WAYE Small Press Gold Star Program Gold Star

WAYE Small Press is a new poetry initiative designed to highlight a talented community of poets in print. “WAYE” is short for “We Appreciate Your Enthusiasm,” the infamous first line of every rejection letter you’ve ever (or haven’t yet) received.

This project was inspired by the poetry open mic we've been hosting at our vintage shop/used bookstore, Sure Things, in Jersey City, New Jersey, over the past two years. It has received much acclaim from the community at large and has been praised for bringing in some exciting, fresh, and even legendary talents to our humble stage. Some of our featured poets have included Evie Shockley, Reg E. Gaines, and RADI the Poet.

Funded in part by the Jersey City Arts and Culture Trust Fund, WAYE Small Press aims to produce a quarterly publication of works by local and national (and perhaps international) poets and set their words down in a gorgeous print-only poetry journal that will be for sale at Sure Things and sure-things.com/wayesmallpress.

To that end, we hope to bring together on the page the kind of talent we bring together at the shop and open up all poets to a wider audience through the medium of print.