High Chair

High Chair is a nonprofit small press that aims to promote genuine interest in poetry in the Philippines. Editorial board members consist of Mesandel Virtusio Arguelles, Conchitina Cruz, Mabi David, Kristine Domingo, Marc Gaba,  EJ Galang, Alex Gregorio, Oliver Ortega, Allan Popa, and Vincenz Serrano. The editor/s solicit work directly from poets, and welcome prose submissions. Although the articles that chiefly interest us are fair and perceptive reviews of poetry books (whether in or out of print), personal essays of communal interest, and extended appreciations or reappraisals of Filipino work, we impose no limitations on the forms of thoughtful, polished, poetry-related prose we would be very happy to upload. While we believe that poetry’s audience can and ought to be enlarged, please note that the High Chair journal is not primarily meant for that cause; the journal’s envisioned readers are those who are or might be keenly interested in poetry. Previously published material is acceptable. Manuscripts for book publication are selected by the editors.

Issue 12, Edited by Conchitina Cruz and Adam David, it is a special issue devoted to the Maguindanao Massacre. This issue is an attempt to do away with the routine disposability of outrage and to review and imagine, in light of the Maguindanao Massacre, the relevance of art.

Issue 11, Edited by Oliver Ortega, Mabi David, and Mesandel Virtusio Arguelles, featuring poems of Maki Lim, Vincenz Serrano, Gregg Friedberg, Tomas Q. Morin, Frances Moreen Naputo, Carrie Etter, Ian Pople, Harris Guevarra, Adam David, Haines Eason, Germelina Lacorte, Jason Tabinas, Leah Zazulyer, Jenn Morea, and Joselito Delos Reyes; an essay of Allan Popa; Raymond John de Borja, Peg Boyers, Adam David, Angelo Suarez, and Naya Valdellon respond to the question, “What does risk encompass in a poem?”

Issue 10, Edited by Kristine Domingo and EJ Galang, featuring poems of Jose Perez Beduya, Miguel Paolo Celestial, Dan Chiasson, Mikael de Lara Co, Henri Cole, Marc Gaba, Jerry Gracio, Luisa Igloria, Thomas James, Oliver Ortega, Allan Popa, Joselito D. delos Reyes, and Rosanna Warren; essays of Mesandel Virtusio Arguelles and Mabi David; and reviews of Rofel Brion’s Sandali,  Joel Toledo’s Chiaroscuro, Mookie Katigbak’s Proxy Eros, Angelo Suarez’s Dissonant Umbrellas, Khavn dela Cruz’s Guhit sa Talampakan, and Rebecca T. Añonuevo’s Kalahati at Umpisa

Issue 9, Edited by Alex Gregorio and Vincenz Serrano, featuring poems of Allan Popa, Mabi David, Kristine Domingo, Conchitina Cruz,  Mesandel Virtusio Arguelles, Elizabeth Willis, Martin Anderson, Jason Tabinas, Rebecca Givens, Benjamin Paloff, Allan Derain, Jenn Morea, Eva Hooker, Kristian Cordero, and Gregg Friedberg; and an essay of Allan Popa

Issue 8, Edited by Mesandel Virtusio Arguelles and Mabi David, featuring poems of Jose Perez Beduya, Kristoffer Berse, Joshua Clover, Conchitina Cruz, Faye Cura, Marc Gaba, David Lau, Allan Popa, Helen Klein Ross, and Joseph de Luna Saguid

Issue 7, Edited by Allan Popa, featuring poems of Alex Gregorio, Amy Wright, Bomen Guillermo, Conchitina Cruz, EJ Galang, Ernanie Rafael, Faye Cura, Frank Bidart, John Oliver Ortega, Jose Beduya, Kristine Domingo, Mabi David, Marc Gaba, Mesandel Virtusio Arguelles, Nikka Osorio, Niles Jordan Breis, Rosmon Tuazon, Sonya Gerilya, Vincenz Serrano, and essays by Conchitina Cruz, Mabi David, Marc Gaba

Issue 6, Edited by Marc Gaba, featuring poems of Christina Mengert, Elisabeth Whitehead, Elizabeth Willis, Isaac Sullivan, Jennifer MacKenzie, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Lucy Ives, Melissa Buzzeo, Sara Veglahn, 
and Susan Scarlata

Issue 5, Edited by Allan Popa, featuring poems of Mesandel Virtusio Arguelles, Jose Perez Beduya, Conchitina Cruz, Mabi David, Kristine Domingo, Marc Gaba, Alex Gregorio, Edgar Calabia Samar, Benilda S. Santos; Frank Bidart, Barbara Henning, Michael Ryan, and Elizabeth Willis respond to the question, “Is complexity necessary in a poem?”

Issue 4,  Edited by Allan Popa, featuring poems of Martin Anderson, Simeon Dumdum, EJ Galang, Jayson Jacobo, John Labella, Mayo Uno Martin, Rosmon Tuazon, a conversation with Simeon Dumdum, and essays of Conchitina Cruz on “T.S. Eliot’s Notorious Notes and the Figure of the Reader” and Marjorie Evasco on “Restoration and Creation: The Work of the Ekphrastic Imagination”

Issue 3, Edited by Allan Popa, featuring poems of Rio Alma, Conchitina Cruz, Allan Popa, an essay of Allan Popa, and a review of the Likhaan anthologies in English by Marc Gaba

Issue 2, Edited by Allan Popa and Marc Gaba, featuring poems of Mesandel Virtusio Arguelles, Jose Perez Beduya, Mabi David, Marjorie Evasco, Marc Gaba, L. Lacambra Ypil, an essay of Allan Popa, a review of An Edith Tiempo Reader by Kristine Domingo,  a conversation with Marjorie Evasco; Jose Lacaba, Alfred Yuson and Fidel Rillo respond to the question, “What would you like to see less of in contemporary poetic practice?”

Issue 1, Edited by Allan Popa and Marc Gaba, featuring poems of Kristine S. Domingo, Alex Gregorio, Bomen Guillermo
, essays of Allan Popa and Gelacio Guillermo, a conversation with Conchitina Cruz; Gemino H. Abad, Gelacio Guillermo, Marne Kilates, and Bienvenido Lumbera respond to the question, “What are poets for?”

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All High Chair books are available at the UP Press Bookstore in UP Diliman, Mag:net on Katipunan Avenue, and Filipinas Heritage Library on Makati Avenue. We do not distribute to big bookstores, their consignment arrangements are oppressive to independent presses with limited print-runs. Please buy from our distributors or get in touch with me (mabidavid at yahoo dot com). Thank you!