A FountainVerse Poetry Festival event and open mic hosted by Flying Ketchup Press will be celebrated this October 12th from 11 am to 2 pm at Our Daily Nada to celebrate our one year anniversary and the launch of our first seven books! Flying Ketchup Press-- to discover and develop new voices in poetry, drama, fiction and non-fiction with a special emphasis in new short stories. To share worlds of wonder and delight; Maybe yours. Read about our Featured Poets and more information about the Festival and Charlotte Street Below.
Congrats to our Winners of the Blue City Poets contest!!
Malcolm Byers
Kevin Callahan -- FEATURED
William Edward Dozier
Melissa Goodnight
Jamie Lynn Heller
Mary-Lane Kamberg
C.M. Millen
Frances A. Rove -- OPEN MIC
Mary Silwance -- OPEN MIC
Michael Savage
T.L. Sanders --EMCEE/ FEATURED
Taylor Ware
Polly Alice --OPEN MIC
Susan Kiefer- Cover Artist
"Kansas City, the city of fountains, is blue: July blue, cerulean, ice blue, and lapis. Kansas City, the home of jazz and barbecue, is loved and known for its realness: its “streets of steel rain,” “honeysuckle explosion,” “fresh apple pie air,” “stripped dandelions,” “tallgrass mounds,” and so much more.
In the chapbook collection, Blue City Poets, editors Polly McCann and Chell Navarro deftly bring together the voices of poets who call the Blue City home and who have traversed it. These poems are their personal truths: raw, soul-searching, at times heartbreaking, yet hopeful." Review by Sayeeda T. Ahmad, author of "Across Oceans."
Book RELEASE! October 2019
Blue City Poets: Kansas City, a Chapbook edited by Polly McCann, Illustrated by Michael B. Savage of SAV art gallery (pictured above)
kNew: the chapbook by TL Sanders
kNew: the screenplay (in verse) TL Sanders (cover photo by Jeremy Walter, Design by Carie Sanders)
Kinlight --poems by Polly Alice- revised edition
Tea with Alice-- poems by Polly Alice
Sweetened Condensed-- poems & photography by Rebecca Grabill (cover art by Polly McCann)
Road Map-- poems and paintings by Kevin Callahan
Featured Readers/ Performers
TL Sanders, AKA Àtwist – The Language Artist, is an educator, poet, and performer. This former high school English teacher is now a curriculum writer. A National Writing Project teacher consultant and Paper Birch Landing’s 2019 Poet in Residence Recipient, Sanders has performed to diverse audiences everything from performing modern dance to his many awards through NPC Championship Bodybuilding. In 2019 he has performed at The Kauffman Performing Arts Center in the Lyric Opera ’s production of "The Pearl Fishers;" The Gem Theater in Take the Stage’s Production of "A Night at the Museum"-- which was sponsored by the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art's Kauffman Future Stages; and he won Producer's Choice Award at the 2019 KC Fringe Festival where he performed a one hour rendition of his biopic poetic screenplay, "kNew" released this October 2019 from Flying Ketchup Press. With his BA from UCM in Elementary Education, Sanders is an educational speaker and a spoken word artist at many state events and conferences. He has a passion for empowering people. His goal is to inspire, evolve and expand language one word at a time. Find him on YouTube under Bethephenom and on Twitter @PoetTLSanders or www.poetTLSanders.com.
Kēvin Callahan has a BFA from Drake University, post-grad work at San Francisco Art Institute, Larry Abramson, The Ox-Bow School, Art Institute Chicago, and Phil Hanson/Michelle Grabner. His award-winning artwork hangs in collections throughout the United States, and in Canada, Europe, and Israel. After a career in graphic design, he has published a novel and two short story collections, plus numerous poems often in conjunction with his art. His book, "Road Map," released this October 2019 by Flying Ketchup Press, is a poetic journey through an American Artists' life well-lived. With a keen eye for wisdom, wit, and historically hilarious self-portraits illustrating his travels, you'll want to grab a walking stick and join Kévin for a globe-trekking adventure from African Safari to the old family farm. You'll have a good time. "In a world of daily headlines that are gut-wrenching, it is amazing to read the beautify of the incidental. Poems that derive insight from love, nature, a wife and the act of making art. This is the amazing stuff," writes Hugh Merrill, Artist, Lecturer, Poet. This is a "collection of fleeting opportunities to see the beauty surrounding us and perhaps add a bit through our own," writes Jan Rog, Professor, Poet.
