August 12

2019 Literary House Summer Intern MacKenzie Brady ’21 reports from the field.

Working at the Literary House this summer has been an experience I will value for, at the very least, the rest of my college career. I’ve met incredible writers like Julie Marie Wade, Julie Iromuanya, and Matthew Olzmann who were faculty at this year’s Cherry Tree Young Writers’ Conference, learned invaluable skills when it comes to researching authors, and have eaten more Café Sado this summer than I had ever before.

While I am proud of all the work I did here this summer, I am most proud of the email advertisements that will be sent out to students and faculty to promote the various readings and events the Lit House is hosting over the course of the semester. While each poster is vastly different, you can still see the threads between those in the same series—the Sophie Kerr Series events all use the same signature font for the series title, the Literary House Series events all utilize the margins to create thick borders, the Writers-as-Editors Series events each have a whimsical or playful quality to them.

For as many posters as I could, I tried to incorporate the writer’s book covers—Jason Fagone’s posters are replicas of The Woman Who Smashed Codes cover, but using his face and adding the appropriate information for each of his events; Monica Ferrell’s poster is just her [absolutely stunning] cover of You Darling Thing with the event information added; Rebecca Makkai’s poster uses the margins to create a border filled with the sequence of lines from the cover of The Great Believers; Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s poster incorporates the cover of her book Lucky Fish and uses blue pentagons to mimic fish scales around the title of the series and wrap around her headshot.

I am double majoring in English and art, so elements of design and creating visual works was not part of the on-job training I received, they are skills I have been working on since elementary school when I wanted to be an art teacher. What was, however, was learning InDesign. Working as an editor for the student newspaper, The Elm, since freshman year and being the President of Writers’ Union this past year have allowed me to watch other people use InDesign in various capacities—watching Monday night layout for The Elm or helping Writers’ Union Vice President Justin Nash design all of our event posters—but I never used it myself. Looking at what last year’s interns, Tamia and Gabby, did, I got a feel for what was being expected of me, but it wasn’t until I got into the thick of things that I realized what direction I would go in. I wanted my posters to reflect the writers and be eye-catching, to give information about the event but also make the writers and their work the major draw of the posters, hence using their book covers to make the posters.

There are many skills that I have cultivated, developed, and expanded upon while interning at the Lit House this summer—practically breaking my back to get perfect pictures of students and faculty printing Julie Iromuanya’s broadside at the Conference, doing a Twitter takeover to promote Cherry Treesubmissions opening, etc. Learning how to use InDesign was something I wanted to do for a long time, and I’m glad I was finally able not only to use it, but to build a solid portfolio of work that will help me in the future. This summer has been a lot of fun, and I will definitely miss the Lit House for the two weeks that I’m off campus.

July 30

Going into our open reading period for Issue 6, we have a few new editorial staff members and a whole roster of new screeners ready to read your work. We’ve also got a new subscription promotion to help you get your hands on more of our back issues!

First up, here are our staff updates for Issue 6:

Our Fiction Editor Roy Kesey is also stepping into the new role of Associate Editor-in-Chief! He will still be overseeing and carefully curating a robust fiction selection for Issue 6, but he will also be taking greater part in the day-to-day administrative work it takes to run this beloved magazine of ours.

Brand new to the staff is Senior Poetry Reader, Alyse Bensel, whose fabulous poems “Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection in Every Parallel Universe” and “Westward Expansion” we published in Issue 5! She’s also an alumnus of Washington College. Here’s a little more about her:

Alyse Bensel is the author of Rare Wondrous Things, a poetic biography of Maria Sibylla Merian (Green Writers Press, forthcoming 2020), and three chapbooks, including Lies to Tell the Body (Seven Kitchens Press, 2018). Her poems have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Gulf Coast, Poetry International, West Branch, and elsewhere. She is an assistant professor of English at Brevard College, where she directs the Looking Glass Rock Writers’ Conference.

Our Cherry Tree Production Intern for Issue 6 is Abby Wargo ’20! Here’s a bit about her:

Abby Wargo is a senior English major with minors in creative writing and journalism, editing & publishing at Washington College. Abby has served as Editor-in-Chief of The Elm, WC’s student newspaper, since 2018. 

We’ve also added two new student positions to our editorial staff! Justin Nash ’21 will be serving as the inaugural Cherry Tree Administrative Fellow. Tamia Williams ’21 will be our inaugural Cherry Tree Copyediting Fellow. Here’s more about these two:

Justin Nash is a junior studying English, communication and media, and studio art at Washington College. His essay, “Moments Suggesting This Body Does Not Always Belong to Me,” was named a runner-up for the 2018 Norton Writer’s Prize. He is the managing editor of the college’s liberal arts journal, the Washington College Review; assistant editor of the college’s student literary journal, The Collegian; and a nonfiction screener for Cherry Tree.

Tamia Williams is a student at Washington College, with majors in English and Communication as well as minors in Creative Writing and Journalism, Editing & Publishing. Once she graduates, she plans to pursue editing and publishing as a career with focuses in Fiction and Nonfiction. In her free time, she scrapbooks, reads, and writes.

We have a few returning screeners from our previous reading period and some new faces from the spring 2019 Literary Editing & Publishing class at Washington College: 

Subscription Promotion!

In order to help potential submitters (and readers) get their hands on more of our back issues, we’ve also decided to offer a subscription promotion during the upcoming open reading period. From August 1 to October 1, 2019, if you buy a two-year subscription to Cherry Tree, you will also receive two back issues of your choice for absolutely free! In order to receive your free back issues, just email Managing Editor Lindsay Lusby at llusby2FREEwashcoll including the two issue numbers (1-4) after completing your subscription purchase. Please note that you are NOT required to be a current subscriber in order to submit your work for consideration, nor will subscribing ever have ANY bearing on how we read and evaluate your submission. As always, it is absolutely free to submit your work to Cherry Tree!

Our Issue 6 open reading period runs from August 1-October 1, 2019! 

So please mark your calendars and send us your freshest (and shadiest) poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction starting August 1. To get a better idea of exactly what we’re looking for, check out our submission guidelines and read some sample work from our previous issues. We pay $20 per contributor, as well as two copies of the printed issue. And we are so excited to read your work!

April 24

At the 2019 Senior Reading, the Rose O’Neill Literary House announced this year’s winners of three annual student creative writing prizes: The Literary House Genre Fiction Prize, The William W. Warner Prize for Creative Writing on Nature and the Environment, and The Jude & Miriam Pfister Poetry Prize.

The Literary House Genre Fiction Prize is a prize awarded to a Washington College undergraduate for the best work of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, or horror. The winner receives a cash prize of $500.

This year’s Genre Fiction Prize was awarded to sophomore Tamia Williams for her short story, “Illuminating Air.” Honorable Mention for the prize was awarded to freshman Madison Nutter for her short story, “A Study in Existentialism.”

The William W. Warner Prize is awarded to the Washington College undergraduate who shows the greatest aptitude for writing about nature and the environment. This prize is named for, and was endowed in the honor of, William W. Warner, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay, based on his experiences living and working among crab fishermen on the Chesapeake. According to Mr. Warner’s wishes, the judges will give preference to—but will in no way limit their consideration to—students who write about the natural history of our Atlantic Littoral, from the Canadian Arctic to the Gulf of Florida. The winner receives a cash prize of $500.

