Moon Tide Press Titles

Threnody
by Donna Hilbert
$15.00

In Threnody, there is solace attending to quotidian rituals. In birdlife, landscape, seascape, joy and grief join hands. There is a measure of peace walking the beach, stirring the soup, pressing the shirt.

A Burning Lake of Paper Suns
by Ellen Webre
$15.00

A Burning Lake of Paper Suns is a book of twisting love poems, scintillating through a heart bursting at its seams. With the decadence of stars and pomegranates, Ellen Webre's poems illustrate the transfiguration of a girl to a monstress. Here she is ravenous, and tender for what desire haunts. Yearning alchemizes through the bones of this book, each page a siren song to lure readers into a blooming grave, where they may find themselves on the threshold of myth and miracle.

Instructions For an Animal Body

by Kelly Gray

$15.00

In Instructions for an Animal Body, Kelly Gray leads readers on a journey where body is both the death ground of grief and the birthplace of resilience. Using natural history to flip human constructs around predator and prey, violence and sensuality, Gray reimagines a lush modern mythology. From the work of vultures to weather systems between legs, these poems will transport you into a gritty world where boundaries between beasts and humans merge and the beautiful monster-within reigns supreme. 

Head *V* Heart: New & Selected Poems

by Rob Sturma

$15.00

Head *V* Heart, the second full-length poetry collection by FreezeRay Poetry editor-in-chief and poet Rob Sturma is a deep dive into the ways that pop culture and nostalgia can be used as medicine as well as metaphor. Music, movies, television, and comics battle it out in this examination of pivotal moments of Sturma's life, love, and recovery. From Los Angeles to Yancy Street, from Sunnydale to Oklahoma City, this book is scheduled for many, many falls with no time limit. 

Sh!t Men Say to Me: A Poetry Anthology in Response to Toxic Masculinity 

Edited by Dania Ayah Alkhouli, HanaLena Fennel, & Victoria Lynne McCoy

$20.00

Sh!t Men Say to Me: A Poetry Anthology in Response to Toxic Masculinity includes the work of over 70 poets of different backgrounds, genders, sexualities, creeds, and colors. Their poems share personal stories about weaponized power, engrained misogyny, and finding one's complete personhood in a system that tries to make you less. 

Flower Grand First

by Gustavo Hernandez

$15.00

Gustavo Hernandez’s debut poetry collection, Flower Grand First, moves through the complex roads of immigration, sexuality, and loss. These poems are points plotted on maps both physical and emotional—the rural landscapes of Jalisco, the glimmering plains of memory, the busy cities of California, and the circular paths of grief. Hernandez’s stunning elegies float along a timeline spanning three decades, honoring family, recording a personal history, and revealing a vulnerable but resilient voice preoccupied with time, place, and what is left behind out of necessity.   

Everything Is Radiant Between the Hates

by Rich Ferguson

$17.95

Beloved Los Angeles poet/performer Rich Ferguson delivers a tender, complex collection whose 8 sections offer free verse and prose poems ranging from hip satire to elegy and beyond—to gentle mantras that you might repeat to yourself in a parking lot or in bed at night when your obnoxious downstairs neighbor won’t quieten down. Bold, generous and self-deprecating, Ferguson’s work challenges readers to accept grief and dare—despite it, because of it—to dream of glorious things.

When the Pain Starts: Poetry as Sequential Art

by Alan Passman

$20.00

Alan Passman's When the Pain Starts is a poetry anthology crafted into a graphic novel, wherein this Southern Californian poet collaborates with comic book artists from all world to bring the imagery of his words into another dimension. Tackling relatable topics—questions about mortality, battles with one's physical and mental health, and all things existential—Passman's book will make you laugh, cry, and believe in the value of preventative medicine. 

