Change has been a long time coming for us here at Avantexte. Founded over a year ago, we launched The Bleed, an online poetics journal that has done a superb job of introducing us and our overall aesthetic to the world through the work of dozens of today’s finest visual, concrete and experimental poets. And yet, we have yet to publish a single book!

That is going to change.

Today we stand poised to release three new books:

• stexxt::viscereality, an anthology of visual pwoermds featuring some of the most respected artist-poets working today,
• ChongDong Misfits, a book of hallucinatory prose poems in the vein of W.S. Burroughs and Kathy Acker penned by fearless contemporary poets Matina Stamatakis and Carmen Racovitza, and
• Typenagerie, an exploration of the visual possibilities of one of the classic fonts of modernist Swiss design, Akzidenz-Grotesk

But the excitement of new books is only one sign of the changes happening for Avantexte. The other is the very site you’re looking at now. With a new host, new look, and better incorporation of our e-journal, The Bleed, this site better represents our commitment to clean, powerful design; beautiful typography; and the right of fine visual poems to find their readers without interference from cluttered design.

The Bleed itself has changed as well. Whereas before we featured individual visual poets in discrete posts going live as and when it pleased us, The Bleed will now transition to a more familiar issue-based presentation. Our very first issue will be available soon, and will present our entire first year of publications in one lovingly designed issue, which will be available as a free download, and for those who still adore the heft and texture of print, an affordable physical version.

We hope you like the new Avantexte!