A poem about nature, evolution, and the strange ecology we inhabit while “getting ready for the end times.” semi-automatic transmission #18 is one of a series of poems by Jeff Kochan. The Blasted Tree has produced a limited edition of 60 leaflets featuring the poem on granite grey paper. semi-automatic transmission #18 can be read online following the link below, and copies of the leaflet are available for purchase from The Blasted Tree’s store.
Poetry Chapbook - Site Orientation by Samantha Jones
Site Orientation is an experimental visual poetry project by Samantha Jones that plays with the format of safety data sheets to create an introduction to a home through the lens of OCD. Jones invents warning labels for OCD triggers, then pairs them with domestic situations to make poems that are both humorous and insightful. The Blasted Tree has produced a limited edition of fifty 7” x 9” chapbooks, each rivet-bound into red cardstock and protective plastic covers, evoking the clipboards of safety information posted in lab and factory work sites. Site Orientation can be read online following the link below, and copies of the chapbook are now available in our online store.
View Site Orientation
Poetry Longsheet - Maps, Omens, & Agar #3
Maps, Omens, & Agar #3 features two anagrammatic poems by kerry rawlinson. Each of rawlinson’s poems is an anagram of the title and first stanza of a poem by Paul Verlain, which appears in italics alongside the new work. The Blasted Tree has produced a limited edition of 60 two-page longsheets printed on ivory linen paper and staple-bound. Maps, Omens, & Agar #3 is available for purchase in The Blasted Tree’s store and can be read online using the link below.
Read maps, omens, & agar #3
Fiction Chapbook - Old Sea by Ryan Stearne
In spite of it’s apparent simplicity, Hemingway’s writing style is incredibly distinct. You might say the ‘author signal’ in his writing is very strong. Using a statistical analysis of The Old Man and the Sea, Ryan Stearne has attempted to identify and replicate Hemingway’s distinctive style, rewriting one of his most iconic stories with 93% fewer words. The result is Old Sea, a short story that not only captures all the major narrative beats of the original, but recreates Hemingway’s author signal with computational precision. The Blasted Tree has produced a limited edition of sixty chapbooks printed on blue-lined graph paper and bound into seafoam green covers with clear fishing line and a barbed fishhook. Old Sea can be purchased from our online store and read online using the link below.
read Old Sea
Poetry Broadside - Room #6 by Michael Sutton
Part of a series of floorplan-poems by Michael Sutton exploring interior space as experienced through lockdown, Room #6 makes use of digital asemia and negative space to convey the feeling of decoherence. Producing this poem in print, marked as it is by glitch aesthetics, brings the virtual and physical into incomplete alignment; the eye struggles to find focus, to resolve the boundaries of poetic space. The Blasted Tree is offering the Room #6 in a limited edition of sixty 7.5” x 11” broadsides, available now in the online store. View the poem online following the link below.
View Room #6
Poetry Leaflet - crease by Samuel Haecker
crease is an interactive origami poem you have to fold up to read through. Like the love story it narrates, the arrangement of text shifts and changes as you manipulate the paper, bringing previously unrelated lines together. The Blasted Tree has produced a limited edition of sixty 6” x 6” leaflets on vibrantly-colored, two-sided origami paper. Each leaflet comes with two sheets, one featuring the poem, the other with the folding instructions. crease by Samuel Haecker is available from our online store and can be read online. You can even download the image files and print the poem on paper of your choosing!
View crease
Poetry Chapbook - Daydreaming Melancholia by Danni Storm
A collection of 12 concrete poems composed on a Brother Deluxe typewriter, Daydreaming Melancholia by Danni Storm emanates from its opening quote, which translates to something like "a sick man's delusional dream." These poems exhibit odd thoughts and mental eccentricities with extreme visual concision and directness. A limited edition of sixty chapbooks has been produced by The Blasted Tree, each 4.75” x 6.75” copy printed on light blue paper and bound into a navy cover with a grey flyleaf. Daydreaming Melancholia is now available from The Blasted Tree’s online store and can be read following the link below.
View Daydreaming Melancholia
The Blasted Tree's annual subscription drive
It's been a great year for the press, and I owe so much of our continued success to subscriber support. In 2021, I was able to do more color printing than ever before, several publications sold out in a matter of days, and we even put out our first two full-length books: Without Form by Ben Robinson and Barcode Poetry by yours truly. The stability provided by subscribers has allowed me to take more risks and keep trying new things. Thank you for making this possible!!!
And now it's time for The Blasted Tree's annual subscription drive! Subscriptions have formed the backbone of The Blasted Tree's publishing model for the last few years, and have become especially important through the pandemic. Sadly, COVID-19 continues to present challenges for small press publishers as we refrain from markets and in-person events, conventionally the best places to sell chapbooks. Moreover, without face-to-face interaction, it can sometimes feel like publishing into the abyss. Luckily, subscriptions change all that! When the going gets tough, subscriber support has made it that much easier to press on. And so I've endeavoured to line up a full slate of exciting publications for the next several months, including:
Daydreaming Melancholia by Danni Storm, a chapbook of typewritten visual poetry
Old Sea by Ryan Sterne, a statistics-based rewrite of The Old Man and the Sea
crease by Samuel Haecker, a foldable origami poetry leaflet
And many more! In fact, too many to list here!
I ask that you please consider subscribing to receive all of our forthcoming print publications over the next 12 months. I've got so many irons in the fire, and I can't wait to share them all with you! Sign up at www.theblastedtree.com/store/subscription! If you live in Calgary and are willing to pickup locally, I encourage you to sign up for the "Local Pickup" option, save yourself some cash on shipping :) For everyone else, there are tiered shipping options depending on where you live, as in previous years.
Thanks for supporting my publishing efforts, and here's to a poetry-filled 2022!
Cheers,
Kyle Flemmer, Editor in Chief
Poetry/Art Chapbook - Leguminosae Delusion Athletics by Andy Martrich and Nicole Raziya Fong
Leguminosae Delusion Athletics is a collaborative poetry and art project about representative absence. Dynamism is treated as a form of ritual delusion throughout the long poem, composed by Andy Martrich, lingering on the cusp of afflictions that can't be undone. The accompanying art, by Nicole Raziya Fong, draws from cues in the text, corresponding to different sections of the poem and mirroring the disassemblage of apparent forms and figures. The Blasted Tree has produced a limited edition of sixty 7” x 4.75” chapbooks, each dust-jacketed in a full colour, fold-out poster by Nicole Raziya Fong.
Read Leguminosae Delusion Athletics
Poetry Longsheet - Quick Summary... by Adam Seelig
Adam Seelig’s Quick Summary of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century is a visual poem that relates two concepts, labour and capital, suggesting the latter grows while the former is endlessly repeated. Given that Piketty’s book is massive, this poem will save you 800+ pages of reading; i.e. this poem will save you labour. Quick Summary of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century can be read online using the link below, and a limited edition of longsheets printed on granite grey paper are available now from our online store.