This Place Could Be Haunted If I Still Believed in Love

by Lincoln McElwee

$15.00

This Place Could Be Haunted If I Didn’t Believe in Love is a vulnerable yet bold collection that explores selfhood and the augury of belief. The poems bear witness to a thorny relationship that is doubly haunted by love and lust, pain and healing, as well as by the stories we tell ourselves—how we at times mythologize love, and how devastating myths can become when they implode our beliefs.

Impossible Thirst

by Kathryn de Lancellotti

$15.00

Impossible Thirst is an awakening into both the personal and historical present moment. It questions what it means to possess a body, and how we must move through an oppressive landscape. Unapologetic and raw, the poems do not flinch from uncomfortable truths about motherhood, grief, God, womanhood, and our own impermanence. Versed in an earthy yet cosmic sense of place, the poems evoke animalism and intelligence, wildness and serenity, heartache and grace.

Lullabies for End Times

by Jennifer Bradpiece

$15.00

Lullabies for End Times is a surreal lullaby to living, always in the shadow of loss.  The poems weave a tapestry of abstract, personal, and political themes. They dwell as much in the immediate as the in-between. Perhaps you are drunk on love, death, and gin in an alleyway.  Perhaps as you hunch in the wet dark stench you hear some beautiful and sad music echoing out the drain pipe of a jazz bar. Perhaps as you drift in and out of waking, the moment illuminates how the sacred is never far from the profane. Perhaps the notes or rhythms that find your half-drunk ears will remind you of some of these poems. 

Crabgrass World

by Robin Axworthy

$15.00

The poems in Crabgrass World paint vibrant portraits of family and self-discovery all while orchestrating language into a symphony of gut-pull and heart-song. Robin Axworthy shows such a mastery of narrative and sound she makes it look easy. That poetry is breath and she is simply inhaling and exhaling. But make no mistake—these are poems that have lived in her bones for years. She has carried and cared for them and now has released them onto us, the reader, to house in our own bodies—to build ourselves into something better with. 

Contortionist Tongue

by Dania Ayah Alkhouli

$15.00

Contortionist Tongue is vulnerable but fierce collection of poetry on the realities of being a Syrian Muslim woman and survivor in the current socio-political climate. From bridging the gaps of a broken heart, to bridging the gaps between two homes and two cultures, these poems underscore every angle of womanhood and resilience.

The only thing that makes sense is to grow

by Scott Ferry

$15.00

The only thing that makes sense is to grow traces the lineage of a family through the voices of its ghosts. This collection takes the grief and residue of generations, places it in moist soil, and lets it root and spread into unlikely openings of enlightenment and humor. Yet, far from being opaque, these poems remain accessible and edible as the cherry tomatoes that somehow survived this dry and bitter stretch. Life and death, decay and regeneration, childhood and blind adulthood, and language and its innate power to heal are all themes that weave through these narrative poems with a refreshing candor.

Dead Letter Box

by Terri Niccum

$15.00

The poems in Dead Letter Box are not about the postal service, although a postman does appear as a character in one poem. Neither are the poems so much about death as they are about how death colors our lives. Some of the poems in the book celebrate those moments when the narrators feel the world has shifted into just the right place, when they feel most alive. Without these moments—when we feel able to grab life with our bare hands and experience those brief trills of victory—death holds no tragedy. These poems aim to provide different takes on death woven through with strands of life. And somewhere within these poems, the poet hopes the reader may find rescue.

Tea and Subtitles: Selected Poems 1999-2019

by Michael Miller

$15.00

"In a city awake on tea and subtitles, / the freshman boys fight off sleep / to hear a bluesman sing at the corner club"—so begins Michael Miller's "College Town," which served as the title poem for his first book and now provides the title phrase for this retrospective collection. Miller, a former Los Angeles Times journalist and organizer for years of the Muckenthaler Cultural Center's poetry series, published his first poem, "Elegy for a Rhythm Guitarist," in 1999 in the UCI literary journal Faultline. That effort appears in this collection along with 49 other poems.

