Check out our store page for even more examples of the talented poets in this collection! milkandcakepress.com/product/dead...
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Check out our store page for even more examples of the talented poets in this collection! milkandcakepress.com/product/dead...
Image: Photo of a forest with trees in the background and a lush green bush dotted with a few bright leaves in the foreground. Text: Trees lose their leaves in winter fill instead with birds perched like early buds along black boughs, etched from a pink horizon, and like a second loss of leaves they peel from the crown shaken to the still air to come together, wheel as one in the turquoise sky with a whoosh of wing fade in the distance towards the dark pine wood. -Anne Marie Mac Darby-Beck
Dead of Winter IV is now on sale! 🌲✨📖
As this is an anthology, we won’t be able to feature all of our wonderful contributors, but here is the first selection of a handful of poems we hope will highlight this collection.
Image: A photo of a light blue sky with a pink flower leaning into the center right of the image. Text: One Month Left!! Milk & Cake Press is open for chapbook and manuscript length poetry submissions till March 31! For more info visit our website or Duotrope. We accept submissions through Duosuma.
Don’t miss out! We look forward to reading your work.
🤓📚🌸
milkandcakepress.com/submissions/
Image: An edited black and white photo of human skulls and other bones stacked together from the catacombs of Paris. Text: Dead of Winter IV An Anthology
Happy Imbolc!🔥 Dead of Winter IV is now available for presale! This series brings the danger and dread of winter cold and the hope that comes with the return and renewal of spring, exploring the sublime and uncanny nature of this period.
Cover by Jonathon Scharf
Original photo by Alanna Zipp
Image: A photo of numerous white hydrangeas, hanging in chains down a wall and filling the floor. Foregrounded on a semi-transparent, light green rectangle is text reading: Milk & Cake Press is now open for poetry submissions! We are accepting manuscripts from February 1 - March 31. For more info visit our website or Duotrope. We accept submissions through Duosuma.
Milk & Cake Press is now open for submissions! We look forward to reading your work! 💐📚🤓
We will be open from February 1st-March 31st. Check out our website’s submission page or listing on Duosuma to discover what we are looking for and our guidelines. milkandcakepress.com/submissions/
Text: After the civil war, westward expansion continued in the wake of manifest destiny. A divided country tries to establish itself as a global power. Seward leans in, seeing potential in that last frontier. A plaque on the statue of Seward reads a quote from him, spoken to Congress in 1852: “The Pacific Ocean, its shores its islands and the vast regions beyond will become the chief theater of events in the worlds (sic) great hereafter.” you stand on a dias the world your stage what better theatrics than that of empire? Image: Photo of a blue-gray sky with a large sandstone brick wall rising up across the right side of the image.
Check out another selection of poetry from our latest release, Folly, by Emma McVeigh. Visit our store to get your copy today! milkandcakepress.com/product/foll...
Image: On a white crumbled paper background three sections of text are accompanied by a front-facing, black and white photo of a statue of a man, William Seward, standing one foot forward holding a book. Text: New Section *my friend once bought a stolen motorcycle didn’t know it wasn’t his to buy until he made a trip to the DMV* New Section The U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian’s website describes Russia’s early interest in Alaska as due to the region being “rich in natural resources and lightly inhabited” It is estimated that before Russian occupation, roughly 100,000 Indigenous people lived in Alaska. By the time of the sale a little over one hundred years later, that number was halved. I take pictures of him in clockwise circles. Everyone else is doing it, too. Passing by him in a circular choreography of indifference New Section agglutination means the word changes based on context river becomes head of river, mouth of river, yesterday’s river, bank, stream utterance, morpheme -Emma McVeigh
Here is a sneak peak at the poetry from our latest release, Folly by Emma McVeigh! Check it out! milkandcakepress.com/product/foll...
Editor’s Note: Although these poems originally appear on two pages, I’ve combined them for this post. -Miranda
Photo by author
Cover by Jonathon Scharf. Original photo by author.
milkandcakepress.com/product/foll...
Image: A black and white photo of a statue of a man (William H. Seward) standing, one foot forward wearing a greatcoat of 19th century period. Text: Emma McVeigh Folly
Check out our latest release. On sale now! In this hybrid chapbook, Emma McVeigh examines the purchase of Alaska, often referred to as Seward’s Folly, indigenous Alaskan language, and settler colonialism of the Pacific Northwest through a series of multiple poetic forms and photos.
Image: Photo of sparkly, gold fabric with a semi-transparent pink glitter photo framing the text. Text: Small Business Saturday Sale from Nov 29-Dec 6th 50% OFF Use code: holiday Pick up holiday gifts for family, friends, or yourself!
