We also are pleased to announce the launch of Edible Soil Press!
As a small, garden-house of literary delights, we will focus mainly on our first-love, poetry, but, in time, might also consider collections of essays or short stories. Novels will be a rare crop from the field’s basket. Right now, we are focused on literary food for adults, but keep an open mind for treats for young adults and children; tomorrow can bring many surprises.
We are not accepting submissions at this time. That will come later, so keep checking in. Our prime focus in the future will be on providing publication, probably a biennial prize, to authors of first-time poetry collections. We look forward to supporting emerging voices or those that don’t get heard enough. The quality of the work itself will always be our guide. And of course we will always give special consideration to imaginative works that strongly reflect our place within nature.
Our first poetry collection to leave the field, while ready for dining and dancing pleasure, awaits a proper lift-off in the way of a post-pandemic feast. We hope this is just around the corner in June 2022! After this, you can order a hard copy. E-books will be available at a later date. It is important to note that this press is, of course, a labour of love; however, any and all funds from purchases or donations will go directly to our mission of providing and promoting literary works or other educational projects integral to the Commons.
For now, we’ve prepared a preview for you of our first harvest, namely a poetry collection entitled The Erratics of B.D. Balm.
B.D. Balm has been published in a variety of print and on-line literary journals. As our first collection of poetry, we are proud to share with you such an imaginative, often startling, vision of nature and human intricacies, expressed in a compelling, playful language that often takes us to those strange and familiar places where incongruity, tension, ambiguity, dissent, and rapture live mysteriously under the same wide sky. For a couple of samples from the book, please see Edible Soil Review in our website.
A Biography by B.D. Balm
Unlike the King of Kensington, Nataraja, To no Shikibu, Ed Gorey, Marlene Dietrich, Winnie the Pooh, Mr. Fawlty, Aretha, and many other extraordinary talents– and contrary to extensive social-media rumour– B.D. Balm did not ensue from immaculate conception. His parents gave him the best the universe had to offer, and then set him free in the wolverine wilds. As an adventurous hunter, he would have preferred being an egret. He has not liked being without real wings. Or antlers. Or a stinger. He was blessed to have received his higher education from a sacred choir of lichen in an erratics field somewhere in Patagonia. From some heather in the glen, he has received multiple awards for walking and laughing. If he ever dies, he will cry black-eyed-susan petals. He is beyond grateful to have been sent to your beautiful planet.