Passager

11/22/2022

American Book Fest

Last year's poetry release – Grandfather's Mandolin by Fran Markover – was just named a 2022 Best Book Awards Winner! 🥳 CONGRATULATIONS, Fran!

Read more about Fran and her stunning collection on our website: https://www.passagerbooks.com/grandfathers-mandolin-by-fran-markover/

Read the announcement: http://americanbookfest.com/generalfiction/poetry.html

AMERICAN BOOK FEST covers books from all sections of the publishing industry—mainstream, independent, & self-published.

09/08/2022

Time flies! We're entering the LAST WEEK to submit to our special upcoming Open Issue.

Christine Lincoln, Passager’s friend, writer, teacher, artist, community leader and activist, is guest editing this next issue of Passager Journal, alongside a team of remarkable women you can meet on our staff page: https://www.passagerbooks.com/about-us/

It's a themed issue, centered around Ancestral and Generational Trauma. What does that include? Watch a short video with Christine about her inspiring vision for this issue on our website or pages (the pinned post), then head over to https://www.passagerbooks.com/submit/ for complete submission guidelines.

The reading period closes at midnight on September 15. (Paper submissions should be postmarked 9/15.)

07/26/2022

Sugar House Review(s)

"TIDAL WAVE shows us how memories lie in wait, so often surfacing during moments when we are otherwise engaged. Accessible and straightforward, and imbued with a wry sense of humor, this book is the work of a poet who’s witnessed an enormous amount of change, and whose memories’ power and energy have not diminished."

Thanks for the great review, Sugar House!
https://www.passagerbooks.com/tidal-wave-by-dennis-h-lee/

Sugar House Review Book Reviews

07/06/2022

We have been sitting on some exciting news . . . and we finally get to tell you about it!

Christine Lincoln, Passager’s friend, writer, teacher, artist, community leader and activist, will be guest editing the upcoming Open Issue of our journal.

It will also be a themed issue, centered around Ancestral Trauma.

Watch the video to meet Christine and learn more about her remarkable vision for this issue, then head over to https://www.passagerbooks.com/submit/ for submission guidelines. The reading period opens July 15!

06/17/2022

Book Prize Celebrates Older Poets

Thanks for the great article, Poets & Writers!

Recognizing that talent and relevance have no age limit, the Henry Morgenthau III First Book Poetry Prize from Passager Books spotlights debuts by poets age seventy and older.

06/09/2022

We're excited to announce the winner of the 2022 Passager Poetry Contest: David Bergman, of Baltimore!

As a poet in his 70s, he says:

"Writing poetry is no less difficult now that I am in my seventies than it was when I was in high school, but it is more exciting since I am freer from fear and outside expectations . . . When I was younger, I wrote to win favor with editors, scholars, my teachers and sometime my students. Now it is enough if I please myself, which I rarely do."

The poetry contest issue, featuring a long interview Bergman, is due out this September.

We hope you'll join us in celebrating Bergman and all of our honorable mentions! See the full list on our website: https://www.passagerbooks.com/announcing-the-2022-passager-poetry-contest/

Congratulations, poets!

Photo by Gioncarlo Valentine.

05/18/2022

An excerpt of "Music" from Burning Bright

One of the poems featured in this week's podcast is “Bessie Ferguson Sings Jazz Songs for her Supper" by artist-poet Larnell Custis Butler, from her book, Improvise in the Amen Corner. Listen to this short clip to learn how Butler begins to draw – then visit https://www.passagerbooks.com/music-22/ to see and hear how one art form feeds another.

05/13/2022

Joe Pacheco reading "No More Heavy Poems"

Joe Pacheco reading "No More Heavy Poems" from the 2022 Passager Open Issue.

If you missed the reading a few weeks ago, you can still watch the recording in full on our website!
https://www.passagerbooks.com/events/

05/11/2022

Craig Hukill reading "Rivals for My Affections"

Craig Hukill reading an excerpt of "Rivals for My Affections" from Freddie Lee Wilson's memoir, featured in the 2022 Passager Open Issue.

Enjoy the full reading for this issue on our website at: https://www.passagerbooks.com/events/

05/09/2022

Riba Taylor from the 2022 Passager Open Issue

Riba Taylor reading an excerpt of her memoir "Crossings" from the 2022 Passager Open Issue.

