Punk Hostage Press

...publishing ransom notes until the punk gets it...

[punkhostage]

https://www.createspace.com/5392804

[punkhostage]

On January, Friday the 13th, 2012, Iris Berry and A. Razor made a pact to publish prose, short stories, poetry, creative non-fiction and well formulated rants on a new imprint called Punk Hostage Press.  Punk Hostage Press is a Los Angeles, CA based non-profit organization that publishes well-crafted books of literature.  Punk Hostage Press is committed to providing relevant contemporary literature and opportunities for discussion and reflection in such institutions as prisons, jails, homeless and women’s shelters and treatment programs.  Punk Hostage Press aims to publish 10-15 new titles each year.  For more information about upcoming book releases and projects, please visit http://punkhostagepress.com.

[punkhostage]

Punk Hostage Press

[punkhostage]

...publishing ransom notes until the punk gets it...

[punkhostage]

The first verb in SB Stokes' magnum opus, A History of Broken Love Things, is "wanna." He is a poet of hope, expectation, and desire, which prepare us for the erratic path of life as it is actually lived: "a large weepy beast, / a guy with some hats, / a stark-raging husband, / an ineffectual queen." In the beautifully titled poem, "dark magick / a solitude by duke," he writes, "The piano pounds its own heart into bits." But even desolation offers its glittering souvenir. Read this book and prepare to have your life lifted, your heart broken. Paul Hoover, editor of Postmodern American Poetry

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I Will Always Be Your Whore: Love Songs for Billy Corgan

Authored by Alexandra Naughton

Introduction by Carrie Hunter

Cover design or artwork by Geoff Melville

Cover design or artwork by Oliver Dillon

Cover design or artwork by Joe Carrow

Cover design or artwork by Alexandra Naughton

Edited by A. Razor List Price: $9.95 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Black & White on Cream paper 56 pages Punk Hostage Press ISBN-13: 978-1940213910 ISBN-10: 1940213916 BISAC: Poetry / Women Authors “If I were to make a diorama of ‘I Will Always Be Your Whore,’ I would construct three slightly run-down Victorians: one for past, one for present, one for dream. I would make a spooky ghost figure representing Billy Corgan and suspend that over everything. And then I would have the people inside the dioramas yearn and fuck and spill their tea and fidget with their hair ties. Alexandra Naughton writes about love and desire with a pleasing specificity and the cadence of a rapper, and her great achievement with this book is her invention of Corgan as a mutable muse. As ghost, lover, crush, and memory, Corgan haunts the fuck out of this text, making the poems below quake and join together.”   —Amy Berkowitz, poet & author of ‘Listen to Her Heart’, Spooky Girlfriend Press CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/4560349

[punkhostage]

Blood Music

Authored by Frank Reardon

Introduction by John Dorsey

Cover design or artwork by SB Stokes

Edited by A. Razor

List Price: $13.95

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Black & White on Cream paper 196 pages

Punk Hostage Press ISBN-13: 978-1940213903 ISBN-10: 1940213908 BISAC: Poetry / American / General

A collection of Frank Reardon's most recent work that covers the transitions of the poet as he has traversed the country and developed his style into a diverse and heartfelt voice that creates hope inside the turmoil of modern living while painting vivid images for readers to walk into like a road worn pair of shoes gifted to a barefoot traveler in order to make it a little bit further down the road.    "Read Frank Reardon at your own risk. He'll open your heart with a corkscrew and leave you wide-eyed and longing for more." 

—Dan Fante, author of Chump Change, Mooch,"86'd" and Spitting Off Tall Buildings

CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/4478111

[punkhostage]

Showgirl Confidential: My Life Onstage, Backstage, And On The Road

Authored by Pleasant Gehman

List Price: $20.00

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Black & White on Cream paper 154 pages

Punk Hostage Press ISBN-13: 978-1940213750 ISBN-10: 1940213754 BISAC: Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts

Showgirl Confidential chronicles just some of Pleasant Gehman’s amazing adventures, from over thirty years spent constantly on the road. From cross-country punk rock tours in the early 1980’s to her belly dancing  escapades in Cairo during the Arab Spring, from dressing room antics at burlesque shows to unnerving paranormal experiences, this memoir is as finely crafted as it is riveting. The easy finesse of her writing, her keen memory and eye for detail will leave the reader devouring each story while remaining hungry for more.

CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/4441744

[punkhostage]

Moth Wing Tea

Authored by Dennis Cruz

Introduction by Ryan Elliot Wilson

Cover Artwork designed by GROCE

Cover Layout design by Geoff Melville

Edited by A. Razor

List Price: $18.95

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Black & White on Cream paper 326 pages

Punk Hostage Press ISBN-13: 978-0985129392 ISBN-10: 0985129395 BISAC: Poetry / Native American

“How do we translate the unspeakable language of grief? In the short, harrowing lines of MOTH WING TEA, Dennis Cruz gives us his answer. This is the poetics of survival: no adornment, no romanticizing; only the simple, methodical imagery of a poet saying out loud. The juxtaposition of fresh paint, chrome, and a suffering body. The world as explained by one who knows there is more to this life than simply getting up for work. The unvarnished descriptions of violence. The voice of Dennis Cruz weaves together a patchwork of tragedies into a manifesto for poets in the 21st century. As the poet says: "the fear was never/meant/to dissuade you,/but only/to heighten/your senses." Read this book, and get to work.” 

