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NEW RELEASE SEPTEMBER 15!

Through The Red Door’s Open Maw by Jessica June Cato

From the Introduction: Through the Red Door’s Open Maw is a reckoning with the residual guilt and self-perception that haunts the bones—lineage, familial abandonment, addiction, mental illness, and queerphobia traced back to that red door, the open maw. Cato reflects on love as foreign—comparing ancestries as if checking the past to see if there is anything innate in her familial bones, makeup, or core.

This chapbook is a naked and honest reflection about what remains of one’s past self and how to break free from beliefs of what is intrinsic to selfhood, to live beyond into goodness that need not be compared with personal history; instead, can shine all on its own.

—Matthew Feinstein, author of Breeds of Breath

PAPERBACK | EBOOK

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Ontario, Ottawa CAN

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SARAH HERRIN | co-founder / lead Editor / SOCIAL MEDIA / Graphic Designer

IG: @_sarahherrin

Sarah (they/them) is a queer poet based in Colorado.

Herrin has published several poetry chapbooks including One Thousand Good Answers (Sunday Mornings At The River) & The Oceanography of Her (Papeachu Press) and individual poems with Pile Press, Ouch! Collective, Querencia, blood moon POETRY, East French Press, and more.

Their background is in storytelling and creative writing (BFA/SCAD). Herrin continues education through workshops at Hugo House, Lighthouse Writers, The Poetry Lab, Community Building Art Works.

AJ WOJTALIK | Newsletter / Editor

IG: ajwojtalik.poetry

AJ (she/her) is a writer from Colorado who finds peace while exploring the sacred in the ordinary. She balances her craft with raising a remarkable teen wolf and a pack of animals, and rambling around in nature as much as possible — all of which shows up in her writing (and her zoom calls).

She has worked as an editor and consultant for a couple of small presses and loves to connect art and community, so after a series of biscuit brunches she joined the BTV team in Feb 2022.

TYLER HURULA | IN-PERSON EVENTS / EDITOR IG: @theprettypinkpoet

Tyler (she/her) is a queer and polyamorous poet born and raised in Denver, Colorado. She is the author of poetry chapbook: Love Me Louder.

When not writing, she is likely befriending the neighborhood cats or cross-stitching. She values connection, authenticity, and vulnerability, and tries to encompass these values in her writing and everyday life.

KRIS KAILA | VIRTUAL EVENTS & WORKSHOPS / EDITOR

IG:@krisesque_life/ @my_novelesque_life

Kris (she/her) is a queer Punjabi/Canadian poet & writer and book reviewer & blogger. She can be found taking workshops and occasionally leading them, reading and watching the same shows and movies over and over again.

After surviving several traumas, she finds writing about her mental health helps in the healing and self-compassion journey.

Kris is also the Educational Coordinator with The Poetry Lab.

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Maybe She's Born With It, Maybe

It's Trauma by Cait Thomson (May 2023)

It is impossible to read Maybe She’s Born With it, Maybe it’s Trauma! and not fall in love with Cait Thomson. She is funny, she is brave, she is having a revelation in a McDonald’s Drive Thru, she is ingeniously suggesting we “Wrap everything in pastry and call it a day”. Like Cait, this collection is beautiful and good. Sit back, fix yourself a gin and tonic (and a glass of milk?) and watch what happens to your heart.

—Julie Stenton, author of In the Dream I Jump from a Great Height and Land Safely

Surviving Peter Pan by Marissa Forbes (June 2023)

Marissa Forbes’ Surviving Peter Pan is a masterful poetry collection that brings fantasy into the real life story of a mother and her children being forced to grow and adapt without a husband and father. Having survived the emotional abuse and trauma from her own Peter Pan, Forbes takes us on a voyage of revisiting her past to make peace with her present. A mother’s love brings her to the realization that she must overcome her own pain, so that her children have a chance to heal in the future.

—Andrés Sánchez, This Body

TRANSabdominal Retrieval by Teddy G Goetz

(Aug 2023)

TRANSabdominal Retrieval goes beyond honest and introspective: it is raw, bare, and exposed. Goetz takes us on an emotional exploration of their experiences as a trans person going through fertility treatment and egg retrieval. They invite us into doctors’ offices and bedrooms, and into their heart, mind, and body during these experiences. Alongside poignant portrayals of the complex (and at times contradictory) nature of feelings are moments of mind-body connection and awe at life and creation. While deeply personal, one cannot help but relate to the humanness within these poems. —Rabbi Ariel Tovlev, MAJE

We Are Creatures Of What Has Happened by Ashley Mezzano (Aug 2023)

We are Creatures of What Has Happened is a modern queer anthem. The speaker is a voyeur of the past, unsure of the god in her mother's prayers. Like the god in "burial grounds", Mezzano "pulls you out of your body and shuts the door" It's "a large fruit bearing tree" that has you eat our histories like a snack, crunch the cult culture between the red, white, and blue teeth of modern homophobia. A must read for those of us healing, still learning to love ourselves.

—Crystal Stone, author of Knock-Off Monarch, All the Places I Wish I Died, Gym Bras, and Civic Duty

Through The Red Door’s Open Maw by Jessica June Cato (Sept 2023)

Through the Red Door’s Open Maw is a reckoning with the residual guilt and self-perception that haunts the bones—lineage, familial abandonment, addiction, mental illness, and queerphobia traced back to that red door, the open maw.

—Matthew Feinstein, author of Breeds of Breath

As Long As This Heart Beats by Kyrsta Morehouse (Oct 2023)

Kyrsta's debut collection is a force of queer magic, that will steady any ready and open heart that needs a little healing and a safe place to call home.

—Derrick C. Brown, publisher of Write Bloody Publishing, & author of Love Ends in a Tandem Kayak

Heretic: A Story of Spiritual Liberation by Kristy Webster (Sept 2022)

Should you want to leave, / you must first break / the soft, terrible neck / of your own fear.

Queer Latina author Kristy Webster's first chapbook, Heretic in an incendiary collection of poems following the path of liberating oneself from a religious cult. Webster writes to reclaim her power, to uncover the grave of herself and climb into the moonlight, transformed into something more than human.

Anti/Muse by Sarah Herrin (Feb 2022)

Sarah Herrin's poetry book features artwork by Josiah Callaway. These 30 poems will take you on a journey from the depths of heartbreak and betrayal to the reclaiming of self and purpose.

TEMPORARILY OUT OF PRINT

Anthology 6: relics of unbearable softness (OCT 2023)

Anthology 5: Do Not Tap On The Glass (JUNE 2023)

In a world where identities are fluid and multifaceted, Do Not Tap On The Glass fearlessly embraces the complexity of our human experience. It invites us to explore the myriad facets of self, to celebrate our shared vulnerabilities, and to find solace in the knowledge that we are not alone in our journeys of self-discovery. - Rebecca Rijsdijk, Sunday Mornings At The River

10% profits to St. Francis Center

WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE: Queer & Trans Voices (FEB 2023)

An anthology of poetry & art featuring queer & trans voices, expressing grief, rage, resilience, and love for the community in response to the ClubQ shooting in Colorado Springs.

Featuring poetry and artwork from 50 creators around the world.

Proceeds to Victims First: Club Q Victims Fund

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Events & Workshops

RSVP through Eventbrite! To schedule an event, please reach out to Kris for Virtual and Tyler for In-Person.

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