Selections from the Work of Linda Watanabe McFerrin ASP celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with works by Japanese-American poet and writer, Linda Watanabe McFerrin. The two poems and one essay below are featured in her Legacy Collection, Navigating the Divide. LEGACY I. In the first act, remember her madness- her wide gash of sorrow, her obi of blood? The tragic Kabuki heroine, she committed seppuku, hid the cross-wise cut under mulberry robes. We walked like obakes, like unsettled ghosts. She cut my long hair. It frightened … [Read more...]

THE OTHER ONES named "great summer read" by Pittsburgh Magazine Book editor, Kristofer Collins, names Dave Housley's latest novel as one of ten great summer reads of 2022 Pittsburgh Magazine includes Dave Housley's new novel, The Other Ones, among it's list of must have summer reads for 2022. Whether on the beach, exploring the Alleghanies, or just relaxing in the sun, The Other Ones is a page turner suitable for anyone averting themselves from clammy office life. Of The Other Ones, Kristofer writes: The author Dave Housley didn't have to look far for the subject of … [Read more...]

Saida Agostini's "let the dead in" Featured in Ms. Magazine Saida Agostini's debut collection of poems receives a glowing recommendation from Ms. Magazine in three words: "Mythology, ancestry, triumph." Popular American feminist megazine, Ms. Magazine, shouts out Saida Agostini's much raved about new collection of poems in a listicle posted on April 20th entitled "Poetry for the Rest of Us 2022." With three words, "Mythology, Ancestry, Triumph" Ms. places Agostini's let the dead in among recent poetry standouts like Salmas Sharif's Customs and Aurielle Marie's Gumbo Ya … [Read more...]

Throwing in the Tao; James J. Patterson's New Essay Appears in Henry Miller Journal The full title of James J. Patterson's new essay which appears in Nexus: The International Henry Miller Journal is "Throwing in the Tao: Henry Miller as Life Coach, Literary Instructor, and Spiritual Guide" With a new edition of Nexus: the International Henry Miller Journal comes a whole new discourse on the oft-ignored American master. James J. Patterson's unique perspective on Miller appears as "Throwing in the Tao..." an essay concerning the correspondence between writer Lawrence Durrell … [Read more...]

Joseph Ross Reviews "let the dead in" Ross praises the new Saida Agostini collection in his review titled, "If You Love the Living, Get Saida Agostini's 'let the dead in'" Poet and critic, Joseph Ross, tackles the wrinkles and crevasses of Saida Agostini's maverick debut poetry collection, let the dead in. let the dead in, is an exploration of  the mythologies that seek to subjugate Black bodies, and the counter-stories that reject such subjugation. Audacious, sensual, and grieving, this work explores how Black women harness the fantastic to craft their own road to … [Read more...]

Elevator in the Brain Hotel By Richard Peabody Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 after> When we kiss   the tiny snake in my ear slithers out just so   to entwine the shiny snake in your ear.   You slip your pointy tongue behind my teeth   and our tiny snakes coil and rise between us   mirroring a double helix   or some science crap we're missing out on   because we cut class to kiss in the space   behind my locker where I have a pile   of pillows and a battery-operated   lantern.     When you open your eyes   and … [Read more...]

revisions to the catalogue of folktale types By Kathleen Hellen Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> 410 needs to be revised: "Once upon a time" needs to be once upon a time when you were dormant (not a doormat...) when you passed out in the tragedy intrinsic to awakening, when princes climbed the ladder princes think is manning like peyton quarterbacking, more a habit of the Grimm than subtle magic ™ with the wand that does the trick (shall I say it?)-of pleasuring. Why take chances   with happy ever after? With wicked exes? In-laws? Sisters? You have to … [Read more...]

Unreliable By Ellen White Rook Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> Maybe the poet killed someone and buried them on a night so dark she can't find the spot, just memories of stone on stone. Even the spade disappears in her driftwood hands, in the broken laths, in the crumbling foundation cramped with rampant daffodils.   Maybe she killed the poet and swallowed shreds of yeast and tears. Maybe she was a whale of oil-lit caverns, a palace for suffering biblical satisfaction. Maybe she birthed an orchard of discarded cores.   The poet wrote letters on a scrap … [Read more...]

Keep Your Dead Close By Leslie Pietrzyk  Essay ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> A story about my dead husband begins "I remember" or "remember how": "Remember how Robb stapled yellow-highlighted Xeroxes of restaurant listings for every driving trip, and we'd eat six different barbecues in one day, and he knew whether we should order chopped or ribs and if the hush puppies were famous, and how he'd go, 'Pecan pie here is worth belly space.'"             I want people to laugh at these stories, to nod in recognition. I'm practiced and tell the stories effectively. I quote … [Read more...]

Sibling By Cassady O'Reilly-Hahn Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> Open the moon: the ocean is a yolk breaking invisible in the grooves of your hair. My fingers trickle down your spine. This is as close as I can get to telling you I am still listening for your next breath. < before after> Cassady O'Reilly-Hahn is a poet with an MA from Claremont Graduate University. He is a managing editor for Foothill: A Poetry Journal that highlights graduate student voices. He works for AudioEyes, a company that describes TV and film for blind viewers. In his free … [Read more...]

Saida Agostini Publishes Poem in Perugia Agostini's poem "An Incomplete Legend on Love" finds a home in Perugia Press as they highlight exceptional emerging BIWOC poets and artists Saida Agostini's "An Incomplete Legend on Love" first appears in her debut poetry collection let the dead in. Perugia Press, who is doing a feature on exceptional, emerging BIWOC poets and artists, have republished "An Incomplete Legend on Love" on their website, featuring a bio of Agostini and information on let the dead in. You can read the entire poem here on Perugia Press' … [Read more...]