Books published by Blue Light Press

Like one of her beloved muses, the Surrealist painter René Magritte, Rayne O'Brian understands that behind every object there exists another entity. She is kin to the ancient Hasidic rebbes, consorting with the spirit that all matter embodies and calling it forth for our edification and delight. Magritte believed that in a beleaguered world it is much easier to terrorize than to charm. And so, in these gentle, inventive and surprising poems, the poet chooses, as the great painter once said, 'to celebrate joy for the eyes and the mind.' It is no accident then that in Rayne O'Brian's realm a simple kitchen table can speak as movingly as any human. 'Whatever you bring me I love,' it says, inviting us to sit down and stay awhile.Rayne O'Brian lives north of the Golden Gate Bridge in a yellow Victorian with her two long-haired dictionaries. Living on a Song a Day is her debut collection of poems.

As far as poetry is concerned, I am neither sure-footed nor clear. Metaphorically speaking, I am out on a leafless limb with just spider webs and moss, listening to the silken slip of water over stone. And the fact that no one understands me, doesn't make me an artist. My poems will probably not send a flurry of palpitations through the Gallery of Important Things Said, but then, my expectations have always been unreasonably high. Sometimes, when a poem fails, I carry around my ineptitude like a bowling ball, for the rest of the day envisioning the blank page just lying there, a fallen tree from the forest, soundlessly waiting. I would much prefer my poems give the reader a sudden inhalation of joy-a reflexive gasp of awe and wonder-like seeing a Ferris wheel for the first time. If this volume has that effect on even a small portion of the reading populace, I will be ecstatic.About the AuthorThere are few activities that give me more pleasure than nudgingwords across the blankly disquieting page, and pushing clayaround, into, and through itself. I have been fortunate to work intwo disciplines, writing and ceramics, and I have discovered theend result seldom exactly matches the goal in either. It is the workthat matters-the engagement of my imagination, the intuitiveuse of my mind and hands. In the end, the artist discovers art hasa mind of its own, and it is these repeated realizations that enrichmy life. As much as any other work that I do, these small transformativejourneys carry me (for the most part) forward.My mother owned a bookstore from 1962 to 1985 in Petaluma,California. It was called Alta's Old Book Shop, and its valuelay not in glossy modernity, but in its being a sort of dusty deliveryroom for the birth of ideas. It was for me, a refuge from hastyjudgment, a source for answers and insights which enlarged mypersonal life and gave it meaning, and also generated an impulseto write.I am currently teaching a poetry writing class at the VintageHouse Senior Center in Sonoma as part of the Santa Rosa JuniorCollege Older Adults Program. There is magic in this group ofpeople; they are blossoming as poets and contributing immeasurablyto my own ability to write poetry. I am most thankful fortheir presence in my life.

“Among cornfields, junkyards, and a Dairy Queen, the eclectic castof Rustin Larson’s Lost Letters and Windfalls marches across a ruralstage: an old woman small ‘like a burlap bag/ full of nylons,’ familymembers, angels, finches, the wind, the muse, and a young girl in aDegas painting. The poet asserts: ‘The light falls upon all things. Ihave/ my memory of you—quiet as a/ picture frame among all thesebroken houses.’ In poem after poem, Larson captures images firmlycast in time yet eternal—even slightly holy: ‘But here’s what we are:each man, each woman,/ each neuter object, a church.’”“‘Listen,’ Larson urges, ‘the world/ begins in a moment.’ Themoments described in these poems are painterly and vivid. The poettrusts only his ‘sense of touch.’ They conjure a world of isolatedstillness where characters can ‘choose to stand outside of ourselvesif we wish, the snow falling.’ But also a world of connection where‘planets are fishing/ for us, wanting/ us’ and ‘[t]he moon is thefriend of the earth / and the earth of the sun.’ This is a book of smalltendernesses and lightning bolts that will stay with you.” Rustin Larson’s poetry has appeared in TheNew Yorker, The Iowa Review, and NorthAmerican Review. He won 1st Editor’sPrize from Rhino and was a prize winner inThe National Poet Hunt and The ChesterH. Jones Foundation contests. A graduateof the Vermont College MFA in Writing,Larson was an Iowa Poet at The Des Moines National PoetryFestival, and a featured poet at the Poetry at Round Top Festival.He is a poetry professor at Maharishi University, a writing instructorat Kirkwood Community College, and has also been awriting instructor at Indian Hills Community College.His honors and awards also include Pushcart Prize Nominee(seven times, 1988-2010); featured writer, DMACC Celebrationof the Literary Arts, 2007, 2008; and finalist, New EnglandReview Narrative Poetry Competition, 1985.

