March Small Press of the Month: New Michigan Press

NMP is a small press edited and designed by Ander Monson, which should be about all that needs to be said about it. The chapbooks share his sensibility -- they are eclectic and innovative and a little crazy and all over the place, and all in the best of ways.

Creation Myths won their chapbook contest last year (a contest they hold annually) and is exactly as the title suggests: a series of creation myths. Some are poems, some read more like flash fiction or short shorts, and it is a book I've been picking up here and there since I got it, reading and rereading 1-2 page "myths" about Larry Bird and bacon and Des Moines and, basically, all the things we would want to read 1-2 page creation myths about.

Other recent chapbooks include one by Monder himself and The Strange Case of Maribel Dixon by Charles Jensen. I haven't yet read either, though plan to, because Monson is always great and Dan Wickett wrote pretty intriguingly about Jensen.

As is always the case with these small presses of the month, though anyone rarely takes us up on the offer, if you buy something from NMP this month and let us know, we'll send you a free back issue of Hobart.

-aaron