The What is Real Reading Tour. Come to some of these fine cities and towns. Come with, if you want.

September 26, 2017 LIVE TELEVISION APPEARANCE

Somerville Community Access Television, 5 PM

Live stream to watch on the site
www.scatvsomerville.org/

with host Doug Holder 



October 6, 2017 Cambridge, Ma

Dire Literary Series, 7 PM

Out of the Blue Art Gallery
541 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, Ma

with guests David Winner and Kitty Beer 



October 26, 2017 Brookline, Ma

Poetry with Brookline's Poet Laureate Zvi Sesling, 6:45 PM

Brookline Public Library, Hunneman Hall-2nd Floor
361 Washington Street
Brookline, Ma

Featuring with Doug Holder, Gloria Mindock, Dennis Daly, 
Deborah Leipziger and Lawrence Kessenich. 



November 2, 2017 Lynn, Ma

Blue Room Sessions, 7:30 PM

White Rose Coffee House
56 Central Square 
Lynn, MA 

Featured reading followed by an open mic 



November 3, 2017 Cambridge, Ma

It's the 200th Dire Literary Series, 7 PM

Out of the Blue Art Gallery
541 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, Ma

with guests Aaron Tillman, Daniel Hudon and Michael Hoerman 



November 12, 2017 New York, NY

Poetry at the Parkside Lounge, 3:30 PM

Parkside Lounge
317 East Houston Street
New York, NY

Featuring with Dean Kostos and Mike Jurcovic, hosted by George Wallace 



November 20, 2017 Worcester, Ma

Dirty Gerund Poetry Series, 9:00 PM

Ralph's Diner
148 Grove St 
Worcester MA 

Reading two sets of material with an open mic 



December 1, 2017 Cambridge, Ma

Dire Literary Series, 7 PM

Out of the Blue Art Gallery
541 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, Ma

with guests Jennie Wood, Kerry Beth Neville and Heather Sullivan 



December 6, 2017 Salem, Ma

Mercy Outloud Poetry Series, 9 PM

Mercy Tavern
148 Derby Street
Salem, Ma

hosted by Brendan Conolly and Sarah Ann Corbett 



December 12, 2017 Baltimore, Md

Writers and Words Series, 7 PM

Charmington's Cafe
2501 North Howard Street
Baltimore, Md

hosted by Maria Goodson 


December 15, 2017 Boston, Ma

Student Day of Poetry, teaching poetry workshops, 9 AM

U Mass Boston

sponsored by Mass Poetry

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Future Series Appearances

March 23, 2018 Boston, Ma

Poetry Salon of Boston, 7:00 PM

Private Home near Symphony Hall
e-mail me for address
ctgager37@yahoo.com

The Poetry Salon of Boston continuing the spirit of The Goba Salon hosted by Ron and Sue Goba which was first known as Friends of Poetry (FOP) Friday, founded by Prabakar Thyagarajan and Ron Goba 

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Todays Class: Book Trailer Making (-101)

Here's a poem and film for my newest book of poetry, Chief Jay Strongbow Is Real.

And yes...

Miranda Stevie GIF from Miranda GIFs

One Hundred Twenty Five Poetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma in the anthology Eternal Snow

I met Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma (check out his bio) at a reading on Huntington, Long Island, at George Wallace's Poetry Barn. It was sometime around 2008 and he gave a wonderful reading---and boy, he had a lot of books to sell.

Gladys Henderson, Yuyu and myself at The Poetry Barn, Huntington, Long Island

I was impressed very much with this traveling poet for the base of the Himalayas that I featured him at my Dire Series (Boy, he had a lot of books) in 2010 and in 2013 and he invited me to teach a workshop within the beauty of where he is from.

January 2013

We formed a wonderful friendship. Yuyu is a peaceful, intelligent man, and a wonderful speaker and poet. When he asked me to submit to Eternal Snow: A Worldwide Anthology of  One Hundred Twenty FivePoetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma, edited by David B Austell and Kathleen D Gallagher,  I jumped. Maybe on day I'll see Nepal.

