EDITORIAL

Welcome to the Červená Barva Press June Newsletter, 2026

Hi everyone. Welcome to the June newsletter.
It feels great to be back working on the press even if it is only part-time. We are very excited about getting books out. It takes time but we are getting there.

On a personal note, I finally have a new website. I am so happy! I started a blog too!

If you have not checked it out, here it is: https://gloriamindock.com

So far in 2026, we have published the following books:

Bad Decade by Polina Eisenberg (Memoir)

Bad Decade is Polina's story: a messy, aching, and brutally honest journey through growing up when the world never felt built for you. After leaving Russia, she's thrown into a new country, a new language, a new version of herself that never quite fits. What starts as loneliness turns into something darker; nights that blur together, bad choices that feel like relief, and a mind that won't stop pulling her under.

But this isn't just a story about falling apart. It's about what comes after. It's about clawing your way back: one mistake, one apology, one moment at a time. As Polina learns to stay sober and start over, she discovers that recovery isn't easy. It's harsh, chaotic, and elusive.

Bad Decade is a raw coming-of-age saga about addiction, identity, and the hard, beautiful work of saving yourself.

The Blue Staircase & Other Poems by Glenn Sheldon

This is the second book we published by Glenn. The first book was called Bird Scarer. We are so excited so publish him again.

The Blue Staircase & Other Poems is a collection of thirty-six poems that examine the author's personal relationship with Salem, the historical and literary city in northern Massachusetts. Sheldon asks of himself, as well as his audience, "Is there a Salem still?" Tackling its historical, as well as literary heritage, Sheldon takes on the persona of Giles Corey in the title poem (a Puritan farmer and family man convicted and ultimately crushed to death during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692). Elsewhere Sheldon investigates his childhood as a Salem native and interrogates his own literary position to many Massachusetts' authors, from Hawthorne to Lowell, from Emerson to Frost, from his own contemporary position as a Midwestern transplant.

Worries by Alexander Motyl

We are so excited to publish this book of poems by Alexander Motyl.

Alexander Motyl's second collection of poems combines odes to people-ranging from the B-movie star Sterling Hayden to Fred and Ginger to the Andy Warhol Superstar Ultra Violet to the great German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-with wry, ironic, and occasionally mordant observations about life, death, time, art, war, and other worrisome things. Throughout, Motyl verges between hope and despair, though ultimately coming down on the side of the former. Unsurprisingly, the poems are seriously unserious or unseriously serious: the author isn't quite sure which... WORRIES is a companion piece of his first poetry collection, Vanishing Points.

Other books we published by Alexander Motyl are:

• A one line play by him called Waiting by Godot
• The Jew Who Was Ukrainian or How One Man's Rip-Roaring Romp through an Existential Wasteland Ended in a Bungled Attempt to Bump off the Exceptionally Great Leader of Mother Russia
• Sweet Snow: A novel of the Ukrainian famine of 1933

Our Imperfect Bodies by Karen Friedland

It was an honor and bitter sweet to publish this book. Thank you to Renuka Raghavan and Karen's husband Richard Feinberg for their help. There will be a tribute reading for Karen soon. She is so missed and not a day goes by I don't think of her. She passed away on April 14th, 2024.

"I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in November 2021, two days before my 58th birthday. I recurred only a month or two after 'frontline,' about a year later, rendering me incurable and inoperable, and have been in continuous chemo treatment ever since. Having terminal cancer has been a daily exercise in searching for and finding meaning, beauty, kindness and even hope amidst the brutality of a deadly diagnosis. Poetry helps me reflect on, process and share this experience."
-Karen Friedland

We published her book Tales from the Teacup Palace

Order these and many other fine books at: The Lost Bookshelf

I realize everyone wants their books right away. We are working hard on them to get them out. Bill is still fighting Cancer so we will do the best we can. We love the books that we published and the books that will be published. We are very excited!

An Interview with Andrey Gritsman by John Wisniewski

Could you tell us about your early years, Andrey? What was it like growing up in Moscow?