This year’s Warner Prize was awarded to junior Kai Clarkefor her essay, “The Light of the Earth Comes Riding in on the Shoulder of a Thrush with No Name.” Honorable Mention for the prize was awarded to sophomore Julia Manaraze for her graphic novel, “A Broken, Beautiful World.”

The Jude & Miriam Pfister Poetry Prizewas created through the Academy of American Poets, one of the nation’s most influential poetry organizations, and is administered through the Washington College Department of English and the Rose O’Neill Literary House. The prize is awarded to a Washington College undergraduate for a single poem and the winner receives a cash prize of $100 and a certificate from the Academy of American Poets.

This year’s Pfister Poetry Prize was awarded to sophomore Justin Nash for his poem “THAT THING THAT THING.” Honorable Mention for the prize was awarded to sophomore Nicole Hatfield for her poem “Red Barn and Frozen Ground.”

We offer our most sincere congratulations to this year’s prize winners for their fine writing!

April 24

Literary House Press Intern Justin Nash ’21 writes about the latter half of his internship.

Since this internship began, I’ve acquired 105 books. I bought 2 of them because the college bookstore was having a sale. 7 of the books were sent to me as a thank you from Wave Books for having asked about ways the Literary House could support their press and writers. The other 96 are from our trip to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference in Portland three weeks ago.

As Literary House Press intern, I was able to attend the 19^th annual AWP Conference with 3 other interns, 3 members of the Writers’ Union, and the Lit House staff trio. Working our booth in the Bookfair was amazing. I was lucky enough to run into 2 amazing writers I get to consider mentors, meet 6 of our Cherry Treecontributors, and sell 15 broadsides, 4 books, and 1 hat to 10 amazing people. I was able to go to 6 spectacular panels and 3 equally spectacular readings. The most important things that happened, though, all revolve around those 95 books.

Lindsay had told me Heidi Czerwiec, a (1) writer whose work I admire and whose Twitter profile never fails to make me laugh, would be stopping by the table. Though we missed each other on the first pass, when she came back I introduced myself and explained my admiration, at which point she pulled a copy of her Fluid States, her latest collection, out of her bag, signed it, and put in my (2) hands.

Later that day, I went to the Wave Books table, bought 4 of their latest titles, and was able to meet and thank (1) Ryo Yamaguchi for having sent me books in the weeks before the conference.

At readings for Muzzle, Vinyl, Sibling Rivalry Press, and YesYes Books I was able to thank 11 writers and editors I admire and have them sign (12 total) copies of their books.

After a grueling 12 hour flight home and 2 weeks to recover I’ve been able to look back fondly on this internship and everything I’ve been exposed to because of it. There are 3 weeks left, in which time I’ll be finishing our 36 page product catalog and mailing it out. The promise of having back my 10 free hours each week has me looking to the end, but it’s an ending (1) that’ll be bittersweet to say the least.

Oh, yeah, I actually do know how much I spent on all those books. It was [redacted].

April 8

The Rose O’Neill Literary House has awarded this year’s Cave Canem Residency to poet David Mills.

In June 2019, the Rose O’Neill Literary House will welcome David to Chestertown for a month-long writer’s retreat. He was selected from this year’s pool of applicants as the winner of the Literary House’s 2019 Cave Canem Summer Residency. 

David Mills holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College, where he received a Holden Fellowship. He is the author of two poetry collections, the second, The Sudden Country, was a book-prize finalist. He has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Breadloaf and Cave Canem. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Crab Orchard Review, Fence, Rattapallax and Drunken Boat. He has also recorded his poetry on RCA Records, had a play produced by the Juilliard School of Drama and had poems displayed at the Venice Biennale. He lived as writer-in-residence in Langston Hughes’s landmark home. 

The Cave Canem Summer Residency at The Rose O’Neill Literary House is a partnership with Cave Canem, the nation’s preeminent organization for young African American poets. Cave Canem’s mission is to serve as “a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets.” Our Cave Canem Summer Residency is a month-long Chestertown retreat offered annually to one outstanding former Cave Canem Fellow. Previous Summer Residents include poets Lauren Russell (2018), Laura Swearingen-Steadwell (2017), Darrel Alejandro Holnes (2016), Kamilah Aisha Moon (2015), Jamaal May (2014), Yona Harvey (2013), Kevin Vaughn (2012), and Arisa White (2011). 

March 8

Literary House Press Intern Justin Nash ’21 writes about the first half of his internship.

In reality, it’s probably only been a few years, but it feels like I’ve had a deep interest in publishing for quite some time now. Almost as soon as I truly became aware of the work that goes into making a book (and everything else that comes with it) I’ve wanted to be involved. I took classes in editing and publishing, started working for student journals and other publications, and generally tried to get as close as I could, but working for an actual publisher always seemed like a far-off dream. The Literary House Press internship was my first real chance to do exactly what I had dreamed.

I applied my freshman year and was shocked to even get an interview, let alone even being seriously considered. This year I applied again, got an interview, and a few days later was offered and accepted the position. At that point I thought I already had a good handle on the publishing world and this internship would work to reinforce that knowledge. Two months into this thing I’m still not entirely sure whether I was right or not.

I’ve done so much of what I thought—laying out marketing materials, distributing Cherry Tree, doing promotional work, even writing this blog post—but there’s so much more I would have never thought I’d be doing. My first week was spent doing extensive research on possible distribution options for our print publications. After that, I reached out to something like forty other publishers about receiving ARCs (Advance Review Copies) of their titles to support our visiting writer and reading series. In the weeks since we’ve received countless books—most of them not even released yet, with one amazing publisher even sending me books directly as a thank you for keeping them in mind.

I had never realized how interconnected publishing was and the degree to which so many publishers and writers rely on another. A true community exists within the publishing world and it’s one I don’t think I could have ever seen from the outside.

January 11

On Thursday, January 10, we sent our newest issue yet to the printers—and we’re so in love. So it’s time for our annual cover art reveal!

The art on the cover of Issue 5 is a painting called simply “Doe,” by Canadian artist Chris Austin. We just love the simultaneously serene and radioactive glow of this painting. We strongly believe the gorgeous writing in this issue is brings this same ghostly-transcendent but firmly present voice in its approach to both disaster and beauty.

Inside the issue is brand-new poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and literary shade from Lauren K. Alleyne, Aldo Amparán, E. Kristin Anderson, John Andrews, Matthew James Babcock, Alyse Bensel, Justin Bigos, Tommye Blount, Brooke Champagne, Alan Chazaro, Emily Cinquemani, Kevin Clouther, Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, Oliver de la Paz, Denise Duhamel, Kelly Dulaney, Catherine Edmunds, Stevie Edwards, Kate Gaskin, Joanna Gordon, Kyle Hemmings, Lucas Jacob, Sally J. Johnson, Jane Kim, Ben Loory, Suvi Mahonen, Alicia Mountain, Miguel Murphy, Andy Powell, Kevin Prufer, Dean Rader, Scott Ragland, Nancy Reddy, Phoebe Reeves, Aaron Smith, Alison Stine, Matthew Thorburn, Maureen Thorson, Milla van der Have, Kelly Garriott Waite, Joanna White, Patrick Whitfill, and Claire Yoo. Coming in at 193 pages, this new issue is packed with incredible work from both American and international writers that will bring you back for several re-reads.

