BlazeVOX Books, often stylized as BlazeVOX ooks'', is an independent publisher founded by

Geoffrey Gatza Geoffrey C. Gatza (born 1970) is an American poet and editor and the publisher of BlazeVOX Books, BlazeVOX ooks an independent press based in Buffalo, New York. Early life and education Gatza grew up in Kenmore, New York, Kenmore in Erie Coun ...

and based in

Buffalo Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. Since 2000, it has published more than 350 books of poetry and prose, most of which fall within the sphere of avant-garde literature. BlazeVOX Books also publishes ''BlazeVOX'', a biannual journal of poetry and prose founded in 1999. Authors published in ''BlazeVOX'' include

Louis Armand Louis François Armand (; 17 January 1905 – 30 August 1971) was a French engineer and senior civil servant who managed several public companies, as well as had a significant role in World War II as an officer in the Resistance. He became the ...

, William James Austin,

George Bowering George Harry Bowering, (born December 1, 1935) is a prolific Canadian novelist, poet, historian, and biographer. He was the first Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. Life and career Bowering was born in Penticton, British Columbia, and rai ...

Mitch Corber Mitch Corber is a New York City neo- Beat poet, an eccentric performance artist, and no wave videographer known for his rapid whimsically comical montage and collage style. He has been associated with Collaborative Projects, Inc. (aka Colab), pa ...

Robert Creeley Robert White Creeley (May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than 60 books. He is associated with the Black Mountain poets, although his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. Creeley was close with Charle ...

, Lily Hoang,

Lisa Jarnot Isaac Jarnot (born 1967) is an American poet. He was born in Buffalo, New York and studied literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In 1994 he received an MFA in creative writing from Brown University. He has lived in San Franc ...

, Hank Lazer, David Meltzer,

Eileen Myles Eileen Myles (born December 9, 1949) is an American poet and writer who has produced more than twenty volumes of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, libretti, plays, and performance pieces over the last three decades. Novelist Dennis Cooper has des ...

Ricardo Nazario y Colón Ricardo is the Spanish and Portuguese cognate of the name Richard. It derived from Proto-Germanic ''*rīks'' 'king, ruler' + ''*harduz'' 'hard, brave'. It may be a given name, or a surname. People Given name * Ricardo de Araújo Pereira (born 1 ...

Simon Perchik Simon Perchik (December 24, 1923 – June 14, 2022) was an American poet who has been described by Library Journal as, "the most widely published unknown poet in America." Perchik worked as an attorney before his retirement in 1980. Educated a ...

Linda Ravenswood Linda is an English feminine given name, derived from the Spanish word , meaning "pretty." Linda may also refer to: Names * Linda (given name), a female given name (including a list of people and fictional characters so named) * Linda (singer) ...

Steve Roggenbuck Steve Roggenbuck (born-November 11, 1987) is an American poet, blogger, and YouTuber. His works have gained notoriety and mild recognition for their reusing of motifs like typos, lack of punctuation, and exaggerated joy. In 2018, Roggenbuck was ...

Keith Waldrop Bernard Keith Waldrop (December 11, 1932 – July 27, 2023) was an American poet, translator, publisher, and academic. He won the National Book Award for Poetry for his 2009 collection ''Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy''. Early life and educ ...

Rosmarie Waldrop Rosmarie Waldrop (born Rosmarie Sebald; August 24, 1935) is an American poet, novelist, translator, essayist and publisher. Born in Germany, she has lived in the United States since 1958 and has settled in Providence, Rhode Island since the late ...

Lewis Warsh Lewis Warsh (9 November 1944 – 15 November 2020) was an American poet, visual artist, professor, prose writer, editor, and publisher. He was a principal member of the second generation of the New York School poets,; however, he has said that � ...

, and Steven Zultanski.

Mission

According to the mission statement published by the press, BlazeVOX aims to "disseminate poetry, through print and digital media, both within academic spheres and to society at large," and, more broadly, to "push at the frontiers of what is possible." Its specific commitment, with respect to its sizable contemporary poetry list, is to "publish the innovative works of the greatest minds writing poetry today, from the most respected senior poets to extraordinarily promising young writers." BlazeVOX has also committed itself to publish works "regardless of commercial viability."

History

Both BlazeVOX Books and ''BlazeVox'' were founded at

Daemen College Daemen University is a private university in Amherst and Brooklyn, New York, United States. Formerly Daemen College and Rosary Hill College, the now-nondenominational school was founded by the Sisters of St. Francis in 1947. As of fall 2020, ...

Amherst, New York Amherst () is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Erie County, New York, Erie County, New York (state), New York, United States. It is a suburb of Buffalo, New York, Buffalo. As of 2020, the town had a total population of 129,595. ...