If you missed the reading we hosted a few weeks ago, you can now watch the recording in full on our website. Enjoy! https://www.passagerbooks.com/events/

04/30/2022

Sarah Yerkes Turns 104!

Today Passager poet Sarah Yerkes turns 104!

Three years ago we published Sarah's first book, Days of Blue and Flame, when she was 101. A couple weeks ago we asked her to read "A Byte of Apple," one of the first poems she wrote in her 90s when, as she explains in the video, "a whole new world opened up and I wrote like mad."

You can learn more about Sarah and her book, Days of Blue and Flame, on our website: https://www.passagerbooks.com/days-of-blue-and-flame-by-sarah-yerkes/

Happy Birthday, Sarah! You're an inspiration to everyone who worries it's too late to start something new.

04/29/2022

These last few April days bring us one more Poetry Month creativity project from Passager intern Breasia Boyd, using old Passager issues as inspiration. She dug deep into our archives for this one! She explains:

"This week I read Passager Issue #6 (Summer, 1991), a special themed issue focusing on old letters, some dating back to 1861. In my MFA workshop this week we read Victoria Chang's Dear Memory, a collection of prose written in epistolary form. We also wrote haibuns, a poetic form which consists of a prose piece followed by a haiku. It inspired me to make a haibun using a letter from Passager as a starting point.

"I chose 'Dear Daughter Jessie' written in 1949 by Thos Williamson, submitted to Passager by Mary Friend Williamson. In the letter, he expresses himself in a beautifully poetic way, and I felt that a haiku would fit this piece well.

"Haikus are difficult for me because of the 5-7-5 syllable rule and the pressure to write strong lines within such a confined space. I enjoyed this challenge!"

* * *

August 11, 1949

Dear daughter Jessie:

This is written by reason of your letter referring to what
mother has said to you in letters to you. I have read that part
of your letter a good many times—yes, Jessie to my mind no
husband and wife could have loved each other more—
It began early in life at our little country school, Pleasant
Hill, she about sixteen, I about seventeen and it never
wavered throughout the years—Mother’s love was boundless
and genuine and true—It went to our five children in full
measure and impartially and to our grandchildren with
equal fervor—
And how fervently she would say “I love my home”—
In turn I know she was loved by all who knew her—
I have tried to be worthy of her love and will be happy if
our lives contribute to the happiness of those who follow as
the result of our Union—

Your father
Thos Williamson

I have not written a letter in years so excuse its looks.

* * *

Once a seed of love
sprouted in generations
loving in return

—Breasia Boyd

04/27/2022

A reminder to all the wonderful 50-plus-year-old poets out there that there's still a few days left to submit to the Passager Poetry Contest. The winner receives $1000, publication and an interview in Passager. We also publish all the honorable mentions in Passager.

(If you have won honorable mention recently and been published in the contest issue, you can still submit for the first-place prize!)

Send us up to five poems by the April 30th post-mark date; Submittable is open for online submissions until midnight for the night owls. Full guidelines on our website at https://www.passagerbooks.com/submit/

04/20/2022

Bringing you Part 3 of our April Poetry Month creativity project with Passager intern Breasia Boyd!

This week, Breasia chose a piece from the Passager archives that she wanted others to read, and why. We hope you enjoy Mira's poem, and what Breasia asks you, dear reader, to notice:

WHAT COMES AFTER IS MYSTERY
(from the 2007 Poetry Contest issue)

Stranded in tangled jasmine
outside my kitchen window
by a veil of leaves and blossoms,
that draw me to its fragrance –
a honey bee to nectar.
Vines curl around my arms, legs, ribs
holding me still.
Only my breath is free
to inhale a scent of eighty summers.

*

Looking inside
through the glass I see
scraps of love and leftovers of a restless life,
crumbs of laughter scattered by kids,
dark stains of sorrow, empty
bottles once festive offerings.

On the floor covered with dust a car key
lost by a man I remember in Harris tweed.

by Mira Kores

* * * from Breasia:

For National Poetry Month I want to shout out this fabulous poem by Mira Kores. “What Comes After Is Mystery” contains so many great lines and is packed with such vivid imagery!

I have been reading and writing many poems lately that contain flowers, and I felt pulled into this poem upon reading its first line: “Stranded in tangled jasmine” and then, in the fifth line, that similar idea of feeling pleasantly stuck: “Vines curl around my arms, legs, ribs/ holding me still.”

