Diary of a Small Press

On public art, hand bookmaking, poetry and trying to stay sane in this increasingly hectic world…

Nick Virgilio Prints Now Available

December 13th, 2012

I’m excited to let folks know about some new fine art prints that TLP now has to offer. On numerous trips to Camden, N.J., to work on the new Turtle Light Press book, Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku, I snapped photos of the area and now have turned them into digital paintings, each one […]

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Anna Akhmatova: Poetry and Solace

November 27th, 2012

As Osip Mandelstam said, “great poetry is often a response to total disaster.” This morning, my daughter arose early at 5:30 a.m. because she incorrectly set her alarm clock. Instead of going back to bed, she tiptoed downstairs to read the fifth book of Harry Potter. I decided to get up myself, shave and read […]

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Don’t Miss This Screening…Coming Events!

September 20th, 2012

You won’t want to miss it! Please join us for a screening of the poignant documentary remembering Nick Virgilio… by Sean Dougherty at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 7 at Robin’s Bookstore/Moonstone Arts Gallery in Philadelphia. We will have a special reading of sections of the new Virgilio book, Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku, […]

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Riots at American Consulate in Libya

September 14th, 2012

Watching the riots at the American consulate in Libya brings back memories of when I was caught in similar circumstances during my reporting experiences in Israel. That was already 20 years ago but the visceral memory of being amid a mob bent on killing has stayed with me. It was during the first Palestinian intifada […]

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A City Slicker Poet-Artist-Musician

September 7th, 2012

Just this week a terrific feature came out about Nick Virgilio in A Hundred Gourds by Kathleen O’Toole in which she discusses the forces that led Virgilio to haiku as well as his influence upon the haiku community and our perception of haiku today. Here are some short  excerpts: “When Nick Virgilio discovered a copy […]

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Magical, Moving Virgilio Book Launches!

May 9th, 2012

About 150 people gathered together the last weekend of National Poetry Month for two book launches in Camden, N.J., to celebrate the life and poetry of Nick Virgilio. To date, many of the major media outlets in the Philadelphia region have done stories on Virgilio and our new book, Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku. […]

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Haiku Hits the Streets of D.C.

April 18th, 2012

At 8 a.m. on Saturday, April 14th, I met Lee Giesecke of the Towpath haiku group – the local D.C. chapter of the Haiku Society of America – at a metro stop with my car packed full of tables, extra chairs, tablecloths, straw baskets, easels, sumi-e paintings, some regal sunflowers, magenta tulips, a large variety […]

“Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku” is Available!

March 30th, 2012

After a busy winter of editing and designing, negotiating rights to photos and interviews, Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku is now available. The book is a treasure trove of 100 uncollected and unpublished haiku plus a sampling of about 30 old favorites. Edited and introduced by Raffael de Gruttola, the book also contains a […]

Nick Virgilio Book Update and more . . .

January 19th, 2012

As we approach the heart of winter, Raffael de Gruttola has finished editing the upcoming book of Nick Virgilio poems and Rick Black is beginning to design the cover and interior. Tentatively entitled Nick Virgilio: A Life in Haiku, the book is due out in the spring and will feature more than 100 unknown poems […]

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TLP 2012 Chapbook Contest is Underway…

December 2nd, 2011

We want to thank all of the poets who entered the 2012 TLP Haiku Chapbook Competition. We have received more than 30 entries from around the world. It is thrilling each day to go to our post office box and find manuscripts, either stuffed into the tiny box or a yellow card indicating that it […]

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Got the Monday Morning Blues

November 29th, 2011

I had the Monday morning blues, especially following the need to return to work following a lovely Thanksgiving holiday, so I decided to take some time to see a photography exhibition that I had read about: Daphne — The Subtle Power of a Woman’s Eye at the embassy of Peru in Washington, D.C. Of course, […]

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Our New Arlington, VA Neighborhood – Paintings

November 4th, 2011

Over the past two months, my family and I have been busy settling into our new house in Arlington, Virginia, and in my spare time I’ve been making digital paintings of nearby hiking trails, parks, shopping areas and houses. It has been a lot of fun getting out to take these photos that I then […]

A Talk on Selecting Our First Chapbook Winner

October 26th, 2011

With our 2012 TLP Haiku Chapbook Contest deadline fast approaching (Dec. 1, 2011), many poets ask us about the selection process. So, we are posting here a talk given at the Haiku North America conference in Ottawa in 2009 about how we went about picking our first winner and the ensuing editing and design process. […]

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Upcoming Events and Fairs

May 10th, 2011

Beginning with a luncheon this Thursday, May 12th, we’ll be kicking off our partnership with Greenwood House — a nursing home that provides specialized care for the Jewish elderly — in order to launch the “Life Story” book project. We will interview  and produce books of Greenwood House residents and their families and, in return, […]

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Marketing 101 for Book Artists, Authors, etc.

February 25th, 2011

On a recent evening, I took the train into the Center for Book Arts in New York City where Peter Cuce, a marketing expert, gave an overview of the various tools that artists and authors can use these days, from free web hosting sites to social media like Facebook and Twitter as well as lesser […]

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