The issue is officially released on February 15, 2019 and will be shipped out to contributors and subscribers at that time. We will also debut Issue 5 at the AWP Conference in Portland from March 28-30. We’ll have copies available in the Bookfair at the Rose O’Neill Literary House booth #6054, along with the rest of our Literary House Press publications and swag.

And if you haven’t already, today is the perfect day to subscribe! Starting this month, all new subscriptions will begin with Issue 5. 

January 1

“There is a catharsis in this issue that feels as if it is still on the verge of fulfillment, yet we can hope that literature will allow us to purge the hurt, the violence, and the apathy from our lives sooner rather than later.” Issue 4 gets a stellar review at NewPages!

Cherry Tree’s fourth issue is praised in a new review by Anne Graue published at NewPages. 

The following contributors got shoutouts for their work: Jan Beatty, Berry Grass, Jenn Leiker, Michelle McGurk, Jessica Murray, Ellen Davis Sullivan, and Julie Marie Wade. Congrats, y’all!

Read the full review here: Cherry Tree 2018 at NewPages. 

You can get a copy of Issue 4 for your further reading pleasure at Small Press Distribution. We’re currently finishing up production on our next issue. So, subscribe today for Issue 5!

November 14

This holiday season at the Literary House Press: buy a gift for a friend, and get a free gift for you! Check out these Lit House Door Busters.

From November 23 through December 19, the Literary House Press will be offering special holiday deals to our online shoppers. For the 2018 winter holiday season, we are giving away free gifts with certain purchases:

Buy a 2-year subscription to Cherry Tree, get a free Literary Shade broadside!

Buy a Back Issue Bundle, get a free Cherry Tree tote bag!

Buy any 2 LHP broadsides, get a third free! After purchase, e-mail llusby2FREEwashcoll with your third broadside choice.

See all of our Cherry Tree subscription options here. 

See our letterpress broadsides here.

See our deluxe & standard edition chapbooks here. 

All purchases may be made through our online form here. 

Please note: The Literary House Press web payment form will NOT work properly if used in Microsoft Edge or Explorer. Please use a different web browser to complete your purchase, such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Apple Safari.

And don’t forget to check out our paperback books, available on Small Press Distribution and Amazon!  

Happy Holidays from the staff at the Literary House Press!

November 8

We received so many fantastic poems, short stories, and essays during this last reading period. We have made all of our final decisions and responded to all submitters. Now we want to share our official list of contributors for Issue 5!

Poetry

• Lauren K. Alleyne
• Aldo Amparán
• Alyse Bensel
• Tommye Blount
• Alan Chazaro
• Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach
• Oliver de la Paz
• Denise Duhamel
• Alicia Mountain
• Miguel Murphy
• Kevin Prufer
• Dean Rader
• Nancy Reddy
• Phoebe Reeves
• Aaron Smith
• Alison Stine
• Matthew Thorburn
• Maureen Thorson
• Milla van der Have
• Patrick Whitfill
• Claire Yoo

Fiction

• Kevin Clouther
• Catherine Edmunds
• Kyle Hemmings
• Ben Loory
• Scott Ragland

Nonfiction

• Brooke Champagne
• Kelly Dulaney
• Joanna Gordon
• Jane Kim
• Suvi Mahonen
• Kelly Garriott Waite
• Joanna White

Literary Shade

• E. Kristin Anderson
• John Andrews
• Matthew James Babcock
• Justin Bigos
• Emily Cinquemani
• Stevie Edwards
• Kate Gaskin
• Lucas Jacob
• Sally J. Johnson
• Andy Powell

 

Thank you to our fantastic student screeners: Allison Billmire, MacKenzie Brady, Samantha Clark, Mary Golden, Emily Holt, Emily Kreider, Justin Nash, Shannon Neal, Catalina Righter, Lonessa Rupertus, Saoirse, Brooke Schultz, Catherine Shaw, Lauren Souder, and Alexandra Weiss. Thank you as well to our fabulous senior readers in poetry: Julia Armstrong and Alex Vidiani; in fiction: Sarah Blackman and Elise Gallagher; and in nonfiction: Elise Gallagher (again!). And a huge round of applause for our Poetry Editor James Allen Hall (who is also our Editor-in-Chief), our Fiction Editor Roy Kesey, our Creative Nonfiction Editor Emma Sovich, and our brand-new Literary Shade Editor Kimberly Quiogue Andrews. Issue 5 is only possible because all of the hours of work that you each do for Cherry Tree.

The issue is now being laid out by our Production Intern Justin Nash (who also doubled as a nonfiction screener). Proofs will be sent out to all contributors in late December or early January. Issue 5 is scheduled for release on February 15, 2019, and then it will debut at the 2019 AWP Conference in Portland at the end of March. So if you do not have a current subscription, now is the perfect time to remedy that! Buy a subscription for yourself or as a holiday gift for a dear friend. Just subscribe! And you can do that here.

November 5

For the Spring 2020 Mary Wood Fellowship, applications will be accepted through Friday, March 1, 2019.

In Spring 2018, we had the wonderful Amber Dermont visit little Chestertown for three days as our Mary Wood Fellow. She read from her short story collection Damage Control, gave an intimate craft talk about writing humor in fiction, and met individually with select female & nonbinary undergrads to discuss their own work.

We are now looking for the next Mary Wood Fellow, to visit us in Spring 2020. And we need your applications! If you are a female-identifying writer who has published one book, you are qualified. For the Spring 2020 Fellow, we are searching for a writer of creative nonfiction (broadly defined) who also has editorial experience with literary journals or other literary publications.

Here is the full description of the Fellowship:

The Mary Wood Fellow spends approximately three days at Washington College, during which she holds individual conferences with select female and nonbinary undergraduate creative writers. The Fellow also gives a public reading and a craft talk. The Fellowship includes a $1500 stipend, overnight accommodations, and travel.

The Fellowship enables female and nonbinary creative writing students at Washington College to work with and learn from successful female-identifying writers who spend several days on campus.

Eastern Shore author Mary Wood, whose support makes the fellowship possible, was a ’68 graduate of the College and a former member of its Board of Visitors and Governors.

Applicants should send a published book of creative nonfiction as well as a cover letter that addresses qualifications, discusses interest in the position, and includes a brief description of a proposed craft talk to Assistant Director Lindsay%20Lusby:

The Rose O’Neill Literary House
Washington College
300 Washington Avenue
Chestertown, Maryland 21620

For the spring 2020 Mary Wood Fellowship, applications will be accepted if postmarked by March 1, 2019. The winning candidate will be notified no later than March 31, 2019.

October 29

The Cave Canem Summer Residency at the Rose O’Neill Literary House is awarded annually to a current Fellow with Cave Canem, a national organization dedicated to growth of African American poets. For the 2019 residency, applications will be accepted through Thursday, March 15, 2019.

In June 2018, poet & essayist Lauren Russell came to Chestertown for a month-long writer’s retreat. Her main responsibility while here: to focus on her own writing, whether that be working on her next poetry collection or another writing project that she had been waiting to find the right time to get started on. At the Cave Canem Summer Residency at the Rose O’Neill Literary House, we make now the right time.

Now we’re looking for our 2019 Summer Resident and applications are open! Here are more details about how to apply:

The Cave Canem Residency at The Rose O’Neill Literary House is a program that offers the Fellow the uninterrupted time and space to focus solely on their writing projects for a full month. The Fellow will be awarded the use of a private single-family residence for the entire month of June, along with a $1,000 honorarium for living expenses. Located on a quiet residential street directly across from the campus, the residence is within a short walk of the Lit House, the college library, the farmers’ market, and local shops.

