24
April2025
Book Release Reading and Celebration for Frank Paino’s Dark OctavesFrank Paino holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
His poems have appeared in a variety of literary publications, including: Crab Orchard Review, Catamaran, North American Review, World Literature Today, Gettysburg Review, Prairie Schooner, The Briar Cliff Review, Lake Effect, and the anthologies, The Face of Poetry, And Blue Will Rise Over Yellow, and Beyond Earth’s Edge: The Poetry of Spaceflight. Paino’s first two volumes of poetry were published by Cleveland State University Press. His third book, Obscura, was published by Orison Books in 2020. His chapbook, Pieta’, was selected by Saddiq Dzukogi as the winner of the 2023 Jacar Press Chapbook Competition and was published in November of 2023. Frank’s work has been recognized with an Individual Excellence Award from The Ohio Arts Council, a Pushcart Prize, and The Cleveland Arts Prize in Literature.
His poems have appeared in a variety of literary publications, including: Crab Orchard Review, Catamaran, North American Review, World Literature Today, Gettysburg Review, Prairie Schooner, The Briar Cliff Review, Lake Effect, and the anthologies, The Face of Poetry, And Blue Will Rise Over Yellow, and Beyond Earth’s Edge: The Poetry of Spaceflight. Paino’s first two volumes of poetry were published by Cleveland State University Press. His third book, Obscura, was published by Orison Books in 2020. His chapbook, Pieta’, was selected by Saddiq Dzukogi as the winner of the 2023 Jacar Press Chapbook Competition and was published in November of 2023. Frank’s work has been recognized with an Individual Excellence Award from The Ohio Arts Council, a Pushcart Prize, and The Cleveland Arts Prize in Literature.
8:00 PMZoom/YouTube
08
January2025
Book Release Reading and Celebration for A Path to Freedom: A North Carolina Anthology in Honor of Military Veterans
Longleaf Press, in collaboration with the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, invites the public to a special reading and celebration of the new poetry anthology A Path to Freedom: A North Carolina Anthology in Honor of Military Veterans. This significant collection, edited by Lenard D. Moore, LeJuane “El’Ja” Bowens, and Shannon C. Ward, features fifty unique and powerful voices that offer deeply personal reflections on the military experience.
The event will include readings from several of the featured poets, a discussion on the inspiration behind the anthology, and an opportunity to meet the editors and contributors. Featured presenters will include John Balaban, El’Ja Bowens, Jacque Jacobs, Paul Jones, Pat Riviere-Seel, and others.
Of the collection, former North Carolina Poet Laureate, Joseph Bathanti, says, “A Path to Freedom illustrates beautifully and poignantly the extraordinary bounty and diversity of writers in North Carolina who speak with eyewitness precision and passion about the military experience. This ample and convincing anthology delivers the testimony of fifty unforgettable voices that will open eyes and hearts and ring long after its concluding poem. This is a remarkable volume.”
Longleaf Press, in collaboration with the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities, invites the public to a special reading and celebration of the new poetry anthology A Path to Freedom: A North Carolina Anthology in Honor of Military Veterans. This significant collection, edited by Lenard D. Moore, LeJuane “El’Ja” Bowens, and Shannon C. Ward, features fifty unique and powerful voices that offer deeply personal reflections on the military experience.
The event will include readings from several of the featured poets, a discussion on the inspiration behind the anthology, and an opportunity to meet the editors and contributors. Featured presenters will include John Balaban, El’Ja Bowens, Jacque Jacobs, Paul Jones, Pat Riviere-Seel, and others.
Of the collection, former North Carolina Poet Laureate, Joseph Bathanti, says, “A Path to Freedom illustrates beautifully and poignantly the extraordinary bounty and diversity of writers in North Carolina who speak with eyewitness precision and passion about the military experience. This ample and convincing anthology delivers the testimony of fifty unforgettable voices that will open eyes and hearts and ring long after its concluding poem. This is a remarkable volume.”
