Startled by JOY: the launch!

July 09, 2019

Startled by JOY: the launch!

Dear Readers...

Over the past two weeks, I've been posting the Meet the Poets series, featuring poets from the recently released Gabriel's Horn anthology, Startled by JOY 2019, as we led up to our launch event at Literary Lights. That event happened yesterday! I would say it was a great success!

Donna Isaac, the host of Literary Lights, provided cupcakes and wine. As Startled by JOY 2019 includes many highly accomplished poets, we had a table full of books available for sale, from Tekkan, Suzanne Swanson, Michael Dean, Donna, Thomas R. Smith, and more. (I confess, there was a lot going on and I don't think I ever saw the full collection.)

Judd and I opened the reading with music--Ode to JOY seemed like a great choice!-- on guitar and alto flute. Mike Dean, co-editor, and I gave some opening remarks and we jumped into readings from Thomas R. Smith, Mark Connor, Sara Dovre Wudali, Suzanne Swanson, Tekkan, and myself and Mike each reading a few of the poets who couldn't be there.

Thomas R. Smith, modern poetry, classical poetry, poetry events, Robert Bly

Among the poets who read was Thomas R. Smith, one of the two featured poets of the anthology. Thomas has had hundreds of poems published on three continents. He has been included in many anthologies and published fourteen books and chapbooks of poetry. He has also worked with and edited books on Robert Bly. We were honored to have him.

We heard poetry both from the anthology and from the poets' other works, and closed the event with more music. How could Joy to the World (Three Dog Night, or Hoyt Axton if you prefer) not be appropriate! I played on tenor saxophone and it was fun to have people join on the chorus. Many people stayed afterward to meet and greet, talk to acquaintances old and new, meet other poets, and get signed books.

In other exciting news for Gabriel's Horn Press, we have signed two new authors (Rebecca May Hope, Silken Strands, historical fiction and Lauretta L. Kehoe, Gypsy Heart: poems of Lilly Gelle).

We have also started a YouTube channel, where you can shortly see videos of the poets reading at the launch of Startled by JOY 2019. Please subscribe. We plan on releasing more videos of author interviews and of upcoming events.

MORE ABOUT THE GABRIEL'S HORN POETRY ANTHOLOGY:

This year was our maiden voyage, with the theme of JOY. Our goal is to provide a paying market for poets writing in traditional and classical forms. I was delighted with the quality of poets who responded, with their impressive credentials and backgrounds and am very proud to feature THOMAS R. SMITH and DAN BLUM, two very accomplished wordsmiths. We have a number of poets from the Twin Cities, but also from around the United States, from Canada, and from the United Kingdom. I look forward to having even more countries represented next year.

If you're a poet and would like to submit, please visit our submission page.