Applicants should send a brief statement of purpose, a CV, and a 10-page poetry sample to Director James Allen Hall:

The Rose O’Neill Literary House
Washington College
300 Washington Avenue
Chestertown, Maryland 21620

For the 2019 Cave Canem Residency at The Rose O’Neill Literary House, applications will be accepted if postmarked by March 15, 2019. The winning candidate will be notified no later than March 31, 2019.

October 8

We’ve just closed for submissions for Issue 5, and while we continue to read our way through it all, here are the pieces from our last issue that we have nominated for the 2019 Pushcart Prizes.

• Freddy, by Ron Currie, Jr.
• [Dead] Sister, by Brian Phillip Whalen
• Two-Headed Taxidermied Calf, by Nicky Beer
• Ode to Sirin, the Bird Goddess of the Siberian Milky Way, by Barbara Hamby 
• The Game of Life, by Julie Marie Wade
• Fantasy with Trump in Tree, by Maria Nazos

Congratulations to our Issue 4 nominees! We wish you the best of luck!

August 27

Record-setting Lancaster Printers Fair hits streets in downtown Lancaster September 14-15, and the Literary House Press will be there!

The sixth Lancaster Printers Fair will be one for the record books as new events – including a world record attempt – will be added to the Sept. 14 and 15 printing event for all ages in downtown Lancaster.

To launch the fair, “Printing on Penn Square” will feature a number of activities on Penn Square Friday evening from 6 to 8:30 including a demonstration by nationally known Itinerant Printer Chris Fritton, the chance to print a custom coaster with the Heritage Press Museum, print a custom T-shirt with Foxduck, grab a special printmakers’ cocktail at nearby Shot and Bottle and help raise funds for the .918 Club’s education center by participating in a chance auction of prizes donated by local businesses.

On Saturday, as a part of the “Printers Fair” which runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the public will have the opportunity to set a new world record for printing with potatoes provided by Four Seasons Produce, Ephrata. The world record attempt between noon and 3 p.m. will be to print with 500 potatoes and is open to all ages. Participants will design and cut their own potato on site prior to printing.

New this year, a beer garden presented by Wacker Brewing Co., will feature a new brew called “Poor Richard’s Ale” using a recipe by Benjamin Franklin, a pioneering printer in 1700s Philadelphia. A percentage of the sales of the ale and other available craft beers will go to finishing construction at the .918 Club’s Heritage Press Education Center on the campus of Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, Lancaster. 

“The Printers Fair is the largest of its kind on the East Coast,” says Ken Kulakowsky, president of the nonprofit .918 Club, which organizes the annual event. “The fair is a wonderful way to witness history and the future at the same time. Letterpress and other forms of printing are widely popular and examples can be seen everywhere in society.” 

Kulakowsky said this annual celebration of the art of printing wouldn’t be possible without the support of sponsors Jet USA Corp., the 300 Block of North Queen Street merchants, and Four Seasons Produce.

Saturday’s street fair will be held on the closed-to-traffic 300 block of North Queen Street, where all nearby merchants will remain open for business. The street will be filled with vendors from across the region, printing demonstrations, food trucks, live music and the record-setting potato printing.

This year print-related vendors include: American Institute of Graphic Arts, Central PA; Baseman Press, Philadelphia; Blue Canary Press, Chestertown, Md.; Bowerbox Press, Monkton, Md.; Cannonball Press, Brooklyn; Conestoga Press, Conestoga; Crow Designs at The Workshop, Scranton; Everyday Balloons Print Shop, Ashville, Pa.; Fresh Prints of Lancaster; Harsimus Press, Jersey City, N.J.; Jet USA Corp., Collingdale, Pa.; Lancaster Public Art; Lead Graffiti, Newark, Del.; Letterpress Things, Chicopee, Mass.; Literary House Press, Chestertown, Md.; Lucky Mfg. Co., Lancaster; Madcap & Co., Lancaster; Model Citizen Press, Bethesda, Md.; Rexmake, Harrisburg; Russell Earnest Associates, Clayton, Del.; Sea Heart City Press, Philadelphia; Shaw Pens, Cheltenham, Pa.; The .918 Club, Lancaster; Typothecary Press, Lancaster; Virgin Wood Type, Rochester, N.Y.

Six gallery shows also are new this year include Ryan Keates at Foxduck, 11 W. King St.; Valerie Leuth of Tugboat Press at Realm and Reason, 213 W. King St.; Milt Friedly at the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, 335 N. Queen St.; “Print & Labor” by Salina Almanzar, Candy Gonzalez, Josh Graupera, Andrew Perez and Joy Ude at Tec Centro, 102 Chester St.; interactive screenprinting at Annex 24 Galley, 24A W. Walnut St.; and Karen Swallow Prior, author of “On Reading Well” at Square Halo Gallery, first floor at the Trust Performing Arts Center, 37 N. Market St. Swallow Prior will have a book release party on Saturday, Sept. 15.

The letterpress event started in 2013 as a nod to Lancaster’s place in printing history and features vendors and suppliers of letterpress equipment, foundry type, cards, posters, broadsides, ephemera, and more. In addition to the fair, there will also be demonstrations nearby in the Heritage Press Museum’s 1920s print shop, 346 N. Queen St., as well as activities for kids.

The event is free to the public and any money raised will benefit the nonprofit .918 Club’s ongoing efforts to the education and preservation of letterpress printing.

August 15

Literary House Summer Intern Tamia Williams ’21 writes about the second half of her internship.

We’re not doctors, who save lives with needles and medicine. We heal the soul with words. We’re not police officers, who risk their lives to defend public peace. We show the difference between good and evil, and how to handle the gray areas. We are world creators, immortalizing actions in words that outlast the test of time. We are writer–artists, those with the power to invent reality. Yet, just like any other profession, we must hone our craft. Recently, I had the chance to enable others to do some of that creative work at the Cherry Tree Young Writers’ Conference held at the Rose O’Neill Literary House. While the 16 high school students held the most focus, the other interns and I were also able to learn more about creating our own literary and physical worlds.

Step one of world-creating involves planning, down to the smallest detail. My fellow summer intern and I assembled a welcome board, stuffed folders with information, inspected dorms, and set up Cherry Tree merchandise. Were these the biggest plot points filled with action, danger, or horror? No, but altering reality constitutes knowing and occasionally acknowledging what lies inside it. Setting, as any teacher will tell you, imparts the essence of a story.

Step two introduces the characters. As students arrived on their first day, interns stood at attention awaiting them. Lanyards? Check. Folders? Check. The smallest detail, remember? High school sophomores, juniors, seniors, and even recent graduates arrived one by one and walked up the intern-lined sidewalk to their dorm. While some students bonded immediately with others, interns attempted to mingle between groups and the rare loners. But slowly and surely, the characters found their place.

Now for the plot! Luckily for you, this world does not embrace any RomCom-turned- depressing-fatalistic drama. The environment remained happy as T-poses were asserted, Vines quoted, and memes referenced. Students printed broadsides, enjoyed good food, and laughed. Activity was especially treasured during the evenings, where students engaged in safe fun with a viewing of Moulin Rouge, an intense game of Paper Cuts, and a fervent battle of literary trivia. Was it a bloodbath of epic proportions? No, but each victor walked away with one piece of free Cherry Tree swag. Huzzah!

