Two Sylvias Press is an independent press located in the Seattle area. We publish poetry, memoir, essays, books on the craft of writing, and creativity tools, such as The Poet Tarot, The Daily Poet, Everything is Writable, PR for Poets, Demystifying the Manuscript, and the bestselling resource for poets, The Weekly Muse.
Click here to see all of our books/products.
Click here to see all of our books/products.
Called "the Ultimate Resource for Poets" -- Two Sylvias' Weekly Muse
Two Sylvias Press has created a resource to help you write and publish more poems--The Weekly Muse! Sent to your inbox every Sunday morning, the Weekly Muse brings you poetry prompts, exercises, #ProTips on publishing your work, craft tips, inspiration, exclusive interviews, and a curated list of places to submit and more!
And now if you sign up for the Weekly Muse, you get all of our Zoom classes for FREE!
Our incredible Zoom salons featuring renowned poets like Jane Hirshfield, Maggie Smith, Diane Seuss, Jane Wong, January Gill O'Neil, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Susan Rich, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, and Kelli Russell Agodon! And these Zoom events are not open for the general public, only for paid subscribers of the Weekly Muse. And if you can't make it to the live Zoom session, the class will be recorded for you.
You will also expand your poetry community with our private Weekly Muse Facebook group where Two Sylvias Editors pop in to answer your questions and leave feedback on your poems. Join our exclusive Muse Community here! Or sign up for our free newsletter. We're glad you're here!
Browse Our New Releases & Bestsellers:
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TWO SYLVIAS NEWS:
Available Now from Two Sylvias Press!
Horns by Tiffany Midge, Winner of the Two Sylvias Press Wilder Series Book Prize
Tiffany Midge’s Horns is a comedic romp and a razor-edged burlesque, with seriousness in its bones. Midge’s cast of characters, drawn from pop culture, history, and literature in equal measure, is epic, from the Maiden on the Land O’Lakes Butter Box to Martha Stewart to Corpse Bride, the Girl Scouts of America to Satan himself. Her structures are as abundant as her performers. There are lists, outlines, contemporary ghazals and sonnets, interviews, statistical round-ups, and marriage vows. There’s nuance, too, and spot-on moments of lyricism: “Her dresses, hung in the closet like sides of beef,” she writes in one poem. And at the end of “Matrimonial Vows for Cannibals:” “I will savor your brain for last, that soft, sweet rind, / your edible, desirable, loveable mind.” True to its title, Horns is sharp, dangerous, and melodic, a collection that resonates with joyous critique. --Diane Seuss
Click here to learn more about Horns
Horns by Tiffany Midge, Winner of the Two Sylvias Press Wilder Series Book Prize
Tiffany Midge’s Horns is a comedic romp and a razor-edged burlesque, with seriousness in its bones. Midge’s cast of characters, drawn from pop culture, history, and literature in equal measure, is epic, from the Maiden on the Land O’Lakes Butter Box to Martha Stewart to Corpse Bride, the Girl Scouts of America to Satan himself. Her structures are as abundant as her performers. There are lists, outlines, contemporary ghazals and sonnets, interviews, statistical round-ups, and marriage vows. There’s nuance, too, and spot-on moments of lyricism: “Her dresses, hung in the closet like sides of beef,” she writes in one poem. And at the end of “Matrimonial Vows for Cannibals:” “I will savor your brain for last, that soft, sweet rind, / your edible, desirable, loveable mind.” True to its title, Horns is sharp, dangerous, and melodic, a collection that resonates with joyous critique. --Diane Seuss
Click here to learn more about Horns
Available Now from Two Sylvias Press!
The Call of Paradise by Majda Gama, Winner of the Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize
The speaker of Majda Gama’s The Call of Paradise is a “[b]ride of many cities, daughtered by the East & mothered by the West,” with poems placed in Beirut and punk L.A., Bab Makkah, the Al-Ain Oasis, and “in the red, backhoed dirt of Virginia,” the Red Sea and “the summer / Shoreline in America,” visible and invisible, her hair both black and neon pink, occupying the edge but “unable to submerge.” Even the poems’ forms, at times, feature parenthetical weavings, and ghazal-like shifts and dualities. The result of this fluid positionality is nuanced, hushed witness, oud-scented ritual, and deep artfulness. The speaker may not arrive in paradise, but at the termination of this beautiful sequence of poems, she hears its call. ~Diane Seuss, Contest Judge
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Available Now from Two Sylvias Press!
