from Princess Seismograph (Seattle)

Cait Rippey’s Touch Me is the illustrated story of her boating adventure to Cypress Island, during which she recollects the poem “Touch Me” by Stanley Kunitz. The poem takes over and moves her through time and space and the story feels so out-loud that the illustrations become what’s written. Cait’s boating companions are never introduced so we must have always known them, and everything is more intimate for being wrapped in a construction paper wave. –Maggie Ginestra

from WinteRed (Minneapolis)

John Colburn’s poem, “The Lawrence Welk Diaries,” looks like a play in four acts that you’d very much like to put on, but shouldn’t, because it’s more ecstatic to only half-envision a “wolf field” and easier to pretend “all I can think about it Yoko Ono” is a normal human emotion on the page. There, pronouncements and banter are free to braid into the lyric landscape that characters Michel Foucault, Eartha Kitt, Sam Shephard, and Lawrence Welk are desperate to describe. -Maggie Ginestra

from Ugly Duckling Presse (Brooklyn)

Dorothea Lasky's Poetry Is Not a Project is a heartening little essay for recovering mfa students and exhausted poetry veterans alike. Whatever brand of po-biz bruise marks your particular heart, you'll be glad to read that "real poetry," as Lasky sees it, is "a party from which you may never return home." Complete with Sarah Glidden's illustrations of wistful looking youths lounging on logs or eating ferally from animal carcasses, this pamphlet is a call for poets to stop conceiving and start making love. -Joseph Collins

OFFICIAL AND IMMINENT

The chapbooks have landed in their new home, All Along Press, where a sweet pup lolls in the sun and amazing things are made every day. Visit visit. In the Stirrup Pants corner, one title each from presses all over the country will be there for you to discover. It's so exciting that the chaps will be accessible whenever All Along is open (Tuesday thru Saturday) and that they will be mingling with all the excitements that take place there. Check back here for a semi-current list of what's available and for mini-reviews of select offerings.

SOON

Stirrup Pants Chapbooks is in the dressing room until late July! Thanks for checking back.

FIRE ROASTED TOMATOES

in a soup. sunday. at 6.

mangia + claire wolff + hot new proposals

see you there!

SUMMER 2010: STIRRUP PANTS AT ALL ALONG PRESS

wow, ok, so, yeah. just up the street at 2712 Cherokee Street is the amazing All Along Press we've long loved. and they've offered to house a newer smaller stronger version of stirrup pants chapbooks that we'll build together. a few little chaps from all over (fewer even than at 2122, but each packing the punchiest punch) available whenever they're open, which is waaaaaay more often than i ever was. we'll keep a little blog about it and everything and and and...




sorry. it was my turn on the slip n' slide. so yeah. last shop day is the 22nd, the day after exploding swan at Slow Rocket and the day before Sloup at this here closin' shop...and just a few short weeks later, the chapbooks will have a new home!

this is so cool. and a huge kindness. and more about it soon.

Last Shop Day: May 22nd

Stirrup Pants will go out with a bang the third weekend in May with a final shop-saturday and Sloup #4 on Sunday the 23rd.

All the beautiful chaps that don't sell by then will be sent back to their presses at the end of the month, wrapped in the finest saint louis lovin', so come scoop them up before they fly.

Keep an eye out for Heather Overby's next Exploding Swan that very same weekend on May 21st, which will be hosted by Slow Rocket Urban Farm!

And Amelia Colette Jones is taking Sloup mobile this summer, starting in June! On top of reaching out to artists who need funding, and soup and bread makers who want to share their talents, Sloup will now seek to partner with diverse arts and community spaces to make each Sloup unique.

I personally had an incredible year learning a little about how presses do their inspiring work, how writers and readers move through the world, and how saint louis is a truly compelling place to open a door and expect to love whomever walks in. Please email me at maggieginestra@gmail.com about what you're up to, what you're making, and what doors you're opening. I'd love to be included.

thanks, all! see you soon!

EXPLODING SWAN: LIKE IF ALLERGIES FELT REALLY GOOD

it's an itch and a scratch and more.

THE CODY RIVERS SHOW PRESENTS:

"Right Back Where We Finished" at Stirrup Pants on March 15th. Exploding Swan brought them to STL last year, and now we hope they never won't come.

tickets are $10 at the door, and we recommend coming right at 7:30 to fidget and shift. seating is super limited!

codyrivers.com

SLOUP #1: FEBRUARY 21ST @ 6 PM

come out to our monthly-soup-dinner-yields-guerrilla-arts-grants kick-off!

and read about it in the st louis beacon!

WHEN THE CHAIR BURNED...

it was so bright. Thank you, Cannibal, for being an awesomeness-magnet. Every poet truly fluttered and flamed, and STL misses them so much now.

Hearts are for breaking, we guess.

Thank you, also, Joseph Wood of Tuscaloosa, for bringing your Slash Pine Press team that same afternoon to talk chap-wizardry. You ARE wizards: you built a rose inside our chests!

Fresh chaps were generously left behind by Cannibal, Slash Pine, and DoubleCross - please everyone, come see these new goodies some soon Saturday!

THE 23RD WILL BE ONE HOT NIGHT @ STIRRUP