Alan Squire Publishing

A Small Press With Big Ideas

An interview with the late, great Linda Pastan        "Along the indifferent corridors / of space, angels could be hiding," Linda Pastan wrote in her poem "Muse." ASP honors the legacy of Linda Pastan (1932-2023), a former Poet Laureate of Maryland, who passed away last week. Pastan was the author of the 2018 poetry book A Dog Runs Through It, which won the Towson University Literary Award. She was the 2003 winner of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement. She taught at American University and served on the staff of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Pastan lived in Potomac, … [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...]

Dow By Thomas Sorensen Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> Dusty sills of half-peeled fruit. Phonebooks stir in subway draughts. Paintings fade, the wall's soft rippling. A blanker page of acres turns. What home's rapport of flesh and glass could last through such an acid age? In the night street's rich ellipsis, your window darkens, one more dot. < before after> Thomas Sorensen is currently enjoying a short interval between his Ph.D. and postdoctoral fellowship, both in English literature. His poetry is forthcoming or has previously appeared in Variant Lit, … [Read more...]

Credits for a Film about Missing People By Anya Trofimova Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> < before after> Anya Trofimova is a young poet from London, England. Her work has appeared in Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Fly on the Wall Press and Chautauqua Literary Journal, among others, and has been recognised by the Erbacce Prize and FOYLE Young Poets of the Year Award. … [Read more...]

A Goodbye By Peter J. Houle Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> Last night, I dreamt I kissed you on the cheek, and you cried. As I waited for the bus later in the morning, I saw a little boy wave goodbye to the sea. < before after> Peter J. Houle, MA is an 80s kid from Vermont, and has traveled a lot. He liked how Portuguese sounds and how Lisbon looks, so he unpacked his backpack there six years ago and even started planting seeds. Poems of his have appeared in Sandstorm Journal, In Parentheses, and in the Wingless Dreamer anthology The Book of Black. You … [Read more...]

How Was Your Day? By Pasquale Trozzolo Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> All I hear are low notes and misery. Tell me instead of boats and clouds of speed and sex and dreams and bad ideas. Tell me without the clutter. Be impersonal. Shocking. Off-kilter. Abduct me with a dangerous tale. Tell me you like the way I hold my drink. Touch my hand. Whisper something stirring. Make me nervous. Be my stranger. Just for tonight. < before after> Pasquale Trozzolo is founder of one of the leading advertising and public relations firms in the Midwest. He also spent … [Read more...]

Ceviche and Bachelor's Buttons By Richard Peabody Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> Dipping your toes into foamy surf your lips into salty ice   a satisfied sandpiper skipping along the Atlantic Basin   Love unrequited an apogee   The push and pull of continental shards   Pecking order of the gods Who nod out while watching our Truman shows   And miss the good parts < before after> Peabody is perhaps best known as one of the founding editors for Gargoyle Magazine, which he largely funded with his own income. He is also editor … [Read more...]

Center Square Oblivion By Ellen White Rook Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> We sat on your brown couch which used to be my brown couch in your fifth-floor apartment overlooking the park which used to be my fifth-floor apartment overlooking the park. You poured a torrent of Chardonnay and shook your bland Brad Pitt dirty blonde hair. The Park lamps, which were supposed to look like wrought iron gaslights, washed circles of dog tracks and boot prints in the blue snow. It was the beginning of a new year, but it was as if every living thing had disappeared. You lied … [Read more...]

Don't Fall in Love in a Physics Classroom By Leeor Margalit Poetry ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before after> There are books thrown across the floor and empty bottles at the foot of the bed and clothes falling off of hangers and it's not because I'm lazy... it's just in science class we learned about entropy: a clean room is more likely to become messier than a messy room so I'm just saving the universe some trouble. If I start off loving you with a broken heart, it's nothing personal it's just efficient. Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation states that any two bodies in the … [Read more...]

Hermes at the Kakistocracy Hotel By James J. Patterson Essay ASP Bulletin | April 3, 2022 < before It is a late Sunday afternoon in downtown Atlanta. The Conference on Myth, Fantasy, and Imagination, on the last of its four days, is taking a breather between the afternoon lectures and mealtime festivities. The conference is a serious affair and most people are here because of their work. Psychologists, art therapists, writers, scholars, health care specialists, and people for whom lifting the lid of the psyche is quest, a devotion, and for more than a few, a last resort. The book … [Read more...]

Covid-19 Update from ASP WE WRITE THIS in unprecedented times. Only a few weeks ago, we were looking at a spring and summer calendar full of author events celebrating our new titles. Now, with cancelations rolling in, we are doing our best to get you the good reads you want when sheltering in place, and provide some virtual community as well. Right now, nearly all of our ASP Kindle books are on sale for $.99 to $1.99, and we’re going to keep them at that price for as long as we can. We are also running a series of rolling sales on books purchased direct from our site, with free shipping on … [Read more...]

Grace Cavalieri Receives an ANNIE Award for Literary Arts MD Poet Laureate Grace Cavalieri just recieved an ANNIE award for her contributions to literary arts. It adds to a long list of literary accomplishments. Grace Cavalieri Holding up the Anne Arundel County Arts Council Award for Literary Arts or ANNIE At 87 years old, poet Grace Cavalieri shows scant signs of slowing down. Yesterday, on a rainy coastal night in Annapolis, Maryland, Grace was presented with a 2019 ANNIE award for her immense contributions to the literary arts in Anne Arundel County. WYPR's Andy Bienstock … [Read more...]

David Downie on "Melanie's Song" David Downie a fellow francophile travel-writer and novelist in his own right, gives his thoughts on the new novel by Joanna Biggar. “Joanna Biggar explored Paris as a post-adolescent during the distant Age of Kennedy in That Paris Year. Now she explores the backwaters of American revolutionary culture during the so-called Summer of Love in Melanie’s Song. With wit and aplomb, Biggar reminds readers that love may be free but has its consequences. A poet and journalist, when she turns her talents to storytelling, the result is a page-turning novel where … [Read more...]

What Does Anne Lamott Think of "Navigating the Divide" The author of "Bird by Bird" weighs in on Linda Watanabe McFerrin's new Legacy Book “I have loved everything I’ve ever read by Linda Watanabe McFerrin. Her prose and poetry are filled with amazing women, charm, wisdom and light. She is both soulful and precise, eloquent and full of life.” PRE-ORDER NAVIGATING THE DIVIDE Anne Lamott is the author of seven novels, Hard Laughter, Rosie, Joe Jones, Blue Shoe, All New People, Crooked Little Heart, and Imperfect Birds. Lamott has been honored with a … [Read more...]

Week One of National Poetry Month 2019 The first week of National Poetry Month is over. Let's take a look back at the featured poems of this past week. National Poetry Month is upon us! This year ASP has decided to celebrate by featuring several poems each week curated by different members of the ASP team. Now that the first week is over, let's take a look back at the poets and poems we have featured thus far. MONDAY Linda Watanabe McFerrin selected four poems dear to her to feature on Monday, including the late W.S. Merwin's Rain Light (pictured above). She also … [Read more...]

An Interview with Elizabeth Hazen, Baltimore Poet and 2019 Baker Award Finalist "Baltimore is a small city; it is almost impossible to leave the house without running into someone you know. Until I moved here, I never experienced a strong connection to a place, but after almost 20 years here, I feel Baltimore, with all of its quirk and contradiction, is part of my identity." Last week Baltimore poet, Elizabeth Hazen, was announced as a finalist for the 2019 Baker Award in literature. Baltimore poet, Elizabeth Hazen's first collection of poems is entitled Chaos … [Read more...]