Two New Books From Chin Music Press
Since I first discovered Chin Music Press, and their philosophical and elegant title Oh, I’ve been interested in the books they publish because each title is produced not only as a book but as a well-designed art object. Their books use high quality papers, sharp page design, and full color printing for images. This attention to detail makes reading their titles a truly sensual experience.
Broken Levee Books, a Chin Music imprint, has in recent months released two compelling books about New Orleans post-Katrina–Hurricane Story by Jennifer Shaw and Where We Know New Orleans as Home edited by David Rutledge.
BlazeVOX Update
Geoffrey Gatza, the editor of BlazeVOX, has issued a statement. In it he writes:
BlazeVOX is not closing its doors.
That said, I feel like I should explain a bit further the co-operative nature of our business model. I am not going to change what we do, but I do acknowledge that perhaps I could communicate what we do a little better.
I, for one, am glad to hear that BlazeVox will not be closing down, and that Gatza has decided to work toward a more transparent policy.
Conversation abounds: Johannes Göransson, Shanna Compton, Michael Kelleher, Craig Santos Perez, Reb Livingston, Collin Kelley, Justin Evans, and Christopher Janke are among the voices to have weighed in on the subject.
A Kingdom of Kings
Whenever a press or magazine closes or threatens to close or when the reality of their dire financial situation comes to light, everyone freaks out as if it is a surprise that small presses and magazines are constantly facing immense financial pressure. When will the economic realities of small press publishing stop being shocking news? At this level, there are too many of us publishing and not enough readers to sustain these efforts. More people want to edit or publish or be published than want to read books that are published. I don’t know a writer who doesn’t support publishing actively, but there are simply not enough of writers to solve this problem, given the sheer volume of presses and magazines out there. As I noted in my last post on this subject, a day doesn’t go by when I receive at least one press release or request from a new press, magazine, collective, or other publishing endeavor. These editors and publishers basically say, “I have a unique vision and I want to share that vision.” They are more invested in the uniqueness and sharing of their vision than supporting the vision of someone else. How many people in Chris Higgs’s post said, “I’m a small publisher”? We are an army of generals, a kingdom of kings.
BlazeVOX Goes Vanity Press?
I saw on Facebook where Matt Bell had written:
A really disheartening post at Bark about BlazeVOX’s new “acceptance” letter for book manuscripts, where they require a $250 donation from the author before publishing. BlazeVOX has published a couple books I’ve really loved, which makes me sorry and disappointed and angry to read this. I know times are tough, but preying on writers isn’t the solution.
I clicked on the link and read the article written by Brett Ortler, which outlines his exchange with BlazeVOX editor Geoffrey Gatza.
I echo Matt’s response: this is troubling and disheartening. For those of you out there who are new to creative writing, who are currently in the process of learning the ropes of publishing, it is considered unethical for a publisher to ask you to pay to have your work published. Back in the day, before the internet, there used to be this thing called The Writer’s Market (maybe it still exists?), which was this huge brick of a book that helped writers find places to send their work. It also included helpful essays about publishing. One of the first rules you would learn by reading The Writer’s Market is that anyone who asks you for money to publish your work should not be trusted.
Like Matt, I admit that BlazeVOX has published a few books I’ve loved (and written about or run promos for here), but this sort of pay-to-publish policy seriously threatens to diminish the press’s legitimacy in my eyes.
2 New from Calamari: Gary Lutz’s Divorcer & Vincent Standley’s A Mortal Affect
Calamari Press jumps back to action with two exciting new titles, both now available for order: Gary Lutz’s Divorcer & Vincent Standley’s A Mortal Affect.
“DIVORCER is a collection of seven harrowing and hyperprecise short stories about ruinous relationships and their aftershocks.” $13
“A Mortal Affect is a satire of meaning systems targeting the role bureaucracy and cultural assumptions play in creating, distorting, and replicating the things we believe to be true. Informed by an absurdism in the Modernist vein, the novel is a celebration of error and folly that questions the wisdom of conviction and the faith in metaphysics. These themes play out in a fictional world inhabited by mortals and immortals, the oppressed and the oppressors. The former understand their condition of being oppressed but have no concept of freedom, while the latter emulate mortals but lack the ability to eat, reproduce, or die, even by suicide. Never allegorical or polemical, the novel operates comfortably within the bounds of comedy, avoiding the earnestness and self-conscious urgency common to the novel of ideas.” $18
POOR CLAUDIA 5
The fifth edition of Portland, OR’s POOR CLAUDIA has come to.
“Clean-cut, slim, and summery, if No. 5 were a cigarette she’d be a Gauloises, if she were a drink she’d be a tart negroni. Saddle-stitched chapbook on laid and linen paper. Get your copy while supplies last. “
POOR CLAUDIA NO 5
Jae Choi
Julia Cohen
Jennifer Denrow
Brian Foley
Graham Foust
Noah Eli Gordon
Dorothea Lasky
Anthony McCann
Sawako Nakayasu
Christie Ann Reynolds
Mathias Svalina
Subscriptions for this years POOR CLAUDIA output are cheap too. $30 gets you everything they publish – chapbooks, nonbooks, broadsides and two issues of journal. Plus free shipping. Yes. So! For example, if you’d subscribed for this past year you would’ve received
Summer BF Press
Summer BF Press is run by poets Lindsey Boldt and Steve Orth from their apartment in Oakland, CA. They just released as new title called The Truth About Ted by Bruce Boone. The only do small runs of chapbooks and they have rad taste. You should visit their website and buy one of everything.
Noo Duende Edition
I like NOO Weekly when Goodie Mike Young let’s others take over curating for a week. This week it’s Ben Kopel.
Ben says, “consider this the Duende Edition: “Extra! Extra! Bleed all about it!”
See this week shake in the shapes of Graham Foust, Gordon Massman, Chelsea Hogue, LaTasha N Nevada Diggs, Bianca Stone, & Matt Suss.
Do Yo Know Matt Suss? O shit.
You should.
Prayer for What They Said and What They Were Not Told by Paul Maliszewski
This week marks the release of Paul Maliszewski’s new chapbook, Prayer for What They Said and What They Were Not Told, published by Varmint Armature, Trnsfr’s new publishing racket. Do pick one up. You shan’t regret it. The cost? A mere $8. And if you subscribe to Trnsfr, you’ll receive P.F.W.T.S.A.W.T.W.N.T. entirely free of charge. Be one the first 25 and Maliszewski will sign and number your copy, and almost certainly entertain fond and benevolent thoughts about you all the while. Now what could be better than that? Just go to here.
2 New From Fence: Brenner, Holiday
Super excited about new Daniel Brenner book June available now from Fence. I’ve read his first one, The Stupefying Flashbulbs, at least a dozen times. His images are jellyfukked. Also new from Fence is Harmony Holiday’s Negro League Baseball, which comes with music. You can get them both together for 30% off.