, where in 1999 Gatza began publishing an

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education, usually in a college or university. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, ...

literary magazine exclusively online. The first issue of ''BlazeVOX'' appeared in the Fall of 2000, featuring work by

and

Alan Sondheim Alan Sondheim is a poet, critic, musician, artist, and theorist of cyberspace from the United States. Biography Alan Sondheim was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in English from Brown University. He lives with his ...

, while the press's first four full-length collections—by William Allegrezza, Raymond L. Bianchi, Patrick Herron, and Theodore Pelton—were published in 2004. By the end of 2005, BlazeVOX had already published full-length collections by Sondheim,

Kazim Ali Kazim Ali (born April 5, 1971) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and professor. His most recent books are ''Inquisition'' (Wesleyan University Press, 2018) and ''All One's Blue'' (Harper Collins India, 2016). His honors include an Individu ...

, Michael Kelleher, and Amy King, whose ''Antidotes for an Alibi'' would be a finalist for the 2006 Lambda Literary Award. BlazeVOX began publishing approximately five books of

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

annually in 2006, and one book of

nonfiction Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. Non-fiction typically aims to present topics objectively ...

literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...

per year starting in 2010. Since 2002, BlazeVOX has featured online recordings of its authors on its website, a practice that in recent years has manifested in a semi-regular

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

. Poets and writers featured in these recordings and podcasts include

Forrest Gander Forrest Gander (born January 21, 1956) is an American poet, translator, essayist, and novelist. The A.K. Seaver Professor Emeritus of Literary Arts & Comparative Literature at Brown University, Gander won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2019 for ...

, and Michael Kelleher. Since 2010, BlazeVOX has also offered a small selection of free

eBooks An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. A ...

on its website, as well as Kindle editions of many of its titles. Every edition of ''BlazeVOX'' since 2006 has featured an extended selection of poems from one author native to

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

, where the headquarters of the press is located. Authors selected for this feature, entitled ''Buffalo Focus'' (stylized as "buffaloFOCUS"), include Nava Fader, Kevin Thurston, and Clarice Waldman. In 2016, BlazeVOX author

Daniel Borzutzky Daniel Borzutzky (born 1974) is a Chicago-based poet and translator. His collection '' The Performance of Becoming Human'' won the 2016 National Book Award. Biography Born in 1974 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Chilean immigrants ...

won the

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

for ''The Performance of Becoming Human'', published by Brooklyn Arts Press.

Reception

Artvoice Artvoice began in Buffalo, New York, in 1990 as a free weekly print publication and quickly grew from 10,000 circulation to 65,000 circulation. A national newspaper auditing company gave the paper an audited monthly readership of 250,000, the rea ...

'' notes that "many books by BlazeVox have received national acclaim," while '' Coal Hill Review'' has observed that "BlazeVOX poetry collections tend to have three things in common: physically, they tend to be oversized and very attractive; stylistically, they tend to be experimental; and quality-wise, they tend to be strong." ''Drunken Boat'', an international journal of literature and the arts, credits BlazeVOX Books with offering its readers "an eclectic mix of today's experimental voices." Among other honors, books published by BlazeVOX have been short-listed for the

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary Foundation, Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literatur ...

, anthologized in large-scale university-press compilations such as ''Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing'' (

Northwestern University Press Northwestern University Press is an American publishing house affiliated with Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. It publishes 70 new titles each year in the areas of continental philosophy, poetry, Slavic and German literary criticis ...

, 2011), and reviewed in major venues such as ''Jacket2'' and the website of the

Best American Poetry ''The Best American Poetry'' series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems. Background The series, begun by poet and editor David Lehman in 1988, has a different guest editor every year. Lehman, still the genera ...

series."First Book Review: Leah Umansky's ''Domestic Uncertainties'' (2/25/2014). http://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the_best_american_poetry/2014/02/first-book-review-leah-umanskys-domestic-uncertainties.html

Authors

Poets and writers with poetry or prose collections on BlazeVOX Books include: * Seth Abramson *

* Joe Amato * Aaron Apps * Michael Basinski *

Martine Bellen Martine Bellen is an American poet, editor and librettist. Career She has taught at Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, New York University, Rutgers University, and Hofstra University. She was writer in residence at University of Central ...

* Aaron Belz * Bill Berkson *

* Tom Bradley *

Ron Burch Ron Burch is an American writer of television, film, plays, short fiction and novels. His movies include '' Head over Heels'', '' Yours, Mine and Ours'' and ''Ferdinand''. He was the executive producer/showrunner (along with David Kidd) of the Drea ...