Now it is out and I'm happy to have two poems, "Prayer By a Stream" and "This, For the Bear" as part of this collection. It's a really great looking book. Here are the details

Eternal Snow: A Worldwide Anthology of  One Hundred Twenty FivePoetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma

 Edited by David Austell & Kathleen D Gallagher

ISBN : 81-8250-0915 2017 Paperback pp 309 plus  24 Photo pages

John Clarke

Tracie Morell

Lori Ann Kusterbeck

David Ray

James Ragan

Ravi Shankar

Eileen O’Connor

Gorka Lasa

Elena Karina Byrne

Pascale Petit

Chuck Joy

Lorraine Conlin

Paul Nash &

Denise La Neve

Andrew Taylor

Amarendra Khatua

Meera Ekkanath Klein

Eskimo Pie

Christi Shannon Kline

Revigya Joshi

Kathleen D Gallagher

David Austell

Maria Heath Beckett

Renay Sanders

Shawn Aveningo

Juan Carlos Abril

Tim Kahl

Dom Kafley

Judy Ray

Tera Vale Regan

Diane Frank

Lady K (Kathy Smith)

Karen Corinne Herceg

Kate Lamberg

Penny Kline

Sharon Metzler-Dow

M. L. Williams

Robert Scotto

Nicole Barriere

Anne Fritz

Ruth Danon

Tim Tomlinson

Mary E. Weems

Roopa Ramamoorthi

Dan Szczesny

Nancy Aidé Gonzalez

Nancy R Lange

Michael Graves

Eugene Hyon

Marcus Bales

Peter V. Dugan

Aixia de Villanova

Leah Taylor

Cristina Querrer

Bari Falese

Agnes Marton

Patricia Carragon

Dd. Spungin

Verónica Aranda

Samantha Bear

Darlene Costello

Mindy Kronenberg

David Axlerod

Tony Barnstone

Russ Green

Alessandra Francesca

Nabina Das

Ronnie Norpel

Eddie Woods

Kim Nuzzo

Chiff Fyman

Barun Bajracharya

Shreejana Bhandari

Charles Peter Watson

Christopher Wheeling

Merik van der Torren

Art Good Times

Robin Mets

Erica Mapp

Bill Wolak

Roxanne Hoffman

Civa Bhusal

James Romano

D. B. Meltzer 

Cee Williams

Bidur Prasad Chaulagain

Vicki Iorio

Barbara Novack

Mary Ryan Garcia

Theresa Göttl Brightman

Steve Brightman

Jack Tar

Kymberly Avinasha Brown

Catherine Gigante-Brown

Marion Palm

Hélène Cardona

André Baum

Phillip Giambri

Devin Wayne Davis

Alex Symington

Rajesh Siddharth

Marisa Moks-Unger

Lorraine  Bouchard

Don Carroll

Anthony Murphy

Timothy Gager

John J. Trause

Jack Locke
Anuj Ghimire

Elaine Karas-Shadle

Irene O’ Garden

Allegra Jostad Silberstein

Gaurav Bhattarai

Su Polo
Ernie Burns

Roger McClain

Ken Ruan

Jen Pezzo

Marcus Calvert

Thomas Jenney

Judi Chabola

Bishwa  Sigdel

Carolyn Wells

Arun Budhathoki

Carol Hebald

Melissa Hobbs

Jan Garden Castro
Swati Sharma

Writers need your help. Buy their books, but here's how you can help without even buying the book

Buying the book is self-explanatory, but even if you don't buy there are some things you can do whether you know the writer or not. All of these can actually be true. (It's 2017-I have to mention that)

1. Talk about the book.
Word of mouth is and always will be a huge part of book selling. Here's some scripts to use. 

"Hey, my friend, Blob-blob wrote a book." 

"Blob-blob just came out with a new one."

"What are you reading now? I plan to start Blob-blob's book."