-Rich Villar, Executive Director, Acentos

CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/4124929

[punkhostage]

Half-Century Status

Authored by A. Razor

Edited by A. Razor

Cover Design and Artwork by A. Razor

List Price: $7.00

5.5" x 8.5" (13.97 x 21.59 cm) Black & White on Cream paper 64 pages

Words As Works Publishing ISBN-13: 978-0615792163 (Custom) ISBN-10: 0615792162 BISAC: Poetry / American / General

This book marks the 50 year anniversary of A. Razor in this world. There are 50 poems in this collection, 'one for each year of my life', as the author puts it. They are pieces of work written in the 50th year of this writer's life and shared with readers in this fund raising effort for Words As Works, a non-profit group that is dedicated to bringing books, readings and workshops on writing & publishing to people who are struggling against adversity in their lives, primarily people in shelters, jails, prisons, treatment programs, literacy programs and the like. Full proceeds of this book's purchase go to fund these activities.

CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/4220869

[punkhostage]

Untamed

Authored by Jack Grisham

Edited by Iris Berry

Associate editor Dyanne Gilliam

Associate editor Michelle Lewis

Introduction by A. Razor

Cover design or artwork by Scott Aicher

Illustrated by Scott Aicher

List Price: $20.00

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Black & White on Cream paper 204 pages

Punk Hostage Press ISBN-13: 978-0985129385 ISBN-10: 0985129387 BISAC: Fiction / Short Stories

Life has a way of facing us down when we least expect it. Moments that become overtaken in milliseconds by shifting winds, instincts, impulses or subconscious desires that can blindside us without warning. The measure of life can be the way we ride these changes, weather these storms and extricate ourselves from the wreckage. As we do this, we will notice, not everyone makes it through intact, or makes it through at all, for that matter. The debris piles up in the soul, the scars last forever. This is a collection of stories that plunge the senses deep into the tactile memories of those moments and give the undiluted vision of the wilderness inside the last acts of desperate hearts and pathological minds.  

There is a touching grace that is woven in between the chaos and order of the story as it unravels in each vignette. Sometimes it is only a slender thread that traipses off into the pathos, but it is there throughout in the voice of the humanity as it is besmirched, battered and bruised, but never is driven into a complete submission.

  Jack Grisham spins these tales from the heart, even from the point where it has been bruised or torn asunder, straight out into the universe as a primal cry of a wild beast let loose on wanton rampage. The words are compacted into dangerous bludgeons in one voice, then lilts into sorrowful songs of stoic suffering in another. The poignant melodrama that unfolds in each story is crafted as artistically as stone arch on a rocky point that juts out into the  stormiest of seas. All the while it wears the cool skin of a survivalist creature that defies any cliché pantomime of trite language or colorless imagery. This skin is worn as wild adornment in rugged demeanor as it struts into dangerous territory where instincts rule the animalistic urges and self-control is a bargain that begs to get struck.  This collection of streetwise encounters is an esoteric submergence in a world gone mad, taken to its limits, then taken a bit further down the road for a ride that will send some chills up the spine of the most jaded cynic, yet give relief to the most beaten down souls in search of redemption. Jack Grisham creates a perspective that can easily be identified with, but seldom gets the opportunity to have a voice of its own, especially so clear and distinct a voice as it is given here, in line after line, all throughout every narrative, from every angle.  

The stories in this collection come punctuated with the edgily artful illustrations of Scott Aicher. Each piece gives dimension and representation to the story and helps to make the book into a moving visual experience that conquers the senses by setting them free to envision this world that is outlined in the story, but accentuated in the artwork as well. The result is a tandem realization of the wordsmith and the graphic design into a singular vein of trajectory that helps launch the mind of the reader full tilt into the cosmos and back. Scott Aicher has definitively captured the essence of the writer’s intentions and has connected them in a way that makes for some vivid projections that illuminate what even the blind dog can’t see.

CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/4253907

[punkhostage]

8th & Agony

Authored by Rich Ferguson

Introduction by Bob Holman

Edited by A. Razor

List Price: $15.95

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm) Black & White on Cream paper 136 pages

Punk Hostage Press ISBN-13: 978-0985129361 ISBN-10: 0985129360 BISAC: Poetry / American / General

In this book you will find a diverse style and approach to poetry and prose writing that speaks of a lyrical lifetime experience not usually apparent in a premiere collection for a writer. Along with the experience, there is the craftsmanship of a songwriter, a modern bard of contemporary musicality. This book is an amble down the open road as well as the dark alley ways and then across a soft beach sand and on into vibrant sunsets that shine on contoured boulevards of dreams both broken and healing.    8th & Agony is a broad tapestry of wordsmithing that has been assembled here in an open parade of personal triumphs and pitfalls that coincide with the scope and vision of a writer who has tuned his work through the trials of performance in a way that has shared this experience with numerous audiences and now has been laid bare for the record here in these pages. Rich Ferguson is a well-heeled spoken word performer that brings a thespian musicianship to the stage along with a storied amount of influence and knowledge of the word, hence the diversity of style and content in this collection. This work is an exploration of poetic road mapping that convenes inside the travelogue of  a life experience that touches on all the muses have to bring to bear in this world.

CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/4017761