As in any great story, characters developed attachments and communities with one another. As each student blossomed during Cherry Tree, many decided to read their original work during the open mics. Poems, improv, and short pieces of fiction and creative nonfiction were shared in this place of positive encouragement. The faculty members, interns, and I all read our work as well. When I began, my hands trembled, and my eyes flitted between the page and the audience before me. Yet, once the reading concluded, I felt proud of sharing my work.

Any playwright or storyteller would love this conference as each plot point contains healthy dialogue. Craft panels allowed the faculty—the marvelous Drs. Jehanne Dubrow, H.G. Carrillo, Julie Marie Wade, and James Allen Hall—to discuss writing, editing and publishing experiences with hungry minds, while talks by Drs. Andrews and Rydel taught students how to dissect texts. For me, I enjoyed my time in the nonfiction workshop with Dr. Julie Marie Wade, which highlighted how creative nonfiction gives life to your own story. I have always favored fiction—forgive me, Dr. Wade!—since I could use my imagination to develop any situation. However, I have learned to appreciate and love nonfiction’s artform. Middle and high school gave the impression that nonfiction meant academic essays and college spun nonfiction as only applying to major life-changing events. Cherry Tree allowed me to realize that nonfiction can involve any event you desire to put into words, even if only for yourself. Not only can nonfiction place importance on your own life, but it also causes you to reevaluate every instance for a deeper meaning. An instance that, once recorded, could go on to signify importance for someone else.

Sadly, the denouement arrived as Dr. Hall voiced his farewell speech and final group pictures were taken. The resolution finished as cars driven by happy parents left the dorms empty. The skills acquired as a summer intern—program assistance, social professionalism, and more—were helpful and made me glad that I chose to storm the castle. While I remain a slightly timid person, the Conference has also enabled me to grow. I enjoyed speaking with the writers, as all the faculty were respectful yet open. Also, speaking with the students led to colorful discussions and interesting writing topics. I am extremely thankful to Dr. Wade, who planted a new appreciation of creative nonfiction inside me as I endeavor forward as an English major who can now create worlds that are both true and make-believe.

August 15

Literary House Summer Intern Gabby Rente ’20 writes about the second half of her internship.

I have a regret. During the Cherry Tree Young Writers’ Conference, I didn’t embrace it enough. I didn’t take enough pictures, capture enough smiles. I wish I had taken into deeper account that I should record and write down my thoughts. I wish I had more in-depth conversations, suggested more books, more writers. The list of works suggested to me isn’t nearly long enough. The conference seemed to end just as it had begun.

As festivities for the Fourth of July dwindled down, and I returned to the Rose O’Neill Literary House, work went into hyperdrive in preparation for the conference. In the two weeks leading up to the big event, my fellow intern and I busied ourselves by organizing information folders, making name tags, and creating an eye-catching welcome board complete with profile photos, paper cherry blossoms, and a totally “symmetrical” layout. I also had the pleasure of helping with the first two printing runs of the conference broadside, “Runaway Military Surveillance Blimp Drifts from Maryland to Pennsylvania” by former Literary House director Dr. Jehanne Dubrow. The real fun began once we welcomed the other interns, students hired specifically for the purpose of the conference. Tuesday night, we all met in the Literary House and talked logistics. Our visiting writers, Drs. H.G. Carrillo, Julie Marie Wade, and Jehanne Dubrow, arrived soon after for the welcome dinner. We ate tacos, told jokes, and shared plenty of laughs to last us for eternity.

We welcomed the fresh, dewy faces of the high school students on Wednesday morning. After they moved into their dorms on the Western Shore and met the interns who would act as Resident Assistants, we paraded them over to the Literary House for a warm welcome speech given by Dr. Hall. The interns and I then gave the students a brief tour of campus. We showed them Smith Hall, where workshops would be held, followed by the library and then the dining hall where we promptly had lunch punctuated by excited chatter about our favorite writers.

Each day of the Conference began at 8:00 a.m. and lasted well into the evening. I had the pleasure of being one of the interns in the poetry workshop with Dr. Dubrow. She focused her workshops on writing about scent, the least described sense in writing. With her she brought perfume samples and gave us different prompts for each scent; for example, write about a person or a memory, real or fictional, that the perfume evokes. My favorite perfume was called Seville a l’Aube, a perfume with notes of white floral, citrus, and beeswax. I learned a lot about myself from the poetry produced from this perfume. While everyone else wrote about fictional, sultry characters, this perfume reminded me of baby body wash.

Workshops were not the only highlight of the conference. We also hosted several faculty readings and two open mics for the students. The interns also participated in a reading as a way to show the high schoolers what a positive reading environment the Lit House cultivates. Even though they were younger students, and I have read before, I still felt a rush of nerves before reading my work. I had nothing to worry about though, because afterwards, Drs. Carrillo and Wade each shared their praise. Hearing such commendation from two published writers really boosted my confidence as a budding writer, and I know the high schoolers felt the same way.

The evenings belonged to fun and entertainment. The first night we showed the movie Moulin Rouge and ate popcorn in the college’s oldest theater, Norman James. The second night, the interns played board games with the students, like Scrabble or Settlers of Catan. One intern brought a literary-themed expansion pack for Cards Against Humanity. Many of us spent a majority of the night gathered around the table in the print shop laughing hysterically.

My overall favorite part of the conference was the moment we showed the high school students the letterpress print shop. I gave a demonstration of how to use the Vandercook press, and each student had a chance to give it a try. Finally, Dr. Dubrow’s finished broadside came into full view as the students each printed their own, marveling at the way image and text illuminate each other. 

Saturday, though it was pouring rain, remained just as active. In the afternoon, we said our goodbyes to our writers and students. I believe the weather reflected everyone’s mood, a sad but cathartic relief as yet another Cherry Tree Young Writers’ Conference successfully ended. 

I feel that sad relief all over again as I realize my summer internship at the Literary House draws to a close. Never did I expect to have such a positive experience working here. I learned so much without realizing the amount as I worked on each assignment given to me.  Knowing myself, I expect to spend even more of my time at the Rose O’Neill Literary House, whether it is to make myself a cup of tea in the mural room, to lead another meeting for Poetry Club, or finally to take that evening workshop in the print shop. I’m leaving now, but I’ll be back soon.

July 10

Going into our open reading period for Issue 5, we have a new Literary Shade Editor and a whole roster of new screeners ready to read your work.

Beginning with Issue 5, Dr. Kimberly Quiogue Andrews is stepping into the role of Literary Shade Editor at Cherry Tree!

She will be selecting submissions from poetry, fiction, and nonfiction to feature in the Literary Shade section of each new issue. All work submitted to our poetry, fiction, or nonfiction categories will be considered for inclusion in the Literary Shade feature section. Here’s a bit more about Dr. Andrews, who previously served as one of our contributing editors:

Kimberly Quiogue Andrews is Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Washington College. A poet and literary critic, she is the author of the chapbook BETWEEN (Finishing Line Press, 2018) and is currently working on a scholarly book that explores the interplay between literary-analytical modes of thinking and experimental poetic practice in and around the age of professionalized creative writing programs. Her critical work has appeared in Textual Practice and New Literary History, and her poems and essays have been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, ASAP/J, Poetry Northwest, Grist, The Recluse, BOMB, West Branch, and elsewhere. 