Support a small business and ✅ check off your holiday shopping list all in one go! Everything in our shop is 50% off this week (that means our most expensive items are $12.50!) ✨🎁📚
milkandcakepress.com/shop/
Image: Photo of an orange feather, through the thinner sections of it a landscape of water and orange and pink sunrise can be seen. Text: Travel Companions after Meena Alexander I dream of the flame tree the scarlet palash flowers that float outside my father’s window the one nested with a colony of parrots He and I fly to another red-beaked flock among the stone elephants of Hampi My father is alive and guides me through the Agra Fort across the Yamuna from the Taj he shows me how the summer winds were cooled by underground pipes of cold running water splashed on screens of fragrant khus It’s a feast of roses a marvel of engineering gifted to me so many caves and temples. crumbled rock and forests we have travelled the long spine of India sampled the curls of its dialects that make in our mouths, a soup of diphthongs curried in stained buses and flint-sparked trains that smell of burning coal his homecoming, a puffing labor of breath now he’s rocked to rest by a river I wake, cold feet, to a New Jersey winter
Here is another look at a poem from our latest release Her Mouth a Palace of Lamps, by Yamini Pathak. On sale now!
@ypathak.bsky.social
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Image: Picture of two incense sticks burning with orange, pink, and blue flame and some sparks flying off of them. All of this made more vivid with a black background. Text: Name the Night for Me Yamini, Goddess of Night wept upon separation from her twin Yama, Lord of Death. Her tears flowed to become the River Yamuna. Good fairies, my parents whispered a name for the first time into the shell of my newborn ear A potent spell that blew like nightingale breath through a baby’s body, I turned in that moment into a night sky shot with stray comets grew dark interiors, awakened forbidden cities of velvet silence My tears wash layers of sin from bodies carried like burdens until they ride on the black satin buffalo of my brother, Death I’m absent from the rose garden Look for me among the ghosts of night-blooming jasmine Listen they reveal my name to the shifting breeze
Check out one of the poems from our latest release, Her Mouth a Palace of Lamps, by Yamini Pathak. On sale now! @ypathak.bsky.social
milkandcakepress.com/product/pre-...
Image: Illustration of a white, intricately decorated sitar on a black background. Text: Her Mouth a Palace of Lamps Yamini Pathak
@ypathak.bsky.social's meditation on what it means to be a woman in two cultures, connected to loved ones as a daughter, a wife, a mother. Weaving rich description of the domestic and the artistic seamlessly throughout, this is a book of warm, rich imagery and quiet, compelling reflection.
Image: Photo of a tree with red and orange leaves, through a window with a large, brown, metal, beam crossing diagonally across it. Text: Milk & Cake Press will be at Lit Youngstown Oct 17-18 Come see us at the Book Fair!
We will being selling books this weekend at Lit Youngstown!
Photo by: @kimjacobsbeck.bsky.social of the Youngstown State University campus from a previous visit.
Image: Close-up photo of coffee beans. Text: Final Week! Milk & Cake Press will close for submissions to our biennial anthology Dead of Winter: Volume IV. Aug 31th Don’t miss your chance to be a part of our anthology! Submit 1-3 poems through Duosuma. There is no submission fee. For more details check our website or Duosuma listing.
Share your work with us!
Image: Photo of a beach where the sand and water meet diagonally across the image. Text: Announcing Milk & Cake Press’ newest poets whose work we will be publishing 2026-2027: Megan Leonard, Ellen Austin-Li, Erica Reid We’re excited to share their work with you!
We are so excited to work with these lovely poets!
@meganleonard.bsky.social
@ellenaustinli.bsky.social
Image: Close up photo of tree bark with a faint orange square on top to make the text more readable. Text: Milk & Cake Press is now open from Aug 1st - Aug 31th for submission for our biennial anthology Dead of Winter: Volume IV. We are looking for poems that deal with the mythological, the sublime, the mysteries of nature, the dark, or the uncanny of a long, cold winter. We aim to capture the feeling of the transition from the depths of winter toward spring. Submit 1-3 poems through Duosuma. There is no submission fee. For more details check our website or Duosuma listing.
We are open for submission to our anthology! 🎉 Check out our website to learn more. milkandcakepress.com/dead-of-wint...
![Image: Photo at floor height of an uneven wooden plank floor with a brown, plaster wall in the background. Text: [convalescence/cohabitations] the peonies spread their white tissues slowly paperwhite paperwhite a bouquet of cells thousands of nodes graph the maples miniscule birds waiting to burst & fall through austere geometries & machine noise who is inside me & who is in the trees? I’m part sutures & glue, part bracelets from childhood braided friendship bracelets in black, aqua, & pink threaded morning & evening the fledglings fell from oaks & rafters we fed them with a dropper now the sky pales & the maples return someone to me as I sit in the driveway a daughter runs through the woods she draws out the trees’ avian natures she chants the names, she catches the feathers she must’ve glued one to my chest, I remember a tiny egg nestled there like a burr now a low relief, a plume, small, fading, tender like a young one sealed in loneliness but spring means the return of sensation & no excuses the flowers chirp show their white teeth to all the passing neighbors](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wo4vtlynpzmzjevoiez7pz4h/bafkreibixvo2mflsydxlkcuvszhyvkwyuc2y5userlei5m5eqmx7xinqou)
Image: Photo at floor height of an uneven wooden plank floor with a brown, plaster wall in the background. Text: [convalescence/cohabitations] the peonies spread their white tissues slowly paperwhite paperwhite a bouquet of cells thousands of nodes graph the maples miniscule birds waiting to burst & fall through austere geometries & machine noise who is inside me & who is in the trees? I’m part sutures & glue, part bracelets from childhood braided friendship bracelets in black, aqua, & pink threaded morning & evening the fledglings fell from oaks & rafters we fed them with a dropper now the sky pales & the maples return someone to me as I sit in the driveway a daughter runs through the woods she draws out the trees’ avian natures she chants the names, she catches the feathers she must’ve glued one to my chest, I remember a tiny egg nestled there like a burr now a low relief, a plume, small, fading, tender like a young one sealed in loneliness but spring means the return of sensation & no excuses the flowers chirp show their white teeth to all the passing neighbors
Here’s another look at a poem from Cory Hutchinson-Reuss’ Triptych. Pick up your copy today!