"One of the best Environmentalism books of all time" - BookAuthority Best New Light eBooksThe late W. S. Merwin said Akers's nature poems are a "joy to discover" because they embody a "lost sense of the living world." In Swerve, Akers celebrates the wild while facing climate change, extinction, and loss. These poems confront us with the many threats to our world, eventually guiding us through stages of grief towards hope and action.The poems in Swerve give voice to the shock, fear, and desperation many feel about the environment. They meditate on the beauty of the non-human world. They champion women in the #MeToo movement who are empowering themselves and making vital changes.Powerful and compassionate, Swerve is ultimately a call to activism, inspiring readers to "swerve" and demand a better world. Ellery Akers is the author of three books of poetry. Her most recent collection is Swerve: Environmentalism, Feminism, and Resistance (Blue Light Press, 2020). She is also the author of Practicing the Truth (Autumn House, 2015), winner of the Autumn House Poetry Prize, the San Francisco Book Festival Poetry Award, and an Independent Publisher Book Award for Poetry; Knocking on the Earth (Wesleyan University Press, 1988), named a Best Book of the Year by the San Jose Mercury News; and Sarah's Waterfall (Safer Society Press, 2009), a children's novel.

Scott Caputo artfully explores the overarching metaphor of the bridges in our lives - to foreign destinations, new jobs, family homes, courtship and marriage, fatherhood, spiritual peace. Nestled within this engaging landscape are a number of ekphrastic and humorous poems that both illuminate and surprise. This collection is a love song to life.Originally from Salem, Oregon, Scott Caputo has had a life-long love affair with writing poetry and creating games. His first book of poetry, Holy Trinity of Chiles, was published by Blue Light Press in 2010. His work has appeared in Red Rock Review, Ruah, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, and Saranac Review. He also has five published board games, including Völuspá, based on the Nordic epic poem of the same name. He currently resides in Newark, California, with his wife and two sons.

Dressed All Wrong for This is a splendid demonstration of the depth and range of the short-short story, an art form whose relevance and influence are rapidly growing in this digital age of compressed communication. Francine Witte brilliantly illuminates nuanced truths of the human condition in this collection, truths that could be expressed in no other way.Francine Witte's flash fiction has been published in numerous journals and the anthologies Flash Fiction Funny (Blue Light Press) and New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction (W.W. Norton.) She is the author of two flash fiction chapbooks, Cold June, (Ropewalk Press) winner of the 2010 Thomas Wilhelmus Award, and The Wind Twirls Everything (Musclehead Press.) Her novella-in-flash The Way of The Wind (Ad Hoc Press,) was cited as a highly recommended selection in the Bath Flash Fiction Award. Her poetry chapbooks include two first-prize winners, First Rain (Pecan Grove Press,) and Not All Fires Burn the Same (Slipstream Press.) She is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Café Crazy, and The Theory of Flesh, (both from Kelsay Press.) Her play Love is a Bad Neighborhood was produced off-Broadway by Miller Coffman Productions. She edits the column Flash Boulevard on George Wallace's Facebook blog poetrybay. She is an associate editor for the South Florida Poetry Journal. She is a former high school teacher. She lives in Manhattan, NYC with her husband, Mark Larsen.

The Emancipation of Emily Rosenbloom is 50-something's Bridget Jones Diary. Masterfully written in the archetype of the female antihero, this debut novel unfolds with a wicked sense of humor, even when you're shouting, "Emily, don't do it!" The pages of this novel are populated with unforgettable characters-Dr. Rothman, the invisible psychiatrist; Emily's intuitive and exasperating mother in Florida; and Raspberry, the wonder dog. Highly recommended when you want to forget about the world and just laugh.Elinor Gale has been a writer, observer of human nature, and lover of the English language since childhood. An inveterate eavesdropper, she has woven her curiosity about human behavior into her work as writing teacher, editor, and creator of humorous yet poignant fiction and poetry. Her essays, poetry, and articles have been published in print and online. Elinor moved to the Bay Area from New England 20 years ago. She lives in San Francisco with her partner and his chubby Burmese cat.

About the AuthorHeather Saunders Estes grew up in a small New England town and now lives in the Inner Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco. The blue jays look different, but crows are the same. Fog has replaced winter snow. She transitioned to poetry in 2017 from her long-term career as CEO of Planned Parenthood Northern California. Her writing is inspired by experiences as a social worker and activist, as well as early studies in ceramics and elementary art teaching. Poetry is laughter, reflection, appreciation, and a call to action. She lives with her professor-writer husband of 45 years, and their biologist-writer daughter lives nearby. Inner Sunset is her debut book of poetry. This book is full of lyricism, animist and mystical often, about the natural world of ocean, trees, fog, birds, insects, and yet, surprisingly and vividly anchored in the city, the house, through windows, walks and wide open eyes. It rewards reading and rereading, as its full context enriches and widens.