https://www.albany.edu/offcourse
 http://offcourse.org
 ISSN 1556-4975

A journal for poetry, criticism, reviews, stories and essays published by Ricardo and Isabel Nirenberg since 1998.
See our guidelines.   Mail queries and contributions to: [email protected]
Offcourse gratefully acknowledges the server support provided by The University at Albany.

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Issue #87, December 2021

 

• Three Poems Inspired by Early Chinese Poetry, by George Freek
• Five New Poems by Lou Gallo
• "Kabul, 116 Plan B, and Lessons", poems by Miriam Kotzin
• "How Could They?", an essay by Ricardo Nirenberg
• "Knowledge" and other poems by Louis Phillips
• "The Persistence of Forgetting" and other poems by Frederick Pollack
• "What dog?", a poem by Charles Rammelkamp
• "Afternoon Tea" and other poems by Edward Reilly
• "Reading into a Red Tide" and other poems by Stephen Reilly
• "What would you have chosen" and other poems by Claire Scott
• "The Laughing Face of Youth" and more poems by Ian C. Smith
• "Mailman of Songs" and other poems by Steven M. Smith
• "Song of Loss" and other poems by JR Solonche
• Three Poems and Part of a Memoir by Daniel Sundahl
• "Born in the U.S.A.", an essay by Dennis Vannatta
• "Lenticular Plastic Machinery" and more poems by Mark Young
• "Knives on a Table", poems by Peter Mladinic, reviewed by David Reich

Congratulations to:

• Louis Phillips on the publication of The Music of Light Regret, published by World Audience, now available at Amazon
• Steven Smith on the publication of Strongman Contest, by Kelsay Books. The book is also available at Amazon
• Travis Stephens on the publication of skeeter bit & still drunk, by Finishing Line Press

 

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Issue #86, September 2021

• "Hunger Moon" and "Morning Walk", poems by Ruth Bavetta
• "PTSD Nights" and other poems by Rose Mary Boehm
• "The Occurrence in Tienzheng", a short story by Alzo David-West
• "The Many Uses of Soap", flash fiction by Salvatore Difalco
• "Undiscerned Causes" and other poems by Thomas Fink and Maya Mason
• "Lost and not Found" and other poems by Lou Gallo
• "What a Country" and "Movies and Life", poems by John Grey
• "Activate the Actuarial" and more poems by Heikki Huotari
• "Thursday, August 31" and more poems by Anita Lerek
• "A Field of Femininity" and other poems by Sheila Murphy
• "On the Seashore", a story by Ricardo Nirenberg
• "The Music of Light Regret" and other poems by Louis Phillips
• "Dream House", a story by Richard Risemberg
• "Exile's Pang" and other poems by Ian C. Smith
• "Notes on 'Description of a Struggle' ", a poem by R.L. Swihart
• "Citizen Rat" and more poems by Richard Weaver
• "Hsi-Wei and the Wood-Block Printer", a story by Robert Wexelblatt
• "Song of Air, Earth and Rain", and other poems by Sarah White
• "Maison Cristina", a novel by Eugene K. Garber, ISBN: 978-0-9846994-8-3 Transformation Press 2021. Presented by Ricardo Nirenberg.

 

Congratulations to:

• Jonathan Bracken, on his new edition of Whitman's "Song of Myself", presented as 76 separate poems, now available at Amazon.
• Ute von Funcke, on her poetry collection "Schneisen schlagen", just out from scaneg Verlag, Munich, with illustrations by Claudia von Funcke. ISBN 978-3-89235-316-4. Several poems in this volume have appeared in Offcourse, with translations by Stuart Friebert, to whom the book is dedicated.
• Eugene K. Garber, on his novel "Maison Cristina", to appear in October 2021 from Transformation Press.
• Heikki Huotari, on the imminent publication of his fifth collection, "When Correlation Was Causation", published by Better Than Starbucks Press.

• David Nirenberg and Ricardo Nirenberg, on their book "Uncountable: a Philosophical History of Number from Antiquity to the Present", to appear in October 2021 from U. Chicago Press.
• Fred Skolnik, on "Thoughts for a Rainy Day", a collection of 16 poems (Kelsay Books/Alabaster Leaves, 35 pp) available though Amazon or the website of Kelsay Books.
• J.R. Solonche, on his Selected Poems 2002-2021, which has been nominated for the National Book Award. It is available from Serving House Books, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. An excellent review appears in The Lake: http://www.thelakepoetry.co.uk/reviews/sept21/

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Issue #85, June 2021

• “Ignis fatuus” and “On Hillbilly Heroin”, poems by Rose Mary Boehm
• "Gentile Kaddish" and other poems by Lou Gallo
• "At Camp" and other poems by John Grey
• "Hydrogen", a poem by Daniel Y. Harris
• "NOV", a poem by Irene Koronas
• "Lenten", "Class Photo", and "Census", poems by Miriam Kotzin
• "The Pipe his Father Couldn't Fix", a story by John P. Kristofco
• "Presence" and other poems by Judy Kronenfeld
• "America the Dutiful" and "Musings", poems by Martin H. Levinson
• "Rise and Fall", a story by Alfred Marks
• "Life is Killing my Ass (named after Balaam's by the way)", and more by John Marvin
• "The Other Cheek", a story by Ricardo L. Nirenberg
• Poems by Simon Perchik
• "Zamyatin" and other poems by Fred Pollack
• "Language Police" and "Go, Cubs!", poems by Charles Rammelkamp
• Three Poems by William Rector
• "It is never so simple" and three other poems by Claire Scott
• "Indelible", "Another Easter", and "Ewes", poems by Don E. Thompson
• "The Nurses Call Me", and two other poems by Kelley White
• "Nook" and "The Sphinx", poems, and a painting by Sarah White
• "Oasis" and other poems by Mark Young
• R. Nirenberg reviews "A Portable Chaos", a novel by E.M. Schorb, and "The Thirteenth Studebaker", a collection of short stories by Robert Wexelblatt.