milkandcakepress.com/product/trip...
Image: A photo of an orange, rusted metal plate with a raised diamond-shaped, criss-cross pattern. Text: I Know a Man who Swallowed the Sky for RW He lives behind prison walls. When he was younger, he lived in the interlock of law and anger, banned from the prison with trees, driven inside, under ceiling, into the solitary eye. / A woman gave him a few seeds that another man had written in seclusion and prayer. The man I know ate the seeds, recognized them as his own kernel splitting open, wound into window, through which years later I see what’s possible. Transformation’s daily grit and the rhythms of being human with others: he carries a book and notepad, a brown sack of fruit. He says I love you to the men in hospice. Some curse him. He works. He chews gum and reads. His heart fibrillates. He stitches a parachute of blues. The past’s pure grain despair, cell fire, and needle’s eye. From his stories I learn I was born in the hospital where his friends took healing. Missouri boot. The river’s gospel, sweltering. We talk about the mysterious bind between divinity and humanity. That some aches never subside. / Finally allowed into the prison yard, he rested his face against his first tree in years, sealed in himself an image, an embrace of the moment that grows in widening arcs. In lungs, the branches, the branches through fences, through fences cloud, hovering like a hermitage where a man writes seeds in the rain. I eat them, too. They fall to the roots, sprout according to each person’s need. They break into a blue firmament, a heaven so free and irrevocable it hurts.
Check out this poem from our latest release, Triptych, by Cory Hutchinson-Reuss. milkandcakepress.com/product/trip...
milkandcakepress.com/product/trip...
Alt text: Black and white print of a redwood log cross-section with visible tree rings and cut marks.
Black and white print of a redwood log cross-section with visible tree rings and cut marks.
Now on sale by Cory Hutchinson-Reuss! Triptych's central concern is care: for the incarcerated, for the body, for the natural world. The result is a meditation on the relationship of self, society, and nature, yet one that resists easy answers.
Cover by: Jonathon Scharf
Image: Up close photo of the folds of a jean-like fabric edited to be a emerald green color. Text. iii. She taught me how to sleep – unplug the islands from the sea and turn tree branches inside out like sweater sleeves around their leaves, the color tucked between your sheets, the islands tossed aloft like stars, then listen to the snoring trees and harmonize. -J.I. Kleinberg
Here is another excerpt from J.I. Kleinberg’s chapbook, Sleeping Lessons. Check it out- including some additional sneak peeks 👀 -in our store!
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Alt Text: Image: Close up photo of a metal keyhole through which a vibrant landscape of mountains, river, and sky are visible. Text: xv. She taught me how to sleep –horizon’s hand a subtle sweep, the dust of worry brushed aside, each eyebrow arch a secret door into a tiny jeweler’s shop where gem-hued words are faceted, and meteor light embroidered into quilts of sapphire dreams. -J.I. Kleinberg
Here is an excerpt from our latest release, J.I. Kleinberg’s Sleeping Lessons. Pick up your copy today!
Image: Photo of a foggy grey environment with a cluster of purple, trumpet-like flowers in the foreground. Text: Milk & Cake Press will be at AWP ‘25 in LA March 27-29 Come visit us in the book fair at table T1038 where we are sharing a table with Next Page Press. We will also be holding two book signings: Friday 11:00-11:30 Erin Elizabeth Smith Saturday 10-10:30 Kim Jacobs-Beck
Come say Hi! 👋📚
Cover Art by Jonathon Scharf
Get your copy now: milkandcakepress.com/product/slee...
Alt Text: Image: Black and white linoleum cut of a full moon over big waves and stormy seas. Text: Sleeping Lessons J.I. Kleinberg
Sleeping Lessons by J.I. Kleinberg out now! Essentially one long poem, it uses a gentle, musical language and familiar, comfortable descriptions to create a lovely mood. The quiet quality of this little book makes it a pleasure to read and provides a kind of lullaby for an overstimulated world.
Image: A photo of a small cluster of white snowdrop flowers blooming through snowy ground. Text: Milk & Cake Press is now open for poetry submissions! We are accepting chapbook manuscripts from February 1 - March 31. For more info visit our website or Duotrope. We accept submissions through Duosuma.
We are open for submissions again! 🤓📚 Please consider sharing your work with us.