11
April2023
Book Release Reading and Celebration for Christopher Buckley and Janine Certo Longleaf Press presents a reading with Christopher Buckey and Janine Certo.
Christopher Buckley’s recent books—in addition to ONE SKY TO THE NEXT—are AGNOSTIC, Lynx House Press; The Pre-Eternity of the World, Stephen F. Austin State Univ. Press, & The Consolations of Science & Philosophy, Lynx House Press.
Among over a dozen critical collections and anthologies he has edited: On the Poetry of Philip Levine: Stranger to Nothing, 1991; A Condition of the Spirit: The life & Work of Larry Levis (with Alexander Long) 2004; Bear Flag Republic: Prose Poems & Poetics from California, (with Gary Young) 2008; and Messenger to the Stars: A Luis Omar Salinas New Selected Poems & Reader, (with Jon Veinberg), 2014. The most recent are: The Long Embrace: Contemporary Poets on the Long Poems of Philip Levine, Lynx House Press, 2020; and NAMING THE LOST: THE FRESNO POETS—Interviews & Essays, Stephen F. Austin State Univ. Press, 2021.
Buckley’s work was selected for Best American Poetry 2021. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in Poetry for 2007-2008, and has been awarded a Fulbright Award in Creative Writing to the former Yugoslavia, four Pushcart Prizes, two awards from the Poetry Society of America, and NEA grants in poetry for 2001 and 1984. He received the Vern Rutsala Poetry Prize from Cloudbank books for The Far Republics in 2017; The Lascaux Prize for Back Room at the Philosophers’ Club in 2015; and the Tampa Review Prize for Poetry from the Univ. of Tampa Press for Rolling the Bones in 2009.
Over the last 40 years his poetry has appeared in APR, POETRY, FIELD, The Georgia Review, The Iowa Review, TriQuarterly, The Kenyon Review, The Sewanee Review, Ploughshares, The New Yorker, The Nation, Northwest Review, The North American Review, The Hudson Review, The Gettysburg Review, Plume, Prairie Schooner, The Southern Review, Five Points, New Letters, The Threepenny Review, The Harvard Review, & Birmingham Poetry Review.
Janine Certo is the author of three full-length poetry collections: O Body of Bliss, winner of the Longleaf Press Book Contest in Poetry (2023), Elixir, winner of both the New American Poetry Prize and the Lauria/Frasca Poetry Prize (New American Press and Bordighera Press, 2021), and In the Corner of the Living, runner-up for the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award (2017). She is also the author of a poetry chapbook, Home Altar, winner of the Keystone Chapbook Prize (forthcoming, Seven Kitchens Press). A winner of Nimrod International Journal’s Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, her poems appear or are forthcoming in The Cincinnati Review, The Greensboro Review, Poetry Northwest, Shenandoah, and others. She is an associate professor at Michigan State University.
Christopher Buckley’s recent books—in addition to ONE SKY TO THE NEXT—are AGNOSTIC, Lynx House Press; The Pre-Eternity of the World, Stephen F. Austin State Univ. Press, & The Consolations of Science & Philosophy, Lynx House Press.
Among over a dozen critical collections and anthologies he has edited: On the Poetry of Philip Levine: Stranger to Nothing, 1991; A Condition of the Spirit: The life & Work of Larry Levis (with Alexander Long) 2004; Bear Flag Republic: Prose Poems & Poetics from California, (with Gary Young) 2008; and Messenger to the Stars: A Luis Omar Salinas New Selected Poems & Reader, (with Jon Veinberg), 2014. The most recent are: The Long Embrace: Contemporary Poets on the Long Poems of Philip Levine, Lynx House Press, 2020; and NAMING THE LOST: THE FRESNO POETS—Interviews & Essays, Stephen F. Austin State Univ. Press, 2021.