The first image starts to awaken the sense of smell. “Outside my kitchen window/ by a veil of leaves and blossoms/ that draw me to its fragrance/ a honey bee to nectar”: and continues to linger into the last line: “to inhale a scent of eighty summers.”

The second stanza carries a different tone than the first, more melancholic: “scraps of love and leftovers of a restless life/ dark stains of sorrow, empty/ bottles once festive offerings.”

These images invoke the idea of the speaker reflecting on their long life; “love and leftovers of a restless life” makes me wonder if the speaker is speaking on memories and events of her lifetime, “dark stains of sorrow” makes me question if there are any regrets or sadness that the speaker is referring to and “empty/ bottles once festive offerings” makes me think of empty liquor bottles.

I try to place myself in the poem as the speaker to gain a better understanding of what the speaker’s focus is on the poem. Because of the interesting and mysterious title, the subtle hint of the speaker’s age and the change of tone between the two stanzas, I’ve found myself thinking of loss and the afterlife (what comes after death?). The last line raises this curiosity more with the mention of a man she briefly remembers.

I’ve enjoyed diving into this poem, and recommend this gorgeous piece for anyone to read for the month of poetry!

🌺

04/13/2022

Deadline extended! ✨

Passager, a nonprofit literary press for writers over 50, is interested in new, diverse voices for our annual poetry contest. The winning poet receives $1000 and publication in the upcoming issue of Passager journal. Honorable mentions published. View our full guidelines here: https://www.passagerbooks.com/submit/

04/08/2022

Continuing Passager intern Breasia Boyd's National Poetry Month project –

Passager editor Kendra Kopelke believes strongly in the work of play. She says, "All artists and writers play. Play does not necessarily mean being goofy, it means no judgement, no rules, keep moving, use your imagination, have some fun. You find something that sparks you and follow that thread. You give in to it and let go. Maybe you lose track of time! (That's the ultimate bliss.)"

This week, Breasia's exercise in play was an "opposite poem," a new poem using the opposite words of an existing poem. She chose "5 A.M. in a Violent Country" by Judith Goedeke, from the 2019 Passager Poetry Contest, as her inspiration to write "5 P.M. in a Peaceful City." It started as a true opposite poem, but play led her elsewhere, she explained, to "my own little version of Judith's poem. I wrote it with Baltimore in mind (notice the irony with the title in relation to Baltimore, or city life in general)."

If you missed them, visit our page to read Breasia's erasure poems from last week, and stay tuned for more posts like these this April.

Poets, how do you play? 🌺

04/07/2022

CONGRATULATIONS to Mark Elber, Passager's 2022 Henry Morgenthau lll First Book Poetry Prize Winner! 👏

Elber, from Fall River, Massachusetts, will receive a $3,000 prize and publication of his first book of poems, Headstone, due out in Fall 2022. Read one of his winning poems, Résumé, on our website: https://www.passagerbooks.com/announcing-the-2022-henry-morgenthau-iii-poetry-prize/

Scroll through these images to see our full list of honorable mentions. Congratulations, poets!

The Henry Morgenthau III First Book Poetry Prize is awarded biennially to a poet 70 or older. Thank you to everyone who sent us their excellent manuscripts for this prize. There were so many beautiful, original, and surprising poems in the manuscripts under consideration.

Share and help us spread the good news!

04/05/2022

Upcoming deadline for the 2022 Passager Poetry Contest! Winner receives $1000 and publication in Passager, a journal for writers over 50. Reading period closes April 15th. See the guidelines here: https://www.passagerbooks.com/submit/

04/01/2022

Happy National Poetry Month, Passagers!

This Spring, we have a wonderful intern (two, actually! 😊) who is celebrating with a look back through the Passager archives, taking notice of what resonates with her, and responding artfully. Breasia Boyd is a poet pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts at the University of Baltimore and has been helping us catalogue our 30+ years of publications. Here are two erasure poems she created from poems in Passager Issue 51, the 2011 Poetry Contest: "Just Love" by Richard Jay Shelton and "Spousely-Held" by Susan Cohen. We love the leaps and surprises she’s made with these.