I grew up in a medical family. Both of my parents and even my grandfather were doctors. In fact, we all graduated from the same Medical School in Moscow. So, for me, it was a natural choice. My father loved poetry and would often recite it by heart. But I think that strange aberration - to write poetry, came to me autonomously. What I mean is that poetry, meaning to feel the world in a strange metaphorical way, comes autonomously and cannot be imposed or influenced by somebody. Unless someone makes a conscious decision to write and becomes quite skillful in that. But in this case, it is usually not real poetry but an exercise in poetry, sometimes quite crafty.

Are there any poets who inspire you? Maybe some of them are Russian?

Russian poets most important to me: Lermontov, Mandelstam, prose by Varlam Shalamov, and Chekhov. In world literature, my sensibility and thought process were largely influenced by Franz Kafka, Paul Celan, Marcel Proust and Paul Bowles. Not incidentally, I mentioned prose writers because I believe their writings, style, and sensibility influenced poetry tremendously. Kafka's art, for instance is poetry, by its open endings, dark meaning. Both novels, The Trial and The Castle are not unfinished, everything is said in the body of narrative, in the metaphors. They could not be finished in the literary sense.

What was the experience like writing your latest "Crossing the Line"? What inspires you to write?

Inner turmoil, metaphysical anxiety, thoughts of death inspire me to write, to name a few... My latest Červená Barva Press collection is a reflection of my desire to accumulate inner experiences over the years. I would not say (I hope!) that it's a final book. But rather, I felt it was time to analyze the artistic experience of approaching the line. The line, as Kafka mentioned in his diaries, is the line the artist should strive to reach. And after crossing it, there is no return. I somehow believe that one can recognize the Almighty's face only after crossing that line.

Do you have any favorite artists?

I believe you meant visual artists, painters? Yes, I do. It is Vermeer, in general, Dutch painters, Edward Hopper, and Magritte. I have poems dedicated to their art. Back in Russia we were very fascinated with Western European art, especially French impressionists, great Dutch painters, artists of Russian origin: Chagall, Kandinsky. And only after some time in America, with changing sensibility, developing love for local landscapes and texture, I fell in love with American painters: Sargent, Inness, Winslow Homer, and even with somewhat naive romantic wonderful Hudson River School. Hudson River Valley being one of the most beautiful places on earth.

What is your finest moment as a poet and essayist?

When a piece of writing works out almost by itself, it's just flowing, and you don't have to make an effort to force yourself to write. Inspiration, if you will.

You have described yourself as an American poet. Could you tell us more about this?

A feeling of belonging to American, Russian, or whatever cultural tradition comes not necessarily from knowing the language, or the ability to put together a reasonable piece of writing in that language. It comes from a feeling of acquiring or developing a certain sensibility in that culture. That is what happened to me. Why, I don't know. It just happened. I always felt like an American in a way, long before I came here. And writing in two languages is not a contradiction. In order to do that, one has to become and be not only bilingual (to a significant degree) but bicultural. To develop a new sensibility. Over the years, I lived in various parts of the country that helped a lot. Working as a physician in a hospital, and not only in an academic milieu, helped a lot. To interact with people of different walks of life, to see various sides of American culture.

Do you believe that poets have a responsibility to society? How do you see the role of the poet in society?

No, I don't think so. A poet has only the responsibility to be true to art and to his/her conscience. Responsibility to society comes naturally for an artist creating real art. Otherwise, there is a danger of falling into moral relativity. What if society is on the wrong track: Nazism, Russian totalitarian society, patriotism useful for the government, etc.? What responsibility to society did Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, or T.S.Eliot have? Especially Ezra Pound. Nevertheless, they were great poets. A poet represents only him/herself, and their own real art, and not a group, a platform, or a school. A poet's role in society is to create a real art, appreciated by people, by culture, and then the rest will come naturally.

How did you feel coming to America as an Immigrant?

First, there was a period of euphoria. I was waiting for a long time to leave Russia and set my life and my family's life in America. Then, a period of hard adjustment, nostalgia for a lost home. And then after about five years, I felt that I had lost my former home, became "homeless, internally. And then found a new home. And my current home is New York. And now I formulate: my motherland is Moscow, my home is New York, and my soul lives in Israel, in Biblical land.

