Midwest Small Press Fest/Burdock 11/Burdock Radio

First the big news is the Midwest Small Press Fest is happening June 1st, 2nd and 3rd with events at multiple locations. This is a big deal and the only way to understand how unique it is will be to visit the site, take notes on what you want to attend and then attend as many events as possible!


As part of the fest Burdock 11's release is taking place at Jackpot Gallery on Center Street in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood. 

And in addition to all this Burdock is now on the radio... on the internet... streaming and in podcast form at riverwestradio.com. Check it out when you get a chance. Burdock Radio airs live every Thursday at 5pm.

BURDOCK 10 Track list and bios

To help celebrate 5 years and 10 issues of Burdock the 10th issue is an audio cd featuring poetry, music and collaborations across genres. The release was held December 15th at the Miramar Theatre and kicked off a series of performances called Burdock Presents where musicians and poets featured in Burdock perform extended sets in a small venues around Milwaukee.

1) Sailing to Byzantium — Jim Chapson Has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, The Blue Canary, The SHOp, Prairie Spooner, B-Squad, Rust Buckle, and Honeysuckle Honeyjuice, Jim has appeared in Burdock issues 1,2,3,5,9, and now 10. He teaches satire and poetry at UWM. He sometimes tempts fate by riding his bike in winter. His books Scholia and Daphnis & Ratboy and  are out on Arlen House Press.

2) The Storm — Lyra Vega Emily Hall and Monica Stone for the duo known as Lyra Vega. Emily plays the Lute and Monica plays guitar and both contribute to the hauntingly beautiful vocals. They have a release forthcoming in 2012 it is strongly recommended that you seek them out.

 3) Paperman — Loup Either an alternate spelling of Loop or short for Loup Garou, a variation of werewolf or saskwatch depending your point of view, is a Milwaukee based jazz-infused-chamber-folk-band. (Hyphens) At full strength 6 people playing a variety of different instruments. Chief songwriter Brandon Miller is a jazz guitarist who also plays a Thomas Transistor Organ in the alternate project titled Back Seas.

 4) The Battle At Coral Sea — Jennifer Kraft & Sam Rodewald The multi talented Sam Rodewald has an album out called Travel Songs and an EP called Love in the Context of a Zombie Apocalypse. Jennifer Kraft has a self-published chapbook out called To You Trying to Save My Life with an updated edition due out this year on Teppichfresser.

 5) Jackie Skipped a Heartbeat...— James Murphy & Jon Liedtke This track was performed live at Discovery World Milwaukee and was the first time James Murphy and Jon Liedtke had ever collaborated together for a live performance. James plays Jazz guitar around Milwaukee and is the creative force behind Jaems Murphy & The Vedic Eden. Jon Liedtke plays in the band Face of Ruin.

6) Flowers — Mario The Poet Milwaukee based poet Mario Willis has been performing poetry at slams around the country. His style is straight forward. He makes his way selling his self published chapbooks and cds at poetry sets. Not everyone can claim that.

 7) The Air is Thick — Hear Here Hear Here is one of Scott's soundscape projects when he's not drumming for the soon to be internationally famous band 1913. A series of recordings by Scott Johnson comprise The Air is Thick. He is currently working on a narrative sampling project called Hey John based on the answering machine tapes of a man named John living in Milwaukee during the 80s and 90s.

 8) untitled — Cynthia Spencer Founder of the Riverwest reading series Cloudburst and author of a chapbook In What Sequence Will My Parts Exit on Plumberries Press. Cynthia Spencer is originally from New Jersey. She has work in a number of journals and zines and has another chapbook due out this year. Check out this interview with her just after the Burdock 10 release show back in December 2011!

 9) Echolalia — Mark Adams son of BillThe title of this track is a disease that allows people to only talk in vowel sounds. Mark is gaining momentum all the time and has just released his last Acoustic cd titled "solo". He's getting a full band together to begin recording an album this summer.

