I first met Chris Volpe at Toscanni's, an ice cream and coffee shop in Harvard Square. I stopped in one winter weekend night to have a hot chocolate; I think he came in shortly afterwards, sitting next to me. Maybe I sat next to him first, but given how notoriously non-sociable I am when eating or drinking alone, I doubt that, which makes the meeting more of a blessing.
Chris casually asked how the book I was reading was (The Beforelife by Franz Wright). We struck up a conversation after my answer, and it came out that we were both poets and that he was a smalll press publisher.
That was about two years ago, and we've been keeping internet correspondence ever since. Now, Penhallow Press, headed by Chris and his wife, Anna Birch, is coming out with it's first book by Exeter, NH poet, Jim Rioux.
Rioux will not be coming down to Cambridge this Monday, but Chris offered himself and his wife for a reading for Stone Soup. I'm glad this random encounter introduced me to both his work and the work of Anna. After much rescheduling, they are finally coming down to read on the 20th. I hope you'll come to hear these two poets and pick up a copy of Jim Rioux' book, Fistfuls of The Invisible.
In much less important news, Penhallow Press might have the broadside of my poem, "Beatdown," ready by Monday's reading. I'm hopeful, even if no one else is.
A more professional hyping of Chris and Anna on the Stone Soup site is here.
Don't want to look for the Penhallow Press link below? I'll make it easy for you here.
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