Spooky Girlfriend Press

Mostly poetry from 2008-2020.

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We’re happy to offer the Protest Bundle: a copy of all our current in-print titles (Carney Hoepfner, Naughton, Nelson) with your money going to the community / charitable organization of your choice.

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Alexandra Naughton’s a place, a feeling, something he said to you is out now! Purchase here.

“Alexandra Naughton's work articulates with clarity the paralyzing experience of being with manipulative men and the psychic space that is taken up by living with trauma. She works over each moment with a chisel, driving the reader further and further into her psyche as she seeks to understand her creative process and how to get back to a safe sense of self.”

- Elle Nash, author of Animals Eat Each Other

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Alexandra Naughton’s a place, a feeling, something he said to you will be released Jan. 8th!


Written in seamless second person, a place, a feeling, something he said to you is a stunningly real account of abuse rendered in vivid color, from the tall green trees in the guided meditation you improvise to soothe his violent rage to the red light that gives you the chance to jump out of his car. Alexandra Naughton has written a graceful, fearless, and regrettably relatable book about surviving an abusive relationship and finding power in telling your story. 

- Amy Berkowitz, author of Tender Points

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Hello, fans and friends of Spooky Girlfriend Press.

It is with a meditative heart that the time has come for me to step down and transfer SGP to the talented hands of new editor (and fellow Hoosier), Anna Bowman.

I never imagined that when I started this press in my Moorhead, MN basement apartment that I’d be doing it for 11 years. The opportunity to work with so many writers whose work I admire and continue to admire has been one of the thrills of being part of the poetry community. I am so proud of the work the press has been able to put out into the world. I am thankful to each and every author that trusted me with their work, especially those who chose SGP to publish their first collections. Your faith meant the world to me.

I also want to give a shoutout to Laura Theobald, who helped me immensely during her time as assistant editor and continued to be willing to help, long after she moved to bigger and better things. And also thank you to Anna Bowman, for being willing to inherit this little press and take it into the future. I know she’ll do amazing things and I can’t wait to see them!

Lastly, I want to thank our readers. The small press world is tough. There are so many great presses publishing work, the options seem endless. If you’ve ever bought a book from us, went to a reading featuring one of our authors, or even simply helped spread the word about us, I sincerely appreciate it and thank you. As always, Spooky Girlfriend Press publishes books and chapbooks occasionally. They were officially the most fun thing in a long, long time. Nate

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Getting Lucky by Nicole Steinberg.pdf

We are happy to share a downloadable PDF of the much loved, out-of-print, debut poetry collection from Nicole Steinberg, Getting Lucky!

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$6 + $2 shipping

Purchase

"Kolleen Carney Hoepfner's voice in these spare, elegant poems warns us that 'A part of her insisted/that there was a darker truth.' Her words are alive with this darkness, guiding the reader in and out of shadows, looking for escape, and then daring us to explore even darker recesses. Hoepfner writes that 'people // won’t want to look/ at the horror of you,' but A Live Thing, Clinging with Many Teeth, asks us to look, again and again."

-- Sarah Nichols, author of

This is Not a Redemption Story

and

Dreamland for Keeps

*

"Kolleen Carney Hoepfner's A Live Thing, Clinging With Many Teeth dutifully lives up to its name. It brims with softness and the sharp things that protect it. It flirts and fights. A truly beautiful collection of poetry."

-- Arielle Tipa, Founding Editor of

Occulum

and author of

daughter - seed

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State of the Press

Around this time ten years ago, I was living in a basement apartment in Moorhead, MN, in the third semester of my MFA. Having recently read Ariana Reines’s Coeur de Lion, I was inspired to write my own book-length poem. Knowing no one would publish such a poem, I used this as the impetus to start Spooky Girlfriend Press (because Spooky Boyfriend was already being used for a journal I was running) and quickly secured our first “real” title, fellow Hoosier Brooklyn Copeland’s Longing / Belonging. 

I couldn’t have guessed where the press would be ten years later. This year, we released our second full-length book, Amber Nelson’s The Sexiest Man Alive. In our ten years, we’ve published two full-length poetry collections, 12 print chapbooks, one chapbook anthology, one digital chapbook, one non-fiction chapbook, and two “side by side” mini chapbooks. Our titles have garnered positive reviews in a variety of publications, including Bitch and Flavorwire. Our books have been sent across the United States and overseas, including to the United Kingdom and Italy.

I want to take this anniversary to again say thank you to every author that has trusted me with your work, as well as to the hundreds of people who’ve supported us by buying books directly from us or our authors. In a world that largely does its best to combat art, your attention and time mean a lot to me.

All of that being said, I cannot do this forever. Certainly, some small presses have done much more with less and some seem to be able to publish new work more than once a year and that is a really great thing. But that is something that I cannot do. Within the next two years, I’d like to be able to hand the press off to another editor. If that’s not possible, maybe a larger small press (lol) would be able to absorb our back catalogue. In short, I don’t want the press to die, but I also feel I cannot continue indefinitely. 

