About the Book About the Author
Poetry is for life, not for ivory towers.
At Tweetspeak Poetry, it has been our delight to bring poetry to people, right where they are. To bring together established poets and poets taking first steps. And to invite those who thought they could never be a part of poetry to dip in without fear. Because we strongly believe poetry is for life.
Somewhere along the way, as part of our poetry merry-making, we opened The Mischief Café. It’s a “welcome” space on our website. But also somewhere along the line, it began to feel like more. Maybe The Mischief Café should not just be virtual, we started to think. And so it began. The idea of a traveling café, bringing poetry to people right where they are. In their own homes, amidst friends. With toast (buttered) and tea.
It’s an idea that’s still working itself out, but for now, sometimes a member of our Tweetspeak Poetry team will come to tea with poetry. And sometimes poetry lovers won’t want to wait for that. So they’ll make a little poetry mischief on their own.
This book describes the idea of a Mischief Cafe and how to run one, includes over thirty poems from T. S. Poetry Press titles (and from the conversation with fans that started the idea of this book), and has blank pages for new poems that café gatherers can write together over time using (or not) the 34 poem title prompts provided throughout.
Overall, the book gives you everything you need to run your own Mischief Cafe (or attend one): an explanation you can read aloud at your gathering, poems to share, prompts to inspire. Everything, that is, except the toast (buttered!) and tea.
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See some traveling Mischief Café events!
Author of six books including Love Etc.: Poems of Love, Laughter, Longing & Loss (2014); The Novelist: A Novella (2012); Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing (Twice named a Best Book of 2011). Blogger for Huffington Post Books. Poems have appeared at Every Day Poems, VQR, Best American Poetry, and NPR.
Editorial Reviews
I absolutely love The Mischief Cafe and all it entails. I sat in my office and read it cover to cover (which is not like me, I am the savoring type), but I just had to read on.
There are so many things I like about it--from the opening, simple quote from Neruda to the closing themes of birth, quiet, and thanks. I appreciate the diligence to keeping themes running through the book that seamlessly move together from poem to blank page.
—Dave Malone, author of O: Love Poems from the Ozarks