Read the 2021 Reviews!

Ad Versus Reaction is a raw, rhythmic, and thought-provoking collection. Paleologos straddles the line between personal and political themes unapologetically. He dares to put pen to paper on a mission to shed light on controversial but very real issues. The intensity of his material and sharp wordplay combined, cause the poems to radiate with so much emotion. There is something in this book for everybody. I am both inspired and. completely blown away by the courage, vulnerability, and skill that marks each page from cover to cover. 

- Rosalynn J. Diaz, author of Lady Lotus

Nick Paleologos has been called Cult Leader, Jersey Jesus, Kitty God, and Genegar...With rock star intensity and geek-like zeal, he launches us on a journey through the depths of self-destruction to the heights of creativity, connection, and wonder. And, like said avatars, he shifts, evolves, and resurrects throughout, morphing with each poem into stronger and more realized forms of himself.

- Emily Cordes, author of Armful of Poppies

Before the Streetlights Come On is an outstanding set of poetic observations on love, life, and living through the many circumstances of being a Black male in America. Fresh Linen provides personal insight with an intelligent perspective on growing up and going through. The poems are love letters to the experiences of Fresh Linen and the experiences of so many young people growing up in inner cities across the globe. Poems like "Mama Bear" and "Dear Black Boy" showcase his ability to create technique in free form. While "Limitless" and "Heartbreak on Reverb" showcase his ability to gut punch your brain with just a few iambic expressions. Regardless of your racial background, socioeconomic class, or the neighborhood in which you were reared, every man (and woman or person) can identify with the emotion in Fresh Linen's writing. Before the Streetlights Come On allows you to engage your feelings and reflect on what it was like to be young and learning to navigate the world on your own, while under the purview of those magnificent beings we call parents. Sit back and grant yourself permission to enjoy reliving some of the best, most interesting, and most compelling moments of being young and fresh, enjoying life while absorbing Before the Streetlights Come On.

- Dr. Otiz “O.T.” Porter-Fisher, International Psychologist and author of "Dear Anonymous Friend..."

Poems by Marissa Prada is a roadmap through the personal tragedy of a universal experience. A time of mourning that sends us spinning through feelings so deep we feel we will be swept away in it’s current. A collective acknowledgement that grief is dark and twisted. Confronting us with the painful recognition of loss, standing at the edge of darkness cloaked in a shroud in sadness, clinging to memories in despair, society doesn't have a manual for navigating the "river of woe."

Her words remind us of lost loved ones, of passages through desperate times where everything has been turned on its axis and daily life is anything but normal. Where nothing can fill the void of pain, where the ache and the sorrow, shades life’s’ joy.  Days so dark that light has been forgotten.

She asks the endless nagging question of "why didn’t I ...."  as she pens words for emotions our heart could never express. She reminds us that we do not walk through the shadow of darkness alone. Our loved one may not be here to share our daily milestones, but they live on in our heart and soul forever. And although it feels like the end, she promises that it isn't, that this pain is only one chapter in our lives.

- Jane SpokenWord

Marissa distills stages of grief into words that gradually become conversations; with the departed, the reader, and herself.  From denial, through to realization, we are able to share her journey of losses, lost voices, lost dreams. Each poem helps transmute such a “crap hand” that life sets her to play with, into something beautifully intelligible, and that alone is remarkable.  Even the changing experience of time is brought into view, with brutal eloquence, as in her hard edged insight, in the poem Progress.

Despite the subject matter veering in violent turn from suicide, and self-harm, through to the dreadful experience of a still-birth (her piece, Just Misplaced, is as powerful a meditation on the topic I’ve ever encountered) this is not, I suggest, a collection that leaves one exhausted and saddened; that’s because she’s done the hard emotional work for us. A collection that really is greater than the sum of its parts.

- Mike Huett

When you read Ma Duke’s, Epiphanies of the Soul you will learn that the only thing that matters is your heart. Ma Dukes is a champion of people and she delivers wisdom and poetic guidance and trust me, there is no shit on her boots. The poem, Unhate You is a highlight as this book is a tremendously powerful display of passion through her loving relationship with words.      

These reflective lines allow you to walk in the shoes of a strong, determined, dedicated, and caring person who just happens to be a brilliant poet. This is a must-read book. 

- James Mr. Speaker Sears

            MrSpeakerInk/Poet/Author/Host of Verbal Vibrations 

These are amazing poems about resolve and belonging—determined, tender and bold. Out of filial love, Marroquín here surveys the way an American life is often woven across great distance, in this case from El Salvador to California and beyond. These are bi-lingual poems about civil war, no time for dreaming, and reckoning the cost of big moves. There’s a dance here in the middle of the volume, of a mother tongue that will “dance circles around you,” a dancer who doesn’t need English for a date. For the bigger, cinematic picture, Marroquín insists that these verses also are binge-worthy episodes, chapters of an American odyssey--must-see viewing. They are also poems profoundly about identity, powerful reminders that who we are, ultimately, depends on whose we are.

- Matthew Packer

Professor of English, Buena Vista University  

An amazing tasting course of this artist's work that hits on multiple levels. I want seconds...and thirds.

- Cel Landicho

Is this resiliency poetry? Ashley Edwards debuts by chronicling wounding. Will she ever regain an entirely free heart and sense of self-worth? The trials and tribulations of a loving hear; who has the sole market on pain, regret? Phoenix-ing through self-traps, choices, and results. Familiar with them? Bittersweet or soulless sour? Taste. Snack. Imbibe wisely.

- Diane Murray Ward

It Was Sweet Before It Was Sour is an amazing book of poetry. When reading the "sweet" part it brings me back to the days of my 17 year old self so in love with this person or the idea of being in love and all the sweet nothings that come with it. Fast forward to the "sour" and you get the harsh realization of love gone wrong. It reminds us how even in both times, love is love and its beauty in it is inevitable. Her words speak volumes to young and old souls alike...This book is amazing hands down amazing and I am so proud of this woman. 

- Angie C.