Patrick Chapman Patrick Chapman (born 1968) is an Irish poet, writer and screenwriter. Chapman's first published work was ''Jazztown'', released in 1991 by Raven Arts Press. This was followed five years later by ''The New Pornography'', a collection of poems ...

Cris Cheek Cris Cheek (born 1955) is a British-American multimodal poet and scholar. He began his career in the mid 1970s working alongside Bill Griffiths and Bob Cobbing at the Poetry Society printshop in London and with the Writers Forum group, who met ...

* Tom Clark * Jesse Damiani * Alberto de Lacerda * Jennifer K. Dick * Robert Duncan *

Rachel Blau DuPlessis Rachel Blau DuPlessis (born December 14, 1941) is an American poet and essayist, known as a feminist critic and scholar with a special interest in modernist and contemporary poetry. Her work has been widely anthologized. Early life DuPlessis w ...

* Kari Edwards *

Clayton Eshleman Clayton Eshleman (June 1, 1935 – January 29 or 30, 2021) was an American poet, translator and editor, noted in particular for his translations of César Vallejo and his studies of cave painting and the Paleolithic imagination. Eshleman's work ha ...

Andrew Farkas Andrew Farkas is a writer who was born in Akron, Ohio in 1978. He currently lives in Lawrence, Kansas and is an Assistant Professor of English at Washburn University. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, an M.F.A. from the U ...

* Michael Farrell *

Raymond Federman Raymond Federman (May 15, 1928 – October 6, 2009) was a French–American novelist and academic, known also for poetry, essays, translations, and criticism. He held positions at the University at Buffalo from 1973 to 1999, when he was app ...

* Jeanpaul Ferro * Gloria Frym *

John Gallaher John Gallaher (born January 6, 1965) is an American poet and assistant professor of English at Northwest Missouri State University, and co-editor of ''The Laurel Review,'' supported by Northwest's English Department. Life John Gallaher was bo ...

* Robert Gibbons *

Jesse Glass Jesse Glass (born 1954) is an American expatriate poet, artist and folklorist. In America Glass first began to write and publish experimental poetry in c. 1972. Starting in 1976, he edited and published the mimeographed ''Goethe’s Notes Magazi ...

* Noah Eli Gordon * Matt Hart * Bobbie Louise Hawkins *

Barbara Henning Barbara Henning (born October 26, 1948) is an American poet and fiction writer. She is the author of eight books of poetry, four novels and a series of photo-poem pamphlets. Her recent novelized biography of her mother, ''Ferne, a Detroit Story, ...

* Bruce Jackson * Kent Johnson * Jane Joritz-Nakagawa *

Andrew Joron Andrew Joron (born March 6, 1955) is an American writer of experimental poetry, speculative fiction, and lyrical and critical essays. He began by writing science fiction poetry. Joron's later poetry, combining scientific and philosophical ideas ...

* Michael Joyce * Vincent Katz *Michael Kelleher *

Kevin Killian Kevin Killian (December 24, 1952 – June 15, 2019) was an American poet, author, editor, and playwright, primarily of LGBT literature. ''My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer'', which he co-edited with Peter Gizzi, wo ...

Burt Kimmelman Burt Joseph Kimmelman (born May 5, 1947) is an American poet and scholar. Life and work Born and raised in New York City after World War Two, Burt Kimmelman has published eleven collections of poetry. His poetry is often anthologized and was fea ...

* Amy King * Linda King * John Kinsella *

Rodney Koeneke Rodney Koeneke (born September 12, 1968) is an American poet. Life and career Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Koeneke was raised in Tucson, Arizona and Hacienda Heights, California. He graduated with a BA iHistoryfrom the University of California, Berk ...

* Krystal Languell *

Evan Lavender-Smith Evan Lavender-Smith (born 1977) is an American writer, editor, and professor. Lavender-Smith was raised in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He received a BA in English from the University of California, Berkeley in 1999 and an M.F.A. in Fiction from Ne ...

* David Dodd Lee *

Masiela Lusha Masiela Lusha (; born October 23, 1985) is an Albanian-born American actress and author. She gained recognition for playing Carmen Lopez on the globally syndicated ABC sitcom '' George Lopez'', a role that earned her two consecutive Young Art ...

Michael Magee Michael or Mike Magee may refer to: * Michael Magee (actor) (1929–2011), Canadian actor and author * Mickey McGee (1947–2020), American drummer * Mike Magee (journalist) (born 1949), British journalist * Michael Magee, Irish casualty during the ...

* John Matthias *

Cris Mazza Cris Mazza (born 1956) is an American novelist, short story writer, and non-fiction author. Early life and education A native of Southern California, Mazza earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from San Diego State University and ...

