Contact:
Jack Estes, Publisher
pleasboat@nyc.rr.com

(USA) March 31, 2008 - Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press is proud to announce the publication of Fervor: Poems from the East Village 2005-2007 by Zaedryn Meade. Fervor is a riveting collection that looks at love’s joys and tragedies and the ways that love can both enthrall and disturb.

“Meade’s poetry in Fervor is powerful, beautiful, resonant … The poem “How to Survive Your First Year in New York City” should be required reading for all transplants; it will save you some time and heartache, and let you know (in advance) you’re not alone, even though it feels like you are.” - Amazon.com review

Please join Pleasure Boat Studio for the Fervor Book Release Party on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 8pm at the Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery) in New York City.  With readings by: Jeanette Anderson (Scholastic’s Alliance for Young Artists & Writers), Cheryl B. (Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution), Ariel Federow (Miss Jew-S-A!), and Emily Haines (FYI Writing Group). Visit www.bowerypoetryclub.com for directions.

ABOUT FERVOR:
Fervor: Poems from the East Village is a celebratory exploration of the rituals of love, loss, and desire in relationships. The collection sifts through the inner emotional landscape of the development of romance through chivalry and gender dynamics, following the destruction, mourning, and healing as relationships grow, change, and end. The urban textures of New York both amplify and distance human connection and relation as the city itself becomes a lover.

ABOUT ZAEDRYN MEADE: 
Zaedryn Meade (www.zaedryn.com) is a queer butch activist, classically trained poet, spoken word performer, and smut writer. She has self-published two chapbooks, Covet (2001) and Valence: Fool’s Gold in the Shape of Poems (2004), and one spoken word CD, For the Record (2004). The third in her chapbook trilogy, Fervor: Poems from the East Village, was published in 2008 by Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press. Her smut stories can be found in Secret Slaves: Erotic Stories of Bondage (Alyson), Love at First Sting (Cleis), Best Lesbian Erotica 2006 and 2007 (Cleis), and the forthcoming Super Short, Super Sexy Stories. Her poetry has been included in various collections including The Seattle Review and NPR’s “This I Believe” project. Zaedryn holds degrees in both social change and creative writing from the University of Washington, and she studied and taught performance poetry at the Bent Writing Institute for queers. She received an Honorable Mention in the Emerging Lesbian Writers Fund from the Astraea Foundation in 2008. Born and raised in the rainforest of Southeast Alaska, she now lives in New York City.

To find out more about Zaedryn or Fervor, visit www.zaedryn.com. For more information about Pleasure Boat Studio, visit www.pleasureboatstudio.com. For interviews, please contact Zaedryn Meade at scriven@gmail.com.

After the Fall: Stories to Stay Alive
A showcase of girlstory’s Past, Present, and Future
MAY 15th, 7PM
Nuyorican Poets Café
3rd St btwn Ave B and C
$12/$10 with Student ID

Come see girlstory in all its incarnations!
FOUNDING MEMBERS, NEW MEMBERS, MENTORS 

Snippets from the New Show, and introducing:
 girlstory’s 2008 BNV National Youth Poetry  Slam Team

girlstory is a multi-cultural, multi-generational women’s writing collective which explores issues of race, gender, society, sexuality and age.

WWW.girlstory.ORG

Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press
and The Bowery Poetry Club present

A book release party for
Fervor: Poems from the East Village
By Zaedryn Meade

“Fervor is powerful, beautiful, resonant.”
“Reading it is moving and sometimes troubling, a deep look
at love’s joys and tragedies, at the ways that love can both enthrall and disturb.” 

Featuring Jeanette Anderson, Cheryl B.,
Ariel Federow, and Emily Haines

Wednesday, 21 May 2008, 8pm
Bowery Poetry Club at 308 Bowery in New York City

www.zaedryn.com  |  www.pleasureboatstudio.com  |   www.bowerypoetryclub.com

About the performers: 

Zaedryn Meade (www.zaedryn.com) is a queer butch activist, classically trained poet, spoken word performer, and smut writer. She has self-published two chapbooks, Covet (2001) and Valence: Fool’s Gold in the Shape of Poems (2004), and one spoken word CD, For the Record (2004). The third in her chapbook trilogy, Fervor: Poems from the East Village, was published in 2008 by Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press. Her poetry has been included in various collections including The Seattle Review and NPR’s “This I Believe” project. Zaedryn holds degrees in both social change and creative writing from the University of Washington, and she studied and taught performance poetry at the Bent Writing Institute for queers. Born and raised in the rainforest of Southeast Alaska, she now lives in New York City.

