Grounded in research developed by psychologist Arthur Aron (et alia) on how meaningful inter-personal relationships are formed, kevin mcpherson eckhoff’s 36 Answers… blends conceptual and confessional writing practices to gently complicate the poetics of intimacy. Both prose poem and essayistic memoir, eckhoff’s responses to the “36 Love Questions” meditate on the entanglement of love and one’s personal narrative. The Blasted Tree has produced a limited edition of fifty chapbooks printed on white linen paper and hand-bound with gold thread into dark olive green linen cardstock covers, available now in our online store.
Poetry Leaflet - Behold the Dead by Ben Berman Ghan
Behold the Dead is a poem that traces the tension between built and natural environments, a dance of life and death weaving together all our bodies. Ben Berman Ghan’s flowing poetic form is complimented by an original watercolour painting of a stream applied to each leaflet by Blasted Tree publisher Kyle Flemmer. Behold the Dead is printed and painted on heavy weight, cold press watercolour paper in a numbered edition of fifty 5.25” x 8.5” leaflets, available now from The Blasted Tree’s online store.
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Poetry Card Set - Some Formal Notes on Language by Steacy Easton
A collection of sentence diagrams handwritten on index cards examining the relationships between language, the body, and control. In Some Formal Notes on Language, Steacy Easton re-contextualizes lines selected from over 800 pages of transcripts documenting the trial and conviction of Easton’s former boarding school teacher for “sexual interference of a child.” Part visual poetry, part conceptual writing exercise, these handwritten notes push against the legible, the formal, and the quantifiable. Each set of index cards comes in an envelope folded down from an 11” x 17” poster of a sentence diagram and is accompanied by a title card and expository text. The Blasted Tree has produced a numbered edition of 50 card sets, available now in our online store.
Poetry Chapbook - Recoveringly by Andrew McEwan
Since 2017, Andrew McEwan has only written one poem, but has re-written it many times. Recoveringly discusses hospitalization and the ongoingness of repeated recovery from acute periods of mental disability, first in a poem, then in a poetic essay/coda that meditates on repetition, ideation, and the language of sanity and insanity. The Blasted Tree has produced a limited edition of fifty 5.5” x 8.5” chapbooks bound into a series of coloured covers torn to reveal the layers beneath.
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Poetry Photo Set - from So went the hour in its makeshift dress by Michelle Lynne Dyrness
Two hybrid poems from So went the hour in its makeshift dress by Michelle Lynn Dyrness, a series combining typewritten text with minimal collage, created in an automatic, intuitive manner. The Blasted Tree has produced a limited edition of fifty 5” x 7” photo sets presented in white paper sleeves, each with a slightly-different collage element. Our selection from So went the hour in its makeshift dress can be viewed following the link below, and print copies are available now from The Blasted Tree’s online store.
View From So went the hour in its makeshift dress
Poetry booklet - from GRAMTAN by Jason Ly
Four visual poems from GRAMTAN by Jason Ly, a series that explores new and old solutions to the classic tangram puzzle by allowing pieces to intersect and overlap. Ly uses the triangular tangram pieces to create familiar objects and abstract shapes by circumventing the traditional limitations on their arrangement. The Blasted Tree has produced a limited edition of fifty 4” x 4” booklets hand-bound into grey cardstock covers with black thread. Copies of from GRAMTAN are available from The Blasted Tree’s online store, and you can view our selection from the series following the link below.
View From GRAMTAN
Poetry Chapbook - Ditto by Nick Montfort
Ditto by Nick Montfort is a short poetry collection consisting of three poems all composed using a similar method (something akin to transcription) whereby text is meticulously copied from a hyper-specific locale or context. From the kitchen to the public urinal, Ditto combines a keen eye for text with a wry appreciation for its many mundane uses. The Blasted Tree has produced a limited edition of sixty 5” x 3.5” chapbooks, each bound into black cover stock with an iridescent film flyleaf. You can read the collection online following the link below, and copies of the chapbook are available now in our online store.
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Poetry Chapbook - Translating the Westron Wynde by David Martin
Westron Wynde is a 16th-century song that has been adapted, distorted, or simplified into many derivative versions. In Translating the Westron Wynde, poet David Martin compiles and expands upon these derivations, adding new translations of the original lyrics in many different languages, ciphers, and systems of notation. The Blasted Tree has produced a limited edition of sixty 4.25” x 5.5” chapbooks printed in colour and bound into handmade paper covers in tobacco brown. Copies of the chapbook are available now from The Blasted Tree’s store, and the series can be read online following the link below.
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Poetry Leaflet - Caribou by Allison LaSorda
Caribou is a poem about navigating, naming, and relationships. Using natural imagery to comfort and confront, Allison LaSorda teases out the push and pull of the smallest gestures of our bodies within an ecology of significance. The Blasted Tree has produced a limited edition of sixty 7” x 5.5” folded leaflets printed on blue parchment paper, available for purchase in our online store. Caribou can be read online following the link below.
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Visual Poetry Chapbook - two ten six by katie o'brien
A new series of visual poems by repeat Blasted Tree contributor katie o’brien, two ten six was made by applying the zalgo or “cursed text” effect to existing poems. Zalgo text generation involves combining numerous typographic characters with Unicode symbols to add diacritical marks above and below letters. Using this technique, o’brien has overwritten their earliest poetry manuscript to create something entirely new. The Blasted Tree has produced a limited edition of sixty 7” x 7” chapbooks hand-bound with black thread into purple covers, available now from our online store.