Epic Rites Press

Todd Moore: 14 November 1937 – 12 March 2010

It is with profound sadness to announce that the great Todd Moore passed away on March12th, 2010.

Todd Moore is survived by his wife, Barbara, who regularly accompanied him to poetry events, and his two sons, Jason and Theron. In addition to writing, his primary profession was as a high school English teacher in Illinois. Following retirement from his teaching position, he moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. His major work of poetry, the multi-volumed Dillinger, was his greatest work, myth, archetype, and passion. In recent years, however, he was almost as passionate and productive with his essays, which inevitably featured the subject of the outlaw poet. A third venue was his short, slim-lined poems which packed a wallop, a style which influenced generations of poets. This type of poem is featured in his most current volume, Dead Reckoning, from Epic Rites Press. In more recent years, his Dillinger poems featured an ultra-condensed line, often with broken phrases and syllables, like a stream of bullets down the page, a revolutionary style of poetry. He was a collector of historic knives. He was a collector of books and a voracious reader. He began writing poetry in 1970. He edited the poetry magazine, road/house, from 1975 to 1978. He was also co-editor with his son, Theron, of St. Vitus Press & Poetry Review. Much of his work can be found in St. Vitus and also in the French website, metropolis. He was the co-founder of the genre of writing now recognized as Outlaw Poetry with fellow writer Tony Moffeit. His charismatic father and the infamous Clifton Hotel of his youth are major themes in his writing. Not only did he bring revolutionary styles to poetry and essay, but he brought a revolutionary consciousness to poetry and essay. This consciousness was characterized by phenomenal writing from the gut, innovation and revitalization of ideas, and the transformation of the artist into a roaring force. His writing became more and more a flame, a blaze, a fire, and at the most intense period of his creativity, he died.

- biography written by Tony Moffeit

Available Now

A BELLYFUL OF ANARCHY

By Rob Plath
302 pages
$25 (plus $4.50 shipping and handling)
Epic Rites Press

29.50

“Rob Plath’s A BELLYFUL OF ANARCHY could easily be placed next to ZARATHUSTRA or LES FLEURS DU MAL on the discrete reader’s book shelf. Or, choose two other important books that carry their kind of power. Whatever, it’s the kind of book that kicks its way through the doors of culture and announces itself as a separate and necessary phenomenon. And, there is no doubt that this book is a phenomenon.” - Todd Moore, author of DEAD RECKONING..

Please click here for more information about A BELLYFUL OF ANARCHY.

THE BROKEN AND THE DAMNED

By Jason Hardung
90 pages
$15 (plus $4.50 shipping and handling)
Epic Rites Press

19.50

“Jason Hardung’s the broken and the damned is a powerhouse presentation of the shattered American dream. It takes a special kind of author to make a book like this work, where the personal experiences of the author transcend his life and speak for an entire generation. This book has been described by S. A. Griffin as “a love poem for schools of lost children” and by Todd Moore as “a raw, wounded version of A Season In Hell.” I agree with both Griffin and Moore but would add that Hardung’s the broken and the damned is much, much more than that – such comparisons only scratch the surface of this phenomenal book.” - Wolfgang Carstens, author of CRUDELY MISTAKEN FOR LIFE

Please click here for more information about THE BROKEN AND THE DAMNED.

CRUDELY MISTAKEN FOR LIFE

By Wolfgang Carstens
98 pages
$15.50 (plus $4.50 shipping and handling)
Epic Rites Press

20.00

“Wolfgang Carstens debuts here with a rock solid collection of poems where you can sense the presence of the viscera under the blood-coated muscle that is the text. And yet the poems are surprisingly gentle and nostalgic sometimes, sometimes angry, sometimes philosophical, sometimes funny. Not so much a traditional anthology of poems as a manifesto and statement of intent combined with a dissertation on life and the sort of things that are deserving in it, love, loyalty, and the forgotten child inside. Poems to read in all seasons, but especially when winter storms howl outside.” - David McLean, author of LAUGHING AT FUNERALS

Please click here for more information about CRUDELY MISTAKEN FOR LIFE.

DEAD RECKONING

By Todd Moore
142 pages
$15.50 (plus $4.50 shipping and handling)
Epic Rites Press

20.00

“Todd Moore’s writing works at the nerve endings like a beast not yet named. DEAD RECKONING exposes a corrupt and fetishistic America that habitually reinvents its own endgame. Each poem is a scattergun butt to the head; a perfectly worded organism that pulsates with the rhythms of life but also reveals the darkened mayhem of the soul: whorehouse shoot-outs, doomed gangsters, toxic women who pay more than lip service to those who haunt the killer outskirts of town. His short lines are the palpitations of the street. Todd is a poet’s poet, raw, highly stylized, richly American, violently lyrical. He’s a master of the form.” – John Macker, author of WOMAN OF THE DISTURBED EARTH

Please click here for more information about DEAD RECKONING.

DOING CARTWHEELS ON DOOMSDAY AFTERNOON

By John Yamrus
117 pages
$15.50 (plus $4.50 shipping and handling)
Epic Rites Press

20.00

“John Yamrus, as a poet, is like an expert skeet shooter that hits the clay pigeon no matter what the speed, angle or trajectory; in poem after poem, his sharp mind nails its target every time.” – Rob Plath, author of A BELLYFUL OF ANARCHY

Please click here for more information about DOING CARTWHEELS ON DOOMSDAY AFTERNOON.

LAUGHING AT FUNERALS

By David McLean
98 pages
$15.50 (plus $4.50 shipping and handling)
Epic Rites Press

20.00

“The thing that really strikes me about these mostly very short poems is the economy of language McLean employs. He gets it. He understands it. He knows that it doesn't take a very long knife to kill... just a sharp one.” - John Yamrus, author of DOING CARTWHEELS ON DOOMSDAY AFTERNOON

Please click here for more information about LAUGHING AT FUNERALS.

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