The winner of The Blasted Tree's second flash haiku contest, held on Facebook earlier this week, is Jesse Anger! We've published his haiku into 2.5" x 2.5" mini-leaflets in a limited run of 60 copies. Jesse's poem was selected for its unconventional structure, loading the last line with contemplative images that lend retroactive meaning to the first two. While we usually go for haiku that open up, this one zooms right in, a surprising move, and a turn in its own right.
Poetry Leaflet - Luster + Occult by Amy LeBlanc
Two poems in the form of dictionary definitions, each term is a nucleus encased in poet Amy LeBlanc's personal lexicon, memories, and associations. Featured together, these poems take on a dimension expressed though symbolic actions and taboo significance. 50 limited-edition 2.5" x 7.5" leaflets, printed on high quality granite-grey paper, are now available from The Blasted Tree Store.
READ Luster + Occult
Poetry Leaflet - Sex at Forty-Five by rob mclennan
Imagistic, rhythmic, and restrained, Sex at Forty-Five is rob mclennan's second poetry leaflet issued by The Blasted Tree. This short suite of fragmented poems are, like their subject matter, "Limbinal: / of snaking limbs." A limited edition of fifty 3.75" x 8.5" leaflets were produced using high quality granite-grey paper, available now from The Blasted Tree Store.
Read Sex at Forty-Five
New Short(er) Fiction - El Perro del Mar by Maria Mon
"Tell me the story of the dog of the sea." Returning home to the island of her grandmother, a young woman must also revisit and confront a family history shrouded in myth and danger. Is there any truth in the tale of El Perro del Mar, the ghostly dog stealing people from the beach? In her first Blasted Tree publication, author Maria Mon reweaves the magic bonds of narrative that connect family and friends down through generations.
READ EL PERRO DEL MAR
El Perro del Mar is part of The Blasted Tree's ongoing series of Short(er) Fiction, stories 2500 words or less. Check out the series online for more great experimental and microfiction!
Poetry Leaftlet - slick of the earth by Tara McGowan Ross
slick of the earth, a poem by multidisciplinary artist Tara McGowan-Ross, celebrates terrestrial femininity in all its fecund glory. A special edition of 100 leaflets was produced for inclusion in filling Station magazine's upcoming small press issue, to be launched at the inaugural Calgary Canzine. 50 copies of the 5.5" x 5.5" leaflets are available now from The Blasted Tree Store, the remainder appearing in the fS small press issue Fall 2017.
Read slick of the earth
Poetry Chapbook - phon phon by R. Keith
Part collage, part experiment, phon phon is a short collection of what R. Keith calls 'exophonic, phonetic' poems, each made from British English translated into European Portuguese. Exophony is the practice of writing in a language that is not one’s mother tongue, while phonetics is the study and classification of speech sounds. 50 limited edition chapbooks are available now from The Blasted Tree Store, and the full collection can be read in colour online.
Read Phon phon
Poetry Leaflet - VWLS by Christian Bök
Famous for his poetics of extreme constraint, conceptualist Christian Bök reworks the famous anti-fascist sentiments of Martin Niemöller into a politically-charged lipogram by systematically eliminating more and more vowels from each line of his poem. VWLS is presented as a limited edition of 10" x 4" cardstock leaflets, 60 copies in circulation, available now from The Blasted Tree Store.
READ VWLS
Poetry Poster - CXXVIII by Sonnet L'Abbé
Produced as part of the Dream Islands group exhibition featured by the Nanaimo Art Gallery (July 21 - September 17, 2017), "CXXVIII" responds to the work of late Salt-Spring Island-based potter Lari Robson in Sonnet L'Abbé's signature style. In this "ecolonization," Shakespeare's 128th sonnet (represented below in orange text) is invaded and fleshed out by the poet, an "erasure-by-crowding" that becomes a formal analogy for colonization. An edition of 700 18" x 24" poster were made for the NAG exhibition, where copies will be made available for free, however if you don't happen to visit Nanaimo this summer, posters can be purchased from The Blasted Tree Store for merely the price of shipping!
READ CXXVIII
Graphic Narrative - PUFFERFISH by Bea Keeler
The Blasted Tree's first graphic narrative, PUFFERFISH is an honest accounting of anxiety, depression, and their impact on personal relationships. Bea Keeler, who both wrote and illustrated the comic, sensitizes readers to the inner world of an introvert without letting her character off the hook for hypocrisy or laziness, parsing mental health issues on behalf of those who don't suffer from them. 50 limited edition copies of the comic are now available from The Blasted Tree Store.
READ PUFFERFISH
Poetry Leaflet - A pistol smuggled in typhus by derek beaulieu
Written after Arthur Rimbaud's Voyelles, A pistol smuggled in typhus embraces the sinister, the macabre, and the ugly side of language. In this, derek beaulieu's second contribution to our poetry lineup, vowels are made foul, and death germinates a new form of life, born of decay. Printed on grey cardstock, limited edition copies of beaulieu's 4.25" x 9" poetry leaflet can be found now in The Blasted Tree Store.