Our first chapbook of 2023 is Lie Low, Goaded Lamb, a delightfully inventive collection by Ellen McGrath Smith, selected as Number 23 in our Keystone Chapbook Series. Each poem borrows its title from a Shakespeare sonnet, and the first letters of the words in each title map the sequence of words in each line of the poems. Contemporary, sure-footed, and full of surprising leaps and juxtapositions, these poems deliver over and over. Featuring amazing cover art by Angie Reed Garner, this is Ellen’s second chapbook with Seven Kitchens Press, and we are delighted to present it to you.
Category Archives: Keystone Chapbook Series
Keystone Series selections: Gouirand, Skinner
We’re so happy to announce the selection of two manuscripts for publication in our Keystone Chapbook Series: Rough Sequence by Rae Gouirand and Blue Book by Jeffrey Skinner. Both chapbooks will be published in summer of 2023.
Please join us in congratulating these poets and their work!
Keystone Chapbook Series is now open
We are now reading manuscripts for our annual Keystone Chapbook Series through the month of June. Our new series editors, Jeff Walt and Karen J. Weyant, are eager to read your work.
The Keystone Chapbook Series was launched in 2007 with Underground Singing by Harry Humes. We welcome poetry manuscripts from writers with a Pennsylvania connection. Full guidelines are available here.
Keystone Series selections
We are happy to announce our selections for the Keystone Chapbook Series: Lie Low, Goaded Lamb by Ellen McGrath Smith and Home Altar by Janine Certo. Other manuscripts noted for exceptional merit were The Needles Road by Lee Peterson, Erasing the Book of Pregnancy by Heather Lanier, and The Grieving Bone by Kelly McQuain.
Ellen McGrath Smith’s second chapbook, Scatter, Feed, was published by Seven Kitchens Press in 2014, and her full-length collection, Nobody’s Jackknife, appeared in 2015 from West End Press. She teaches at the University of Pittsburgh and in the Carlow University Madwomen in the Attic program.
Janine Certo is the author of In the Corner of the Living (Main Street Rag, 2017) and Elixir (forthcoming, New American Press & Bordighera Press). She is currently an associate professor of poetry and teacher education in the College of Education at Michigan State University.
Please join us in congratulating these poets and their work!
Keystone Chapbook Series is open
Our longest-running series, devoted to poets with a Pennsylvania connection, is now open. The Keystone Chapbook Series continues to honor our roots as a Pennsylvania-born literary press and to showcase a diverse range of Pennsylvania poets. As always, we are eager to read traditionally marginalized voices. We are proud to publish work by both new and established writers.
Manuscripts are considered annually from June 1 – July 15. This year’s readers will be announced soon. Full guidelines may be found here.
New chapbook: Having Visions Again: Deborah Fries
Please join us in celebrating the upcoming release of our newest chapbook: Having Visions Again by Deborah Fries was selected by Steve Bellin-Oka and Ron Mohring as the 22nd title in our Keystone Chapbook Series. The official publication date is April 21, but you can read a sample poem and order your copy now.

New release: Don Hogle, Madagascar [Keystone Series]
We’re so happy to announce the release of the newest title in our Keystone Chapbook Series: Madagascar by Don Hogle, selected by series editors Steve Bellin-Oka & Ron Mohring. The official publication date for this chapbook is August 21, but you can order now! Cover image by Ron Mohring.
Last call for Keystone Chapbook manuscripts
It’s our last call roundup for the Keystone Chapbook Series by poets with a Pennsylvania connection. Our first and oldest series was launched in 2007 with the publication of Underground Singing by Harry Humes. Series editors Steve Bellin-Oka and Ron Mohring are especially looking for work by marginalized voices. The annual reading period runs June 1 through July 15. Full guidelines are here.
Keystone Chapbook Series is now open
We are now reading manuscripts for the Keystone Chapbook Series. Seven Kitchens Press began in 2007 with our first chapbooks in the Keystone Series, Underground Singing by Harry Humes and Still by Deborah Burnham. There are now 21 titles in the series, celebrating poets with a Pennsylvania connection. Will yours be next?
New titles selected: Keystone Chapbook Series
We’re delighted to announce the selection of two manuscripts for the Keystone Chapbook Series: from this year’s entries, Steve Bellin-Oka and Ron Mohring have selected Orchard Light by Julie Swarstad Johnson, currently of Tucson, AZ, and Madagascar by Don Hogle, currently of New York, NY. Both chapbooks will be published this spring.