Highway Poets Motorcycle Club

September 4th 2011,

The National Biker Poets and Writers Association has announced that Bikerpoet and Writer, K. Peddlar Bridges has been set as its 2011 through 2013 National Bikerpoet Laureate. Bridges is a well known Bikerpoet, who has written for the The Motorcyclists’ Post, The Connecticut Cruise News Newspaper, and many other publications. Bridges has a long history in the motorcycle and writing world, has published a number of Bikerpoetry chapbooks, and has been an editor on two major Bikerpoetry Anthologies. The Bikerpoets and Writers Association’s Verse and Steel and Rubber Side Down and was the first double Bikerpoet Laureate, (1) Don Clady’s, Super Sunday Expo ® 2004-2008 and (2), the old, Connecticut Bike Week 2003 and 2004.

The Duties of The National Bikerpoet Laureate are:

A; To represent the National Biker Poets and Writers Association at Motorcycle Events, Poetry Readings, Literary Events, as well as other various media and hard copy forms.

B; To help promote and publish Bikerpoetry and other Bikerpoets on a regular basis.

Bridges has been set as The National Bikerpoet Laureate in light of his long service to the Writing and Bikerpoetry Community and the quality of his large body of published works.

Bridges’ National Bikerpoet Laureateship will run from September 15th 2011 through September 15th 2013 and then a new Bikerpoets and Writers Association National Bikerpoet Laureate will be chosen in the light of their published work and their service to the Bikerpoetry Community at large.

The decision to set Bridges as The National Bikerpoet Laureate has received the endorsement of Dr Martin Jack Rosenblum, Harley Davidson’s former Corporate Poet Laureate, The National Biker Poets and Writers Association’s present National Bikerpoet Laureate. This decision has also received the endorsement of a number of the elder members of the National Biker Poets and Writers Association and The Bikerpoetry Community at Large.

More information on Bikerpoetry and Bikerpoets can be found on the Net.

For more information on this PRESS RELEASE please email roadpoetbikerpoet@yahoo.com

Verse And Steel Antholgy THE PREFACE BY K. PEDDLAR BRIDGES Welcome to the Preface for VERSE and STEEL, the Bikerpoets and Writers Association’s second Bikerpoetry Anthology. The Preface for Verse and Steel is simple, we the Editors of Verse and Steel strive toward publishing the best and the most interesting Bikerpoetry and work we can find, and we strive toward giving our Bikerpoets and Writers the brightest spotlight we can. The Bikerpoets and Writers within these pages are not a conglomeration of poets and writers, but members of a literary community. Many of the writers within these pages have broke bread together; ridden down the black top side by side; attended events together; and they know one another through land letters, emails, and phone calls. They have sat together outside of emergency rooms with held breath waiting to hear news. They have sat basking in the flashing of blue lights waiting for their paper work to clear. The members of this community stretch right from the northern part of Maine to the West Coast and then head south again. They know one another and they know one another's work. They have camped together, bunked together, and shared one another's dreams, and sat together through one another’s sorrows. This is the community we, the Editors, have tried to reflect through the publishing of Verse and Steel. There are no names in this anthology hurtled down to us from Olympus. They are Bikerpoets and Writers, just as the Editors of this anthology are; and if they are not Bikerpoets proper, they are writers, and poets, and camera folks who have proved their friendship with and their respect for the Bikerpoetry Community repeatedly. There are no doubts. We have strived to give our brother and sister Bikerpoets and Writers the best spotlight we can by showing a photo of the Bikerpoet or Writer, then their Road Title, their name and a short Bio, a sample of their work, and then a short commentary about their work. We have let writers other than the Editors write a bio, or a commentary or two, in the hopes of being as inclusive as possible. We have featured three well known Biker Photographers: Doug Barber, Bob Touchette, and Dexter Bayleat, Jr., as well as having used a number of Guest Photographers, in hopes of giving as many photo credits, and to spotlight as many photographers as possible. We realize that this Biker Poets and Writers Anthology many be a tad more grassroots then our last, but we believe the heart beat of the true Bikerpoetry Movement will beat much louder by being much closer to the roots.

 K. Peddlar Bridges (8.9.2010) Beverly, Mass.