Any future plans and projects, Andrey?

It is somewhat difficult and questionable to cherish any concrete plans at my age and at this point in the so-called "career." I would say, to keep writing. I think I have more to say. To myself and therefore to a potential reader. I went through different periods in my work as I moved to the States: period of nostalgia for my previous life, my close ones, my soul's habitat, landscapes. Then the discovery of America: developing American sensibility, acquiring a new home. And lately, it is a journey into my own self and an attempt to find a path to God and ascertain a concept of death.

Book Trailer for "Crossing the Line"
https://youtu.be/rgAMQUoHMBA

I have read so many great books. In each newsletter, I will list some. Too many to put in one newsletter so it will be a few each time. I am slowly catching up with my reading.

Joy Ride by Ron Slate
(Carnegie Mellon University Press)

"The poems of Joy Ride look for the connections and listen for the echoes between world events, family lore, work, mortality, and art. Ron Slate examines the intangibility of the past by exploring the notion of storytelling itself-the stories we tell ourselves, our families, and our communities about the events that have shaped our experience."

Monster Galaxy by Cindy Veach
(Moon path Press)

"Cindy Veach's Monster Galaxy is a beautiful collection buzzing with memory monsters, tender girlhood, haunting grief, and startling selves. These poems are viscerally felt, with images that linger in vivid synesthesia: "They spit stars in my face when I open their shells." Woven with vulnerability, Veach's poems move through haibuns, self-portraits, myths, and epistolaries, asking us to look under our beds for the monsters and burying beetles within and around us."
-Jane Wong, author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything

At Some Point by David O'Connell
(Winner of the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry, University of Wisconsin Press)

"Time is slippery. At Some Point openly acknowledges this while exploring the intersections between past and present, childhood and adulthood, midlife and mortality. Joyously and solemnly tugging on the threads that connect us-to life, to the planet, to each other-David O'Connell finds meaning in the small things. An earworm, a sudden memory, the arrival of a fox in the neighborhood, even camaraderie among other patients awaiting colonoscopies-all are grist for O'Connell's ability to view the world simultaneously anew and as it once appeared. From the quotidian to the profound, this is a collection that hovers around your consciousness, reshaping your own vision and insight."

They'll Be Good for Seed: Anthology of Contemporary Hungarian Poetry
by Gabor G. Gyukics (Translator), Michael Castro (Translator), White Pine Press

"A ground breaking anthology of contemporary Hungarian poetry containing the diverse work of eight women and eight male poets with a wide range of subject matter and styles full of musicality, rhythm, and colorful images."

In Closing...

On a personal note, I finally have a new website. I am so happy! I started a blog too!
I know there are probably too many headings on it, but I wanted it all there.
I worked hard so why not!? I may add a theatre section too. Not sure. I feel very strongly about doing what I want on my website!

If you have not checked it out, here it is:
https://gloriamindock.com

I have 4 posts on my blog too. I put something on my blog when I feel like it. No set schedule.

The next newsletter will be in August. See you then. Thank you for all the support of the press.
Gloria, Bill and staff

Červená Barva Press Staff

Gloria Mindock, Editor & Publisher
Renuka Raghavan, Assistant Editor, Publicity
Flavia Cosma, International Editor
Helene Cardona, Contributing Editor
Andrey Gritsman, Contributing Editor
Juri Talvet, Contributing Editor
John Wisniewski, Interviewer
William J. Kelle: Webmaster

Gene Barry (In Memoriam)
Karen Friedland (In Memoriam)

Former Staff:
Miriam O' Neal, Poetry Reviewer
Annie Pluto, Poetry Reviewer
Christopher Reilley, Poetry Reviewer
Susan Tepper, Poetry Reviewer
John Riley, Poetry and Fiction Reviewer
Neil Leadbeater, (UK)Poetry and Fiction Reviewer

Index | Bookstore | Our Staff | Image Gallery | Submissions | Newsletter | Readings | Interviews | Book Reviews | Workshops | Fundraising | Contact | Links

Copyright @ 2005-2026   ČERVENÁ BARVA PRESS - All Rights Reserved