Parisian Phoenix Publishing

Guest Blog by Magnus Mateo

This year, I’ll be participating in the Sealey Challenge for the first time. In case you’ve never heard of this challenge, it encourages people to read a poetry book of any length for each day of August. 31 days, 31 books.

Seems easy enough, right?

I guess we’ll find out together.

As a poet, I find reading other poetry books an essential tool to bettering my craft. I expose myself to so many various writing styles and a myriad spread of topics to choose from, I sometimes spiral with all the inspiration.

Just reviewing my work compared to last year shows such a drastic difference in my own writing style, so I’m looking forward to what I can drum up from this reading challenge.

Also, by reading other poetry books, I’m directly supporting these artists. This challenge presents me the opportunity to work through my *massive* collection of poetry books I personally purchased from local and out-of-state poets. I plan to write reviews for my favorite reads throughout this month, which boosts the reach (and the heart) of the published writer.

Speaking of directly supporting artists, I highly encourage folks to include my debut chapbook, She’s Jealous of my Purple Sky in their Sealey Challenge reads.

You can either purchase a copy from the source (me) by attending my creative arts event series, Noble Quills (held at Book & Puppet Co.) OR from Amazon.

Either way, owning a copy of my chapbook means you get the opportunity to explore my journey of queer love and the grief that followed after the passing of my favorite devil’s advocate.

If you want a bit of a preview of my content before purchasing my chapbook, come out to the Main St. stage of Musikfest on Monday, August 5th, to hear me read during Poetry Hour, noon to 1 p.m.

Not only will you get to know what kind of poems live in my book, but you get to be entertained by my fantastic stage presence. I know that sounds cocky, but the proof is in the pudding. Trust me, you won’t wanna miss out.