If you read and loved it?

"I just read and loved Blobby title by Blob-blob"

2. Host an event.

-Have your friend Blob-blob featured at your book club. If they're local they can attend. You'd be surprised who would like to come to your bookclub! Do you hear that, Malcolm Mitchell?

-If you're not in a bookclub have a party where Blob-blob could read or socialize. If you host a series and are contacted by an author or PR department, be kind or at least respond back. 

3. Post a review.

You don't have to be a professional reviewer or an award winning writer to write a review on Amazon or Goodreads. If you enjoyed the book find the author's webpage and alert them to the review. Even just offering stars without words helps. Share reviews from others. Oh, lookey at that David Atkinson review of Grand Slams. 

Customer Review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful  funny, tense, and even tender, December 8, 2016 By  D. S. Atkinson Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Grand Slams: a coming of eggs story (Paperback) I do have a soft spot for pancake house centered fiction, but I also have high standards. Gager puts together a beautiful one in this book though. It seems so realistic of that kind of place at the time that it's funny, tense, and even tender. I cared about these people and what would happen to them as if they were really people I knew well. Very well done.

4. Add a book to your Goodreads bookshelf as wanting to read or currently reading.

Hell--you don't even have to buy the thing, When you add a book, all of your Goodreads pals but the daily Goodreads e-mails and your add, including the book's picture is included.  

5. Do ANY of the above on Social Media. 

Writers blab about their books and reviews all the time. When it is from an outside source this is 400 times more effective. (For actual proof of this number, ask Donald Trump because he'll set you straight.)

Recommendations, status updates, tweets (for the record re-tweeting is better than liking), sharing of reviews by you or others, photos the book or of you holding a book are all social media, word of mouth, tools. 

So, thanks for all your help. We couldn't be more grateful.

Six ways to purchase Chief Jay Strongbow or Timothy Gager's books (other prices vary)

How do you get me?

You can get Chief Jay Strongbow is Real, Grand Slams, The Thursday Appointments of Bill Sloan or any of my books

1. Through me, Paypal, (ctgager37@yahoo.com) $14 plus $2.63 shipping or on my website (paypal)

You make out with no shipping, I don't charge any.
Author makes out from you buying direct.
Paypal takes some of the money, unless you use the gift button.

2. Though me, Credit Card, $14

You make out with no shipping, I don't charge any.
Author makes out from you buying direct.
Paypal takes some of the money, because this option is through them

Contact me with your credit card numbers (sounds a little sketchy, I know. Sorry).

3. Though me, Check, $14

You make out with no shipping, I don't charge any.
Author 's best option.

Contact me for my mailing address. ctgager37@yahoo.com

4.  Through your favorite Indy Bookstore $14 + waiting

You make out by getting the book. Ask store to order with

• ISBN-13: 978-1945917189

Author  makes out by  very small royalty.

5.  At Amazon $14 + shipping
soon available as a  Kindle version, various prices

You make out by getting the book.
Author  makes out by sales number increase on site and the very small royalty.






6.  Though Barnes and Noble,  $16 + shipping

You make out by getting the book. Ask store to order by ISBN number   ISBN-13: 978-0996988742
Author  makes out by sales number increase on site and the very small royalty.

Bent Country has high praise for my new book.

Here's the most excellent review,
found in the Bent Country, also reprinted below. I love that it says I can go too unnoticed for my poetry, as often I am the novelist whom write poetry, when I'm not being the poet who also writes novels. 

Bent Country?

I'm absolutely blown away by the praise and superlatives written here.

But as it says, don't get bent out of shape, (or relax)  it's Sheldon Lee Compton's blog. So who is he?

Sheldon has a lot of fine credits himself.  His fiction and poetry has been published in more than 200 journals both online and in print In 2012, he was a finalist for both the Gertrude Stein Fiction Award and the Still Fiction Award. The Same Terrible Storm was nominated for the Thomas and Lillie D. Chaffin Award for Excellence in Appalachian Writing, while his short stories have been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize, as well as Best of the Net, storySouth’s Million Writers Award, and cited in Best Small Fictions 2015 and Best Small Fictions 2016, guest edited by Robert Olen Butler and Stuart Dybek, respectively. 