Gillian McCain Gillian McCain (born January 1, 1966) is a Canadian poet, author, and photography collector best known for ''Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk'', which she co-wrote with Legs McNeil. McCain is the author of two books of poetry: ' ...

* Deborah Meadows *

Corey Mesler Corey Mesler is an American writer. Mesler's work has been published in numerous journals and anthologies including ''The Esquire Narrative4 Project'' (2013), The Machinery and ''Good Poems, American Places'' (Viking Press 2011). He has published ...

* Peter Money * Simone Muench *

Sheila Murphy Sheila E. Murphy (born 1951 in Mishawaka, Indiana) is an American text and visual poet who has been writing and publishing since 1978. She is the recipient of the Gertrude Stein Award for her book ''Letters to Unfinished J''. Green Integer Pres ...

Daniel Nester Daniel Murlin Nester (born February 29, 1968, in Portsmouth, Virginia) is an American writer, editor, and poet. Biography Nester was raised in Maple Shade Township, New Jersey. He attended high school at Camden Catholic High School in Cherry Hi ...

Urayoán Noel Urayoán Noel is a translator, poet, and critic who is the author of poetry collections, poetry criticism and books. He has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Bronx Council on the Arts, the Howard Foundation, and CantoMundo (wher ...

* Cheryl Pallant *

Ted Pearson Ted Pearson (born 1948 in Palo Alto, California) is an American poet. He is often associated with the Language poets. Life and work Pearson was born in 1948 in Palo Alto, California. He began studying music in 1960 and began writing poetry in 196 ...

* Michelle Naka Pierce *

Stephen Ratcliffe Stephen Ratcliffe (born July 7, 1948, in Boston, Massachusetts) is a contemporary U.S. poet and critic who has published a number of books of poetry and three books of criticism. He lives in Bolinas, CA and is the publisher of Avenue B Press. H ...

Elizabeth Robinson Elizabeth Robinson (born 1961, Denver, Colorado) is an American poet and professor, author of twelve collections of poetry, most recently ''Counterpart'' (Ahsahta Press, 2012), "Three Novels" (Omnidawn, 2011) "Also Known A," (Apogee, 2009), and ' ...

Kit Robinson Kit Robinson (born May 17, 1949) is an American poet, translator, writer and musician. An early member of the San Francisco Language poets circle, he has published 28 books of poetry. Life and work Born in Evanston, Illinois, Robinson graduated ...

Tomaž Šalamun Tomaž Šalamun (July 4, 1941 – December 27, 2014) was a Slovenian poet who was a leading figure of postwar neo-avant-garde poetry in Central EuropeColm Tóibín (2004The comet's trail The Guardian, Guardian and an internationally acclaimed Absu ...

George Schneeman George Schneeman (March 11, 1934 – January 27, 2009) was an American painter who lived in Tuscany, Italy, and New York City. Life and work George Schneeman was born on March 11, 1934, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He received a B.A. in philosophy ...

* Davis Schneiderman *

Steven D. Schroeder Steven D. Schroeder (born June 12, 1977) is an American poet and editor. Life He was born in San Francisco and grew up in California, Germany, and Colorado. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with a creative writing degree. His first full-le ...

Larissa Shmailo Larissa Shmailo (born 1956 in Brooklyn, New York, United States) is an American poet, translator, novelist, editor, and critic. She is known for her literary translations from Russian to English, particularly her translation of ''Victory over the S ...

* Dale Smith *

* Jordan Stempleman * Chad Sweeney * Eileen Tabios *

Anne Tardos Anne Tardos is a French-born American poet, visual artist, academic, and composer. Early life and education Tardos was born in Cannes, France. As a child, she lived in German-occupied Paris, later moving with her parents to Budapest, where she ...

John Tranter John Ernest Tranter (29 April 1943 – 21 April 2023) was an Australian poet, publisher and editor. He published more than twenty books of poetry; devising, with Jan Garrett, the long running ABC radio program ''Books and Writing''; and foundin ...

David Trinidad David Trinidad (born 1953 in Los Angeles, California) is an American poet. David Trinidad was born in Los Angeles, California, and raised in the San Fernando Valley. He attended California State University, Northridge, where he studied poetry with ...

Lawrence Upton Lawrence Upton (born London 1949, of Cornish origins, died at home 16 February 2020), was a poet, graphic artist and sound artist, and director of ''Writers Forum''. Upton was a performer, continuing and expanding the performance tradition of, ...

Anne Waldman Anne Waldman (born April 2, 1945) is an American poet. Since the 1960s, Waldman has been an active member of the Outrider experimental poetry community as a writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural/political acti ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

BlazeVOX Books
Book publishing companies based in New York (state) Culture of Buffalo, New York Small press publishing companies Publishing companies established in 2000 Companies based in Buffalo, New York