At the Table of the Unknown

by Alexandra Umlas

$15.00

At the Table of the Unknown confirms that the possibility for poetry is everywhere. These poems are clear, open-eyed, and harvested from two decades of writing about everything from the echoing feeling of loss to the gritty strangeness of parenthood. Here, language is harnessed, sometimes by formal elements, and sometimes by its own energy, to explore what it means to be alive today.

Everything I Write Is a Love Song to the World

by David McIntire

$15.00

Everything I Write Is a Love Song to the World is composed mostly of attempts to understand the healing properties and redemptive potential of new love. It is an exploration of these possibilities coming in the wake of years of trauma and self-denial.

The Book of Rabbits

by Vince Trimboli

$15.00

Somewhere between a research project and a concise study of loneliness, The Book of Rabbits examines the heartbreaking brevity of sadness and seclusion. Through the retelling of the famed medical hoax surrounding the life of Mary Toft and her curious case of birthing rabbits, Vince Trimboli’s collection of poetry lives between the worlds of 1700’s Surry England and current day Appalachia, focusing in on the intersection of poverty, mental health, illiteracy, privilege, and the lengths we are willing to go to escape them.

Letters to the Leader

by HanaLena Fennel 

$15.00

Leaders to the Leader is a poetic response to the 55 Executive Orders signed by Donald J. Trump in the first year of his presidency. Unflinching in the face of reckless political forces, this collection of intimate poems seek to illuminate the connection between the personal and the political. HanaLena Fennel’s voice weaves the surreal with acute realities about our stark political landscape. Engaging and empathetic, this book untangles the reader’s spirit from the turmoil of a nation confronted with itself.

Darwin's Garden

by Lee Rossi

$15.00

In Darwin’s Garden poet and critic Lee Rossi returns to the original garden, childhood, in search of clues to his long, strange life. Part paleontologist, part historian, he seeks to uncover the physical and cultural artifacts left behind in the long climb to adulthood. Is it religion, is it science, is it myth which best describes the arc of a life? He tries them all, and finds only himself wanting.

Dark Ink: A Poetry Anthology Inspired by Horror 

Edited by Eric Morago

$15.00

Dark Ink is a collection of poetry inspired by, or in response to, the genre of horror as found in film, literature, folklore/mythology, or just classic monster tropes. This anthology features 66 poets who celebrate the fun and fright for everything that goes bump in the night...we have poetic takes on Frankenstein's monster and his bride, musings on zombies, Lovecraft-ian (is that a word?) love letters, metaphorical monsters (and Munsters), vampiric verses, and much, much more. If you are a fan of poetry or horror or BOTH, this is a book for you! 

Drop and Dazzle

by Peggy Dobreer

$15.00

Los Angeles poet Peggy Dobreer's second full-length collection of poetry, Drop and Dazzle, has been described as a tennis match played with snow globes or a game of poker dealt with tarot cards. Following threads of assonance and alliteration, rhythms and story, Dobreer varies poetic styles throughout the book and creates a lyrical world that is part jazz, part classics, part pedestrian interference, and all parts love.

Junkie Wife

by Alexis Rhone Fancher

$12.00

"Not since Bukowski have we seen an L.A. like this; not since Simone de Beauvoir, such a force of feminine will; and not since Baudelaire, have we seen the dysfunctional marriage of vice and virtue as a means to attain the spiritual. “No names were changed. No one was innocent.” So begins Alexis Rhone Fancher’s Junkie Wife, a stunning work of raw honesty that injects grit back into the bloodless veins of contemporary American poetry and holds it there until a dark and addicting beauty oozes out."  

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- Clint Margrave

The Moon, My Lover, My Mother, & the Dog

by Daniel McGinn

$15.00

"I have no business on the moon, writes poet Daniel McGinn in one of the pieces of The Moon, My Lover, My Mother, & the Dog, and you know immediately that he is lying, and also that he is telling the truth. It's exactly the kind of spot you want to find yourself in in a poem, a spot of mysterious sadness and paradoxical delight, and this latest collection is packed with them."