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The Appreciation of Timothy Gager's CHIEF JAY STRONGBOW IS REAL

Chief Jay Strongbow is Real
by Timothy Gager

Big Table Publishing (July 18, 2017)
$14 paperback (Amazon)


Timothy Gager is a fantastic poet. I'd like to say this up front. And I say that for everyone. To my mind, and I could be off base in mentioning this, but I seem to think he may go unnoticed too often for his poetry. Reading his most recent collection, Chief Jay Strongbow is Real, I've become convinced he could be one of our most natural poets. His poems have this feel to them, as if they appeared to him in visions. In truth, I realize this only means he worked on them extraordinarily hard. But still, not everyone can bring across this natural feel in their work.

Take this from Act I, the first of eight sections of poems from the collection, a piece titled "Repatriation":


It’s still happening, now, as 
science, debunked their tall tale

that I wasn’t really a native American,
not a cultural item of lineal descendants

see what they dug up, check the DNA 
which shows, I still long to be in the ground.


Timothy spends a good deal of time at the beginning of this collection dealing with justice and injustice, especially in regard to the native American. In his preface, he explains that his perspective on the treatment of the native American was changed following a failed grade school assignment. He spends time on the subject in the title poem, as well, Chief Jay Strongbow, a former pro wrestler who used a racist gimmick, a popular show technique for those guys in the 1980s. But he doesn't stay on the subject, instead moving on to topics ranging from the complexities of love to the hardships of addiction.

In the poem "Sobriety" with stripped down language and minimal space, Gager absolutely sums up one of many aspects of what staying clean is like, the hourly grind of it and how beautiful recovery can be when managed successfully. The poem begins with a familiar image, the addict or alcoholic in recovery with coffee. In this instance, sitting alone in thought, viewing oil paintings.


view the oil paintings 
hung boats and fields 

thousands of brush strokes 
thousands 


But more than what he can do with a ripe subject matter, and returning to this natural rhythm his style develops on the tongue, it is his use of syntax that can astound in this collection. Of the many poems on display, none show this more clearly for me than "Nursery Rhythms." Have a look at the final stanza and consider while reading how Timothy must have labored over each syllable working in perfect concert with the other.


off my crooked clavicle
sapiens discern vertebrae 
unbreakable, resilient 
missiled. And shatterproof 
glass in pitched little houses 
is how we wind up a catapult.


Big Table Publishing just released this title. I suggest you get to Amazon and get a copy as soon as possible. BTP will have it available at their site soon, I'm sure. In the meantime, know that Timothy is writing poetry that is not only pleasing on a poetic level but is also important on a social level, aware of long-standing debts and the newly-wronged alike and poetry that offers wisdom shared beautifully, not something found easily or often. And he shares this asking nothing in return but your attention.

Publishing Day!! This calls for the blurbs and how to purchase.

1) Or order it from your favorite bookstore
2) Or contact me ctgager37@yahoo.com, if amazon is not your thing.
3) Deal if you buy from me. Any other of my books can be added for half their price.

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Timothy Gager's latest book, Chief Strongbow is Real, is evidence of a new stage for the veteran poet and novelist. Before this book, Gager safely relied on his poetic insight into the struggle we all face, and his powerful phraseology; in this one, he stretches out into the worlds of politics and personality. His eye for the telling detail remains, but his work has become more expansive, more timely, and less hard-bitten. This is a mature poet showing us exactly what he's got: and it's good.

Good friend Rusty pictured with Heather Sullivan

-Rusty Barnes Author of On Broad Sound and I Am Not Ariel.