10) Fade Out — The Plane to Lisbon This version of the song was recorded by members Keith Gaustad, Ross Oldenburg, Victoria Robison and Ben Tulach back in February of 2011. The Plane to Lisbon takes off only rarely but rumor has it the group will be putting something out in 2012.

11) Put Down Blues — Dan Sweetland Former founder and editor of "Horse Sense" Dan Sweetland is a graduate of the UWM Film department. He also studied music at Notre Dame and has played around Milwaukee in several different styles of music but his true love of Mississippi Delta Blues is noticeable on this track.

12) Full Moon Walk — Sandy Weisto Nicknamed The Queen of Milwaukee Folk by those in the know Sandy runs the Tuesday Night Open Mic at the Miramar which just celebrated its 8th year. She also runs sound The 19th Street Coffee House which is the oldest coffee house in the city. She has a book of poems out called Coyote and recorded music with the group Sweet Diversity. The instrument she plays on this track is a Bowed Sultry.

13) Machinery's Ghost — Ross Oldenburg Late one night at the Milwaukee Makerspace Ross began recording several different tracks of random noise in the vast warehouse space. Ross plays in several different Milwaukee bands and did the the mixing and mastering of Burdock 10.

14) Blizzard — Susan Firer & Jim Hazard Susan Firer is a former poet laureate of the City of Milwaukee and a professor at UWM. Jim Hazard played the trumpet in the Shrine Circus and the Golden Eagles Band. Sadly Jim Passed away in March during a snowstorm. This track, the last collaboration between the couple of 40 plus years, was played at his funeral.

15) Permeate — Jordan Lannert Began to play bass in the style of Les Claypool then moved on to adding other instruments to his repetoire. This track is one of Jordan's first experiements with playing every instrument in a track.

16) The Singing Bowl — The Lords of Space & Time serves up a swirling blend of cosmic Americana with all the fixin's. The group features multi-instrumentalists Nicholas Verbos, Nick Liebner, Christine Barclay, and Alex Kristiansen. From the front porch to the outer limits of the universe, the Lords Of Space And Time are here to bring you back into orbit.

17) Murdock —The Demix Demix hosts a monthly music series called MELT and occasionally DJs around the Midwest. He also assisted in the layout of the cd inlay for Burdock 10. The track title is translated: Murder + Burdock = Murdock

18) Make It Home — JoAnn Chang Originally from Texas JoAnn came to Milwaukee in 1980s and became a proud supporter of local poetry. JoAnn is consistantly a top fundraiser during Woodland Pattern's Poetry Marathon. She has been singing since the 70s and writing poetry since the 60s. This song is performed at the 19th Street Coffeehouse.

19) Do Not Watch — Paul Vogel Paul's work, according to some, has moved into a territory that can either be called post Goth or Neo-Morrisey. This track is a list poem of awful things you can watch online read over a recording of an old German folk tune "Where are the Happy Dreams of Childhood?" He also writes reviews and has had work appear in The Blue Canary, Burdock, and Oxford Magazine among others.

20) Nachtwurst — The November Criminals Seeking to embrace everyone who would ignore them in an awkward unclish sort of way the three members of The November Criminals infuse elements of Polka, Hip Hop, BrewTown Stomp, Reggaetone, and...umm Opera. NTSC, Spade ONE & The BrüMeister are aiming to become Milwaukee's Best. Nactwurst is just the beginning.

21) Atmos Streets — ATMOS Spheres Is a collaboration across the ocean between Scott Johnson and Erna Franssens. ATMOS Spheres is a blending of sounds recorded in Milwaukee with sounds recorded in Antwerp Belgium.

 22) Beliefs — James Gapinski & The Garbage Experience Now living in Portland James Gapinski is working on starting up The Conium Review. Prior to moving in 2010 he played out in Milwaukee often busking and jamming out songs with basic explanations of chord changes. Some songs were covers but more were his own. His most frequent partner during his last summer in Milwaukee was Dan Sweetland who plays bass on this song. Other members of the Gabage Experience included Candy, Keith, Paige and whoever else was at whichever coffee house or pub he happened to be playing that night. Happily he was able to return to play the Burdock 10 release. Check out this podcast interview on the Conium Review website.