Jeanette Anderson, poet and photographer, has received national recognition for her writing from the Scholastic awards in 2006 and 2007. Her work has been published in literary magazines such as Xelas and Magma. Scholastic Alliance for Young Artists & Writers published her first solo chapbook, and her second chapbook was a collaboration with poet and mentor Zaedryn Meade. She has also studied with poet Regie Cabico, and participated in creative writing workshops with PEN American Center, Columbia, Random House and Girls Write Now. She currently attends Eugene Lang College, and lives in Brooklyn.

Cheryl B. is a Brooklyn-based writer and performance poet. Her work appears in several print and online publications, most recently; Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution (Seal Press, 2007) and Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure (Harper Perennial, 2008). She is the creator and producer of PVC: The Poetry vs. Comedy Variety Show, a monthly competition between comedians and performance poets. Her website is www.cherylb.com and she blogs at theblist.blogspot.com.

Ariel Federow spends her days administering non-profit and her nights and weekends sweating glitter and shitting sequins. She has been seen in various incarnations: Switch’n'Play’s Open Drag Nights; Miss Jew-S-A 5767 (crowned by the 14th St Y); the director of Big Moves New York; part of the creative team for the JFREJ/Workmen’s Circle Purimshpiel; a variety of other radical Jewish spectacle art. She is currently working on running away with the circus and invites you to visit http://www.queeryenta.com to find whatever it is your queer heart desires.

Emily Haines was born in the Bronx and was politicized by the racial injustices she witnessed in elementary school. Her heroes include her grandmothers, Ella Baker, Assata Shakur, and her students. Her writing influences include KRS-One, Chuck D, Eminem, dead prez, Mos Def, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Pablo Neruda, June Jordan and the seven fabulous women of FYI who shake her brain and move her soul twice a month.

If you just can’t wait until the release party on May 21st, go get your copy now at amazon!

Also: If you’d like to follow me online, all those various web services I use are now bundled via one simple feed at FriendFeed. Looks very useful

Fervor: Poems from the East Village 2005-2007
Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press
To be released in April, 2008

Save the date! April 9th, Wednesday
Bowery Poetry Club
Poetry book release party!

See you there?

The FYI: You’re a Poet writing group - to which I belong - is having a fantastic reading next week, Wednesday, January 9th, at 6pm at the Bowery Poetry Club. This group consists of six women, all high school teachers (except me), working together on writing craft, workshopping, revision, feedback, fun, and performance. I really cherish this group for their intellect and generosity, and the reading will, no doubt, be brilliant.

We will be selling our new chapbook, too! Come out & see us.

FYI: You’re a Poet
January 9th 2008, 6pm
Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery in NYC

FYI is a writing group of six women exploring spoken word, form poetry, plays, memoirs, and short stories together for more than two years. Join us for our second performance showcase!

He photographed me once upon a time, some wonderful shots in a suit & tie, and also at the microphone.

Thanks, Bill, for sharing your lovely photography.

These are my very, very favorites:

Andrea Mann, jazz vocalist
Jenn Matthews, skeptic of the art mecca
Molly Crabapple, illustrator/suicide girl/dr. sketchy
Thomas Gilner, nihilistically astute sesquipedalian
Carl Wilson, grand canyon junkie
Renata Terase, little waitress
Melissa Febos, writer

And these deserve mention - as do about twenty other shots, it’s hard to narrow it down. Roughly in order of time: Daria Kossowska, restaurant manager, Rachel Kramer Bussel, erotic author / cupcake blogger, Rachel Bennett, instigator, Danny Adrian, birthday boy / terribly nice guy, Laura Wenning, contemporary dancer of emerging markets, Logan Levkoff, sexologist/author/mommy, Max Saltonstall, autumnal juggler, Jennifer Dziura, nerd goddess, Jose, dreamer of the eponymous one man show dream, Shawn Carney, artist/geek, Paul Meriac, intuitively navigating through life, Sean Risley, body story writer, Eric Chaikin, natural history and documentary filmmaker, Sarah Herrington, writer, poet, midnight yogi, Imogen Heap, singer-songwriter.