Buckley’s work was selected for Best American Poetry 2021. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in Poetry for 2007-2008, and has been awarded a Fulbright Award in Creative Writing to the former Yugoslavia, four Pushcart Prizes, two awards from the Poetry Society of America, and NEA grants in poetry for 2001 and 1984. He received the Vern Rutsala Poetry Prize from Cloudbank books for The Far Republics in 2017; The Lascaux Prize for Back Room at the Philosophers’ Club in 2015; and the Tampa Review Prize for Poetry from the Univ. of Tampa Press for Rolling the Bones in 2009.
Over the last 40 years his poetry has appeared in APR, POETRY, FIELD, The Georgia Review, The Iowa Review, TriQuarterly, The Kenyon Review, The Sewanee Review, Ploughshares, The New Yorker, The Nation, Northwest Review, The North American Review, The Hudson Review, The Gettysburg Review, Plume, Prairie Schooner, The Southern Review, Five Points, New Letters, The Threepenny Review, The Harvard Review, & Birmingham Poetry Review.
Janine Certo is the author of three full-length poetry collections: O Body of Bliss, winner of the Longleaf Press Book Contest in Poetry (2023), Elixir, winner of both the New American Poetry Prize and the Lauria/Frasca Poetry Prize (New American Press and Bordighera Press, 2021), and In the Corner of the Living, runner-up for the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award (2017). She is also the author of a poetry chapbook, Home Altar, winner of the Keystone Chapbook Prize (forthcoming, Seven Kitchens Press). A winner of Nimrod International Journal’s Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, her poems appear or are forthcoming in The Cincinnati Review, The Greensboro Review, Poetry Northwest, Shenandoah, and others. She is an associate professor at Michigan State University.
7 PM ESTZoom/YouTube
21
August2021
Poetry Reading with Crystal Simone Smith and Joellen CraftLongleaf Press presents a reading with Crystal Simone Smith and Joellen Craft.
Crystal Simone Smith is author of the poetry chapbooks, Down to Earth, Longleaf Press (2021); Running Music, Longleaf Press (2014); and Routes Home, Finishing Line Press (2013). She is also author of Wildflowers: Haiku, Senryu, and Haibun (2016). Her work has appeared in numberous journals, including Callaloo, Nimrod, Barrow Street, Obsidian II: Literature in the African Diaspora, African American Review, and Mobius: The Journal of Social Change. She is an alumna of the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and the Yale Summer Writers Conference. She holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and lives in Durham, NC, where she teaches English Composition and Creative Writing. She is the Managing Editor of Backbone Press.
Joellen Craft is a one-time Durhamite who now lives in Salisbury, Maryland. Her poems have recently appeared in The Fourth River, The Penn Review, Radar Poetry, and The Collagist, who nominated her poems for a Pushcart Prize. Her chapbook, The Quarry, won L + S Press’s 2020 Mid-Atlantic Chapbook Prize. She teaches English at Wor-Wic Community College.
Crystal Simone Smith is author of the poetry chapbooks, Down to Earth, Longleaf Press (2021); Running Music, Longleaf Press (2014); and Routes Home, Finishing Line Press (2013). She is also author of Wildflowers: Haiku, Senryu, and Haibun (2016). Her work has appeared in numberous journals, including Callaloo, Nimrod, Barrow Street, Obsidian II: Literature in the African Diaspora, African American Review, and Mobius: The Journal of Social Change. She is an alumna of the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and the Yale Summer Writers Conference. She holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and lives in Durham, NC, where she teaches English Composition and Creative Writing. She is the Managing Editor of Backbone Press.
Joellen Craft is a one-time Durhamite who now lives in Salisbury, Maryland. Her poems have recently appeared in The Fourth River, The Penn Review, Radar Poetry, and The Collagist, who nominated her poems for a Pushcart Prize. Her chapbook, The Quarry, won L + S Press’s 2020 Mid-Atlantic Chapbook Prize. She teaches English at Wor-Wic Community College.
7 PMSo & So Books
719 Person St.
Raleigh, NC 27604
919-426-9502
719 Person St.
Raleigh, NC 27604
919-426-9502