Burdock's 9th In G Major

Drew Blanchard was gracious enough to host the release for Burdock 9 at his home. His dogs really wanted to eat the prosciutto and braunschweiger but in the end were very well behaved. He plans to climb to the top of an unspecified cellular tower, more on this as it develops.


Jim Chapson's poems have appearred in Burdock 1,2,3,5 and now 9. His second book Scholia came out earlier this year via Arlen House.


Tyler Farrell lives in Madison but works in Milwaukee. That would be a whole lot easier for him if there was a train linking the two cities!


Noah Eli Gordon founded lettermachine.
Then found his way to Colorado. Then found himself married to Sommer Browning. So where does he stand on found poetry?


Artist Cynthia Gray
collaborated with Chuck Stebelton on five pieces of writing. Two of these poems are featured in issue #9 of Burdock. She lives in Brooklyn.


Daniel Khalatchi assuming that you've clicked on his name and read his biography you may also be interested to know that he's a nice guy too. What you should do is click here and buy his book. He's working on a new one right now and one of the poems for the new book is featured in Burdock right smack dab in the middle of the issue!

Timothy Kloss is an artist, poet and host of Poets' Monday at Linneman's Riverwest Inn, a weekly open mic in Milwaukee with featured readers from around the world. He paints a portrait for every feature and keeps things from devolving into utter silliness most of the time.


Jennifer Kraft recently picked up the banjo. She has work in Burdock 5 and 6. In 2011 she was a top fundraiser for the Woodland Pattern Poetry Marathon. She lives in Milwaukee just for the sheer joy of it.


Alice Ladrick is currently attending Miami University in sunny Ohio. She has work in Oxford Magazine. She writes notes to herself we all want to read.


Dolly Lemke insists her first major publication was in Burdock issues 4,5,6. Only later was she published in Columbia Poetry Review after they had taken thousands of dollars and years from her life! (Actually she really liked it there.) Active in the Chicago scene she's an Assistant Editor with Switchback Books a Reader for Arsenic Lobster and hosts a reading series at her place called Dollhouse.


Ed Makowski has published books as Eddie Kilowatt. Manifest Destiny and Carrying a Knife to a Gunfight were both published on Full Contact. You may see him in Milwaukee at the local tiki bar riding a motorcycle while backpacking in fitness gear....all at once.


Caryl Pagel is the editress-in-chief and designer at Rescue Press. She studied at UW Madsion, School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Iowa Writer's Workshop. That's a lot of Mid-western credibility right there folks!


Chuck Stebelton is the Literary Program Director at the world famous Woodland Pattern Book Center. His award winning book Circulation Flowers is out on Tougher Diguises but his chapbook Precious is out of print. Here is the other poem with Cynthia Gray.


Gary Sullivan is a cartoonist and poet living in New York. If you want to know more you'll need to look Elsewhere.


Matt Trease also goes by Matthew but that seemed too formal for paper publishing, especially when there's twitter! Matt teaches classes in Literature and serves as the Project Assistant for the Digital Arts & Culture certificate program at UWM in Milwaukee. He lives in Wicker Park.
Did you just click on that? Sorry I ruined the movie but I saved you two hours of your life.

Contributor Bios for Burdock 8

Jeannette Klemola
Lives in Texas where she writes and draws illustrations for chapbooks. Occasionally she visits Milwaukee and performs some of her work, usually around Mother's Day.


Edwin R. Perry
Runs Plumberries Press which publishes Drupe Fruits and Humble Humdrum Cotton Frock. These days he calls Michigan his home but you may see him at poetry readings around the Midwest.


Jessica Lakritz
Is currently located in Argentina and has an MFA from Eastern Washington. She's shopping her manuscript around for the perfect publisher.


