Shy Poet Sends Gumball Machine on Book Tour
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Poet Fills Gumball Machine with toy capsules containing candy and poetry to promote her new book.
Detroit, MI
Poet Katherine Montalto has released her poetry collection, Minor Transient Documents of Everyday Life. To promote it, she’s filled a gumball machine with approximately 180 toy capsules each stuffed with one piece of candy and one haiku poem from the book. The poems are in tiny zines no bigger than a quarter with a QR code printed on the back that goes to a link to buy the book. Each capsule costs 50¢. Check out a video of the machine in action.
Minor Transient Documents of Everyday Life are three line recipes, short stories, jokes, riddles, science projects, love notes, horrors, confessions, and memories. It is a collection of haiku that have appeared online, on social media, and self published in hand folded, one-page zines between the years 2022-2024.
The Haiku Machine is currently doing a summer residency at Flourish Books and Plants (17649 US 12) in New Buffalo, Michigan.
Its first residence was at Kitty Deluxe (22202 Harper Avenue in St Clair Shores, MI 48080) from October 2025 through January 30, 2026. Then, it was at Whistler’s Daughter Books, 703 Livernois Ferndale, MI 48220 from February until April 25, 2026.
The Haiku Machine is looking for residency spaces in the Metro Detroit area. Now that it is so close, she would also be interested in a residency in Chicago. Please Contact Katherine Montalto at KatherineMontalto@protonmail.com if interested. She’ll split the quarters with you.
Alternatively, If your space already has a machine (anywhere in the world) that can handle 2 inch gumballs, Katherine would be happy to fill it with her haiku candy capsules. Learn More here.
