If you spend much time with poets, it won’t be long before you hear the word “chapbook.” It’s one of the first terms I wanted to learn more about when I was new to poetry. A forerunner to penny dreadfuls and comics, chapbooks in their early forms trace to 16th century Europe, when it became possible to cheaply produce pamphlets and booklets that appealed to the masses. These early publications contained folk tales, children’s literature, almanacs, political and religious tracts, poetry and much more. The term chapbook came into usage in early 19th century England, when booklets were sold by itinerant merchants known as chapmen; chap means “trade.”
In present times, chapbooks are short, soft cover books—typically of about 40 pages or less—which contain poetry or other literature. Chapbooks may be stapled or saddle-stitch-bound like a magazine, or they may have a perfect-bound, square spine like a larger book. While some chapbooks are produced and sold inexpensively, others are an art form. Flexible production options, coupled with the common appeal of their shorter length to both poet and reader, have secured chapbooks’ popularity in contemporary poetry.
Conveniently for my segue into March poetry news, both featured poets at Poetry in the Boro in March have recently released new chapbooks. On Sunday, March 11, Poetry in the Boro will be held at Murfreesboro Little Theatre, 702 Ewing Blvd. Open mic signups start at 6:30 p.m. Featured poets Sandy Coomer and Michael Williams will read at 7 p.m.
Coomer, who lives in Brentwood, is the author of three poetry chapbooks, most recently Rivers Within Us from Unsolicited Press. She’s become known among Middle Tennessee creatives as co-creator and curator of the project 20/20 Vision: A Poetic Response to Photography, a traveling exhibit on view at a Boro Art Crawl in 2017. Coomer is also an artist, an endurance athlete and the founding editor of the online poetry journal Rockvale Review.
Williams, a Nashville resident, is the Writer/Storyteller-in-Residence at Martin Methodist College and has been a featured teller at the National Storytelling Festival. The former minister’s most recent books are last year’s Spoken Into Being: Divine Encounters Through Story from Upper Room Books and two poetry chapbooks, Take Nothing for Your Journey and The Khristos Cantos, both published by Finishing Line Press in the past two years. An hour of open mic follows a brief reception and book signing time. Full details on Facebook.
A Spoken Word Performance and Video event coordinated by MTSU Todd Art Gallery and previously scheduled for February has been rescheduled for March 31. Performances will relate indirectly or directly to text, communication, education, socioeconomic inequities, literacy or spoken word. Artists can learn more and submit proposals through March 15 at tinyurl.com/mtsuspokenword.
Also, don’t forget the call for artists and writers of all ages for the Discovery Center’s We Are Tennessee project, mentioned in February’s column. Learn more at bit.ly/wearetn. Submission deadline is March 23.
Here’s a poem by Michael Williams from his collection Take Nothing for the Journey, which also appears in Still: The Journal.
Mud Pies
by Michael Williams
The rain overflowed
the half-clogged gutter
mingled with dirt making
puddles the color of coffee
softened with evaporated milk
we pilfered my mother’s pans
barreled through the sopping yard
to shove our hands
into the brown pudding
of the first and last
ingredient of our lives.