The Skrauss
Is a church mouse that's grown too big for his britches. When he's not writing manifestos he's adding depth to the alternate universe known as Milwaukee II


Joshua Plath
Was born in Hong Kong and is horrified by American culture. Despite that he still manages to call Milwaukee his home where he cooks using many different types of grains.


Rocco Eroamos
Lives in Brownsville Texas but as a young man he's lived at one time or another all over the Lone Star State. If you don't count Myspace then this is his first published poem.


Erich Ebert
Speaks good German and has translated the work of German-American poet Kurt Baum and has written several of his own chapbooks including Why we blow ourselves up: Poems on Something, Poems on Nothing.


Jonathan Lohr
Is wrapping up his time at Miami University but still finds the time to write poetry about a mistake made in a baseball game from a hundred years ago....let it go!


David Stone
His latest chapbook The Bloodhound Works is out on Propaganda Press. He’s a Chicago native who resides in Baltimore where he edits the Blackbird Anthology.


Paul Vogel
has a chapbook out on Teppichfresser Press called The Empty Quarter, nobody has ever heard of him, the press or the chapbook. He is currently teaching English to Chinese Drummers.


Joshua D Lickteig
will try to subliminally warp your mind if you crash on his couch by playing mathematicians and/or philosophers at low volume while you toss and turn. Tell him to stop all that noise and go to bed or you'll kick his ass.


Matt Trease
sent his submission via text. idk Lols! OMG


Eric Disambwa
Originally from Arkansas he currently resides in the Harambee neighborhood in Milwaukee. Find his name and click on it in the Letters To The City box.


James Gapinski
Writes poetry, travel articles, and songs. He also freaks out the full body screeners at airports but leave that to you imagination.


Tyler Farrell
Has a book out called "Tethered to the Earth" He is reported to be a good singer. He teaches at Marquette very near the Joan of Arc chapel.


Nick Demske
Has been everywhere reading from his book titled "Nick Demske". He's working on a second book titled "Keith Gaustad" if he knows what good for him.


David Baptiste Chirot
was kind enough to allow me to pick not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 different covers for this issue. Collect them all!

The "Salacious" Burdock 7

MIKE HAUSER
Is the co-curator of Salacious Banter and the guest editor of Burdock 7. He has a number of chapbooks out including Psychic Headset (Mitzvah Chaps), crets crets crets (Rustbuckle), and Dirty Movies Late At Night (Rustbuckle), and AND he appeared in the first issue of Burdock back in 2006. He likes pizza and is sometimes nervous.

KARL SAFFRAN
Assesses your character based on the books you purchase at Woodland Pattern but never tells anyone else about it. He also co-curates the Salacious Banter Reading Series which is often held at his giant loft in Walker’s Point. He has a chapbook out on Teppichfresser Press it’s called The Dead Wrestler Sonnets. It is his hope that no one judges him based on that fact.

CAConrad
Likes Elvis and paints his fingernails. You should read his blog or click on his name!

CATHERINE WAGNER
Her books include Miss America, Macular Hole and My New Job all on Fence Books. She works as an Assistant Professor at Miami University in Ohio.


DANA WARD
Is the editor of Cy Press, & he lives in Cincinnati, OH. His latest book, Typing Wild Speech, is highly recommended.

ANNE BOYER
Lives in Kansas. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming at TYPO, The Denver Quarterly, Exquisite Corpse, Diagram, and other journals.

EMILY HALL
AKA The Moonflower of Milwaukee has performed poetry and music around the city of Milwaukee.

BRANDON BROWN
wrote Camels! in 2008 and TAXT press published it. In 2010, he self published three chapbooks: Tooth Fairy, The Orgy, and Your Mom's A Falconress and Other Poems. He co-curated the Performance Writing series at New Langton Arts, The (New) Reading Series at 21 Grand gallery, and publishes small press books under the imprint OMG!

