Public Republic

2010 Poetry Chapbook Contest Results
Accents Publishing is proud to announce the results of its 2010 Poetry Chapbook Contest.
Metes and Bounds, by J. Kates, was selected by judge Dr. Richard Taylor.
Plein Jeu, by E. C. Belli, was selected by Accents Publishing Senior Editor Katerina Stoykova-Klemer.
Both of these entries will be published as perfect-bound chapbooks, and [...]

Interview with the visual artist Julie Kaye by Aneliya Angelcheva

Julie Kaye was born in Leeds, United Kingdom. She received her BA at Leeds college of Art. Since her emergence in 2008 Julie Kaye has blended the concerns and methods of Pop and Conceptual art. Evolving new techniques of expressive popular culture to create her own [...]

Photo: vickispix
The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.

Photo: kmndr
Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters: to be able to dare!

Photo: dominicspics
Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.

Peter Kraevski

Photo: yogendra174
Oh, fruit of light!
Swell with love!
Ripen with sadness!
Sweeten juices – dreams!
And let your fragrant thoughts
be honeyed dew
upon your tender skin!

Donal Mahoney

Photo: bsabarnowl
Rogers Park, Chicago
This brilliant winter morning finds
waves of snow on every lawn
and red graffiti dripping
from the walls
of Temple Mizpah
once again
as down the street
stroll ancient men
who every morning
shuffle here for prayer.

Interview with the young photographer Abby Hollandsworth by Elisaveta Baltova
Abby Hollandsworth is a 16 year old photographer, born and raised on the East Coast of the United States. At the age of 12 she bought her first camera, and her passion for photography grew from there. Over time she came up with more and more [...]

Michael Lee Johnson

Photo: Robert Marin
Rebecca fantasized that life was a lottery ticket or a pull of a lever,
that one of the bunch in her pocket was a winner or the slots were a redeemer;
but life itself was not real that was strictly for the mentally insane at the Elgin
Mental Institution.
She gambled her savings away on [...]

Katerina Stoykova-Klemer’s Interview with Conference Director Julie Wrinn

Julie Kuzneski Wrinn became director of the conference in 2007 after serving for three years on its board of directors. A native of Indiana, Pennsylvania, she received Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in English from the University of Virginia. A ten-year veteran of the book publishing business, she held [...]

Klara Barcic
When people who like to travel talk about Croatia, they usually talk about its magnificent coast and its 1200 islands, covered with green carpets of scented Mediterranean vegetation. Little is known about its hinterland. Indeed, it is difficult to count all the sights to be seen and all the cities that well deserve [...]

Interview with Leila Ataya by Galya Mladenova

Leila Ataya was born in Russia, Moscow in 1979. From a very young age her life was strongly influenced by art. In 1995 she was accepted into Arts College in Russia, Moscow and continued her studies in watercolour and drawing.
In 1996 she moved with her family to New Zealand [...]

Quotes and photos selected by Mariana Velichkova

Photo: surfstyle
All my pictures are built around the idea of getting in trouble and so giving me the chance to be desperately serious in my attempt to appear as a normal little gentleman.

Photo: Refracted Moments™
All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a [...]

Colleen Harris

Photo: the bbp
He wrote about dull mountainside detail,
said they wanted books on anything but war.
Ecstatic the way only a librarian can be,
she mailed ten boxes and promised more.

By Dimitar Patarinski
Translation from Bulgarian:Asya Draganova

I suggested to Valentin Hristov that we talk about the good within us. He answered – the key to the good is in searching for it…
When you turn the computer on, do you find words related to goodness?
As a whole, the understanding of good is very complicated a. People [...]

Mariana Velichkova

Photo: Niffty..
We are honest and decent
reasonable, chaste again
frigidly faithful
almost sterile
burdened by rules and pain

Martha Gehringer

Photo: flikr
On the subject of bad weather
the red rough Burren cows are sage:
if only to say that
in wind like this
     that drives the rain     like a whipping
you must pull together,
               haunch to haunch,
                    and bow your heads
                         and be.
               That simple.
Bow your tufted heads
                       and
                    be.

Interview with Cliff Snell III by Galya Mladenova

Cliff Snell III is the American “fairytale surrealist” artist. His “fairytale” swirling nature paintings are very distinctive, and his collectors prize his dreamy, but precise use of color. Naturalists enjoy his ability to present an accurate, if beautiful specimen of a plant, and those who seek beauty just [...]

Photo: dawnzy
A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.

Photo: arcticpuppy
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.

Julie Barbour
Photo: aturkus
Each morning I woke to an ocean of snow
and its gray sunless sky.
I walked down the black staircase
and fed myself in the kitchen,
handed the dogs my scraps, cleaned my own plate, then walked up the dark stairs
to the room where the winter wind snarled.

Dimana Ivanova
Translated from Bulgarian to English by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer

Photo: wili
I want to weave you in my hair,
pack you in my skin,
slip you on my finger,
like a wound from a wedding ring.

Michael Lee Johnson

Photo: weglet
Gingerbread lady,
no sugar or cinnamon spice;
years ago arthritis and senility took their toll.
Crippled mind moves in then out, like an old sexual adventure
blurred in an imagination of fingertip thoughts.
Who remembers the characters?
There was George, her lover, near the bridge at the Chicago River:
she missed his funeral; her friends were there.