Polly Alice McCann is at the heart and soul of Flying Ketchup, Press ® our managing editor. Polly has been a professor, writer, curator, and illustrator for over twenty years. Her family has been in publishing and the book business since the 1970s. Growing up was spent mostly taking art lessons at the Nelson, or hiding under the book table at many publishing events. She began writing novels and short stories when she was introduced to NaNoWriMo in 2006. She received her MFA in writing for children and young adults from Hamline University in St. Paul in 2011. She often says, "Poetry saved my life." As a leader of many SCBWI groups for writers and illustrators, she saw writers and publishers process a great deal of change in the business over the past decade. She said, "Sure I'd love to stay in my studio and just do my own thing, but I can't let a generation of good literature go to waste. It's time to catch up." Find her debut collection of poetry in lyrical free verse and its companion book: "Kinlight" and "Tea with Alice."
BooK Release: Rebecca Grabill's first collection of poetry brings her readers home to rural Michigan and into the world of a woman on the path less traveled-- wife, daughter, teacher, author, and mother of six. Sweetened Condensed is two parts sugar, three parts milk: life encapsulated into raw moments of lyrical free verse with the author's black and white photography will released by Flying Ketchup Press this October 2019. "I read Sweetened Condensed in one big gulp," reviews Mary Logue of "Sleep like a Tiger." "This is not a saccharine swig, but full-body, rich mouthful of poems and pictures that show the deep truth of family." Rebecca is an award-winning author of the picture books, Halloween Good Night (Atheneum, Simon & Schuster), Violet and the Woof (Katherine Tegen Books, HarperCollins), A Year With Mama Earth (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers 2019). Her other publications include poetry and essays in a broad range of literary journals. She has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University and is a Sustainable Arts Foundation. Follow her at https://www.rebeccagrabill.com or on Facebook.
Fountainverse thanks its partners and sponsors: Charlotte Street Foundation, Prospero's Books, The Writers Place, Our Daily Nada, Arsyn Spitfire, Poetic Underground, The Latino Writers Collective, Swordfish Tom's Jump Start Art, Kansas City Poetry Slam, Spartan Press and Flying Ketchup Press
The festival begins Friday October 11th at 4 pm at the Charlotte Street Capsule Art Space 1644 Broadway Blvd, KC, MO. The event is located at the Capsule performance space on Broadway Blvd. Capsule, which is located at 1664 Broadway Blvd, Kansas City, MO, is located next to Charlotte Street’s 2018 StartUp Residents Stray Cat Film Center! Parking can be located in the gravel parking lot behind Capsule off of 17th Street to the east side of Broadway Blvd. Street parking can also be found on Washing Street, Broadway Blvd and 17th Street! or here https://www.parkme.com/lot/189322/arts-district-garage-kansas-city-mo.
To find more poetry events with Charlotte Street Foundation visit their website.
The full schedule of events for https://www.fountainverse.com/
Friday October 11
4-9 pm: Small Press Book Fair
7-8:30 pm: Feature Reading: KC’s Riverfront Readings hosts Denver’s Suspect Press
9-11 pm: Sharon Eiker hosts Poetry Open Mic
Saturday October 12
11-2 pm: Flying Ketchup Press hosts Poetry Brunch Open Mic at Our Daily Nada venue
1- 9 pm: Small Press Book Fair
3-4 pm: Kansas City Poetry Slam hosts a Writing Workshop
4-5 pm: Spartan Press hosts a Publisher’s Panel
7-8:30 pm: Feature Reading: KC’s Latino Writers Collective
9-11 pm: Arsyn Spitfire hosts Poetry Open Mic
Sunday October 13
11-1 pm Poetic Underground hosts Pop-Up Open Mic
12-6 pm: Small Press Book Fair
4-5:30 pm: Feature: KC’s Stubborn Mule Press hosts New Hampshire’s CLASH Books
8-10 pm: Afterparty Open Mic hosted by Brandon Whitehead at Swordfish Tom’s venue
Flying Ketchup Press is currently accepting submission through Submittable for future projects. Check in early in 2020 for our next KC poets collection. Check out our newest calls for art, essays, poetry and short stories. It's time to catch up!