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- Mindy Nettifee

Lullaby of Teeth: An Anthology of Southern California Poetry

Edited by Eric Morago

$15.00

With a combination of new and established poets, Lullaby of Teeth showcases the variety and power of SoCal poetry. The common thread of these poems is their humanity. They tackle real issues of life and death, with heart, insight, and, often, humor, so that the reader both feels and understands them. 

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- G. Murray Thomas

Angels in Seven

by Michael Miller

$15.00

The third book of poems by Los Angeles Times journalist and poet Michael Miller, Angels in Seven is a spiritual sequel to Miller's The First Thing Mastered, which tracked the phases of life from infancy through the dawn of middle age. This collection centers on the mid-thirties and the changes they bring, from marriage and travel to parting with childhood passions.

A Likely Story

by Robbi Nester

$15.00

New collection of poems by Southern California poet Robbi Nester.

Embers on the Stairs

by Ruth Bavetta

$15.00

New book of poems by Southern California poet Ruth Bavetta.

The Green of Sunset

by John Brantingham

$15.00

A collection of prose pieces from a master Southern California poet.

The Savagery of Bone

by Timothy Matthew Perez

$15.00

First collection of poems by Timothy Matthew Perez.

The Silence of Doorways

by Sharon Venezio

$15.00

Sharon Venezio's terrific first collection of poems, The Silence of Doorways, reminds us that the best new poetry—the kind we delight in reading—is nimble in its negotiations between assurance and surprise, wit and discovery, sense and transcendence.

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- Dorthy Barresi

Straws and Shadows

by Irena Praitis

$15.00

The third volume of poems by Irena Praitis, Straws and Shadows is a historical collection about life in Lithuania between the first and second world wars.

In the Lake of Your Bones

by Peggy Dobreer

$15.00

The first collection of poems by renowned Los Angeles poet Peggy Dobreer.

I Was Building Up to Something

by Susan Davis

$15.00

A collection of poems by poet, Susan Davis.

Hopeless Cases

by Michael Kramer

$15.00

Poet Michael Kramer, a longtime private high school teacher, compiles a series of short-story poems about the students and faculty of a fictional Catholic boarding school in the 1970s. This humorous but thoughtful collection is Kramer's third and the 13th release from Moon Tide Press.

What We Ache For

by Eric Morago

$15.00

First collection of poems and short stories by Eric Morago, an acclaimed performance poet and slam champion from Southern California.

Pop Art: An Anthology of Southern California Poetry

Edited by Michael Miller

$15.00

The third anthology from Moon Tide Press, featuring poems by Steve Goodyear, Jane Hilary, April Jones, Robert Lanphar, Heather Autumn Love, Gabriella Miotto, Danielle Mitchell, Edward Obuszewski, Jessica Patapoff and Daniel Romo.

In the Heaven of Never Before

by Carine Topal 

$15.00

In the Heaven of Never Before is the third book by Carine Topal, one of Southern California's most traveled and acclaimed poets. The book, with a tapestry of poems centered around family life and loss.

Sleepyhead Assassins

by Mindy Nettifee

$15.00

First collection of poems by Mindy Nettifee.

Carving in Bone: An Anthology of Orange County Poetry

Edited by Michael Miller & Ben Trigg

$12.00

Carving in Bone is the definitive anthology of the Orange County poetry scene, one of the richest in the United States. Among the authors represented here are Brendan Constantine, a renowned poet and teacher for two decades; Steve Ramirez, co-host of Orange County's most prolific poetry reading; Mifanwy Kaiser, who oversees the poetry nonprofit Tebot Bach; and G. Murray Thomas, editor of the Poetix website that covers literary events across Southern California.

A Wild Region

by Kate Buckley

$15.00

In A Wild Region, Kate Buckley explores the connections between landscape, memory and history...Buckley's style is perfect for this task.