Beothuk Books
About Beothuk Books
Beothuk Books takes its name from the First Nations people of Newfoundland, the Beothuk. During European colonization, the Beothuk refused to ally themselves with the French, English or other First Nations tribes and remained isolated. They were subsequently devastated by the effects of that colonization: other tribes routinely raided their villages, settlers forced them into Newfoundland’s inhospitable interior, and European diseases were rampant and deadly.
The Beothuk language, itself unrelated to other Native American language groups, now survives as only a few hundred vocabulary words.
If language is the habitat of a people's culture, then poetry is both a preserver of that habitat and a guide through it. Poetry points out and embodies language's fragilities and strengths, its nuances, and its vibrant ecosystem. Poetry reifies the language of the tribe. In choosing the name of a gone language, Beothuk Books hopes to remind us of and honor that connection.
Michael Gushue
Coming In 2026!
Celestial Fire: Songs For A Love That Dares
What better time than now for a collection of love poems.
Beothuk Books published Dan Vera's first book. The Space Between Our Danger and Delight way back in 2009. We're glad to be publishing his next book, this small collection of queer love poems.
Coming In 2026!
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written in the stubble
of 2 torn out pages
Advance Praise
Daniel Nester, author of Harsh Realm: My 1990s
“written in the stubble of 2 torn out pages reminds us that the mind wrangles thoughts, not just to survive but to be still alive. The fragment-flashes of beauty and wisdom in these poems thrive in the everyday and eternal at the same time, moving across the page and mind's eye in the fleeting/timeless wisdom that only stevenallenmay can conjure.”
More About steven allenmay
Suburban Myths
Advance Praise
Kendra Kopelke
“I was knocked over by Schmidt's first book-Here's this poet observing his other lives: a suburban husband, father, neighbor... unnatural roles that seem to startle him into his own whimsical and delicious imagination. But that's only the half of it-there's a sequence of dramatic poems starring G.I. Joe and his loyal friend Barbie that takes you directly inside their dicey, made-up lives. By the end, I was so thrilled by his vision, I wished I could ask him to write my own suburban myth, to bring it to life as only he can.”
Michael S. Glaser
“Suburban Myths is a treasure of unique poems. Schmidt embraces a great armada of history and uses it as a backdrop to share his perspective on our humanness. Schmidt casts a unique and playful eye on the lives we live, writing poems that are both insightful and wise. Of special note are his poems about marriage, family, and children which capture our experiences with an absolutely endearing and charming accuracy that awakens us again and anew to the wonders of our complex lives.”
Edgar Silex
“There is something extraordinarily existential about Schmidt's Suburban Myths, the idea that within each suburban house there is a private myth being woven by each member of each family. Reading it, you get the sense of suburbs laid out like oyster beds, every home a bivalve carefully creating its own mythical pearl. In that same way, these poems are strung like iridescent and nacreous pearls, each carefully composed, each beautifully assembled, each a precious existential liberation.”
The Space Between
Our Danger and Delight
Advance Praise
Martín Espada
“The poetry of Dan Vera is clear, strong, honest and funny. He's the sharp-eyed observer in the corner who doesn't say much, but makes every word count. He handles the political and the personal with equal grace, even as the lines blur. Whether he's ruminating on the perils of bilingualism, giving voice to the bewilderment of his Cuban immigrant family, cursing the censors who tried to repress gay writers over the years, waiting for the late great poet Sterling Brown to turn the next corner in Washington, D.C., or taking delight in all things delightful, Dan Vera is damn good company. You'll see.
Grace Cavalieri
To read Dan Vera is to believe the world is actually a good place after all - a place where the reputation of poetry is redeemed with humor and kindness. I read this book first to know it; then I read it again for all the reasons poetry brings us closer. This is what we first understood poetry to be, miraculous and humble. In the deepest part of the heart where we truly reside, there is always a wish that poetry will rinse off artifice. This is it. When reading Dan Vera, we are married to the 3 hearts of poetry: intelligence, style, and honor. This is the most satisfying book of poems we can read if we want to witness language with a real poet as its servant.”
Jeff Mann
“Ranging through landscape and history, family legacy and gay life, Dan Vera's poems are melodic, lucid, and concise examinations of "the limits of earthly loving." They remind us of what blessings the world possesses and what flesh-hating forces endanger those delights.”
About Dan Vera
Dan Vera is a writer, editor, and literary historian. The author of Speaking Wiri Wiri (Red Hen Press) and The Space Between Our Danger And Delight" (Beothuk Books) and co-editor of Imaniman: Poets Writing In The Anzaldúan Borderlands (Aunt Lute Books). Recipient of the Oscar Wilde Award for Poetry and the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize, he's also published other poets through his work with Poetry Mutual Press and his chapbook press Souvenir Spoon Books. For more visit danvera.com
Celestial Fire: Songs For A Love That Dares
by Dan Vera
Celestial Fire: Songs For A Love That Dares by Dan Vera
The Space Between Our Danger and Delight
by Dan Vera
About steven allenmay
stevenallenmay is/has been a poet, writer, performance artist, events coordinator, series curator and host, filmmaker, collage maker, and experimenter with technology & language. 2024 marks the 25th anniversary of two projects he is most proud to have created (besides his children): the Berks Bardfest poetry festival and Plan B Press. Wherever he has lived he has been involved with infusing poetic energy into the community by curating and hosting poetry readings. A poetry gadfly, if you will. He is the author of Plastic Sunrise (2003) as well as a handful of chapbooks.
written in the stubble
of 2 torn out pages
by steven allenmay
About Sam Schmidt
Founder and editor of WordHouse, Baltimore’s newsletter for writers (1993 to 2004), Sam Schmidt currently works for the Social Security Administration and lives in Baltimore, Maryland. He has been published in the Maryland Poetry Review, Black Moon, the Dancing Shadow Review, the Potomac Review, Gargoyle, and Potomac, among other journals. His work has been anthologized in Weavings 2000, Maryland’s millennium anthology edited by Michael Glaser. He coedited the anthology Poetry Baltimore: Poems about a City. He earned an MA from the Johns Hopkins University.
Suburban Myths
by Sam Schmidt