If you’re not yet familiar with our Literary Shade feature, which we debuted in Issue 3, here’s a brief description of what we’re keeping a lookout for:

In the great tradition of Jennie Livingston’s documentary, Paris is Burning, we are looking for impeccably-crafted shade. But not just ordinary shade: we’re especially interested in poems, short stories, or nonfiction that throws shade at the institutions that have whitewashed our literature and history, be they laws or events or texts authored by dead old cisgendered white supremacist misogynistic homophobes. We believe that shade—subversive wit, withering critique—can empower. And we want to read the shadiest shade around.

 

Our Issue 5 open reading period runs from August 1-October 1, 2018!

So please mark your calendars and send us your freshest (and shadiest) poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction starting August 1. To get a better idea of exactly what we’re looking for, check out our submission guidelines and read some sample work from our previous issues. We pay $20 per contributor, as well as two copies of the printed issue. And we are so excited to read your work!

June 27

2018 Literary House Summer Intern Gabby Rente ’20 reports from the field.

Nothing held my interest for long as a kid. Theater lasted a year, and softball only a season. But writing always remained my favorite activity. In high school, I wrote for my school newspaper and edited the literary magazine. Over the years, it developed into more than a hobby; it turned into a lifestyle.  I imagined going to a college or university that would spark my creativity and not just “mold” me into a writer but give me the tools and courage to persevere.

On my first day of work at the Rose O’Neill Literary House, I walked around taut and nervous, wanting to make the best impression possible, but the staff quickly broke me from that trance and instead encouraged me to relax and drink tea during our first meeting. Here, interns become valuable team members working together to create a space for students’ ingenuity and writing to flourish.

My first two weeks working at the Lit House have taught me several important lessons, such as hot air does indeed rise hence the library on the first floor provides a lovely, cool place to sit. Secondly, chalkboard paint refuses to yield to cleanliness. Persist, persist, persist. And use a sponge!

Our first week consisted mostly of tutorials on InDesign. I can now confidently say I possess the ability to make something decent on InDesign; book cover, literary event poster, pamphlet, you name it!

Of course, the entire week did not require us sitting in front of a screen. In the back of the Lit House lies the letterpress print shop. Here, we learned how to measure and cut high-quality paper, select and mix ink by hand, and print using antique methods. We printed a second run of Carolyn Forché’s award-winning poem, “The Boatman.”

The second week, my fellow intern and I cataloged all the broadsides and posters on the Lit House walls.  These charming posters, covering nearly every inch of vertical space, go all the way back to the late 60s, documenting events and readings to which the house has borne witness. Some visiting writers include amazing people like Natasha Trethewey, Neil Gaiman, Allen Ginsberg, and even Toni Morrison. 

We held the honor of helping select which broadsides and posters would appear in classrooms in one of the College’s academic halls. My favorite poster promoted a play called “La Vida es Sueño” from 1982, and now it will hang in the lecture halls for my fellow WC students to see. I hope they take the play’s title to heart and give their own dreams life.  

The Lit House just hosted its Summer Literary Salon, and no, it’s not where writers go to get their hair done. I like to call it “a conglomeration of writing nerds under one roof to read literary works and talk weird experiences.” Our visitors were H.G. Carrillo, David MacLean, Lynn Melnick, and the Literary House’s 2018 Cave Canem Fellow, Lauren Russell, each of whom spoke about their individual inspirations. One visiting writer I tied myself into a nervous knot over, but eventually he signed the book I bought and gave me a hug afterwards. I then promptly rushed myself upstairs and out of sight to have an ecstatic fit before returning myself to the social scene in one calm piece.

This internship, while quite rewarding, also requires focused work, using skills seen in other job fields. We have collected and condensed information into multiple spreadsheets on Excel and Google Sheets, conducted research on soon-to-be visiting writers, and created literary-themed trivia questions for the upcoming Cherry Tree Young Writer’s Conference. Where is the best place to have a summer internship? Answer: The Rose O’Neill Literary House.

This is merely the frosting on the many layered, colorfully complex cake that represents the Rose O’Neill Literary House in this strange metaphor. My apologies if I made you crave cake.

June 27

2018 Literary House Summer Intern Tamia Williams ’21 reports from the field.

Welcome, Player One! You have successfully installed the hit new game Storm the Castle and the prize awaits you. To begin in story mode, begin here.

You enter the Kingdom of Chestertown as an ordinary student at Washington College. As a new player, your first step is to gain knowledge and XP by attending classes and forming guilds – called ‘Friend Groups’ – who provide emotional support. Tales of the Rose O’Neill Literary Castle and infiltration methods circulate the campus – eventually, a definite opening presents itself as an internship. Begin the raid!

Level 1: The Gate and the Test of Sight. The wooden porch protects the main entrance of the castle with white chairs placed so the watchmen can survey the land. In the future, once you have won the game, you will be welcome to sit at those stations with fellow champions, a light waft fluttering through the trees. You’ll name local bunnies hopping out of the bushes Hamilton and Marsha. For now, though, you penetrate through the gate.

Through the door lies the mural room, the Room of 1,000 Eyes – or, more likely, 48. Here begins the Test of Sight, where you look upon the faces of authors as they stare back. You search the walls, trying to discern the name for each face. As nothing comes, you begin to lose hope…until voila! You spot a hidden door with the names of each author. Satisfied, you endeavor forward. As you walk, you look forward to the day when you can eat pot stickers and various cheeses under the authors’ watchful eyes.

Level 2: The Library, the dreaded Test of Distraction. Here, they prey upon your love of reading. You could stop now, sit on the couch, and read one of the many books. You falter, taking a -20 HP hit! You regain your wits and press on, so that one day you’ll be able to appreciate the aesthetic of the bookshelves in peace. One day, you’ll gain camera skills and learn how to capture photos of actual book signings. You’ll soon practice conversational skills and speak one-on-one with modern-day writers like David MacLean, H. G. Carrillo, Lauren Russell, and more. So you advance…

…into the Reading Room, where the Test of Ascertainment awaits. Here, you will later participate in an official staff meeting, where you’ll listen, learn, and acquire the skills necessary to conducting a literary salon: creating a professional space, displaying kindness to all guests, and more. Here, you will attend poem and memoir readings. The Reading Room is where you will meet friendly townies like Joe and experiment with seemingly useless light switches. For now, nothing challenges you, so you march forward.

Level 3: The Chambers. The first – the chamber of the Mighty Armstrong – remains shut. Luckily, the second holds a checkpoint, the Lusby Lovely Chamber. In the Lusby Lovely Chamber, you marvel at the cute kittens resting among calming lilac. You regain your HP with the toast sprung from the mythical Topaz Typewriter and the time for relaxation ends. As all gamers know, checkpoints come before the harder levels – in this case, the final level.

Level 4: The Boss level. You faced and surmounted the previous tests in order to acquire the internship and obtain the final prize. In this level, you must vanquish the boss – in other words, impress him. You hit him with the traditional combo: charming smile and articulate speech. Press ‘Y’ a few times for classy jokes and swivel the joystick like a hammer throw to add in plenty of past experience and relevant personal information and…you’ve done it! You stand, shake his hand, and accept the internship.