JULIE STRAND
Is headed for the mountains of Idaho this year but was formerly the Education Coordinator at Woodland Pattern. Her most recent chapbook The Mae West Defense came out via Dancing Girl Press in 2009. She also has work in Burdock 6.

KIKI ANDERSON
translates from French to English for publishing houses and is currently working on a book about self-healing. Her poetry has appeared in a few small journals and her non-fiction writing has appeared in a couple of magazines. She is also a language teacher and is working at a monastery this summer.

ZACK PIEPER
Is a repeat offender as far as Burdock is concerned having appeared in issues 1,3, and 4. He wrote 8 Poems and a Prayer (Rustbuckle) and he co-authored Non-Apocryphal w/James Liddy. He’s the front man for two Milwaukee bands: The Trusty Knife and Farms In Trouble both on Activities Records.

ALLI WARREN
Recent work by Alli Warren can be found in Abraham Lincoln, LUNGFULL!, pax americana, and With + Stand. Her most recent chapbook is Well-Meaning White Girl (Mitzvah Chaps). Alli co-curates The (New) Reading Series at 21 Grand and lives and works in the Bay Area.


ROBERT THOMAS
Is Mike Hauser’s drinking buddy. He lives, writes poetry, and watches movies with Mike in Milwaukee.

JESS MYNES
Operates Fewer and Further Press fewfur.blogspot.com and has a book out called Sky Brightly Picked from Skysill Press. He lives in Massachusetts.

JOHN COLETTI
Has his first book out on Rustbuckle Press and its called Mum Halo. He lives on Richard Branson’s island and is available to rent for 20,000 dollars only after you spend $300,000 on a vacation to said island. What’s that? Oh my bad that’s the Necker Nymph I’m thinking of, not John Coletti. He actually lives in Brooklyn.

MELISSA CZARNIK
Her initials are M.C. which is convenient since she is a rapper and has an album out called Strawberry Cadillac. She also works at Woodland Pattern. Check out her website and maybe plan on seeing her perform at Belgium but if you can’t make it she has plenty of local dates.

KEITH GAUSTAD
Edits and publishes Burdock Magazine and occasionally rewards himself by including his own poems. He won the 2010 award for Most Delectable at the Woodland Pattern Edible Book Fair. His name appeared recently in the Poetry Project newsletter as part of Mike Hauser’s bio blurb.

In progess despite delays

The long awaited Salacious Banter issue of Burdock is being put together and will hopefully be out in March. The norm in the past has been two issues a year and hopefully once this one is done another burdock will be out in the summer. Money is always an issue of course.

Also....
Burdock had a booth at the 2009 Zinefest held in Milwaukee at the Polish Falcon. It was interesting to see what the definition of zine is to most folks. If anything it only served to reaffirm Burdock's status as a "Humble Magazine" rather than a "Zine" since there are many contributors of a original content in each issue. A confusing point to myself was that all of the other poets there had no idea what a "chapbook" was. So now if anyone else out there is an authority on the subject please leave a comment defining it for me.
If you publish a small collection of your own poems is it still a chapbook or is it a zine?
Is it a zine if there are no words at all? Is it a zine simply because it is cheaply made?
And therefore is Burdock a zine since I often print it on a shoestring budget?
Are the chapbooks teppichfresser press publishes considered zines?
Why can't people say complete words and feel the need to shorten them up?
Does "maga-" take up too much time?
Or is "Zine" just that much cooler?
Your thoughts please....

Salacious Burdock?

After a nice clean summer break Burdock 7 is in the works. The plan is to have a Salacious Banter theme with Mike Hauser twist. Mike will be lending a hand with the solicitation/editorial direction(ing) for the next issue and I (keith) will just be piecing it together and making it look like the other issues (ya know, the sticker thing).

Salacious Banter is a reading series run by Mike Hauser and Karl Saffran. Past readers include Lewis Warsh, CA Conrad, John Coletti, Kevin Thurston, Ara Shirinyan, Gina Meyers, and John Koethe among others. In fact you should probably just go to the link to get a complete list of past readers.