Congratulations to:

• Joel Chace, whose new book fata morgana has just appeared from Unlikely Books.
• Joachim Frank: three of his annotated photographs have been published in Hole in the Head Review, and "The Miracle" —short nonfiction— has been accepted by The Door is a Jar for their Sept 21, 2021 issue.
• Daniel Y. Harris for The Misprision of Agon Hack, Volume IV, The Posthuman Series, just published by BLAZEVox.
• Irene Koronas for lithic cornea, Volume V, The Grammaton Series, just out from BLAZEVox. 
• Ellaraine Lockie: her poem "Pretense", published in Offcourse #84, won first prize in a poetry contest sponsored by the Poetry Society of Virginia.
• Diane Louie, on her book Fractal Shores, winner of the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize.

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Issue #84, March 2021

• "I Never Saw Horizons Until Now" and two other poems by Rose Mary Boehm
• "The Man Who Has Something To Say" and two more poems by Jonathan Bracker
• Three Poems by Sarah Carleton
• "The Notice", a short story by Joachim Frank
• "Flüchtgepäck" and "Ein Weißes Tuch aus Leinen", poems by Ute von Funcke with English translations
• "A Priori" and four other poems by Lou Gallo
• "Copperhead in Leaves" and "Wrong World", two poems by John Grey
• Two Poems by Ellaraine Lockie
• "The Broom" and "Knock on Wood", poems by Peter Mladinic
• "The Meatball Hero", a story by Ricardo Nirenberg
• "Then I could sleep", an essay by Ricardo Nirenberg
• "Candor", a poem by Andy Oram
• New Poems by Louis Phillips
• "Running for God" and other poems by Claire Scott
• "Muhammad Ali and Me" and "Senescence", prose poems by Ian C. Smith
• "Three Days Before Spring" and "Late Spring", two poems by J.R. Solonche
• "Strawberry Sorbet", a story by Michael Tilley
• "A Song for Helen Keller", an essay by Dennis Vannatta
• "Hsi-wei and the Great Wall", a story by Robert Wexelblatt
• "On Copying a Rembrandt Drawing", a poem by Sarah White
• "A PLACE SO DEEP INSIDE AMERICA IT CAN’T BE SEEN—". Poems by Kari Gunter-Seymour, Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, Volume 5. Reviewed by Rose Mary Boehm.

Congratulations to:

• John P. Kristofco on the publication of his short story collection, The Alex Chronicles, The Orchard Street Press, OH, 2020, orchpress.com. Several of the stories have appeared in these pages.
• Robert Wexelblatt, on THE THIRTEENTH STUDEBAKER,  ISBN: 978-1-60964-379-9, a collection of stories soon to appear from BlazeVox Books.

 

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Issue #83, December 2020

PLUME has just published a rich collection in honor of Stuart Friebert. It includes offcoursers Ute von Funcke and Diane Louie among many distinguished writers.

We –Ricardo and Isabel– never met Stuart in person, but his temperament, delightfully informal and accessible, shone through all his quick letters, full of “grins”.   For Issue #81, we had received poems from Diane Vreuls. She had written, “Stuart Friebert suggested...” in her cover letter; we thought it was a student of his, as he had sent us several.  We accepted quickly, and Diane shot back “Fastest acceptance ever!”  When we wrote to Stuart to let him know we had liked his “student’s” work, he just said to be sure to write “Diane” with only one N, with a funny story about a student in one of his classes who spelled her own name with THREE Ns. (She explained “My mother wanted me to be different”.) We began to suspect gato encerrado, and looked up Diane Vreuls: she was Stuart's wife! Classic Stuart.  He then told us it was the first time he and Diane had appeared in the same issue of any publication.

• "Bartering your Soul for Salvation" and other poems by Rose Mary Boehm
• "Time's Wonders" and other poems by Philip Fried
• "Shrieking Girl", a poem by Lou Gallo
• "What's Left" and other poems by Ian Ganassi
• "Fog and Glare" and "After, and Before", poems by Judy Kronenfeld
• Four Poems by James Miller
• "Louis Nirenberg in a Dream", by Ricardo Nirenberg
• "Old Flames", a story by Ricardo Nirenberg
• Poems by Simon Perchik
• "Some of the World is the World", a poem by Louis Phillips
• "Road Ends", a story by Richard Risemberg
• "Sipping Grief" and other poems by Claire Scott
• "Searching Away" and "Another Portrait", poems by Tim Suermondt
• "Triptych: Ninety Versts", poems by R.L. Swihart
• "Work Makes Freedom", a story by Dennis Vannatta

 

Congratulations to:

• Louis Phillips, whose 4: 4 stories, 4 plays, 4 poems, has been published by World Audience and is available at Amazon. com as a paperback or e-book. His new collection of poems, Sunlight Falling to the Lake, is also available from World Audience Inc.
• Richard Merelman, on his new poetry collection, A Door Opens, published from Fireweed Press, Madison, Wisconsin.
• Charles Rammelkamp, whose new chapbook, Mortal Coil, can be obtained from Claire Songbird Press, https://www.claresongbirdspub.com/featured-authors/charles-rammelkamp/
• E.M. Schorb, for Transit: Tales of Mystery, History, and Crime (Hill House, NY, 2020), with an introduction by Pat Mullan. Available from Amazon.
• J.R. Solonche, for Guide to the Perplexed (Serving House Books) and The Moon is the Capital of the World (David Robert Books/Word Tech Communications), both books coming out in 2020.

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