I would like to publish at least one more chapbook in 2019 and give that author a lot of support before handing over the reins to another editor. This is not farewell, this is just to give you a heads-up as to where I want the next couple of years to go.

Again, thank you to our authors and our readers for these ten years. They have been the spookiest.

xo Nate

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October, 2018. 74 pages. $12 + $3 S+H

Purchase

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We put out a call for more pizza poems and non-fiction earlier this year and you said you had enough pizza. So we thought, let’s try BREAKFAST INSTEAD.

THE SKINNY

We want to put out another anthology! In these garbage times, one of the few things that still gives comfort is a nice, quiet breakfast. A cup of coffee, a bowl of cereal (part of a complete breakfast), cold pizza from the night before...all of these can be the most important meal of the day, and often the most delicious. How does breakfast find its way into poetry? Into non-fiction? That’s where you come in.

Please submit up to three unpublished “breakfast poems” or one unpublished piece of non-fiction that involves breakfast in some way to be considered for our yet unnamed breakfast anthology (projected release date: early 2019).

Please put “Breakfast” in the subject line of your email. Send all entries to spookygirlfriendpress [at] gmail [dot] com. We want submissions from everyone (who doesn’t identify as male).

THAT’S IT. Start dicing those hash browns, submissions close at 12am EST Wednesday, October 31.

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Once we send out all preorders, we’ll have a link up for you slackers to order your copy of Amber Nelson’s The Sexiest Man Alive!

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Adrian Brody, William Shatners, and James Stewarts

An extra special THANK YOU to these fine folks who pre-ordered Amber Nelson’s The Sexiest Man Alive:

Nancy Chen Long, Diana Bergseth, Kristi Maxwell, Kelly Sanderbeck, Alicia Wright, Justin Plinz, Greg Heinzman, Nancy Marx, Paul Nelson, Alexandra Mattraw, John Haltiwanger, Lauren Williams, Laurie Ward, C. C. Hannett, Michael From, Maged Zaher, Laura Nelson, Tyler Brewington, JR Walsh, Rauan Klassnik, William Gallien, and Connor Moran (aka Adrian Brody).

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We’re over halfway toward our goal! Please consider pre-ordering if you haven’t already (there are lots of goodies, both baked and poetry to be had) and spread the word to your sexiest man alive loving friends!

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Help celebrate our ten year anniversary by helping produce our second full-length collection of poetry!

We’re excited to announce that for our tenth anniversary, we’re celebrating by releasing our second full-length poetry collection, The Sexiest Man Alive by Amber Nelson! Please check out our page and all the great rewards we’re offering and also consider spreading the word! We can’t wait to share this amazing book with you!

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"The Silence Inside Her" by Cathleen Allyn Conway b/w "The Withing Hour" by Sue Landers

We’re proud to publish the second mini-chapbook in our 7″ Single Series! Our second entry features work by Cathleen Allyn Conway and Sue Landers!

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7″ Single Contest (Fall Edition)

We want to say thank you again to everyone who submitted work to our 7" Single Contest! Trusting us with your work means a lot and we are humbled by it. We plan to change up “the rules” a little bit for next year’s batch, which will hopefully entice even more kind folks to submit work for consideration.

We’re happy to announce that we’ll be publishing Cat Conway’s “The Silence Inside Her” and Sue Landers’s “The Witching Hour” very soon! These poems will be FREE for view forever via our website and when they’re available, you’ll hear it here first.

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UGH, the unseasonable warmth DOESN’T END. But it’s Friday, October 13, and what better weekend to announce our second 7″ Single Contest!

THE SKINNY

Please submit one of the following to us at spookygirlfriendpress [at] gmail [dot] com with 7″ SINGLE in the subject line:

1. A single poem seven pages in length. 2. A single poem in seven parts. 3. A single poem written in seven stanzas.

These are the only options! If you’re a man or identify as male, you aren’t eligible for this contest. Past winners, while ruling obviously, aren’t eligible either. Don’t bother sending if you don’t follow these guidelines because we won’t respond.

Also, we will be picking two poems, an A side and B side, but both equally excellent.

WHAT YOU GET

+ Your poem will be the second ever 7″ Single Chapbook from Spooky Girlfriend, available forever on the Internet (if it appears in your full-length book in the future, please give us a shoutout!). + The potential opportunity to work with an artist for the cover of your e-chap. + You will forever be a member of the Spooky Girlfriend Galaxy of Stars and we will help promote you during and after your e-chap is released.

THAT’S IT. Hop to it, contest ends at 12am EST Monday, October 16.

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12 or 20 (small press) questions with Nate Logan on Spooky Girlfriend Press

Spooky Girlfriend Press has published mostly poetry with solid Midwestern values since 2008.

Thanks to rob mclennan!