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The poems in Chief Jay Strongbow Is Real exist in liminal spaces. Timothy Gager realizes that like the actor who portrayed Strongbow, we are all “fake…actor[s] within/the theater of our absurdity.” These poems aren’t afraid to rail against the world we find ourselves in, where if “the cash is too good/right in our backyard, [we] sign the contracts/then set the tap water on fire.” These are poems that fight for truth and justice and love – whether we’re ready for them yet, or not.

Shaindel Beers- a very kind soul

–Shaindel Beers, author of A Brief History of Time and The Children’s War and Other Poems













Timothy's work is the cool that doesn't know it's fire. And his poetry, dry ice, cold to a flame. And all that cool, fire, ice, vocabulary and metaphor make volcanoes out of sandboxes of life and experience.  

 -Harlym 1TWO5, poetic force to be reckoned with

Pictured with Harlym 1TWO5 at poetry workshop

These Timothy Gager’s poems are diurnal animals prowling the midnight streets of his heart, searching for suburban morality, conscience, beauty, rawness, hope, and simplicity of time and being. When you read his work, you will be fetching him a bowl of milk made of love and fatigue and sobriety. The poems in this collection will drill quotidian sadness and nostalgia and hope into your left torso and make you dream of fabric softener and leggings and fertilizer.

Creative and talented Vi Khi Nao

 –Vi Khi Nao author of Fish in Exile and The Old Philosopher

First review of Chief Jay Strongbow is Real, by Laura Cherry Boston Small Press and Poetry Scene

THE PLAYERS

Doug Holder, poet, editor, publisher                                                           Laura Cherry, poet, reviewer              

  



        Doug, Laura








                                    and me, with a galley of Jay Strongbow, "we hold these truths..."

Put them together 

Tim, Laura, Doug
Review published in Boston Small Press and Poetry Scene
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Chief Jay Strongbow is Real: Timothy Gager Hungers for Truth

Taking its title and prevailing metaphor from a faux-native wrestler who was “arguably the biggest racist gimmick in history,” Timothy Gager’s new collection, Chief Jay Strongbow is Real, sets out to debunk our tidy, comfortable myths and cut through romantic and cultural illusions. The book is set in eight “Acts” that take on loaded topics like politics, addiction and sobriety, love and its demise, family, and poetry itself.

The collection’s introduction and opening poems indict the actions of those currently in power (“sign the contracts / then set the tap water on fire”), but he’s equally allergic to simplistic or idealistic solutions from the other side:

                The most radical revolutions

                Become conservative

                The day after the revolution

                                (“Me Thinks we Protest”)

Gager’s poems are disruptive and clever, full of his characteristic wordplay: “What doesn’t kill you makes you thinner,” “as a fly crows,” and, most light-heartedly:

                You know you slay me

                so what?

                I have dragon breath 

                                (“Loose Flowers”)

Gager is also bold and funny in his skewering of consumer culture (seventies style):

                Take Sominex tonight and sleep

                after Coke and a smile

                is how you spell relief

                                (“I'm Feeling Good About Amerika”)

The collection punctures the balloon of romance and easy intimacy (“this / dating is either gaga or nothing”) but still allows for the hope of deep connection “like a worn t-shirt / is a perfect imperfection.” Silly posturing is off the table here, but love remains a comfort.

In a world of counterfeits, compromise, disappointment and disgust (which extends even to the self: “today at the beach, my patience / vanished like waves taking turns”), the clearest story to tell may be of the adolescent hollowness that cannot be assuaged. Hunger, at least, is true, and memory doesn’t soften it.

                At age sixteen, a hundred and forty pounds

                An empty pit, my ribs stuck out like a step ladder

                My toothpick   arms with bulbous hinges

                I think it impossible   to fill my stomach

                                (“When I Think of my Childhood”)

With its distrust of smug certainties and empty nostalgia, Chief Jay Strongbow is Real might help us sharpen our own gaze, see more clearly, and act simply and boldly: “Cook a meal. / Plant a garden.” If there’s a message here, it is to look for truth and to persist. “By no means stop.”

               

--Laura Cherry