Read more about Breasia on our staff page at https://www.passagerbooks.com/about-us/

12/02/2021

Baltimore area friends, we could see each other in real life again! We’ll be at this Baltimore Hebrew Congregation event on Sunday with a table of 20%-off-books and a more than healthy eagerness to see and talk to you 😁😁 Hope to see you there! re Hebrew Congregation

09/03/2021

Gil Arzola | Rattlecast 109

If you were looking forward to Gilbert Arzola coming to Baltimore this October, we're sorry to say we've canceled the reading due to covid :(

In happier news, the pandemic isn't otherwise dampening Gil's poetry career. Recently awarded a 2021 Rattle Chapbook Prize winner, the 2019 Passager Poet (and author of Prayers of Little Consequence) will be the feature of this Sunday's Rattlecast. Watch it live online with us at 8 pm EDT! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzhwDBOf6qs

CONGRATULATIONS Gil!

Rattlecast 109 features our first of three 2021 Rattle Chapbook Prize winners, Gil Arzola. Gil Arzola’s first book of poetry, Prayers of Little Consequence, ...

07/29/2021

Hello Friends! We have a little announcement.

Passager is taking a vacation for the month of August. It’s been a non-stop year and we need to refresh ourselves! Rejuvenate! Get away from the screen!

In the meantime, you can still find what you need on our website. You can subscribe or renew with us for the upcoming issue of Passager, due out in September. This issue features the winners of our 2021 Poetry Contest. To subscribe: https://shoppassager.square.site

To order Passager books while we’re away, go https://www.spdbooks.org or Amazon.

Questions about submitting poetry or prose to our upcoming issue? Visit our our guidelines http://www.passagerbooks.com/submit/, or our FAQ's About Submitting https://www.passagerbooks.com/faqs-about-submitting/

If you still can’t find the answer you need, email us on September 1. Deadline for submitting to the next issue is September 15. You can use Submittable or snail mail, postmarked September 15.

Explore Passager’s growing community by going to https://www.passagerbooks.com and checking out books, journals, the Burning Bright podcast, Pandemic Diaries, author videos, and more.

And if you live in Baltimore or nearby, mark your calendar for October 23, when poet Gilbert Arzola will come from Valparaiso, Indiana to give a special Passager reading. We will roll out the red carpet and celebrate this beautiful writer, whose first book, Prayers of Little Consequence, was released just at the beginning of the shut down.

Enjoy your summer and we will see you in September!

Mary, Kendra, Christine, Rosanne and Pantea

05/17/2021

My First Play: Written in Life's Second Half

"When the playwriting bug bit hard five years ago, it was exciting, but also challenging. One day, I was giddy, feeling my play was funny and insightful. The next day, plagued with self-doubt, I wanted to throw it out, wondering: Who was I to think I could do this?"

And she's doing it! Passager author Nancy Davidoff Kelton is adapting her hilarious memoir—Finding Mr. Rightstein—for a new audience. Read the whole story here:

https://www.nextavenue.org/playwriting-lifes-second-half/

Keep at it, Nancy! 👏

A tale of the backstory and backstage support I've received

04/30/2021

Sarah Yerkes Turns 103!

Please join us in celebrating Sarah Yerkes’ 103rd birthday with a reading by the poet herself. Happy Birthday, Sarah!

04/28/2021

New distillation by Alean Saunders-Coffey, based on the entry by Gary Kubina.

We echo the optimism highlighted here!

04/28/2021

Just a few more days left to submit to our Poetry Contest ending April 30th. (Yes, it is a postmark deadline, and you can submit on Submittable up until midnight!) https://www.passagerbooks.com/submit/

04/27/2021

Thoughtful new by John Wilson, based on the entry by Julene Tripp Weaver.

Just a few more days left in ! Help us send it out on a wave of pandepoemiums. Visit our website at passagerbooks.com to learn how to make and share your own.

04/22/2021

New by Arleen Williams, based on an entry by Julia Park Tracey from March 22✨

04/21/2021

Announcing the 2021 Rattle Chapbook Prize Winners

Gilbert Arzola, author of Prayers of Little Consequence, is one of this year's Rattle Chapbook Prize winners for his manuscript, The Death of a Migrant Worker!

CONGRATULATIONS GIL!!! We're thrilled for you and all the new readers that will get to meet you and your poems.

