Available and forthcoming EPIC RITES PRESS publications:
THERE’S A FIST DUNKED IN BLOOD BEATING IN MY CHEST – Rob Plath – Epic Rites Press
“Read Rob Plath at your own risk. His words will stick behind your eyes. His heart may even expose a shadow you’ve kept hidden from yourself.” – Dan Fante
“Rob Plath’s poetry does what powerful writing should, mercilessly exploring the human condition in all its horror and banality. He journeys to the dark parts of the soul not talked about in polite company. He takes his readers along, refusing to let them look away.” – William Taylor Jr.
“Plath has taken skin from man... given it back to God... and made cosmic provolone of us all... one stinking pink wheel of cheese.” – Frankie Metro
“Plath revels in the chaotic and constantly challenges the reader to confront the reality of existence - to see the skeleton beneath the ‘torn flap’ of humanity. He flings the reader into the abyss... ” – George Anderson
Cover art and design by pablo vision
A BELLYFUL OF ANARCHY – Rob Plath – Epic Rites Press
Less than a year since its release, Anarchy is on its third print run and has already found its way into the classrooms of three NY universities.
“A tour de force dissection of a world gone rotten.” – RD Armstrong
“The kind of book that kicks its way through the doors of culture and announces itself as a separate and necessary phenomenon.” – Todd Moore
“Crackles and hisses with a life of its own.” – John Yamrus
Cover art and design by pablo vision
CAN’T STOP NOW! – John Yamrus – Epic Rites Press
“Two major qualities prevail in Yamrus’ recent work: economy and punch. No word is unnecessary or out of place; the timing is impeccable; and, most difficult of all, the endings hit just the right balance of summation, revelation, and surprise.” – Gerald Locklin
“Terse profundity would be the phrase I would use were someone to pin me down and force me to describe this work by John Yamrus... This is poetry of short lines and simple wisdom, there is a touch of the Far East about the structure and minimalist philosophy that underpins them; there is no surreal baroque parade of language, these are sticks arranged subtly against a white wall.” – Zack Wilson
Cover art and design by pablo vision
DOING CARTWHEELS ON DOOMSDAY AFTERNOON – John Yamrus – Epic Rites Press
“A master of the minimalist poem and the understated wisecrack.” – Todd Moore
“His sharp mind nails the target every time.” – Rob Plath
“A master of using the ordinary in an extraordinary way.” – Milner Place
Cover art and design by pablo vision
DEAD RECKONING – Todd Moore – Epic Rites Press
“One of America’s most important and influential poets” – Lawrence Welsh
“Todd Moore has revolutionized poetry with a style that is all his own: the stripped down line that leaves an electrical impulse of lyrical violence; the outlaw persona of one who leaves blood on the page; a visceral experience of life, death, and rebirth.” – Tony Moffeit
“DEAD RECKONING exposes a corrupt and fetishistic America that habitually reinvents its own endgame.” – John Macker
Cover art and design by pablo vision
FROSTBITTEN – Mark Walton – Epic Rites Press
“I found Frostbitten lucid, harrowing and compelling. It’s a cogent and passionate first collection shot through with hard-won self-knowledge.” – Paul Magrs
“Mark Walton's poems fizzle with energy and capture the modern gay experience in all its many guises.” - Paul Burston
“These words pulse. The poems in Frostbitten radiate with an urgency that forces the reader’s eye into devouring page after page, skipping from the flushes of love through to heartache and fear.” – Andrew Taylor
Cover art and design by pablo vision
BLOOD AND GREASEPAINT – Karl Koweski – Epic Rites Press
“In this remarkably varied collection of short stories, Koweski uses his blow torch wit to expose the sad excesses and frailties of ordinary people he has come to love and hate.” – George Anderson
“Karl’s stories are places your wife would rather you didn’t go, but sometimes you just have to. All the fun and adventure of a drunken night in the bad part of town, but no hangover in the morning.” – William Taylor Jr.
“Koweski has made weapons for death from grim humor, greasepaint and grave social interactions.” – Frankie Metro
Cover art and design by pablo vision
CRUDELY MISTAKEN FOR LIFE – Wolfgang Carstens – Epic Rites Press
“Stunningly evocative.” – Tony Moffeit
“Uncovering the roots of madness, inhumanity and sorrow… This is poetry: rich, full and brimming with life.” – Jack Henry
“Straight talk, boiled down from experience, with the fat of fancy skimmed off the top. That’s what we’ve got here. Carstens gets it – he doesn’t waste time with the flowers; he digs in the dirt, about six feet down, to the root of it all.”– R L Raymond
“... real and true and breath-taking.” – Paul Harrison
Cover art and design by pablo vision
CRUNKED – Jack Henry – Epic Rites Press
“… I’ve been reading through Crunked, and I’m really, really impressed. You know, I think that you may be the poet laureate of meth culture. I’m not being funny – I think you really captured the surreal and extreme nature of the way of the speed freak, and that the poems veer between being heartbreakingly sad and really, blackly funny. It’s really good stuff, very powerful.” – Tony O’Neill
“Jack Henry is easily the best poet currently active in the USA. He does not posture, boast, or pretend that he plumbs the depths of the human soul – he just does it. These poems are without evident artifice, they are, however, among the very few poems now being produced that are going to be, that deserve to be, stayers.” – David McLean
Cover art and design by pablo vision
THE BROKEN AND THE DAMNED – Jason Hardung – Epic Rites Press
“The Broken and the Damned by Jason Hardung is a love poem for the schools of lost children. The story of a boy waiting at the corner of lost and found for the light of his mother’s eyes to change to gold. A long drive into that dark episode we call father that always finds us where we live. These hungry poems will inhabit you like a junkie’s old leather coat. The fix is the verse. They need to be held and read out loud to your delinquent heart. Hardung’s history packs a .38, does time, rides shotgun with a Cadillac moon singing liberation lyrics that will provide a solid rush, that feeling you get when you first feel the poem enter the bloodstream.” – S. A. Griffin
“Vivid imagery combined with abundant candour makes this collection sing.” – Ellyn Maybe
Cover art and design by pablo vision
LAUGHING AT FUNERALS David McLean – Epic Rites Press
“A contemporary book of the dead.” – Todd Moore
“Brutally accurate observations and merciless truth.” – Misti Rainwater-Lites
Cover art and design by pablo vision
HELLBOUND – David McLean – Epic Rites Press
“Get yourself a copy of Hellbound - it’s a strangely righteous read in a tumultuous world.” - Jane Crown
Cover art and design by pablo vision
EPIC RITES jOURNAL: BUILDING A BETTER BOMB
(For Todd Moore 14 November 1937 – 12 March 2010)
Short stories, poetry, essays, interviews, cartoons and more…
Todd Moore, John Yamrus, Rob Plath, Pablo Vision, Mark Cobb, Gerald Locklin, Jason Hardung, Tony Moffeit, Patrick McKinnon, Casey Quinn, Jack Henry, Zach King-Smith, Mike Meraz, Ben Smith, Mathias Nelson, Wolfgang Carstens, Erek Smith, William Taylor Jr, Zack Wilson, Karl Koweski, John Yamrus and Brian Fugett.
Cover art and design by pablo vision
http://www.epicrites.org/
