Portland Poetry

Game ON (NCAA Tourney WHO?): UHell’s AWP Off-site Schedule

Stencil design + finagling by GoGo Gadget Girl; staging + spraying by @BunnyWithAToolBelt; photo by @mizconnell; fun had by ALL

We thought it would be a good idea to host FOUR off-site events during the already jam-packed AWP week – and it will be. Our events are listed on the AWP off-site events calendar and our FB page.

And, for those of you avoiding FB (we don’t blame you one bit!), here’s a quick-hit list of what’s what:

Wednesday, March 27: Books, Beer, Boogie: A Welcome Poetry & Dance Party! w/Write Bloody Publishing. 6:30-9:30 pm. NM Bodecker Foundation, 2360 NW Quimby Street, Portland, OR 97210 FREE – must register on Eventbrite

Thursday, March 28: No Grit, No Pearl. UHell Press Showcase. 7:30-9:30pm. IPRC, 318 SE Main St #155, Portland, OR 97214 FREE

Friday, March 29: Love Never Dies. Collab w/Spiderweb Salon, Spooky Girlfriend Press, Thoughtcrime Press. 7:00-10:00pm. American Legion Hall Post 134, 2104 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211 FREE

Saturday, March 30: Press Battle! A Karaoke + Poetry War w/Write Bloody and Clash Books. 8:00pm-12:00am. The Waypost, 3120 N Williams Ave, Portland, OR 97227 FREE (donations happily accepted!)

Sunday, March 31: ZZZZZZZ = Priceless

UHell merch will be available at all events. We’re also installing ourselves at a crazy-fun booth w/Write Bloody at the AWP Bookfair, open to the public for only $5 on Saturday, March 30.

Come find us, Hellions!

Spring into AWP Week

And to kick off such freshness, we’re hosting a billiony events during the annual AWP Conference and Bookfair the last week of March. (Thank god it’s on home turf this year. Jeebuz.)

As usual, we’re sharing space at the Bookfair with our pals at Write Bloody. It’s not gonna be your usual booth experience. Even if you aren’t registered ($$$$$) for the entire festival, the public has access to over 700 publishers on Saturday, March 30th. So, do that.

We’re also hosting fab, fun, and free off-site events throughout the week that everyone is welcome to attend. On Wednesday, March 27th, join us in our festival kick-off poetry and dance party! You’ve got to register for this FREE event via Evite, so please do so ASAP or you’ll miss all the fun.

On Thursday, March 28th, please join us at the IPRC (hub of DIY printmaking and small press efforts, among others) for a UHell Press authors and friends showcase of stories featuring true grit.

On Friday, March 29th, we’re co-hosting the spooktacular Love Never Dies event at the American Legion Post 134 (along with Thoughtcrime Press, Spooky Girlfriend Press, and Spiderweb Salon.

Finally, on Saturday, March 30th, we’ll be rockin and rollin at The Waypost as small press luminaries from Write Bloody, Clash Books, and UHell compete with the most powerful weapons we got. Oh, yeah: the evening will (d)evolve into karaoke magic, so there’s that, too.

See you soon, fine people!

Get ready for another rad LitCrawl experience!

Beloved LitCrawl and the festival formerly known as Wordstock are just around the corner and we’d love to see you there. First, at LitCrawl on Friday, November 9th at the Ace Hotel Lobby, where we’re hosting True Stories with authors you must get to know and fun you must have. MUST. All event details can be found on our FB invite page.

Next up, on Saturday, November 10th, we’ll be hanging out in our booth with the fine folks from Buckman Journal (which you really must get your hot little hands on immediately if not sooner) at the Portland Book Festival.

We’re super excited about November. See you in it!

Michael McLaughlin at Mother Foucault’s July 28

Join us Saturday, July 28th at 7:00pm at the fab and fine Mother Foucault’s Bookshop in Portland, Oregon. (Obvs? Obvs.) Michael McLaughlin will be reading from his collection Countless Cinemas. Local author Jessica Dylan Miele will help us kick off this summertime soirée with a short story. Or, two.

Come see for yourselves! For more details on the event, see our FB invite.

Happy New Year! 2018 Is Gonna ROCK

There’s SO MUCH good news already in 2018 – book releases galore (Burns, Chaney, O’Hare, to name just a few), new partnerships (including distributor SCB & The Big Smoke), and events at Powell’s, AWP18 Tampa, and the LA Times Festival of Books.

Buy a book! Support an author! Attend an event! We can’t wait to share great lit with you this year. See you soon – like at Powell’s Hawthorne on January 18th to celebrate the latest releases from Wryly McCutchen and Stephen M Park.

Duotrope Editor Interview

For those of you who may not know, Duotrope is a terrific resource that assists writers manage the submissions process. It’s super cool! Check it out.

Managing Editor Eve Connell was recently interviewed for the Editor Interview feature, another great part of the Duotrope toolkit. Here you’ll find some juicy excerpts. Be sure to read the full interview.

Q: What sets your publication apart from others that publish similar material?

A: University of Hell Press authors offer a raw view of their varied world experiences. They expose themselves intimately, completely, often with humor and always with irreverence. They provide snapshots of the horrific, the sensory, the mundane, with beautifully constructed linguistic imagery.

Q: Describe the ideal submission.

A: The ideal submission grabs our attention right away – and holds it throughout the manuscript. No matter the genre, no matter the style, it’s clear from the get-go that the author loves language and uses it to provoke, inspire, intimate, define, defend, entertain, feel, empathize, craft, build, suspend, and more. Work that catches our eyes derives from a strong point of view, offers a unique perspective, and demonstrates a voice or tone that perhaps is yet unheard. The ideal submission delivers interesting, well-developed ideas, is powerfully executed, is copy edited, and allows us to say WOW.

Q: What other current publications (or publishers) do you admire most?

A: Write Bloody Publishing, Punk Hostage Press, Civil Coping Mechanisms, HYPERtext Magazine, Nailed, Octopus Books, Black Ocean Press, H_NGM_N Books, Binary Star, Soft Skull, Manic D, TimberMouse, Elephant Rock Books, Dzanc, Akashic…and more.

Click here to read the full interview.

Letter from Hell 2015

Hello Hellions!

We’ll keep this brief.

First, we are suspending unsolicited submission windows until January 2017 because we currently have FIFTEEN books in our production queue and we need to focus our attention on their completion.

Second, we know you were looking forward to our summer submissions window, so, in the meantime, we are offering our first-ever University of Hell Press sponsored anthology. Details HERE. You have to contribute.

Third, we hope you’ll celebrate with us the fact that we have fifteen new books coming because that number also matches the number of books in our entire catalog so far. We put out five books the year we launched in 2012, four in 2013, three in 2014, and already three so far this year. Color us gobsmacked.

Finally, we hope that if you’re in Portland that you’ll join us at LitHop PDX this year where we’re hosting a stage at Dante’s. Details HERE.

Dispatch over.

Yours in Hell,

University of Hell Press

“Often Go Awry” Now Available

Our latest title Often Go Awry by Brian S. Ellis is now available. Read selections from the book and link to where you can buy it online by clicking here: Often Go Awry

If you’re in Portland, you can get your copies now directly from Powell’s City of Books on Burnside or Powell’s Books on Hawthorne.