By Neeli Cherkovski

The Crow and I:

Neeli Cherkovski continues his poetic exploration started with his PEN Award winning Leaning Against Time, followed by From the Canyon Outward and now with his The Crow and I. Cherkovski, again opens the window to the self as he takes us deeper into his search of time, reason, redemption and love. In this, the third in his series of poetic memoirs, Cherkovski reflects on his sexuality, the lives he has touched and been touched by, and his love of his adopted city, San Francisco. Cherkovski, now a reluctant elder, has found his place in the garden. A place where friends of every sort are welcome to sit, rest their wings, sip a cappuccino and share a life time of wonder with the poet forever in full flight.

Praise for The Crow and I

SF Chronicle - Interview Cherkovski, The Crow and I

The Talisman - Review, study, and in-depth examination of Neeli Cherkovski
- the poet, mentor, scholar and his work The Crow and I

By Josh Fernandez

Spare Parts and Dismemberment:

Josh Fernandez's poems come at you with teeth flared – don't be frightened. From a life of spare parts and dismembered pieces Fernandez puts together a mismatched puzzle that shows a young Latino’s struggle to climb into his own skin. How far does he go, how loud does he get? Very. At other times he comes at you with hand on heart, almost repentant for the sins his struggle has offered. Be frightened – because when he talks in those low tones, he talks of a world gone mad, a world we are all part of, a world fashioned from Spare Parts and Dismemberment.

Praise for Spare Parts and Dismemberment

Fernandez talking about Spare Parts and Dismemberment

SPD staff picks 2011: Monica Storss recommends Josh Fernandez 

By Neeli Cherkovski

From the Canyon Outward:

With his new collection, Neeli Cherkovski continues the exploration started with his award winning Leaning Against Time. He once again opens the window to the self and takes us deeper into his search for reason, redemption and love - Cherkovski takes us on a journey through his innermost being, leading us From the Canyon Outward.

Praise for Neeli Cherkovski

By nila northSun

love at gunpoint:

nila northSun's poems are written with emotional honesty and biting elegance; they embrace her tribal identity and confront the challenges of being a contemporary American woman. Her poems are a confession of the extremes of her life: the highs of a first kiss - the lows of coming home to an empty house. They tell how it feels to hold a rebellious child, to wait too long for a too late lover and to miss a tomorrow that is already gone. They tell what it is to love at gunpoint.

Praise for love at gunpoint

Joy Harjo reading neil northsun In Berkeley, 1997

nila northsun reading poetry at Beyond Baroque

By Ann Menebroker.
Introduction by W.S. Gainer.

tiny teeth, the Wormwood Review poems:

Ann Menebroker's - tiny teeth, the Wormwood Review poems, chronicles the challenges of a young woman as she struggles, fights and loves her way through a decade and a half of life. The poems are tough, soft, bold, shy, playful and often sensual to the point of being erotic. Ann caresses the moments of her life with a language so honest and a voice so clear that you can feel the warmth of her breath on the page. These poems remain as relevant today as when first written - a testament to the wisdom of Marvin Malone's editorial judgment and the strength of Menebroker's work.

Named- One of the 80 Goddamned Good Things of 2004
by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and Byron Coley
Arthur Magazine, Bull Tongue, Issue 15, March 2005, USA

Reviewed in:

- Thunder Sandwich by A.D. Winans

- Rattlesnake Press by B.L. Kennedy

- Poetry Now by Carol Frith

- BookZen by John Bennett

By Neeli Cherkovski

Leaning Against Time:

From Los Angeles to San Francisco, from 1953 to now - Neeli Cherkovski uses bar scenes, café insights, family confessions, heartbreak and redemption, meditations on morality and the acceptance of self to transform memory, time and myth into an intimate poetic-memoir. He creates a window to the past and explores how time has shaped who he has become. It is here - the power of Cherkovski's talent surfaces. It is here - he finds himself, like an old friend in a warm embrace -

Leaning Against Time.

Reviewed May 8, 2005 - San Francisco Chronicle

Winner 2005 Pen Oakland-Josephine Miles Literary Award

Phil Cousineau's Pen Oakland Presentation Speech

By Todd Cirillo, W.S. Gainer and Will Staple.
Introduction by Ann Menebroker.

Roxy:

Roxy is After Hours Poetry; when the lights go down and the memory of last call has faded into the exhaled smoke of a bummed cigarette - Roxy comes to life. The poems are rooted in the street, caress (no Slam!) the frailties of the human relationship, lean toward the erotic and show that honest poetry, feelings and emotions, cannot be confined by political correctness. In fact, Roxy is not a politically correct collection. Cirillo, Gainer and Staple don't tell those gentle lies.

Find out more about Bill at billgainer.com

W.S. Gainer reads poems. Listen Now

W.S. Gainer sample poems from "Poetry Now"