Omena Bay Testament by Gail Griffin, Winner of the Two Sylvias Press Wilder Poetry Book Prize
"Gail Griffin finds inspiration from all the corners of life, from the bold headlines to the dark fairytales of childhood. In all of the conversations, lessons, and silences, Griffin finds new questions, moments to celebrate, and a pain that hardens us into something unburnable. These powerful poems hold to the body's latest troubles, the troubles we set down for the last time, and the 'bright ferocity of what's left.' Rich with revelations of the self and the world, this book offers us a testament of attention as we move into new seasons and new shores." —Traci Brimhall
Click here to learn more about Omena Bay Testament
NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE!
Demystifying the Manuscript: Essays and Interviews on Creating a Book of Poems by Susan Rich and Kelli Russell Agodon
Book creation is an art and Demystifying the Manuscript offers many perspectives on how to put together a book of poems through the essays and interviews of contemporary prize-winning poets and editors. While there isn’t a single “correct” method for creating a book of poems, Demystifying the Manuscript is filled with expert advice on all aspects of manuscript creation: ordering your poems, determining your goals, insider tips from the editors of journals and small presses, and everything in between. Demystifying the Manuscript will guide you through the process of creating your best book of poems whether you are an emerging writer or an established poet.
Click here for purchasing information for Demystifying the Manuscript
Demystifying the Manuscript: Essays and Interviews on Creating a Book of Poems by Susan Rich and Kelli Russell Agodon
Book creation is an art and Demystifying the Manuscript offers many perspectives on how to put together a book of poems through the essays and interviews of contemporary prize-winning poets and editors. While there isn’t a single “correct” method for creating a book of poems, Demystifying the Manuscript is filled with expert advice on all aspects of manuscript creation: ordering your poems, determining your goals, insider tips from the editors of journals and small presses, and everything in between. Demystifying the Manuscript will guide you through the process of creating your best book of poems whether you are an emerging writer or an established poet.
Click here for purchasing information for Demystifying the Manuscript
Available Now from Two Sylvias Press!
At Night My Body Waits by Saúl Hernández, Winner of the Two Sylvias Press 2021 Chapbook Prize
"Saúl Hernández's stunning book, At Night My Body Waits, contains multitudes. Hernández explores numerous themes such as grief, immigration, borders, the queer body, sexual abuse, politics, and much more. Put simply, the writing in this book is gorgeous: "Dreams run in my family. In mine I/nail water to the wall, it runs down//my hands and splashes at my feet..." or "I take sleeping pills sometimes,//I become heavy enough to not dream." These poems rely on language to create tension, to express the difficult road of self-acceptance and freedom. This is a coming of age story, of heartbreak, of struggle, of identity, of border, and ultimately of empowerment." --Victoria Chang, Chapbook Contest Judge
Click here to learn more about At Night My Body Waits
Now Available from Two Sylvias Press!
Nightmares & Miracles by Michelle Bitting, Winner of the Wilder Poetry Prize
"In Nightmares & Miracles, Michelle Bitting again proves herself as a poet, her inquiries vital and deep, her concerns darkly personal and conscientiously worldly. Charged with remarkable imagination and formal dexterity, these poems ring with clarity and precision. Michelle deftly navigates the 'unglamorous' noir territories of personal and political trauma while embracing the erotic mess of domestic life as 'unstoppable fire' where she ultimately concludes 'every stroke(‘s) a masterpiece…' She threads myth, loss, and love into intricate braids of bold prose and lyrical turns, holding her readers spellbound." ~Dorianne Laux
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Just Released from Two Sylvias Press!
Shade of Blue Trees by Kelly Cressio-Moeller, Finalist for the Wilder Poetry Prize
"In Shade of Blue Trees, her astonishing debut collection, Kelly Cressio-Moeller weaves an intricate tapestry of imagery from the ferocity of grief, and the litany of disappearances we all inevitably bear, knowing every single moment something or someone is leaving. So much to praise in these resonant poems formed from the fissured bedrock of longing and sorrow with wry flashes of humor, this world is running out of virgins. There is nothing extraneous here, there is passion and wisdom, You taught me how not to live: all those years you were not dead but might as well have been. Each poem a hidden grotto to be re-visited, a quiet haunting in which we may take refuge." ~Amber Coverdale Sumrall
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Available from Two Sylvias Press!