You are then ushered to the holy land: the Conference Room! In the Conference Room, you will learn to use InDesign to create posters, digital books, brochures, etc. Here, you will improve your research capabilities by reviewing information about writers and future guests. Here, you will learn the basics of writing simple, effective, and grammatically correct questions for literary trivia. As an intern, you will improve your printing dexterity by creating beautiful broadsides and posters. You’ll also learn the inner workings of the Washington College website by posting event listings for the Literary Castle. While one duty will be to catalog broadsides and other announcements, this will be a learning opportunity for improving organizational competence in Google and Microsoft programs. With dedication and more XP, you will even level up to Program Assistant during events and execute tours of the castle (which feel both terrifying and oddly satisfying).

So, congratulations Player One! You have successfully stormed and conquered the castle. The prize, knowing that you have made a positive mark – your mark – on the Rose O’Neill Literary Castle and have grown as an editing and publishing professional, is now yours. 

June 8

Get caught up on your summer reading at the Literary House Press. We’ve got plenty of (literary) shade over here!

From June 15 through July 6, the Literary House Press will be offering special summer deals to our online shoppers. For these few midsummer weeks, we are giving away free gifts with certain purchases:

• Buy a 2-year subscription to Cherry Tree, get a free Cherry Tree tote bag!

• Buy 2 of our standard edition chapbooks, get the third free!

• Buy any 2 LHP broadsides, get a third free! After purchase, email llusby2FREEwashcoll with your third broadside choice.

April 26

Join us this May for a special subscription drive in celebration of Literary Shade.

Everyone who buys a 2-year subscription between May 1 & 31, will also receive a free letterpress broadside of our Literary Shade illustration hand-colored and signed by artist Stu Cawley.

Celebrate Literary Shade with us this May at Cherry Tree! Subscribe here.

April 26

Brooke Schultz ’18 reflects on her semester working behind the scenes at the Literary House Press: editing, designing, marketing, and more.

You can see the digital edition of the 2018 Literary House Press catalog here. The paper ones are at the printers and will be here the second week of May!

April 18

At the 2018 Senior Reading, the Rose O’Neill Literary House announced this year’s winners of three annual student creative writing prizes: The Literary House Genre Fiction Prize, The William W. Warner Prize for Creative Writing on Nature and the Environment, and The Jude & Miriam Pfister Poetry Prize.

 

The Literary House Genre Fiction Prize is a prize awarded to a Washington College undergraduate for the best work of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, or horror. The winner receives a cash prize of $500.

This year’s Genre Fiction Prize was awarded to senior Brooke Schultz for her short story, “The Women Who Seek.” Honorable Mention for the prize was awarded to senior Hope Watland for her short story, “Hounds.”

 

The William W. Warner Prize is awarded to the Washington College undergraduate who shows the greatest aptitude for writing about nature and the environment. This prize is named for, and was endowed in the honor of, William W. Warner, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay, based on his experiences living and working among crab fishermen on the Chesapeake. According to Mr. Warner’s wishes, the judges will give preference to—but will in no way limit their consideration to—students who write about the natural history of our Atlantic Littoral, from the Canadian Arctic to the Gulf of Florida. The winner receives a cash prize of $500.

This year’s Warner Prize was awarded to senior Caroline Harvey for her essay, “We Search for Spiders.” Honorable Mention for the prize was awarded to sophomore Kai Clarke for her essay, “A Small Broken Wild.”

The Jude & Miriam Pfister Poetry Prize was created through the Academy of American Poets, one of the nation’s most influential poetry organizations, and is administered through the Washington College Department of English and the Rose O’Neill Literary House. The prize is awarded to a Washington College undergraduate for a single poem and the winner receives a cash prize of $100 and a certificate from the Academy of American Poets.

This year’s Pfister Poetry Prize was awarded to senior Mallory Smith for her poem “Proper Greetings.” Honorable Mention for the prize was awarded to junior Erin Caine for her poem “Song from an Adjacent Room.”

We offer our most sincere congratulations to this year’s prize winners for their fine writing!

April 13

On Saturday, April 28 the Literary House Press will be at the inaugural Chesapeake Printers Fair in Havre de Grace, Maryland!

The Literary House Press will be bringing its current offerings of letterpress broadsides and chapbooks to exhibit and sell at this first festival for regional letterpress printers, bookmakers, and printmakers in downtown Havre de Grace. 

Here’s a little more about the Chesapeake Printers Fair, from the festival website:

The Chesapeake Printers Fair showcases the design and craft of all paper arts, from letterpress, print and book arts, paper making too. Held simultaneously—just a block away—from the very successful JoRetro’s PyrexFest, the Printers Fair promises to have strong traffic, sharing a devoted and sophisticated demographic.

There will be food trucks, beverage tastings, demonstrations and, fingers crossed, a beautiful day. Event will be held rain or shine, 10am–3pm.

And here’s the official vendor list, which is still growing! This event is being sponsored, organized, and hosted by Glyph. 

So please mark your calendars for April 28 and come see us at the Chesapeake Printers Fair!

April 6

This is a guest blog post by 2018 Literary House Press Intern, Brooke Schultz ’18.

When I was a prospective student in the throes of touring campuses and doing interviews, I was instantly infatuated with the Rose O’Neill Literary House. As I was making my decision on a college, I remembered when I had walked up the steps to the sprawling porch and followed a small crowd into the foyer. The hub of all things literary was one of the first—and frankly, the most important thing—I had seen thus far.

Fast forward a few years, when, as a senior, I saw the application for Press Intern come out again. I texted my friend.

You were the Press Intern once, right?

Yep!!!! she answered.

I’m thinking of applying.

Do it!!!!

For the past few years, I had held positions that seemed to circle around the Literary House (and, by extension, the Literary House Press). I had worked as News Editor for The Elm, the college’s student newspaper, and then became Editor-in-Chief.  I became prose editor for The Collegian, the College’s undergraduate literary journal. Over the summer, I screened fiction for Cherry Tree, the national literary journal based at the College that ran out of the Literary House Press. All of these positions helped prepare me for the central goal of the Literary House Press: to disseminate the voices from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. I was excited for the opportunity to work with an organization that did that.

Having been on the editorial side of a newspaper, I was familiar with what that concept looked like; but dipping into that aspect of an entire press—while considering things like marketing and promoting the Press—was new and exciting.

That Same Friend who pushed me to apply was sitting on the floor next to me when I got the email offering me the position. I, in a haste to absorb it, read it wrong first and thought I had kindly been rejected. I started to say so, until my eyes finally found the “Congratulations!” I went through a range of emotions in a very short amount of time.

Since then, I worked with the Social Media & Marketing intern, Mai Do, to come up with some ideas to drum up excitement for the release of Cherry Tree, Issue 4 and think of ways to keep that momentum going throughout the next few months. It’s not hard to come up with promotion ideas when you truly believe in the things the Literary House Press produces. Our brainstorming led to the idea to utilize an artistic representation of Literary Shade—a section unique to Cherry Tree—and make a letterpress print out of it.

As this internship has continued, I’ve been able to take the foundation of the Press Intern before me and design a new catalog featuring Literary House Press items from this year. It has been educational and insightful learning how to lay out a book; getting to turn my hands purple mixing ink to get the perfect shot for the cover; and meeting with Literary House Director, James Allen Hall, and Assistant Director, Lindsay Lusby, to discuss the various drafts.

Ultimately, when I walk up to my computer at the window each week and make myself a cup of tea in a Lit House mug, the initial excitement of being a part of a place like this resurfaces. Over the next month, I’m looking forward to the final draft of the Literary House Press catalog, and seeing the print come to life. 

