HogPress

We published another book of poetry before last year's holidays...Jeremy Toombs' "Fair to Middlin'" is now available worldwide. More information at https://hogpress.com/toombs-fair-to-middlin/

We just released a book of poetry by one of our new authors. Anne McGee Tibbitts' "riversongs" is now available worldwide. Check out the book website for more information.
https://hogpress.com/tibbitts-riversongs/

New book by Wayne Burke, now available worldwide at Hog Press

Here's the book story:
You are ten years old. Your stomach aches. Your grandfather’s hand rests on your shoulder like a weathered leather glove—silent, steady, and more comforting than any advice ever spoken. You’re in a JC Penney, dodging your grandmother’s wart-picking scrutiny and your brother’s thumb-sucking despair. You’re in a swing, singing about your uncle, until he storms out with a belt like a black snake. You stop. You always stop.

This is not a memoir. It is a field guide to survival in the rusted-out towns of New England, where the church bells ring and the pot roast simmers, but love is frozen solid in second-floor apartments. Where boys become men by slamming into each other on football fields, only to be spit out into factories and bars. Where the All-Star never makes it, the coach laughs when he hits you in the face, and the only glory is someone else’s.

You meet Jen in Walgreens. She hasn’t eaten all day. You buy her candy. She calls you Duane. You don’t correct her.

You dream of Nietzsche, of Kerouac, of Bukowski on a bicycle at the Oscars. You write poems like postcards from the edge of memory, where the dead don’t speak, but their silence is deafening.

You are Baby Wayne. Or maybe you were. Or maybe you never were.

About the Author

Wayne F. Burke writes both poetry and prose. He is the author of eighteen published books, including eleven poetry collections—most recently Black Summer, 2022; one short-story collection—Turmoil and Other Stories, 2020; a novella—No Tab for Sully, 2025; and five nonfiction works—most recently the van Gogh file: Potato Eaters, Preachers, and Painters, 2024.

Originally from Massachusetts, he has lived in the central Vermont area (USA) for the past thirty-five years.

More info at: https://hogpress.com/burke-whatever-happened-to-baby-wayne/
Available in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle versions...