Disappearing Queen by Gail Martin, Winner of the Wilder Poetry Prize
"The poems of Disappearing Queen emerge from the consciousness of a woman who has been on the planet long enough to know the bliss and price of embodiment. Martin writes with bold candor about the era of life when the vacations are cold, bones implode, and one faces the atrophy of joy. Her directness is frontal and devastating. “Is there any queen at all in it?” she asks. If this gorgeous, clear-sighted book offers an answer, it is yes—the queen is poetry as Gail Martin practices it, even as she documents, with lyric intensity, her shimmering disappearance." ~Diane Seuss
Click here to learn more about Disappearing Queen
Available from Two Sylvias Press!
Hallucinating a Homestead by Meg E. Griffitts, Winner of the Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize!
"Hallucinating a Homestead is astonishing. From its first urgent poem through all the formally playful and surreal poems thereafter, this collection surprises at every turn. Both abundant and elliptical, these poems have all the hallmarks of a fairytale, but more than one wolf and witch resides here. Griffitts’ amplitude suffuses every line with surreal images and darkly joyful leaps into a hundred unknowns. Here, where "body becomes word," the mouth is a weapon of both attack and defense. Pain is a raw material waiting to be used, waiting to be spun into something transformed, something that can be held, and maybe even forgiven." —Traci Brimhall, Chapbook Contest Judge
Click here to learn more about Hallucinating a Homestead
Available from Two Sylvias Press!
The Whimsical Muse: Poetic Play for Busy Creatives by Danell Jones
The Whimsical Muse provides eighty-four concrete reasons to write. Eighty-four exercises that you can begin right now. They require no planning or preparation. Just open the book and go. In under a minute, your creative juices will be flowing. All of the prompts here can be adapted to suit the moment. Each one has two parts: “Quick” and “Lingering.”
"Every page of this book is a potential poem, and each quotation, each suggestion for either a brief exercise or a more extended exploration is designed to get us past whatever stands in the way." --Tami Haaland (Montana Poet Laureate 2013-2015)
Click here to learn more about The Whimsical Muse
RELEASE DATE: OCT. 1, 2020
Deathbed Sext by Christopher Salerno: Winner of the Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize!
"In the title poem, Christopher Salerno writes, “I want to waltz with you away from what// once was monstrously male/ about me and I also/ want to survive.” The and here is crucial, and emblematic of the collection, which poem after poem says yes, and. Yes, high and low culture. Yes, both sext and ghost as nouns “you can verb.” Yes, loving and leaving. Yes, familiar and strange; dead serious and absurd. “Everything is a piece of something else,” Salerno writes, and everything gets to stay, because these deftly crafted poems are elastic enough to hold it all." — Maggie Smith, Contest Judge
Click here to learn more about Deathbed Sext
RELEASE DATE: SEPT. 1, 2020
Crown of Wild by Erica Bodwell: Winner of the Two Sylvias Press Wilder Prize!
"Crown of Wild is a joyful book, taking its pleasures out of the redemptive possibilities of both language and life. The lament here is real, but so is the frolic and play. And that’s why you should read it and will love it." — Adrian Blevins
Click here to learn more about Crown of Wild
NEW FROM TWO SYLVIAS PRESS!
Everything is Writable: 240 Poetry Prompts from Two Sylvias Press by Kelli Russell Agodon & Annette Spaulding-Convy
This collection of poetry prompts arises from two of our popular online offerings created to inspire poets: The Two Sylvias Press Advent Calendar of Poetry Prompts and The Two Sylvias Press April Prompts for National Poetry Month. Whether you are just beginning to write poetry or you are an established poet, these writing starts will offer fresh ideas and new directions for your work.
Be inspired and write often!
Click here to learn more about Everything is Writable
Check back soon for more news on upcoming publications and other opportunities for writers from Two Sylvias Press.
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Two Sylvias Press was founded in 2010 by poets
Kelli Russell Agodon and Annette Spaulding-Convy. Two Sylvias Press draws its inspiration from the poetic literary talent of Sylvia Plath and the editorial business sense of Sylvia Beach. Contact: PO Box 1524, Kingston, WA 98346 twosylviaspress (at) gmail.com |
