Belladonna Series

Belladonna* Collaborative (AKA Belladonna Series, Inc.) is an American nonprofit poetry publisher and collaborative organization based in Brooklyn, New York City. It was founded in 1999 by Rachel Levitsky at in New York, NY as a poetry series featuring avant-garde feminist writing, with an emphasis on hybrid and language-focused writing. The reading series quickly expanded to a multi-faceted matrix of readings, publications and informal salons. Currently, the press operates as a non-hierarchical collaborative, publishing books and hosting literary events with attention to diversity in its roster of authors and editorial board.

Belladonna* was started as a reading and salon series at on New York City’s Lower East Side, in August 1999. The first publications were by kari edwards, for the May 4, 2000 reading at . Following the edwards postcards, in collaboration with Boog Literature, Belladonna* began to publish commemorative ‘chaplets’ of its readers' work.

In 2008 the style of production shifted from small-run, single-authored books to multi-authored volumes. In celebration of Belladonna*’s ten-year anniversary, the small press published an Elders Series highlighting continuity and transformation of the ideas, poetics, and concerns of its poets' circle.

In 2010, Belladonna* formed a cooperative board with each member taking specific responsibilities so that the ongoing readings and publications can proceed. Presently the members are: Martine Bellen, Cara Benson, Caroline Crumpacker, HR Hegnauer, Barbara Henning, Krystal Languell, Rachel Levitsky (founder), Kristin Prevallet, Emily Skillings, Lila Zemborain, Akilah Oliver (1961–2011)

Belladonna* collaborates with performance venues, academic institutions, art and literary organizations, holding readings at Dixon Place and Bowery Poetry Club, local literary bookstores like Unnameable Books and Book Thug Nation, the CUNY Graduate Center, and Small Press book fairs. It also participates in co-publication projects with other small presses in New York City, such as Litmus, Dusie, Futurepoem Books and Ugly Duckling Presse. Belladonna* has been featured in many publications including Rain Taxi, American Review of Books, Poets & Writers, amongst others.

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