Thanks to the editors of Caketrain who named our own End of the Fire Cult by Angela Woodward as a top pick for 2010 and the holiday season, as reported on the blog Karen the Small Press Libarian.

Happy Birthday, Kenneth Patchen.

In a limpidity of silences
Speaks what is unanswerable
And is answered.
In a limpidity of silences

The laurelled heads turn

Away from death
And away from life and all
Other trivial little dissolutions.
In a limpidity of silences

Sleep the laurelled heads.

-Kenneth Patchen, from Limpidity of Silences

New Book Release from Lynn Strongin

Now available!  Twin Tan Dogs, Obedience & Discipline, a Modern, Mystical Bestiary by Lynn Strongin, filled with truly fine poems by this American-in-Canada. Not her first book (though first with Ravenna), but perhaps her finest.  We begin shipping on the 17th!  Order at will.

Snow!

Spokane has completed the snowiest November in recorded weather history.  My neighbor and I were out shoveling our driveways at 9 p.m. las night just to get the month over with.

Even though few entries for the Cathlamet Prize are expected to come on foot, we have extended the entry period through the end of December.

We did not ask our webfellow to change the written rules on the Ravenna web page, but the extension is indeed in place, enacted after a request to allow for folks whose chapbook contents are more than 1/3 individually published.  Originally, we had wanted 2/3 unpublished--but why penalize success?

So go ahead, while there is still time---take a long look at my beloved Grandmother Rantala in the poster and put together work that will please her.  She deserves your best.

Please postmark or email your entry by December 31, 2010.  Announcement of the winners will, accordingly, be delayed until March, with prizes awarded in April.  We will announce the winners right here (well, further up the page, as blogs go.)

-KR

Pax Ravenna