Recent Book Launches
Mongrel Empire Press recently hosted three successful book launches, one for James Murray’s short story collection entitled The Long Rifle Season and two for The Walmart Republic, a collaborative poetry collection by Quraysh Ali Lansana and Christopher Stewart.
Here is a video of the Chicago release of The Walmart Republic, hosted by the The Guild Literary Complex, co-presented by the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts and Mongrel Empire Press, and sponsored by the Chicago Center for Working Class Studies.
The Long Rifle Season book launch was held in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and generously and graciously hosted by Isaac at Chapel Books. The author, James Murray, read from the collection; MEP editor Jeanetta Calhoun Mish and MEP author Quraysh Ali Lansana read a poem apiece. Special guests at the opening included novelist Rilla Askew, artist and writer Murv Jacob, writer and musician Debbie Duvall, bluesman Pat Moss, and writer-storyteller Sequoyah Guess. Photos below are from The Long Rifle Season book launch; MEP is grateful to Gay Pasley of Black Swan Images for the use of her photos.

Quraysh Ali Lansana reads a poem while author James Murray and MEP editor Jeanetta Calhoun Mish listen.
The second launch for The Walmart Republic was held at Oklahoma City University, where Lansana is on the faculty of The Red Earth MFA. Two current and one former Red Earth poetry students read from their work (David Bublitz, Josefine Green & Jill Hawkins). Lansana was introduced by poet Timothy Bradford; Bradford also read poems by Lansana’s co-author, Christopher Stewart, who was unable to attend because of flight cancellations. The following photos are from the OKC book launch for The Walmart Republic. Again, we thank Gay Pasley of Black Swan Images for the photos: