Belladonna Series

Belladonna* (Belladonna Series/Belladonna Books)

History and Mission

Founded by the poet Rachel Levitsky in 1999 at NYC’s Bluestockings Women’s Bookstore (now Bluestockings (bookstore)) as a poetry series featuring avant-garde feminist writing, with an emphasis on hybrid and language-focused writing. Belladonna* quickly expanded to a multi-faceted matrix of readings, publications and informal salons. The poet Erica Kaufman joined Levitsky as co-curator/editor in 2002. In 2005 the series moved its events to the downtown performance venue Dixon Place. Now in its ninth year, Belladonna* has published over 120 women (and a few men) through its various publication series, which include a small run of commemorative 'chaplets' at each event, several 'book art' style chapbooks, and two perfect-bound books per year, including one that is bilingual. The series, though focusing on women of the avant-garde, is diverse and has published translations in French, Chinese, Spanish and Japanese.

The asterisk in its name refers to both a definition of the belladonna flower:

* deadly nightshade, a cardiac and respiratory stimulant, having purplish-red flowers and black berries

and to the Belladonna Series mission statement:

*a reading series and small press that promotes the work of women writers who are adventurous, experimental, politically involved, multi-form, multicultural, multi-gendered, impossible to define, delicious to talk about, unpredictable, dangerous with language.

Articles

* Belladonna*: The Deadly Night Shades of Experimental Women’s Poetry” by Corinne Robins (American Book Review, Spring 2005)
* “Bull Tongue” by Byron Coley and Thurston Moore (Arthur, January 2005)
* “Made in the Nightshade” (Poetry Project Newsletter, October/November 2005)
* “Celebrating Renegade Presses in America” (Poetry Project Newsletter, October/November 2004)
* “Exotic flower, decayed golds, and the fall of paganism: The 2003 Poets House Poetry Showcase” by Rodney Phillips (Fence Magazine, Fall/ Winter 2003-04)

External links

[Official Belladonna* Website:http://www.belladonnaseries.org/Home.html]

Review of Deborah Meadows Belladonna Chaplet:http://artvoice.com/issues/v6n34/book_reviews/draped_universe_by_deborah_meadows

Four From Japan Events on Pennsound:http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Factorial-NYC.html

Report on Four From Japan by American Literary Translators:http://literarytranslators.blogspot.com/2006/11/four-from-japan-contemporary-poetry.html

Review by Noah Eli Gordon:http://jacketmagazine.com/34/gordon-belladonna.html

Essay in "Numbers Trouble" Forum:http://delirioushem.blogspot.com/2008/02/dim-sum-rachel-levitsky.html

Forum on Small Presses at HOW2:http://www.asu.edu/pipercwcenter/how2journal/archive/online_archive/v2_4_2006/current/forum/levitsky.html