Congratulations to Gil Arzola, Elizabeth Johnston Ambrose, and Amanda Newell! Their chapbooks will start appearing with issues of Rattle this fall.

04/15/2021

Poetry contest deadline extended! Submit until April 30th. https://www.passagerbooks.com/submit/

04/15/2021

Using the instructions from yesterday’s post, Passager editor Kendra Kopelke gave it a go! Her is based on an entry by Golnaz Montagne.

04/14/2021

Colorful by Irene Apostoleris, based on the diaries entry by Cheryl Rubino from Greeley, Colorado.

Irene shares how to make your own: At the top of a Word document, there is a place to choose “Draw.” Once that opens, a horizontal column is exposed offering “draw,” “erase” and various drawing tools. To cover the original diary entry, use the “Highlighter.” When you touch that, touch the little check mark which will offer you an array of colors.

I drew the pears at the bottom of my poem with the “Pen” and colored it with the highlighter. Use the Erase tool to change or cover up a boo boo. The colors are pretty transparent, so using one on top of the other gives you additional colors. 🎨

04/13/2021

“I might
I will
I am”

We love the poetry you’re finding in these narratives! Stirring new by Alean Saunders-Coffey (Oakland, CA) based on the January 5, 2021 entry by Ann Webber (Betterton, MD).

We’ll have a colorful new pandepoemium to share tomorrow, with instructions from the artist on how to make your own using just a few tools in Microsoft word. (Get an early peek in your inbox tonight by adding yourself to our email list at passagerbooks.com before 7 EDT 🤫👀)

04/08/2021

Lovely new by Joyce Ritchie of Baltimore, MD, based on the April 21, 2020 Pandemic Diaries entry by Catherine Young of Richland County, WI. 🌟🌊🌷

We love the artistic collaboration happening with these! Keep them coming. (See prior post about how you can participate!)

Joyce Ritchie

04/07/2021

You know April is National Poetry Month—but at Passager it’s also Pandepoemium!

What’s Pandepoemium? A new weekly series of erasure poems created from Passager’s Pandemic Diaries. What’s an erasure poem? Also called a blackout poem, it’s made from taking an existing text and selecting words in the text that make a new poem. The rest of the text is erased, or blacked out. The pandepoemium in the example above is by Jon Shorr, based on a June 17 entry by Susan Felt. Flip through the images to see how the diary became a poem!

We’ll be sharing these all month on our Instagram and FaceBook accounts.

Want to participate? Choose a Pandemic Diary entry from our website (passagerbooks.com) and make your own poem. Send it to us! Tag us here ( for Instagram!) or email it to [email protected].

04/01/2021

It's National Poetry Month, and we have a lineup of poets and poetry activities to inspire and uplift you . . . Join us tomorrow for a Friday night nightcap with these terrific poets, and bring a poem of your own for the open mic!

We are so pleased to celebrate April’s First Friday and National Poetry Month with four award-winning poets and/or published Passager poets: Diana Anhalt, Gil Arzola, Harry Bauld, and Moira Egan.

As usual, we will have an open mic for the first portion of the reading. If you wish to read during the open mic, simply enter your name in the chat. We need to limit the open mic to one poem each.

Topic: Poetry Reading
Time: Apr 2, 2021 07:00 PM EST

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/95978950373?pwd=YlRvN0JxUzRpUHYycmU5M0RaTlMxdz09

Meeting ID: 959 7895 0373
Passcode: 934120
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03/25/2021

Passager Presents: Gilbert Arzola, author of Prayers of Little Consequence

"Writing is about making someone else's life a little easier by something you did, said or wrote." Passager author Gilbert Arzola shares his thoughts about what it was like growing up Mexican American in a white community and what his family, his students, and all of us can learn from that experience.

If you enjoyed listening to Gil here, please join us on April 2nd for an open mic followed by featured Passager poets Diana Anhalt, Gilbert Arzola, Harry Bauld and Moira Egan at the Ragged Edge Poetry First Friday! 7 pm EDT. Visit http://www.passagerbooks.com/events/ for the Zoom link.

03/17/2021

Coming up soon! Ragged Edge is hosting four of our Passager poets for their First Friday series on April 2nd, 7 pm EDT over Zoom. Link forthcoming on The Ragged Edge Coffee House page. Hope you can join us!