April 4

The Rose O’Neill Literary House has awarded this year’s Cave Canem Residency to Lauren Russell.

In June 2018, the Rose O’Neill Literary House will welcome Lauren to Chestertown for a month-long writer’s retreat. She was selected from this year’s pool of applicants as the winner of the Literary House’s 2018 Cave Canem Summer Residency. 

While most of her time will be spent working on her own writing projects and quietly exploring the town, Lauren will also be a part of the Summer Literary Salon on Tuesday, June 19 at 4:30PM, sharing the stage with writers H.G. Carrillo, David Stuart MacLean, and Lynn Melnick, along with local musicians The Pam Ortiz Band.

Lauren Russell is the author of What’s Hanging on the Hush (Ahsahta, 2017). A Cave Canem graduate fellow, she was the 2014-2015 Jay C. and Ruth Halls Poetry Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the 2016 VIDA Fellow to the Home School, and a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow in poetry. She is a research assistant professor and is assistant director of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics at the University of Pittsburgh.

The Cave Canem Summer Residency at The Rose O’Neill Literary House is a partnership with Cave Canem, the nation’s preeminent organization for young African American poets. Cave Canem’s mission is to serve as “a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets.” Our Cave Canem Summer Residency is a month-long Chestertown retreat offered annually to one outstanding former Cave Canem Fellow. Previous Summer Residents include poets Laura Swearingen-Steadwell (2017), Darrel Alejandro Holnes (2016), Kamilah Aisha Moon (2015), Jamaal May (2014), Yona Harvey (2013), Kevin Vaughn (2012), and Arisa White (2011). 

March 28

Join us this April for a special subscription drive in celebration of poetry.

For National Poetry Month, Cherry Tree is giving away free poetry! Everyone who buys a 2-year subscription between April 1 & 30, will also receive a free copy of the Literary House Press poetry anthology The Book of Scented Things: 100 Contemporary Poems About Perfume, edited by Jehanne Dubrow & Lindsay Lusby.

Stop & smell the cherry blossoms with us this April at the Literary House Press & Cherry Tree! Subscribe here.

February 23

Very soon, the Rose O’Neill Literary House will be traveling to Tampa, Florida for the 51st annual AWP Conference from March 7-10. We will be bringing along four Washington College students to represent us in the Bookfair and to attend as many panels and readings as they can. Here’s where you can find us at the Conference.

Our students will be staffing Booth 717 in the Bookfair, where we’ll have copies of our Literary House Press books and broadsides, including our newest chapbook Scream (or never minding), by Lia Purpura. We’ll also be debuting a few brand-new publications just in time for the Conference.

Our fifth AWP Commemorative Broadside features a poem first published in the new anthology Reading Queer. “God and the G-Spot,” by Ellen Bass is now a piece of letterpress-printed art. The author has signed the entire limited edition and they will be available for purchase in the Bookfair at the special Conference-exclusive price of $15 each!

The fourth issue of Cherry Tree will also debut there, featuring new poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and literary shade from Hussain Ahmed, Derrick Austin, Jan Beatty, Nicky Beer, Ron Currie, Jr., Christopher DeWeese, Chelsea Dingman, Piotr Florczyk, Berry Grass, Gillian Haines, Barbara Hamby, Leslie Harrison, Eleanor Hooker, Isabelle Hughes, Rosemary Jones, Julie Kane, Jenna Le, Jenn Leiker, James McCorkle, Michelle McGurk, Jessica Murray, Maria Nazos, Lucy Palmer, Alison Pelegrin, Ayesha Raees, Monica Isabel Restrepo, Alan Shapiro, SM Stubbs, Ellen Davis Sullivan, Anya Vostrova, Julie Marie Wade, Brian Phillip Whalen, Lesley Wheeler, Annie Julia Wyman, and Natalie Young. At a brimming 253 pages, this is our biggest issue yet. Grab your copy in the Bookfair for a special Conference price of $10 for a single issue or $20 for a 2-year subscription!

In addition to our exclusive lower prices at AWP, we’ll also be offering special Conference bundles at Booth 717! These offers will not be available after the Conference, so be sure to take advantage of them while they last:

• Buy a 2-year Cherry Tree subscription, get a free tote bag!
• Buy a copy of Still Life with Poem or The Book of Scented Things, get the commemorative broadside for just $10 more!
• Buy any 2 Literary House Press books, get a free tote bag!
• Buy any 2 Literary House Press broadsides, get a 3rd free!
• For any purchase of $50 or more, get a free tote bag, hat, or water bottle!

Come see us in Tampa! We can’t wait to be there!

February 21

On February 15, 2018, we launched the newest issue of Cherry Tree! And there was cake.

We are so incredibly excited to be able to welcome the fourth issue of our beloved Cherry Tree into the world; and we are so grateful to all of you for sharing in our excitement!

We kicked everything off with our Issue 4 Staff Launch Party on February 15. Our nearby editorial staff got together to eat pizza and cake, and to dig gluttonously into reading and admiring our new issue. 

We also asked contributors, subscribers, and friends to fill Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with their CT4 selfies & photos, using the hashtag #cherrybomb. And you did it!

Thanks to all of you (and your photogenic pets) for helping us to announce the arrival of CT4 to the social media world. You rock our cherry-loving world! And because we love them all so much, we have gathered all of your #cherrybomb photos in a happy little gallery you can flip through here: 

Cherrybombs for Issue 4

To celebrate the release of our fourth issue, we asked contributors, subscribers, and friends to fill Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram with their CT4 selfies and photos, using the hashtag #cherrybomb. And you did it! View full gallery

P.S. If you haven’t subscribed yet, do it now! 

January 12

On Thursday, January 11, we sent our newest, most beautiful issue yet to the printers. So it’s time for our annual cover art reveal!

The art on the cover of issue 4 is a photograph called “Children Running in Backlight (Dozza, Italy),” by Italian artist Claudio Cricca. We just love the vibrant color, motion, and light captured in this photograph. We strongly believe the incredible writing in this issue has these same luminous qualities.

Inside the issue is brand-new poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and literary shade from Hussain Ahmed, Derrick Austin, Jan Beatty, Nicky Beer, Ron Currie, Jr., Christopher DeWeese, Chelsea Dingman, Piotr Florczyk, Berry Grass, Gillian Haines, Barbara Hamby, Leslie Harrison, Eleanor Hooker, Isabelle Hughes, Rosemary Jones, Julie Kane, Jenna Le, Jenn Leiker, James McCorkle, Michelle McGurk, Jessica Murray, Maria Nazos, Lucy Palmer, Alison Pelegrin, Ayesha Raees, Monica Isabel Restrepo, Alan Shapiro, SM Stubbs, Ellen Davis Sullivan, Anya Vostrova, Julie Marie Wade, Brian Phillip Whalen, Lesley Wheeler, Annie Julia Wyman, and Natalie Young. At a spine-cracking 253 pages, this new issue breaks our Cherry Tree records for biggest issue on the books! 

The issue is officially released on February 15, 2018 and will be shipped out to contributors and subscribers at that time. We will also debut Issue 4 at the AWP Conference in Tampa from March 8-10. We’ll have copies available in the Bookfair at the Rose O’Neill Literary House booth #717, along with the rest of our Literary House Press publications and swag.

And if you haven’t already, today is the perfect day to subscribe! Starting today, all new subscriptions will begin with Issue 4.